RESEARCH STUDENTS WHO WORKED ALONG THEIR PROFESSORS

Amira Hamed Abdul Hameed Al Aamri, 26, had researched on a project titled ‘A System Predicting the Functions of Unannotated Proteins Associated with Cancer by Extracting Information from Biomedical Literature”. She said her science research project presented a software system that reads the published research papers on proteins and their functionalities in the human body.

“The system then predicts the proteins related to each other based on their co-mentions in the published text. Studying proteins and their relationship to other proteins is essential for a better understanding of the human body,” she said. “We are also specifically interested in proteins that are associated with cancer. Our system shows promising results when we compare it with other systems.”

Al Aamri noted that her research project is important to the UAE because bbioinformatics and the study of genetics is a growing research field in the country. “Several centres across the UAE have been founded to recruit researchers and to expand the knowledge related to genetics and biotechnology,” she explained.

Dr Muna Al Kaabi, 32, has worked on a project on the geologic hazard investigation for Abu Dhabi. Her research on ‘A System Predicting the Functions of Unannotated Proteins Associated with Cancer by Extracting Information from Biomedical Literature’ focuses on the study of a particular ground hazard common in Abu Dhabi, gypsum dissolution and karst formation, and its impacts on infrastructure development.

“This is done through the development of two complementary tasks, and therefore the research includes two parts. Part 1 focuses on the development of an up-todate geologic model in combination with a spatial inventory of karst-related features, based on an extensive field survey and spatial statistical analysis,” said Al Kaabi.

“This allowed us to organise available data, set up databases and catalogs of karst features and proposed a unified geologic classification for Abu Dhabi subsurface. Part 2 of this research studies the effect of gypsum cavities on tunneling. Geologic and construction data from the Strategic tunneling Enhancement programme (STEP) tunnels, the largest pipeline infrastructure project in the GCC region, served as the basis for the study.”

She noted that her research is important for the UAE because it addresses a real issue for Abu Dhabi, which is the gypsum dissolution and karst hazard.