Boards

Executive board

Pr Najib Al IDRISSI

Pr Najib Al IDRISSI obtained his doctorate in medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat-Morocco in 2001. Since 2006, he specialized in surgery orthopedic and traumatology and joined the Mohammed VI University of Health Sciences (UM6SS), Casablanca, Morocco in 2016. Pr Al Idrissi is director of the Genomics, Bioinformatics, Digital Health and Precision Medicine Research Laboratory at UM6SS. His research interests focus on cancer, microbiome, tissue engineering and biomaterials, cell therapy and regenerative medicine.

Pr Najib Al IDRISSI

President

Pr Mustapha NAJIMI

Pr Mustapha NAJIMI earned his doctoral degree in Cell & Molecular Biology at Université Pierre & Marie Curie - Paris, in 1999. After a first post-doctoral internship, he joined the team of Pr Etienne SOKAL to set up a platform of liver cells’ culture dedicated to a clinical cell therapy program. Since then, he coordinated the cell culture platform of the laboratory of Pediatric Hepatology & Cell Therapy and led the stem cell research group. Mustapha NAJIMI is currently Director of Research at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy- UCLouvain. He was scientific supervisor of the hepatocytes and hepatic stem cells banks and being actively involved in the design and supervision of the large-scale production of first batches of intra-hepatic mesenchymal progenitor cells, that have been infused to patients with liver diseases at Saint-Luc hospital- Brussels. His field of interest is the deciphering of mechanisms governing liver regeneration, a process mostly altered in chronic diseases affecting this organ such as fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. By improving the knowledge of cell biology of stem/progenitor cells, he is willing to further improve the use of cell therapy for those indications. Mustapha NAJIMI is co-owner of several patents in the cell therapy field. He is currently Chief Scientific Officer and member of the scientific and medical advisory board of Cellaïon, a UCLouvain spinoff company dedicated to the development of cell therapy- based products for the treatment of liver diseases.

Pr Mustapha NAJIMI

Vice President

Pr Mohamed MERZOUKI

Pr Mohamed MERZOUKI holds his PhD in Ecotoxicology and Survival Modeling at the The Laboratory for Environmental Study and Analysis (LEAE) at the Faculty of Sciences in El Jadida, Chouaib Doukkali University, in association with ISOMER (Institute of Marine Substances and Organisms) at Nantes University. Since 2013, he is Professor of Biostatistics and Ecotoxicology at the Faculty of Sciences & Techniques of Beni-Mellal-Morocco, specialized in Biostatistical-Biomathematical Modeling, Ecotoxicology and Epidemiology. In 2021, Pr Merzouki holds an expert status with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). His current research activities focus on assessing the impact of pollution and climate change on health and the environment, Epidemiology of emerging diseases, Tele-epidemiology and digital health, as well as innovative therapies.

Pr Mohamed MERZOUKI

Secretary-General

Dr Hicham ESSELMANI

Dr Hicham ESSELMANI obtained his pharmacy doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat, Mohammed V University in 2008. After several internship trainings in parasitology, medical mycology, clinical bacteriology, clinical biochemistry and hematology, he obtained in 2013 his diploma in pharmaceutical and biological specialization at Mohammed V University in Rabat.

Dr Hicham ESSELMANI

Treasurer

Pr Fatim-Zahra JABRANE

Pr Fatim-Zahra JABRANE obtained her diploma in general medicine in 2011, and completed specialty in Nephrology in 2015 at the Faculty of Medicine of Hassan II University of Casablanca. In 2016, she joined the Mohammed VI University of Health Sciences (UM6SS) and held several positions (specialty director of Nephrology, pedagogical coordinator for the second cycle at the Faculty of Medicine, member of the pedagogical committee and responsible for continuing education at the International Medical Simulation Center) as well as hospital posts (Referent of the Nephrology department of the Cheikh Khalifa International University Hospital, member of the Establishment Medical Committee and of the Ethics Committee), before being offered the position of associate professor of nephrology. Pr Jabrane also helped lay the groundwork for the kidney transplant project at Sheikh Khalifa Hospital and was a member of the hospital's stem cell club, founded in 2017.

Pr Fatim-Zahra JABRANE

Vice Treasurer

Pr Makram MERIMI

Pr Makram MERIMI obtained his PhD degree in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Faculty of Medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 2007. Thereafter, he managed several research projects dealing with Cellular and Molecular Immunology, immune-onco-virology, cancer genomics and epigenomics, cell and gene therapy. Since 2017, he holds an assistant professor position at the Faculty of Sciences at the Université Mohamed I, Oujda- Morocco. He currently leads the Geneticsand Immuno-cell Therapy team, dedicated to the exploration of intricate interplay between genetics, molecular biology, cancer cells, and immunotherapy. He is also investigating the immuno-onco-therapeutic effects of bioactive molecules on both normal stroma and tumoral microenvironment.

Pr Makram MERIMI

Assessor

Pr Amine BAHI

Pr Amine BAHI obtained his bachelor degree in Biochemistry from the Faculté des Sciences & Techniques of Béni Mellal-Morocco in 1998. He earned his PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 2005. Thanks to several postdoctoral trainings in high-level institutions in Switzerland, USA, and Germany, Pr Bahi developed outstanding research skills and accumulated strong expertise in the field. Since 2019, Amine is working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences at Ajman University (United Arab Emirates). His field of research is the deciphering of molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental conditions and psychiatric disorders with the aim to design and develop efficient gene therapy approaches.

Pr Amine BAHI

Assessor

Scientific Committee

Nabil HAJJI

Professor and Group Leader in Cancer Epigenetics.
Faculty of Medicine, University of Seville - Spain.

Nabil HAJJI

PhD

Mike MODO

Department of Radiology & McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Mike MODO

PhD

Massimo DOMINICI

Director of the Oncology Division and of the Residency School in Oncology.
University Hospital of Modena and Reggio Emilia- Modena- Italy.

Massimo DOMINICI

PhD

José Maria MORALEDA-JIMENEZ

Director Hematology Department & Stem Cell transplant Unit.
University Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca. Murcia- Spain.

José Maria MORALEDA-JIMENEZ

MD, PhD

Allal Boutajangout

Research Associate Professor, at Department of Neuroscience and Physiology.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, USA.

Allal Boutajangout

PhD