Dalia ElGamal, PhD
Assistant Professor, UNMC Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases
Research focus: B-cell lymphoid malignancies; experimental therapeutics; tumor microenvironment Interactions; gut microbiome
Dalia ElGamal, PhD, is an assistant professor in the UNMC Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases. Research in the ElGamal laboratory aims to:
- Understand the pathogenesis of B-cell malignancies.
- Evaluate novel targeted therapies for incurable leukemias and lymphomas such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
- Establish novel therapeutic approaches to reverse inherent immune defects, with the overall aim of translating effective therapies to the clinic.
Specifically, our lab explores the dynamic interplay between malignant B-cells and their tumor microenvironment (e.g., stroma and immune components), extending to include the gut microbiome. A wide array of cell-based assays coupled with high-throughput omics approaches are used to elucidate key tumor promoting factors and identify "druggable" targets for therapeutic intervention (single or combined), which are further evaluated utilizing established mouse models of aggressive disease.
Preclinical studies in the lab are focused on novel anti-cancer agents targeted against key survival and tumor-promoting factors in B-cell malignancies including B-cell receptor kinases, nuclear factor-kappa B pathway, as well as epigenetic factors such as bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) family proteins.
Lab Members
- Dalia ElGamal (PI)
- Alexandria Eiken, PhD student
- Audrey Smith, PhD student
- Sydney Skupa, PhD student
- Liz Schmitz, MS student
- Erin Darnell, MS student
- Nolan Williams, undergraduate student volunteer
- Rolando Martinez-Rico, undergraduate student volunteer
- Alivia Bechler, research technologist
Summer Undergraduate Students
- Lelisse Umeta, INBRE, 2018
- Julie Ceniceros, SURP, 2020
- Megan Rupp, SURP, 2021
- Neecole Brown, SURP, 2022
- Rolando Martinez-Rico, SURP, 2023
- Dalia Moore, research technologist
- B-cell lymphoid malignancies
- Experimental therapeutics
- Tumor microenvironment interactions
- Gut Microbiome
- Smith AL, Eiken AP, Skupa SA, Moore DY, Umeta LT, Smith LM, Lyden ER, D'Angelo CR, Kallam A, Vose JM, Kutateladze TG, El-Gamal D. A Novel Triple-Action Inhibitor Targeting B-Cell Receptor Signaling and BRD4 Demonstrates Preclinical Activity in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Jun 16;23(12):6712.
- Pal D*, Vann KR*, Joshi S, Sahar NE, Morales GA, El-Gamal D, Kutateladze TG±, Durden DL±. The BTK/PI3K/BRD4 axis inhibitor SRX3262 overcomes Ibrutinib resistance in mantle cell lymphoma. iScience. 2021 Jul 30;24(9):102931.
- Gilham D*, Smith AL*, Fu L*, Moore DY, Muralidharan A, Reid SPM, Stotz SC, Johansson JO, Sweeney M, Wong NCW, Kulikowski E±, El-Gamal D±. Bromodomain and extraterminal protein inhibitor, apabetalone (RVX-208), reduces ACE2 expression and attenuates SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. contribution. Biomedicines. 2021 Apr 18;9(4):437.
* Equal first author contribution; ± Senior authors contributed equally.