Dr. Assam El-Osta

The Scientific Advisory Board of the Conquer Fragile X Foundation counts among its ranks some of the most well respected leaders in the fragile X research world. Not only have they dedicated their professional careers to the study of fragile X and other such disorders, but they continue to be so generous, providing their experience and guidance to our cause. Each issue of the CFXF newsletter highlights one of these remarkable scientists and now we proudly introduce you to our newest member, Dr. Assam El-Osta.Recently, Dr. Assam El-Osta, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute joined the Conquer Fragile X Foundation's Board of Scientific Advisors and became a CFXF project grantee. Along with our other Scientific Advisors, Dr. El-Osta will provide the Foundation with scientific guidance and share his experience. Dr. El-Osta's project, "Profiling Chromatin-Dissecting the regulatory binding pattern of Fragile X chromosome in vivo." was recently funded by CFXF.
At present, Dr. El-Osta is a Senior Research Fellow at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute at Melbourne, a facility he joined in 1997. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, he was immediately awarded the highly prestigious and nationally competitive Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and worked as a Research Fellow at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute where he continues his work in transcriptional gene silencing.

In 1999 Dr. El-Osta was invited by the world renowned chromatin biologist, Dr. Alan P. Wolffe to join him and his team at the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology, National Institutes of Health, U.S.A. to examine in greater detail the repression mechanisms of human MDR1 gene in cancer. A mentor and a good friend, Alan Wolffe nurtured El-Osta's research objectives and together they identified the transcriptional repressor complexes associated with the therapeutically relevant multidrug resistance (MDR1) gene. Understanding the mechanism of transcriptional regulation is crucial if we are to offer therapeutic intervention. This work was published recently in prominent molecular and cellular biology publications.

We are delighted to have Dr. El-Osta serve as a scientific advisor and to join our distinguished fragile X researchers. Welcome, Dr. El-Osta.