WCM-Q Research Group Earns Critical Acclaim for Its Work

A research group at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar (WCM-Q) has received critical acclaim for five of its research papers in recent months, bringing their studies on cancer to a broader audience of scientists.

Four of their published articles have now been selected as the ‘editor’s choice’ by the respective journals they were published in – Cancers and Biomolecules – while a fifth was chosen as the ‘feature paper’ in Biomolecules.

Lead principal investigator (LPI), Dr. Dietrich Büsselberg, professor of physiology and biophysics at WCM-Q, and his team, research associate Dr. Samson Mathews Samuel, and research specialist Elizabeth Varghese, have so far published 13 research papers since June 2019, on the theme of how natural compounds, metabolic management and diabetes medications can influence cancer incidence and progression. Funding for the studies has been provided Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) under the grant number NPRP-11S-1214-170101.

Two articles published earlier and funded via a bridge funding grant to Dr. Büsselberg from the Qatar Foundation-funded Biomedical Research Program at WCM-Q – ‘The Yin and Yang of Natural Compounds in Anticancer Therapy of Triple-Negative Breast Cancers’ (https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers10100346) - co-authored by Dr. Ravinder Mamtani and Dr. Sohaila Cheema from the Institute for Population Health at WCM-Q and another one ‘Flavonoids in Cancer and Apoptosis’ (https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers11010028) were also selected as ‘editor’s choice’ articles by Cancers.

‘Metformin: The answer to cancer in a flower? Current knowledge and future prospects of metformin as an anti-cancer agent in breast cancer’ (https://doi.org/10.3390/biom9120846), co-authored by Dr. Chris R. Triggle, professor of pharmacology at WCM-Q, was one of articles picked as an ‘editor’s choice’ by the publication Biomolecules, and Dr. Büsselberg’s group has also been asked to record a short video discussing the study in order to promote it further on social media. The study ‘Anti-Angiogenic Effects of Phytochemicals on miRNA Regulating Breast Cancer Progression’ (https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020191) was the one chosen as the ‘feature paper’ in Biomolecules.

The papers were highlighted by the editors of the journals for the quality of the studies and the benefits they may bring to other researchers within the field.

Dr. Büsselberg said: “It is quite an honor to have so many of our papers acknowledged like this in such a short time, and it is testament to the excellence and professionalism of our researchers, and to QNRF’s commitment to fund high-quality research that has a strong and positive impact on the lives of Qatar’s citizens and the wider world.”

The final study – conducted in collaboration with other research groups –  that was selected for the ‘editor’s choice’ recognition was ‘Fluctuations of Histone Chemical Modifications in Breast, Prostate, and Colorectal Cancer: An Implication of Phytochemicals as Defenders of Chromatin Equilibrium’ (https://doi.org/10.3390/biom9120829).