Dr Belal Chami
Molecular Biomedicine
Charles Perkins Centre
Dr Belal Chami is a senior lecturer and a career biomedical researcher, situated across the Charles Perkins Centre and Westmead Hospital where his research area examines antioxidants, reactive oxygen species and inflammation in the setting of chronic inflammatory etiologies. Chami has held competitive fellowships from MAWA and has obtained industry grants (Pharmaxis via a Commonwealth Innovation) as well as competitive funding from agencies (Sydney West - Translational Cancer Research Centre,Australian Dental Research Foundation, Sydney Dental School Research Committee) and most recently a receiptent of the Litwin Pioneers IBD Award from the US Crohns and Colitis Foundation. In 2022, he was granted the BrideTech Industry Fellowship awarded by MTPConnect. In 2023, Dr Chami was awarded the Periscope Commercialisation Award.
Dr Belal Chami is interested in exploring the relationship between antioxidants and oxidative stress/damage in the evolution of tissue damage in acute and chronic inflammatory conditions, namely Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). More specifically, Dr Belal Chami is interested in understanding how peroxidase systems, most notably myeloperoxidase (MPO) contributes to host-tissue injury during chronic inflammatory aetiologies, such as IBD where he has employed various animal and human ex vivo models to examine MPO activity correlated to disease severity and the potential for specific MPO inhibitors to attenuate the course of colitis. Dr Belal Chami has expanded his research area in IBD to examine the relationship of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in clinical IBD samples and disease severity in patients. Dr Chami has also interested in examining faecal biomarkers of inflammation in IBD patients and has currently patented a rapid faecal assay for the quantification of MPO in patients with IBD.
Dr Belal Chami has previously shown interest in vascular biology, specifically, examining the effects of Serum Amyloid A in developing endothelial dysfunction - a precursor to atherosclerosis.
Dr Belal Chami is highly committed and passionate about teaching within the University and has demonstrated this by active engagement in lecturing, tutoring and supervision both the undergraduate and HDR arena. Since 2018, Dr Chami has been the primary supervisor to 14x honours student, 2x PhD student, 1x Masters student, 5x Summer Research Scholarship students, 1x Talented Student Program, 2x DMD2 student, x International Internship (University of Connecticut) and 1x High School Internships (Sydney Girls). He has also co-supervised 8x honours students, 2x PhD student and 2x Masters student. Furthermore, all supervised honours students have completed with H1 outcomes and many have been the recipient of Young Investigator Awards at various conferences.
In 2016 he completed the Graduate Certificate in Education (Higher Education) – A program designed to support teaching staff in developing their professional expertise as university teachers to better understand and enhance the learning of their student. In the same year, he designed new pedagogical approaches for CPATH3202 museum tutorials, whereby students mediated their learning in a peer-to-peer fashion. He also designed a new teaching approach to the microscopy tutorial sessions and developed workbooks for students enrolled in The Pathogenesis of Human Diseases (CPAT3201) that encouraged structural scaffolding as a learning approach.
In 2017, Dr Chami obtained a DVC educational innovation grant ($24,620) as a project leader to create digital resources (a series of Ainsworth’s video bytes -SAVb) for undergraduate and postgraduate students within the discipline of pathology. In 2020, Dr Chami completed his Clinical Training Fellowship in the Faculty of Medicine and Health.
Dr Chami is UoS coordinator to Bachelor of Oral Health units ORHL1104/ORHL1204 and lectures in the MD & DMD program as well as undergraduate Cellular Pathology (CPAT3201) and AMED (AMED3001).
- Can exogenous myeloperoxidase initiate early events in colitis?
- Identifying biomarkers of inflammation in faecal samples from patients with IBD
- A novel method for quantifying myeloperoxidase in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Can exogenous myeloperoxidase and hypochlorous acid precipitate synovial injury in models of rheumatoid arthritis?
Inspire Australia Research Competition
Young Research Award from the Society of Free Radical Research
Medical Advances Without Animals (MAWA) Fellowship
ECR International Travel Scholarship
Drug Discovery Initiative ECR Award
Litwin IBD Pioneers Award
BridgeTech Industry Fellowship Award
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Accessing the effect of Amomum Villosum in experimental models of inflammation | Milissa HUANG |
Publications
Book Chapters
- Bottle, S., Eng, G., Witting, P., Chami, B. (2021). Nitroxide Intervention in Oxidative and Free Radical Damage in Biology and Disease. In Olivier Ouari, Didier Gigmes (Eds.), Nitroxides, (pp. 449-481). London: Royal Society of Chemistry. [More Information]
- Chami, B., Bao, B. (2012). Salmonella: Invasion, Evasion & Persistence. In Bassam A Annous and Joshua B Gurtler (Eds.), Salmonella - Distribution, Adaptation, Control Measures and Molecular Technologies, (pp. 313-338). Rijeka: InTech Publishers. [More Information]
Journals
- Mahadevan, S., Kwong, K., Lu, M., Kelly, E., Chami, B., Romin, Y., Fujisawa, S., Manova, K., Moore, M., Zoellner, H. (2022). A Novel Cartesian Plot Analysis for Fixed Monolayers That Relates Cell Phenotype to Transfer of Contents between Fibroblasts and Cancer Cells by Cell-Projection Pumping. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(14). [More Information]
- Alghamdi, O., King, N., Andronicos, N., Jones, G., Chami, B., Witting, P., Moens, P. (2022). Hypertension alters the function and expression profile of the peptide cotransporters PEPT1 and PEPT2 in the rodent renal proximal tubule. Amino Acids, 54(7), 1001-1011. [More Information]
- Schroder, A., Chami, B., Liu, C., Doyle, C., El Kazzi, M., Ahlenstiel, G., Ahmad, G., Pathma-Nathan, N., Collins, G., Toh, J., Harman, A., Byrne, S., Witting, P., et al (2022). Neutrophil Extracellular Trap Density Increases With Increasing Histopathological Severity of Crohn's Disease. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 28(4), 586-598. [More Information]
2022
- Mahadevan, S., Kwong, K., Lu, M., Kelly, E., Chami, B., Romin, Y., Fujisawa, S., Manova, K., Moore, M., Zoellner, H. (2022). A Novel Cartesian Plot Analysis for Fixed Monolayers That Relates Cell Phenotype to Transfer of Contents between Fibroblasts and Cancer Cells by Cell-Projection Pumping. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(14). [More Information]
- Alghamdi, O., King, N., Andronicos, N., Jones, G., Chami, B., Witting, P., Moens, P. (2022). Hypertension alters the function and expression profile of the peptide cotransporters PEPT1 and PEPT2 in the rodent renal proximal tubule. Amino Acids, 54(7), 1001-1011. [More Information]
- Schroder, A., Chami, B., Liu, C., Doyle, C., El Kazzi, M., Ahlenstiel, G., Ahmad, G., Pathma-Nathan, N., Collins, G., Toh, J., Harman, A., Byrne, S., Witting, P., et al (2022). Neutrophil Extracellular Trap Density Increases With Increasing Histopathological Severity of Crohn's Disease. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 28(4), 586-598. [More Information]
2021
- Mahadevan, S., Cornwell, J., Chami, B., Kelly, E., Zoellner, H. (2021). Cell-projection pumping of fibroblast contents into osteosarcoma SAOS-2 cells correlates with increased SAOS-2 proliferation and migration, as well as altered morphology. Biomolecules, 11(12), 1875. [More Information]
- Martin, N., Chami, B., Vallejo, A., Mojadadi, A., Witting, P., Ahmad, G. (2021). Efficacy of the piperidine nitroxide 4-methoxytempo in ameliorating serum amyloid a-mediated vascular inflammation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(9), 4549. [More Information]
- Chami, B., Witting, P. (2021). Immunomodulatory effects of intestinal mesenchymal cells in the context of inflammatory bowel disease. Acta Physiologica, 233(2), e13721. [More Information]
2020
- El Kazzi, M., Rayner, B., Chami, B., Dennis, J., Thomas, S., Witting, P. (2020). Neutrophil-Mediated Cardiac Damage After Acute Myocardial Infarction: Significance of Defining a New Target Cell Type for Developing Cardioprotective Drugs. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, 33(10), 689-712. [More Information]
- El Kazzi, M., Shi, H., Vuong, S., Wang, X., Chami, B., Liu, C., Rayner, B., Witting, P. (2020). Nitroxides mitigate neutrophil-mediated damage to the myocardium after experimental myocardial infarction in rats. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(20), 1-22. [More Information]
- Zoellner, H., Paknejad, N., Cornwell, J., Chami, B., Romin, Y., Boyko, V., Fujisawa, S., Kelly, E., Lynch, G., Roggers, G., et al (2020). Potential Hydrodynamic Cytoplasmic Transfer between Mammalian Cells: Cell-Projection Pumping. Biophysical Journal, 118(6), 1248-1260. [More Information]
2019
- Ahmad, G., Chami, B., El Kazzi, M., Wang, X., Moreira, M., Hamilton, N., Maw, A., Hambly, T., Witting, P. (2019). Catalase-Like Antioxidant Activity is Unaltered in Hypochlorous Acid Oxidized Horse Heart Myoglobin. Antioxidants, 8(9), 1-19. [More Information]
- Zoellner, H., Chami, B., Kelly, E., Moore, M. (2019). Increased cell size, structural complexity and migration of cancer cells acquiring fibroblast organelles by cell-projection pumping. PloS One, 14(11), 1-13. [More Information]
- Alghamdi, O., King, N., Andronicos, N., Jones, G., Chami, B., Witting, P., Moens, P. (2019). Molecular changes to the rat renal cotransporters PEPT1 and PEPT2 due to ageing. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 452, 71-82. [More Information]
2018
- Youssef, P., Chami, B., Lim, J., Middleton, T., Sutherland, G., Witting, P. (2018). Evidence supporting oxidative stress in a moderately affected area of the brain in Alzheimer's disease. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 11553. [More Information]
- Chami, B., Martin, N., Dennis, J., Witting, P. (2018). Myeloperoxidase in the inflamed colon: A novel target for treating inflammatory bowel disease. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 645, 61-71. [More Information]
2017
- Chami, B., Yeung, A., Buckland, M., Liu, H., Fong, G., Tao, K., Bao, B. (2017). CXCR3 plays a critical role for host protection against Salmonellosis. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1-10. [More Information]
- Chami, B., Jeong, G., Varda, A., Maw, A., Kim, H., Fong, G., Simone, M., Rayner, B., Wang, X., Dennis, J., Witting, P. (2017). The nitroxide 4-methoxy TEMPO inhibits neutrophil-stimulated kinase activation in H9c2 cardiomyocytes. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 629, 19-35. [More Information]
2016
- Chami, B., Steel, A., de la Monte, S., Sutherland, G. (2016). The rise and fall of insulin signaling in Alzheimer's disease. Metabolic Brain Disease, 31(3), 497-515. [More Information]
2015
- Chami, B., Barrie, N., Cai, X., Wang, X., Paul, M., Morton-Chandra, R., Sharland, A., Dennis, J., Freedman, B., Witting, P. (2015). Serum amyloid a receptor blockade and incorporation into high-density lipoprotein modulates its pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic activities on vascular endothelial cells. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 16(5), 11101-11124. [More Information]
2014
- Alrabadi, N., Chami, B., Kim, H., Maw, A., Dennis, J., Witting, P. (2014). 2014 - Nasr Alrabadi, Belal Chami, Hyun Bo Kim, Aung Min Maw, Joanne M. Dennis, Paul K. Witting (2014). ?Hypochlorous acid generated in the heart following acute ischaemic injury promotes myocardial damage: a new target for therapeutic development? Trends in Cell & Molecular Biology. Volume 9; pages 1-17. Trends in Cell Biology, 9, 1-17.
- Duong, T., Chami, B., McMahon, A., Fong, G., Dennis, J., Freedman, B., Witting, P. (2014). Pre-treatment with the synthetic antioxidant T-butyl bisphenol protects cerebral tissues from experimental ischemia reperfusion injury. Journal of Neurochemistry, 130(6), 733-747. [More Information]
- Chami, B., Yeung, A., Van Vreden, C., King, N., Bao, B. (2014). The role of CXCR3 in DSS-induced colitis. PloS One, 9(7), 1-9. [More Information]
2013
- Sutherland, G., Chami, B., Youssef, P., Witting, P. (2013). Oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease: Primary villain or physiological by-product? Redox Report, 18(4), 134-141. [More Information]
2012
- Chami, B., Bao, B. (2012). Salmonella: Invasion, Evasion & Persistence. In Bassam A Annous and Joshua B Gurtler (Eds.), Salmonella - Distribution, Adaptation, Control Measures and Molecular Technologies, (pp. 313-338). Rijeka: InTech Publishers. [More Information]
Selected Grants
2025
- Polypyrrole nano-material biosensors, Chami B, Nano Institute/Kickstarter
2024
- Polypyrrole nano-material biosensors, Chami B, Nano Institute/Kickstarter
In the media
http://sydney.edu.au/news/staff/2576.html?newsstoryid=15362
https://wordvine.sydney.edu.au/files/2142/13398/#igw209-a-features-
https://thepulse.org.au/2021/08/03/280000-grant-for-western-sydney-researchers-to-help-detect-debilitating-bowel-disease/