Dr. Ismail received his BSc degree in pesticide chemistry and toxicology from Alexandria University (AU), Egypt. After graduation he lectured in chemistry and pesticides modules to undergraduate and postgraduate students. In 2005 he obtained his master degree from the AU for research on insectcide analysis and formulation. In 2007, he moved to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to work on molecular aspects of insectcide resistance.
Dr. Ismail research is focussed on understanding interactions of small molecules (drugs and insecticides) and their targets in parasites and insect vectors to develop better tools to control vector-borne diseases. Through his Ph.D. program (2007-2011) funded by LSTM/IVCC he developed novel chemical probes resembling pyrethroid insectcides and used them to understand the molecular mechanisms of pyrethroid resistance. The research used protein labeling chemistry to analyze enzyme function utilizing activity-based protein profiling (ABP) probes and led to the discovery of the "pyrethrome" – an enzyme network associated with pyrethroid metabolism (Ismail et al. 2013 PNAS). Recently he used the ABP approach to determine the mode of action of antimalarial drugs in Plasmodium falciparum. This work identified for the first time the proteins in the parasites that were affected by antimalarial drugs including Artemisinin (Ismail et al. 2016 PNAS) and Trioxolanes (Ismail et al. 2016 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed).
In addition to basic research activities Dr. Ismail has experience in translational and applied tropical medicine. He worked for 18 months as a Program Manager for a new venture between the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) to increase capacity to control malaria and dengue.Dr. Ismail returned to the LSTM Vector Biology Department in February 2013 to work with Dr. Mark Paine, on developing and optimizing simple field tests for DDT and organophosphate analysis used in Visceral Leishmaniasis and Malaria control operations in India. His honorary position “2013/2014” as a visiting research fellow, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds has enabled Ismail to maintain a close collaboration with Prof. Paul Milner’s laboratory and has resulted in collaborative grant applications to explore the application of Adhiron technology in the development of insecticide monitoring tools.
Current grants
£48,140 Medical Research Council CiC Award. New tool to predict insecticide resistance: development of activity based probes to identify metabolic resistance genes in tropical disease transmitting insects 1/08/2016 – 31/07/18 (PI Mark Paine, Co-I, Ismail H, Rowland M, O’Neill P, Austin, J, David, M)
Completed research support
£27,955 Medical Research Council CiC Award. Development of Adhiron based insecticide-monitoring tools. 1/08/14 – 31/07/15 (PI Paine, Co-PI Ismail, H., O’Neill, P, Millner, P.)
£5,500 Research Development Fund, LSTM. Development of preemptive diagnostic probes to predict insecticide resistance liabilities in neglected tropical diseases vectors. PI Hanafy Ismail, Co PIs Mark Paine and Steve Torr (LSTM). (April 2015).
