Aws Alshamsan أوس إبراهيم الشمسان

Aws Alshamsan earned his B.Pharm from King Saud University in 2002 and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Nanobiotechnology) from the University of Alberta, Canada in 2010. During his graduate studies, he designed and tested therapeutic cancer vaccines that targeted key proto-oncogenes. He spent a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Canada, where he was given a Visiting Professor status immediately afterwards. He was appointed a Director of Research Center at the College of Pharmacy, King Saud University from 2012-2013, then a Vice Dean of King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University from 2013-2014. Currently, Dr. Alshamsan is the Dean of King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology and the Director of the Center of Excellence in Nanomedicine at KACST. Since 2007, Alshamsan authored and co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and supervised and co-supervised number of graduate students. He is a reviewer and editor for many reputable journals. He received several awards including the Gattefossé Canada CSPS Award in Lipid-Based Drug Delivery, and Dr. Waleed Alkayyali’s Award.

Research Interests:

• Optimizing nanocarriers for drug delivery using design of experiments
• Polymeric nanoparticles targeting of nucleic acids and proteins
• Development of pathogen-mimicking nanoparticles as cancer vaccines
• Theranostic nanoparticles for cancer targeting and immune modulation
• Ocular drug delivery using novel nanomateirals

Selected Publications:

1.   Aluminum doping tunes band gap energy level as well as oxidative stress-mediated cytotoxicity of ZnO nanoparticles in MCF-7 cells.

Akhtar MJ, Alhadlaq HA, Alshamsan A, Khan MAM, Ahamed M.

Sci Rep. 2015 Sep 8;5:13876. doi: 10.1038/srep13876.

2.Antioxidative and cytoprotective response elicited by molybdenum nanoparticles in human cells.

Akhtar MJ, Ahamed M, Alhadlaq HA, Alshamsan A, Majeed Khan MA, Alrokayan SA.

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2015 Nov 1;457:370-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.07.034. Epub 2015 Jul 15.

3.Computational prediction of Escherichia coli proteins host subcellular targeting and their implications in colorectal cancer etiology.

Khan AA, Khan Z, Malik A, Shrivastava A, Jain SK, Alshamsan A.

Cancer Lett. 2015 Aug 1;364(1):25-32. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2015.04.024. Epub 2015 Apr 24.

4.Part I: Development and optimization of solid-lipid nanoparticles using Box-Behnken statistical design for ocular delivery of gatifloxacin.

Abul Kalam M, Sultana Y, Ali A, Aqil M, Mishra AK, Aljuffali IA, Alshamsan A.

J Biomed Mater Res A., 2013 Jun;101(6):1813-27. DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.34453.

5.Part II: Enhancement of transcorneal delivery of gatifloxacin by solid lipid nanoparticles in comparison to commercial aqueous eye drops.

Abul Kalam M, Sultana Y, Ali A, Aqil M, Mishra AK, Chuttani K, Aljuffali IA, Alshamsan A.

J Biomed Mater Res A. 2013 Jun;101(6):1828-36. DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.34467

6.The immunosuppressive activity of polymeric micellar formulation of cyclosporine A: in vitro and in vivo studies.

Hamdy S, Haddadi A, Shayeganpour A, Alshamsan A, Montazeri Aliabadi H, Lavasanifar A.

AAPS J. 2011 Jun;13(2):159-68. DOI: 10.1208/s12248-011-9259-8.

7.STAT3 silencing in dendritic cells by siRNA polyplexes encapsulated in PLGA nanoparticles for the modulation of anticancer immune response.

Alshamsan A, Haddadi A, Hamdy S, Samuel J, El-Kadi AO, Uludağ H, Lavasanifar A.

Mol Pharm. 2010 Oct 4;7(5):1643-54. DOI: 10.1021/mp100067u

8.The induction of tumor apoptosis in B16 melanoma following STAT3 siRNA delivery with a lipid-substituted polyethylenimine.

Alshamsan A, Hamdy S, Samuel J, El-Kadi AO, Lavasanifar A, Uludağ H.

Biomaterials. 2010 Feb;31(6):1420-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2009.11.003.