Dr Rasha Abu-Eid BDS, PhD, PGCert (HELT), FHEA (UK)

Dr Rasha Abu-Eid

School of Dentistry
Associate Professor in Oral Biology

Contact details

Address
The School of Dentistry
5 Mill Pool Way
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B5 7EG
United Kingdom

Dr Rasha Abu-Eid qualified as a dentist and completed a PhD in Oral Pathology focused on oral cancer.

Her cancer research portfolio is focused on using different technologies for identifying markers of disease progression and targets for immunotherapy.

Qualifications

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Learning and Teaching, The University of Aberdeen, 2011
  • PhD in Dentistry (Oral Pathology), The University of Birmingham, 2005
  • Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), The University of Jordan, 2001

Biography

Rasha obtained her Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) in 2001 from the University of Jordan. During her undergraduate years, she developed a keen interest in Oral Pathology, particularly in the pathology of malignant and premalignant oral lesions. She therefore enrolled on a PhD in Oral Pathology at the University of Birmingham which looked at the quantification of oral cancer and pre-cancer growth patterns. Rasha’s doctoral research applied digital imaging and innovative mathematical descriptors of morphology and complexity to characterise oral tissues at the cell and tissue levels. She successfully completed her PhD in 2005, and worked as a Research fellow in the same institute.

In 2006, Rasha joined the academic staff at the University of Jordan as an Assistant Professor in Oral Pathology. She assumed several administrative responsibilities, was involved in teaching multiple modules, and pursued her research in Oral Pathology.

Dr Abu-Eid joined the Academic staff of the newly established Dental School at the University of Aberdeen in 2009 and contributed to the development of the curriculum. During her time in Aberdeen, she obtained a PGCert in Higher Education Teaching and Learning in 2011 and became a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

During the same year, Rasha was successful in securing a prestigious research fellowship grant from the King Hussein Institute for Biotechnology and Cancer to conduct research in cancer immunology in USA. The fellowship was split between the National Cancer Institute/ National Institutes of Health and Georgia Regents University (Currently Augusta University), where she later became an Assistant Research Scientist. The focus of the research group was T cell Biology and the modulation of the immune system in the context of cancer immunotherapy.

In October 2016, Dr Abu-Eid re-joined the University of Aberdeen Dental School as a Senior Lecturer in Oral Sciences. She expanded her cancer research portfolio to include multiple state of the art technologies to identify markers of disease progression and targets for immunotherapy. She assumed multiple roles including being the research lead, the postgraduate research coordinator at the Dental Institute and an elected member of the University Senate. Rasha was involved in teaching a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules and successfully supervised many postgraduate research students.

Rasha re-joined the University of Birmingham in December 2024 as an Associate Professor in Oral Biology. She continues to expand her research portfolio building on existing and forging new collaboration networks.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Abu-Eid has supervised and is accepting PhD students in the following areas of research:

  • The applications of digital pathology in cancer research
  • Modulation of T cell function in the context of cancer immunotherapy
  • Identification of biomarkers of disease progression in oral cancer
  • Spatial transcriptomics and proteomics
  • Microvesicles in oral cancer

Research

Oral cancer is a growing global health problem associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The 5-year survival rate has seen little improvement which is mainly attributed to late detection.

A group of diseases termed oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) have the potential of developing into oral cancer, however, there is difficulty in predicting their behaviour.

There is a need for markers that can predict disease progression and help identify patients at a higher risk of developing cancer to diagnose patients at the early stages of the disease where the potential for cure is more likely.

We are using state of the art technologies to characterise oral tissues across the spectrum of disease progression. Digital Pathology, Raman Spectroscopy, Spatial transcriptomics and proteomics are some of the tools we are employing to study oral tissues at the molecular, cell and tissue levels and to characterise the immune microenvironment.

Our aim is to identify markers capable of predicting disease progression and to identify novel targets for immunotherapy and patient stratification for treatment.

Other activities

Membership of Specialist Societies

  • Fellow of the Academy of Higher Education, UK, (July 2011 to date)
  • British Society for Immunology, (April 2017 to date)
  • British and Irish Society of Oral Medicine, (January 2018 to date)
  • Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (July 2021 to date)
  • American Association of Cancer Research, (June 2022 to date)
  • The British Association for Cancer Research, (July 2022 to date)
  • European Association for Cancer Research, (July 2022 to date)