Lamees Hegazy, PhD, Assistant Professor
Lamees Hegazy, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Administrative Sciences at the University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy. Dr. Hegazy received her B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from Mansoura University, Egypt. She earned her PhD in Computational Chemistry from the University of Florida. Prior to joining UHSP, she held the position of Assistant Research Professor at the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Dr. Hegazy received the Certificate of Outstanding Achievement from University of Florida (2009 and 2010). She was selected in 2017 among only 400 young researchers around the world to attend the 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
The research focus of Dr. Hegazy is the rational design and optimization of therapeutic compounds using molecular modeling and computational biochemistry methods. She uses molecular dynamics simulations, enhanced sampling simulations and free energy-based lead optimization to study the conformational behavior of prominent drug targets such as nuclear receptors and G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) and design modulators that target different conformational states. She employs structure-based and ligand-based approaches for ligand design and optimization and work in close collaboration with biologists for experimental follow-up and validation. Her computational and modeling efforts make valuable contributions to the experimental field through the generation of new testable hypotheses to support the discovery of improved therapies.