Thabat Alkhatib

Thabat Khatib is a neuroscientist keen on studying diseases (mainly neurodegenerative ones), different neural circuitry and molecular pathways in the body, understanding how our brains function, evolutionary genetics, and working on projects with therapeutic translation to improve lives.

Thabat started her scientific career in 2009 at the Arab American University in Palestine where she got her BSc in “Biology and Biotechnology” in 3 years instead of 4 with a GPA of 3.95/4 as the 1st on the department and the 3rd on the university. Subsequently, she proceeded to An-Najah National University in Palestine for a MSc in “Biological Sciences (Cancer)” and graduated in 2014 with a GPA of 4 as the 1st on the university. In 2015, Thabat continued her PhD study in the Medical School of University of Aberdeen in the UK and was awarded a PhD degree in “Medical Sciences (Translational Neuroscience)” with excellent achievement in March 2018.

In Jan 2018, Thabat and her team got funding from BBSRC and she started her 1st postdoctoral research fellow position in the Neuroscience Department of University of Aberdeen in the UK. During her fellowship, she worked on designing and screening novel retinoid-like drugs for their activity in different pathways and correlating this with their biological action relevant to neurodegenerative diseases. In Feb 2020, Thabat was awarded the Edmond and Lily Safra Fellowship. She is currently working as a research fellow at Edmond & Lily Safra Centre for Brain Sciences (ELSC) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). She is investigating the brain-related phenotypic effects of archaic DNA methylation and splicing patterns in human cells, and biological interpretation of these differences between archaic humans (Denisovans & Neanderthals) and modern humans.

Thabat has a wide research experience mainly in neuroscience، drug discovery and screening, genome editing, cancer biology, different molecular techniques (IHC, ICC, qPCR, CRISPR, siRNA, WB, cloning ... etc), transgenic mouse models experiments, microscopy and nuclear receptors. She published several articles in different international journals, attended and presented in many international conferences as well, and made several collaborations with different universities. She also participated in different public outreach events in the UK. Thabat and her team have two patents so far on drugs they developed that could be beneficial for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Beyond her research successes, she supervised, taught and designed projects for dozens of honour, summer and practical BSc and MSc students. She is a member of British Society for Neuroendocrinology (BSN), Alzheimer's Research United Kingdom (ARUK), British Neuroscience Association (BNA), Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO). Thabat is one of the Founding Members of Palestine Young Academy (PYA) as well an Honorary Member of the Editorial Board of the IJBST Group of Journals. Furthermore, Thabat was the recipient of several awards, such as “Top Palestinian Women Appreciation Shield” from the Arab Youth Coalition of Palestine and the “Innovation and Excellence Shield” from the Higher Palestinian Council for Innovation and Excellence.