Hana El-Samad is a Lebanese-American scientist who is a founding Principal Investigator at Altos Labs and a professor in the fields of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Her work focuses on control theory and how complex biological systems function. Her team has helped advance the fields of systems biology, synthetic biology, and cell engineering.
In November 2021, El-Samad was named the Editor-in-Chief of GEN Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that started in February 2022. The journal publishes original research and opinions on all areas of the biotechnology industry by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Early life and education
El-Samad was born in Lebanon. She had four sisters. Her mother was a math teacher, and her father worked in a store. El-Samad studied at the American University of Beirut as an undergraduate student. There, she learned about mathematical modeling. She became interested in control theory and moved to the United States to study at Iowa State University as a graduate student. El-Samad earned her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her advisor was Mustafa Khammash. During her doctoral research, she studied control theory and how systems like robots and cruise control respond to sudden changes. She became more interested in biological systems and changed her research focus to gene regulatory systems and how bacteria react to temperature changes. After completing her degree, El-Samad was named a Sandler Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Research and career
El-Samad became a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2013, she received a $1.4 million grant from the Paul Allen Family Foundation to study cellular networks. These networks depend on fast communication and information transfer. A temperature change of 2°C can cause big changes in the information sent from a cell to a gene. El-Samad has studied how these changes are recorded in cells so that the correct information reaches genes. She studies the Protein kinase A (PKA) system, which is able to transient several environmental signals.
Awards and honors
- 2011 American Automatic Control Council Donald P. Eckman Award
- 2008 University of California, San Francisco Grace Boyer Junior Faculty Endowed Chair
- 2009 David and Lucile Packard Foundation Packard Fellowship
- 2011 American Automatic Control Council Donald P. Eckman Award
Selected publications
- Wenzhe Ma; Ala Trusina; Hana El-Samad; Wendell A Lim; Chao Tang (August 1, 2009). "Defining network topologies that can achieve biochemical adaptation." Cell. 138 (4): 760–773. doi: 10.1016/J.CELL.2009.06.013. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 3068210. PMID 19703401. Wikidata Q29999690.
- Roshanak Irannejad; Jin C Tomshine; Jon R Tomshine; et al. (March 20, 2013). "Conformational biosensors reveal GPCR signalling from endosomes." Nature. 495 (7442): 534–538. Bibcode: 2013Natur.495..534I. doi: 10.1038/NATURE12000. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 3835555. PMID 23515162. Wikidata Q30557505.
- David Pincus; Michael W Chevalier; Tomas Aragon; Eelco van Anken; Simon E Vidal; Hana El-Samad; Peter Walter (July 6, 2010). "BiP binding to the ER-stress sensor Ire1 tunes the homeostatic behavior of the unfolded protein response." PLOS Biology. 8 (7): e1000415. doi: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.1000415. ISSN 1544-9173. PMC 2897766. PMID 20625545. Wikidata Q33631257. {{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link).
Personal life
El-Samad has three sisters, so there are four sisters in total. One is an engineer, another is a biologist, and the third is a literature teacher.