My research interests lie in the field of breast cancer. A wide range of evidence showed that the behavior and biology of breast cancer are different in different populations. Hence the vast majority of drugs for breast cancer are based on research conducted on patients from the well developed countries; this interprets the poor management of breast cancer in the developing countries. Thus it has become necessary to understand the biology of breast cancer in every population. Therefore, the main goal of our group is to discover signaling pathways which control the initiation and propagation of breast cancer in the Egyptian patients. For this purpose we currently conduct two projects. The first one is jointly funded by the Bibliotheca Alexandrian and the University of Benha. This project studies signaling pathways of a newly discovered tumour suppressor gene (CSMD1) in breast cancer. Components of these pathways will be evaluated for their therapeutic and prognostic significances. The second project is currently self funded while waiting for the outcome of its submitted proposal. This project hypothesize that the breast cancer stem cells are the reason behind racial variations in the biology of breast cancer. Thus it includes isolation and characterization of cancer stem cells from Egyptian breast cancer patients. The global gene expression profile of the isolated cells will be then identified and compared to those isolated from French patients (in collaborations with Dr Mathew Smalley from Cardiff and Dr David Cox from Lyon). The differentially expressed genes will represent a rich source for potential highly specific prognostic factors and drug targets. This will eventually improve breast cancer management in Egypt.