Sherif El-Refai, as student at the University of Kentucky, started working towards a doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences with an emphasis in clinical and experimental therapeutics. He also held a membership at the university’s Black Lab which was run by students specializing in cancer research.
The Black Lab used gene expression to analyze the person’s reaction to cancer therapy that affected them. Members of the lab including Sherif El-Refai started visualizing and analysing bioinfomatic data to design experiments for testing and improving the ways cancer patients responded to the treatments. Sherif El-Refai also conducts lung cancer research and serves as an oncology pharmacist at the University of Kentucky.
The University of Kentucky recently issued a statement announcing that the Food and Drug Administration has granted clinical trial approval for an investigational medical device to treat advanced lung cancer that was developed by university researchers. Created through a project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Exatherm Total Body Hyperthermia System (Exatherm-TBH) heats and circulates blood through the vascular system at a temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit during a four-hour treatment.