Rabab Hamzah

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Rabab Hamzah received her Master of Science in 2016 and Ph.D. in 2021 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where her dissertation focused on labeling and characterizing exosomes to elucidate their cellular uptake within tumor and stromal cells. While pursuing her Ph.D., she received a postdoctoral job offer at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she worked as a postdoctoral fellow from 2021 to 2024. Her predoctoral and postdoctoral research has made significant contributions to scientific publications, grant development, and biomedical advancements.

As an expert in cancer biology, extracellular vesicles, platelets, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and nanotechnology, Hamzah has an extensive research background in extracellular vesicles for cancer progression and inhibition, muscle atrophy, platelets and radiation, and nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems. Her work has led to advancements in cancer diagnosis and treatment, exosome-mediated cellular communication, stem cell differentiation, and nerve regeneration.

Throughout her career, Rabab Hamzah has been dedicated to mentorship, laboratory management, and grant writing. She has supervised undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, playing a pivotal role in fostering scientific curiosity and research excellence. With a strong foundation in translational research, Hamzah is committed to advancing biomedical sciences through innovative approaches in targeted therapies, nanotechnology, and regenerative medicine. Her research findings have been presented at leading conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals, contributing to the broader scientific understanding of cellular responses to biochemical and environmental stimuli.

Selected Publications

• Rabab N.Hamzah, Karrer M.Alghazali, Alexandrue S.Biris, Robert J.Griffin. Nanoparticle-Labeled Exosomes as Theranostic Agents: A Review. ACS Applied Nano Material doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.2c01426.
• Rabab N.Hamzah, Karrer M.Alghazali, Alexandrue S.Biris, Robert J.Griffin. Exosome Traceability and Cell Source Dependence on Composition and Cell-Cell Cross Talk. International Journal of Molecular Science 2021; 22:5346. doi.org/10.3390/ijms22105346.
• Zubair, M., Hamzah, R., Griffin, R., Ali, N. Identification of Multiple Inositol Polyphosphate Phosphatase1 (Minpp1) Isoform-2 in Extracellular Vesicles with Potential to Modulate Tumor Microenvironment. PLoS One 2022;17:e0264451. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264451.
• Krishna Deo Sharma, Karrer M. Alghazali, Rabab N. Hamzah, Sahitya Chetan Pandanaboina, Zeid A. Nima Alsudani, Malek Muhi, Fumiya Watanabe, Guo-Lei Zhou, Alexandru S. Biris, and Jennifer Yanhua Xie. Gold Nanorod Substrate for Rat Fetal Neural Stem Cell Differentiation into Oligodendrocytes. Nanomaterials 2022;12:929. doi.org/10.3390/nano12060929 .
• Karrer M. Alghazali, Alisha P. Pedersen, Rabab N. Hamzah, Pierre‐Yves Mulon, Rebecca E. Rifkin, Anwer Mhannawee, Zeid A. Nima Alsudani, Christopher Griffin, Malek A. H. Muhi, Nikki Mullen, Robert L. Donnell, David E. Anderson& Alexandru S. Biris. Development of a polymeric biomedical device platform with controlled disassembly and in vivo testing in a swine intestinal model. Scientific Reports 2022;12:3208; doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06339-9.
• Alisha P. Pedersen, Karrer M. Alghazali, Rabab N. Hamzah, Pierre-Yves Mulon, Megan McCracken , Rebecca E. Rifkin, Anwer Mhannawee, Zeid A. Nima, Christopher Griffin, Robert L. Donnell, Alexandru S. Biris and David E. Anderson. Development and in vivo Assessment of a Rapidly Collapsible Anastomotic Guide for Use in Anastomosis of the Small Intestine: A Pilot Study Using a Swine Model. Frontiers in Surgery 2020;7:587951. doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2020.587951.
• Krishna D. Sharma, Danielle Schaal, Rajshekhar A. Kore, Rabab N. Hamzah, Sahitya Chetan Pandanaboina , Abdallah Hayar, Robert Griffin, Malathi Srivatsan, Nathan S. Reyna, Jennifer Y. Xie. Glioma-derived exosomes drive the differentiation of neural stem cells to astrocytes. PLoS One 2020;15:e0234614. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234614.
• Rajshekhar A. Kore, Curran Henson, Rabab N.Hamzah, Robert J. Griffin, Alan J. Tackett, Zufeng Ding, Jawahar L. Mehta. Molecular events in MSC exosome mediated cytoprotection in cardiomyocytes. Scientific Reports 2019;9:19276; doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55694-7.
• Karrer M. Alghazali, Rabab N. Hamzah, Zeid A. Nima, Richard Steiner, Madhu Dhar, David E. Anderson, Abdallah Hayar, Robert J. Griffin and Alexandru S. Biris. Plasmonic Nanofactors as Switchable Devices to Promote or Inhibit Neuronal Activity and Function. Nanomaterials 2019;9:1029; doi:10.3390/nano9071029.
• Alghazali KM, Newby SD, Nima ZA, Hamzah RN, Watanabe F, Bourdo SE, Masi TJ, Stephenson SM, Anderson DE, Dhar MS, Biris AS. Functionalized gold nanorod nanocomposite system to modulate differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells into neural-like progenitors. Scientific Reports 2017; 7:16654; DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-16800-9.
• Zeid A. Nima. Ahmed M. Alwbari, Vijayalakshmi Dantulur, Rabab N. Hamzah, Natasha Sra ,Pooja Motwani, Konstantinos Arnaoutakis, Rebecca A. Levy, Amani F. Bohliqa, Dmitry Nedosekin, Vladimir P. Zharov, Issam Makhoul, Alexandru S. Biris. Targeting nano drug delivery to cancer cells using tunable, multi-layer, silver-decorated gold nanorods. Journal of Applied Toxicology 2017;37:1370–1378. DOI: 10.1002/jat.3495.
• Alghazali KM, Nima ZA, Hamzah RN, Dhar MS, Anderson DE, Biris AS. Bone-tissue engineering: complex tunable structural and biological responses to injury, drug delivery, and cell-based therapies. Drug Metabolism Review 2015;47(4):431-54. DOI: 10.3109/03602532.2015.1115871.
• Exosomes as naturally occurring, abundant nanoscale soft materials: potential as biomarkers and delivery vehicles for solving biomedical problems, RN Hamzah, RA Kore, KM Alghazali, F Watanabe, AS Biris, RJ Griffin, World Scientific Series in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Soft Matter and Biomaterials on the Nanoscale, pp. 247–278 (2020)

Courses Taught at New York Tech

• Biochemistry
• General Chemistry

Contact Info

• rhamzah@nyit.edu
• LinkedIn