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Dr. Yasser Heakal has joined Â鶹¸£ÀûÍø in 2012. Since joining the School of Pharmacy, he developed innovative courses in pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, and drug discovery and development. Besides his teaching interests, Dr. Heakal developed a research program in cancer pharmacology, which provided students with the opportunity to participate in research activities.

• PhD in Pharmacology, Penn State University, College of Medicine, 2009
• MBA, Penn State Harrisburg, School of Business Administration, 2009
• MS in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, The University of Toledo, College of Pharmacy 2005
• B.Sc. (honors) in Pharmacy, Cairo University, College of Pharmacy, 2001

• Developmental Research Award, UNC Linberger Cancer Center, 2010 (intramural grant, $50,000 for 1 year).
• Graduate student travel award, 5th International Charleston Ceramide Meeting 2009.

• Cancer pharmacology
• Drug discovery and development
• Medical information

• Klionsky DJ, Abdel-Aziz AK, Abdelfatah S, et al. Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1. Autophagy. 2021;17(1):1-382. doi:10.1080/15548627.2020.1797280
• Heakal Y, Patel D, Cao P, et al. Discovery of Autophagy-Inducing Chloroquine Analogs with Potent Anticancer Activity in Breast Cancer Cells. Med Chem. 2020;10:7.
• Patricia Masso-Welch, Sofia A Girald Berlingeria, John Hu, Matthew Federowicz, Terry D. Connell,
• Yasser Heakal. LT-IIc, A Bacterial Type II Heat-Labile Enterotoxin, Induces Specific Lethality in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells by Modulation of Autophagy and Induction of Apoptosis and Necroptosis. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2019, 20(1)
• Heakal Y, Kester M, Savage S. Vemurafenib (PLX4032): an orally available inhibitor of mutated BRAF for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Ann. Pharmacother. 2011: 45(11);1399-405.
• Jiang Y, DiVittore NA, Kaiser JM, Shanmugavelandy SS, Fritz JL, Heakal Y, Tagaram HR, Cheng H, Cabot MC, Staveley-O'Carroll KF, Tran MA, Fox TE, Barth BM, Kester M.Combinatorial therapies improve the therapeutic efficacy of nanoliposomal ceramide for pancreatic cancer. Cancer Biol. Ther. 2011; 12(7):574-85.
• Heakal Y, Woll MP, Fox T, Seaton K, Levenson R, Kester M. Neurotensin receptor-1 inducible palmitoylation is required for efficient receptor-mediated mitogenic-signaling within structured membrane microdomains. Cancer Biol. Ther. 2011 1;12(5):427-35.
• Heakal Y, Kester M. Nanoliposomal short-chain ceramide inhibits agonist-dependent translocation of neurotensin receptor 1 to structured membrane microdomains in breast cancer cells. Mol. Can. Res. 2009;7(5):724-34.
• Kester M, Heakal Y, Fox T, Sharma A, Robertson GP, Morgan TT, AltinoÄŸlu EI, Tabaković A, Parette MR, Rouse SM, Ruiz-Velasco V, Adair JH. Calcium phosphate nanocomposite particles for in vitro imaging and encapsulated chemotherapeutic drug delivery to cancer cells. Nano Lett. 2008;8(12):4116-21.