About

Aniella Abi-Gerges, PhD

Associate Professor
Physiology Discipline Coordinator
Medical Ethics Discipline Coordinator
Director of Medical Year 2

Dr. Aniella Abi-Gerges is an Associate Professor of Physiology and the director of Medical Year 2 at the LAU Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine in Byblos. She holds a Ph.D. in Cellular, Molecular and Cardiac Physiopathology with the highest level of distinction from the School of Pharmacy at University Paris 11 in France. During her doctoral training in the Laboratory of Excellence in Drug Discovery and Therapeutic Innovation (Labex LERMIT, Paris), she acquired solid expertise in cardiac pathophysiology and the ß-adrenergic/cAMP signaling pathway. Using an innovative electrophysiological approach based on the use of cyclic nucleotide-gated channels as a cAMP probe, she showed for the first time in real time and in isolated, living cardiac myocytes that cAMP homeostasis is altered in cardiac hypertrophy.

She further developed her knowledge of cardiovascular physiology and hormonal signaling by joining the School of Medicine at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris as a post-doctoral fellow for three years, during which she explored the role of the Multidrug- Resistant Protein Type 4 (MRP4) in cardiac function using a knock-out mice model.

Dr. Abi-Gerges joined the school of medicine as a full-time faculty member in September 2016. She has established her academic career on strong foundations of scientific research, medical education, and scholarly activities.  She is a proud fellow of the LAU Center for Innovative Learning Faculty (CIL). Her major educational focus is to develop, coordinate and teach physiology to first- and second- year medical students within a challenging integrated medical curriculum.

After completing a University diploma in Medical Ethics at the Lebanese University, Faculty of Medicine in 2019, she designed and developed the Medical Ethics curriculum for Med I and Med II, which she coordinates and teaches as well. Her didactic approach to medical ethics is based on challenging students with debates of ethical dilemmas and roleplaying in order to strengthen their critical thinking and communication skills, respectively.

Her research interests focus mainly on cardiopulmonary diseases and their risk factors, and specifically towards understanding the pathophysiology of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM), its progression and therefore its treatment through the identification of new therapeutic targets. She is the founder and leader of a dynamic and active research team “Cellular and Molecular Cardiac Physiopathology” which is comprised of postdoctoral fellows, master students, and research assistants at the LAUSOM. She has developed pathological animal models for type 1 and type 2 diabetes and utilized functional and molecular approaches to characterize specific alterations affecting cardiac Cyclic Adenosine 3′-5′ Monophosphate (cAMP) and calcium signaling pathways in DCM. To implement and develop her research work, she successfully secured intramural, national and international funds as Principal Investigator (PI) and co-PI. Additionally, she fostered strong collaborations with colleagues at LAU through the establishment of interdisciplinary research clusters, which she is either leading or co-leading, as well as with experts in the field of cardiovascular diseases in Lebanon and France. Her research work was featured in intramural, national and international venues and conferences. She was also invited to present her research work as a speaker in national and international scientific symposiums.

In parallel to her main research line on DCM, she developed interests in Medical Ethics research in an effort to resonate with her Medical Ethics course teaching. She is also engaged in research topics focusing on public health and gender in collaboration with the LAU Arab Institute for Women (AiW).

Dr. Abi-Gerges is the author of several publications in international high-impact-factor journals. She serves as a reviewer for international peer-reviewed journals and national research councils. She is currently an active member of the LAU Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the vice chair of the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee (IACUC). She participated in drafting institutional policies and responsibilities pertaining to animal protection and welfare and use of animal lab medication.

Selected Publications

View Dr. Abi-Gerges’s publications on PubMed.

Professional and Research Interests

Education

Awards and Grants

Public Exposure

جهد أنيلا أبي جرجس بأخلاق الطب وحرّية المريض (almodon.com)

The Lebanese Physician’s podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=BgH-PNlRkRuDeYRB&v=3Pyp0bEkrBo&feature=youtu.be

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3WPFpQ2m7Mn2EuUFwdWuLw?si=drHdNEgIR0G-ux_hmel6Sw&nd=1&utm_medium=organic&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA72N3QrCIACFn8bdtZXGgmBE0Kygoh%2Biy2HqNplT8YfV2%2BeCXiE4F4fz8XFa741bZpkz2ov6nRJjUilUl62M1SxQX2jDVQLgvA5SVsHKoh0VgNYA4pgRpz%2Bb6j5O3AinGY8NPc7YXGC%2FOCpYhjse2CMcBoCwEwBtmN2xU9nsr9PtJLyqtucyvw3fLyLlk9DuH38A5opFOktqTnywvNC2IUrQDxwwwPEbAQAA&product=open&%24full_url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fepisode%2F3WPFpQ2m7Mn2EuUFwdWuLw%3Fsi%3DdrHdNEgIR0G-ux_hmel6Sw&feature=organic&_branch_match_id=1298652713441138156

Keywords

Human Physiology, Cell Physiology, Medical Ethics, Research, Basic Sciences, Cardiac Physiology, Cardiac Pathophysiology, Diabetic Cardiomyopathy, Heart Failure, Congenital Heart diseases, Cell Signaling, Cardiopulmonary diseases, In vivo studies, Gender studies