Egyptian wins Best PhD award in Baris

The German University in Cairo announced that Dr. Florian Ashraf Ishaq, a graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biotechnology in 2018, has won the official thesis award from the Chancellery of Paris Universities "Prix Solennel de Thèse de la Chancellerie des Universitésde Paris", making her the first Egyptian to win an award among the best PhD theses in pharmacy in the Paris region for her pioneering thesis entitled "MGlu receptor-targeted nanobodies as innovative agents for the treatment of schizophrenia".

Florian began her journey to discover a new therapeutic drug that benefits schizophrenia patients, relying in her research on the use of computers to analyze and study nanobodies to target specific receptors in the brain to treat schizophrenia patients.

It is a disease that causes a person to suffer from a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects the way a person thinks, feels and behaves. Those affected may hear voices that are not there, or believe that other people are trying to harm them. Doctors often describe it as a type of psychosis, which means that a person may not always be able to distinguish their own thoughts from the thoughts that are actually happening. Therefore, diagnosing and treating it poses a major challenge for doctors and researchers. Florian was honored at a grand ceremony held at the Sorbonne University in Paris, where researchers who conducted research papers that addressed important scientific and social issues in various disciplines were honored.