Senior Research Scientist
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Bella S. Guerrouahen (PhD, MS) is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Trial Operations at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC).
My expertise is in the field of cancer research, with focus on tumor microenvironment, vasculature immunology and cancer therapeutics. I have relevant technical skills in cellular and molecular biology and is interested in cancer biomarkers and personalized oncology research projects utilizing advances research technologies to improve early cancer diagnosis and enable tailored treatment.
I obtained in 2005 a Master degree in Oncology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and in 2011, a Ph.D. in Cancer Research at the Doctoral School “Oncology-Biology-Medicine-Health”, University Paris-Sud 11, France. My experience at MDACC started when I was a visiting trainee (for 2 years) during my Ph.D.thesis.
I worked as a Research research engineer in a biotech company called ScreenCell on the proof of concept of different filtration devices for rapid isolation of Circulating Rare cells (tumoral and fetal) for cytology, immunohistochemistry, FISH assays; or cell culture and molecular biology purposes.
I have carried out post-doctoral research programs in the department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, where I worked on several projects related to the microenvironment and in 2015 at Sidra Medicine (Qatar), and strengthened my expertise in the field of Clinical Research and immunotherapy.
I was back at MDACC in 2020 in the Pediatrics-Research departement as a Research Scientist before being promoted as a Senior Research Scientist in the Clinical Trials Operations where I am participating in various scientific projects to transform the approaches to improve cancer patients’ outcomes through pharmacodynamic and clinical data. I am also supporting the mission of the CTO by facilitating institutional collaboration, participation and testing for clinical trials offered to MD Anderson patients to customize treatment options.