Rate My Professor Hassan Choucair

Dr. Hassan Choucair served as a Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney campus, joining in 2023 as an inaugural member. In this role, he played a pivotal part in establishing the school and directed the Year 1 Biomedical Science curriculum as Coordinator, offering academic support for pathway programs into Medicine. Choucair earned his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Medicine in 2020 from the University of Sydney, where his doctoral work centered on experimental anticancer agents, including aryl-urea fatty acids designed to target mitochondria, deplete cardiolipin, and induce endoplasmic reticulum stress in breast cancer cells. Prior to Notre Dame, he worked as an Academic Lecturer and Education Manager on the Gold Coast and taught extensively at the University of Sydney across the faculties of Science, Medicine and Health, and Engineering. His teaching portfolio encompasses biochemistry, cellular biology and genetics, molecular biology, pharmacology, physiology of body systems, and the pathological basis of disease, with a focus on supporting first-year students transitioning from high school.

Choucair's research specializations lie in drug discovery, oncology, and cancer biology, particularly mechanisms involving endoplasmic reticulum stress, mitochondrial targeting, and apoptosis in triple-negative breast cancer cells such as MDA-MB-231. Notable publications include 'A novel arylurea fatty acid that targets the mitochondrion and depletes cardiolipin to promote killing of breast cancer cells' (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2017); 'The aryl-ureido fatty acid CTU activates endoplasmic reticulum stress and PERK/NOXA-mediated apoptosis in tumor cells by a dual mitochondrial-targeting mechanism' (Cancer Letters, 2022); 'Aryl-urea fatty acids that activate the p38 MAP kinase and down-regulate multiple cyclins decrease the viability of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells' (European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2019); 'The Novel Anticancer Aryl-Ureido Fatty Acid CTU Increases Reactive Oxygen Species Production That Impairs Mitochondrial Fusion Mechanisms and Promotes MDA-MB-231 Cell Death' (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2024); and 'The inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1) endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway promotes MDA-MB-231 cell survival and renewal in response to the aryl-ureido fatty acid CTU' (The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, 2024), the latter affiliated with Notre Dame Australia. At the university, he received the Early Career Researcher Award (AUD $10,000, 2024) for 'Enhancing Anticancer Drug Development by Targeting Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer' and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Seed Grant (AUD $5,000, 2024) for 'Transforming Health Science Learning with AI Chatbot Technology.' Additional honors include the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (2016-2019, AUD $26,682 p.a.) and the Sydney Catalyst Professor Rob Sutherland Travel and Education Award (2019, AUD $2,000).