PhD & Postdoc

Noura Benali

Medicinal Chemistry · Mohammed V University

Noura Benali is a PhD candidate in Medicinal Chemistry at Mohammed V University in Rabat, supervised by Prof. Khalid Laatiris. Her thesis designs, synthesises and evaluates fluoroquinolone-carbazole hybrid scaffolds as inhibitors of mycobacterial DNA gyrase, demonstrating bactericidal activity against rifampicin and isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from Moroccan sanatoriums. Eight publications in European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters document her synthesis and biological evaluation work. Noura received a Moroccan Ministry of Higher Education Excellency grant and participated in a TB drug discovery programme with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague. She is being actively recruited by a European TB drug discovery consortium based in Basel. Her lead compound shows MIC values below 0.06 micrograms per mL against extensively drug-resistant TB strains.

Thesis Topic

Fluoroquinolone-carbazole hybrids as antitubercular agents against drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis

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