Rate My Professor Shaya Helem

Shaya Helem is an Assistant Research Fellow at Mātai Hāora – the Centre for Redox Biology and Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Otago Christchurch, within the Faculty of Medicine. He earned his Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences with Honours from the University of Otago in 2022, where his honours project investigated the anti-proliferative properties of the marine-derived compound portimine A under the supervision of Mark Hampton. Currently, Helem works on multiple projects involving the culturing and use of cancer cells, the processing and analysis of biomarkers in clinical samples, and the elucidation of the mechanism of action of portimine.

Helem's technical expertise encompasses cell culture, fluorescent microscopy, flow cytometry, cell viability assays, gel electrophoresis, western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and ELISA assays. His contributions to the scientific literature include co-authorship on several peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings. Notable publications are: Brook, E. M., Helem, S. J., McDonald, C. C. M., Magon, N. J., Selwood, A. I., Harwood, D. T., Hampton, M. B., & Dachs, G. U. (2025). Portimine A maintains bioactivity following exposure to liver microsomes and cell lysates: No evidence for significant metabolic inactivation. Medical Oncology, 42, 278; Ayora, I., Graham, O., Miller, A., Bozonet, S., Helem, S., & Kennedy, M. (2024). Analysis of gene expression impacts of valproate on a human induced pluripotent stem cell line using long read RNA-sequencing. Proceedings of the 17th GeneMappers Conference; Featherston, T., Helem, S., Smyth, L. C. D., Hampton, M. B., & Paumann-Page, M. (2024). Comparing automated cell imaging with conventional methods of measuring cell proliferation and viability. Toxicology Mechanisms & Methods, 34(8), 886-896; Faville, S., Hampton, M. B., Pace, P., Goebl, C., & Helem, S. (2023). Chemoproteomic analyses of the anti-cancer effects of portimines. Proceedings of the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NZSBMB) 50th Anniversary Conference; Helem, S., Pace, P., Seddon, A., Selwood, A., & Hampton, M. (2023). The anti-proliferative properties of the marine derived bioactive compound portimine. Proceedings of the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NZSBMB) 50th Anniversary Conference. Helem is affiliated with the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.