Meet Distinguished Scientist Yazen Alnouti, Ph.D.

This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored Feb. 2 at a ceremony for UNMC’s 2014 Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator Award recipients.

Name: Yazen Alnouti, Ph.D.
Title: Associate professor, pharmaceutical science
Joined UNMC: 2008
Hometown: Jordan

Describe your research briefly in layman’s terms.
My research focuses on understanding how drug molecules move inside the body (pharmacokinetics) as a result of their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. In particular, we develop novel tools using cells or tissues to predict the pharmacokinetic profile in humans. In addition, we are interested in how bile acids, the primary components of bile, are metabolized in patients with liver diseases.

How does your research contribute to science and/or health care?

In general, my research represents a critical step in the discovery and development of any new drug. Also, my research in the bile acid area aims to identify sensitive, selective and noninvasive biomarkers for the early diagnosis of liver diseases, which will help hepatologists identify patients with higher risk of developing end-stage liver diseases who therefore require liver transplant or re-transplant. This helps determine patients with a more urgent need for liver transplant, when donated livers are of short supply.

What is the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you, professional or personal?

We, scientists, face an unimaginable amount of rejection of our ideas, publications, grant proposals, methodologies, etc. Therefore, always learn from critiques, but believe in your ideas, and never give up.

List three things few people know about you.

I decided I wanted to quit academia and do something more fun after the rejection of my first grant proposal. But my advisor, one of the scientists who established the field, talked me out of it after showing me the rejection critique for his own proposal.
I don’t like going to the gym, I just force myself.
I never got a deal on anything I bought, including on Black Friday.