Dr. Alaa Riezk is a trained Pharmacist. He attained a Masters degree in Microbiology from Damascus University and then completed a PhD degree in Microbiology and Drug Delivery from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2020.
Recently, Alaa joined Imperial College as a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Antimicrobial Optimisation (CAMO) .
Key to CAMO is the development of in-house testing for a selection of antimicrobial drugs, including further development of a minimally invasive biosensor for real-time antimicrobial monitoring. Alaa will be responsible for setting up liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) assays to support these projects within CAMO. To coincide with other projects in the CAMO portfolio, he will initially develop assays for the β-lactams and colistin with scope to expand further as required. Once set up, there will be an ongoing requirement to analyse samples throughout the fellowship. Alaa will also work on the development and clinical testing of our microneedle biosensor project, incorporating closed-loop control of penicillin delivery.