Dr Rasha Rezk

Teaching and scholarship

‌
I am a materials engineer by training and am inspired to drive translational research projects for patient benefit. My teaching integrates state-of-the-art research practices with my own academic expertise and interests.

‌
I offer tutorials to stage 2 and stage 3 undergraduate students on the topic of biomechanics. Throughout my tutorials, we relate principles of mechanics to the systems of the body (eg, cardiovascular). Operating at the interface of multiple disciplines is truly fascinating and students will have the opportunity to take knowledge from one area and apply it in another. For instance, how do changes in the tissue mechanical properties or forces applied (eg due to sports/exercise) affect the cardiovascular system?

‌
Projects offered to undergraduate students focus on investigating the link between biomechanics and gene expression in healthy and malignant tissue. Students will learn about the mechanical properties of different biological tissues and the implication of these properties on gene expression. Techniques include cell biology, microscopy and qPCR alongside exposure to a range of biophysics techniques. The nature of the work is suited to students with an interest in interdisciplinary research. 

Research

Research

My research is at the interface of biotechnology, mechanics and biology. During my postdoctoral work in Cambridge and York, I developed a strong passion for applying my expertise to biological systems – specifically around developing bespoke tools to study tumour and stem cell heterogeneity which have emerged recently as major clinical challenges.

Leveraging forces for advanced drug delivery

The lack of techniques that can apply quantifiable forces to non-adherent cells has limited our understating of how forces influence blood stem cell fate. We have recently built a tool that addresses this limitation and allows compressive forces to be applied to blood stem cells. Compressive forces were found to direct the cell fate of progenitor cells towards specific cell lineage and this tool sets the stage for utilising mechanical forces in the future to improve blood stem cell generation outside the body. 

Understanding how we can leverage forces to identify promising solutions for gene editing and drug screening using our technology, has required a thoughtful iteration process and countless discussions with people across the different disciplines.  Our work is highly interdisciplinary and has led to new opportunities to commercialise the technology which are currently being explored. 

Current opportunities

I am always keen to hear from motivated students interested in learning interdisciplinary approaches for advanced drug delivery. Opportunities for integrated masters research projects can be discussed by emailing me.