Dr. Murad Assidi

Mourad Assidi - Ph.D

Eng, MSc, PhD

Assistant Professor

Biobank Assistant Coordinator

Microarray (Agilent & Affymetrix) Service Units

Research Programs: Reproductive & Developmental Genomics;Biorepositories & Biospecimens

                                  Cancer Genomics;  ​

Dr. Mourad Assidi is a Canadian assistant professor who joined the Center of Excellence in Genomic Medical Research (CEGMR), King AbdulAziz University (KAU) from McGill University few years ago. He had a brilliant academic accomplishments and awards. He got his M.Sc. in Reproductive Biotechnologies from Laval University, Quebec, Canada (2005), then his Ph.D. in Genomics and Reproductive Molecular Biology (2010). He was also involved in some OncoGenomic projects focusing on the study of molecular diagnosis markers of two major gynecological malignancies: breast and ovarian cancers. 

In addition to his valuable publication record on renowned international journals, and lectures presented in several renowned national and international meetings, his major achievement is the discovery of a gene-based treatment of infertility using molecular biomarkers (patent number 2011/057 411). This discovery is an important breakthrough window of hope for couples suffering from infertility, and who may be able to achieve their most precious dream of having children.

Regarding his professional background and immediately after he got his PhD, Dr Assidi acted for a short period as an R&D scientist in a private IVF Clinic in Montreal (Canada) before been hired by the Research Institute-McGill University Health Center as a postdoctoral researcher and a teaching fellow in Obstetrics & Gynecology department, Medicine Faculty, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. 

Dr. Assidi current research studies focused mainly on two main topics: OMICs applications in Personalized Medicine as well as Biobanking in the Post-Genomic era. More precisely, His research work covers a number of aspects, among these are: (1) To set up modern biospecimen biobanking core facility towards personalized Medicine. (2) To identify valuable biomarkers that will help understanding the progression of several cancers and genetic disorders, and to improve cancer early diagnosis, prognosis, staging and treatment. (3) To prevent predominant genetic disorders and congenital malformations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using advanced and effective screening tools as Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD/S) and Non-Invasive Prenatal Diagnosis (NIPD). (4) To demystify the etiology of (male and/or female) infertility and to set-up efficient diagnostic and treatment approaches for couples suffering from such disease. 

Thanks to his research experience and collaborations with many worldwide well-known laboratories, Dr Assidi has acquired crucial skills associated to research methodology, Genomics, Oncogenomics, Reproductive & developmental Biomedicine, both Male and female infertility diagnosis and treatment, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD/S), Non-invasive Prenatal Diagnosis (NIPD); using cutting-edge technologies (NGS, digital PCR, microarrays) and the OMICS approaches (Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics, Oncogenomics, Metabolomics, Reactomics, Nutrigenomics…).

It should be noted that Dr. Assidi's scholarships and research projects in Canada was funded thanks to research grants allowed by the two most famous Canadian funding agencies, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). In addition to his valuable research experience at both McGill & Laval Universities, he delivered important teaching and laboratory training of several courses and supervised some students. He has also a number of oral and poster presentations in Canadian & international meetings, in addition to achieving very successful international collaborations with well-known researchers from Canada, USA, Germany, Spain, U.K., etc.

At King AbdulAziz University (KAU), Dr Assidi has some funded research projects from KACST GDRG, KACST NSTIP, KAU as well as the scientific chair of Prof. Abdullah Hussain Basalamah for gynecological cancers. Besides already published articles in his research area (ReasearcherID:A-6152-2013), he has currently some others submitted to renowned ISI journals