Andromeda Online Courses

Andromeda Online Courses (AOC)

Biomedical research: a deeper introduction



Lecturer Name


Dr. Sameh Ali

Head of Tumor Biology Research Program, Cancer Children's Hospital 57357.




Short Biography:

  • Dr. Ali is currently the Head of Tumor Biology Research Program, Cancer Children's Hospital 57357.
  • He was the Professor of Biophysics and Founding Director of the Center for Aging and Associated Diseases, Helmy Institute of Medical Sciences, Zewail City of Science and Technology.
  • Dr. Ali was also an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, University of California San Diego.
  • ○ He is a Member in the Egyptian National Committee of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2018-), a Member in the Technical Advisory Committee, Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (2020-), a Member in the Scientific Committee for Deciphering the Egyptian Genome National Project (2020-).
  • ○ Dr. Ali was Awarded the State’s Excellence Award in Basic Sciences (2020).

Dr. Ali obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. Degrees from Tohoku University (ranked # 70 on the world, 2017). He spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Technical University, Graz (ranked in the top 300, 2017) and Washington University in St. Louis (ranked # 18, 2017). He returned to Egypt from the University of California in San Diego (ranked in the top 20, 2017) June 2012 to participate in the establishment of Egypt’s National Project.

His work produced over 60 highly cited articles in high-impact journals including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Aging Cells, Antioxidant and Redox Signaling, FASEB J, J Neurosciences, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, J of Clinical Investigations, J of Biological Chemistry, J of Physiology, Neurobiology of Aging, J Adv Res, eLife etc. His work also contributed to the production of two U.S. Patents on carboxyfullerenes as neuroprotective agents. Dr. Ali acts as an Executive Editor, Editor, and regular reviewer for tens of internationally reputed journals including Cancer Research, British J. of Pharmacology, J. Biological Chemistry, etc.

Dr. Ali contributed to the development of undergraduate as well as graduate programs including Biomedical Sciences, Nanosciences, Drug Discovery and Development, Molecular Cell Biology, etc. He designed and taught tens of courses in multidisciplinary fields such as Experimental Design and Biostatistics, Basic Biology, Chemistry, Advanced Techniques in Biomedical Research, Neurobiology, etc.

Course overview:

    The course will introduce the fundamental concepts of biomedical research methodology. It will be delivered through video lectures and reading materials. Certification will be available based on various forms of assignments and on a final online exam.

Targeted students

    Biology, pharmacy, medicine, or graduates of any other scientific discipline whom are interested in pursuing research career in the field of biomedical sciences.

Course Duration:

One month, 8 lectures, 2 lectures per week, each lecture is about 40 minutes + 20 minutes’ interactive discussions, from April 3rd to May 1st, 2022.

Course Syllabus:

  • Lecture I. The art of asking and approaching scientific questions!
    • I.1. Philosophical Introduction to Scientific research: The scientific method versus superstition!
    • I.2. What is Science?
    • I.3. What is Research?
    • I.4. Formulating research questions: What is meaningful to ask and what is not?
    • I.5. Research Methodology: An Overview.
    • I.6. Types of research Studies.
  • Lecture II. Scientific Method and Hypothesis Testing
    • II.1. Defining a Knowledge Gap and formulating questions
    • II.2. Proper formulation of a Scientific Hypothesis
    • II.3. Testing your hypothesis
    • II.4. Collect, Organize & Analyze Data
    • II.5. Draw Conclusions
    • II.6. Communicate Results
  • Lecture III. Biostatistics, sample size, error, probability and power
    • III.1. Null and Alternative Hypotheses
    • III.2. Test Statistic
    • III.3. P-Value and Significance Level
    • III.4. One-Sample z Test
    • III.5. Power and Sample Size
    • III.6. Examples
  • Lecture IV. Planning a research study
    • IV.1. Selection of study population
    • IV.2. Study plan and project management
    • IV.3. Designing data collection tools
    • IV.4. Principles of data collection
    • IV.5. Data management
    • IV.6. Overview of data analysis and graphing
  • Lecture V. Ethics in Conducting Biomedical Research
    • V.1. Ethical framework for research involving animals
    • V.2. Ethical framework for research involving humans
    • V.3. Conducting clinical trials
  • Lecture VI. Writing a research proposal
    • VI.1. Preparing a concept paper for research projects
    • VI.2. Elements of a protocol for research studies
  • Lecture VII. Writing a research paper
    • VII.1. Structure of a scientific paper
    • VII.2. Publication ethics
  • Lecture VIII. Practical example from the lecturer’s work.

Course Fees: 250 USD