Ahmad Al-Khdhairawi is a PhD candidate at the Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He received his master's degree in 2020 from UCSI University, Malaysia for his research on the biophysical study of antifreeze peptides using spectroscopic analysis and molecular dynamics simulation. His current research includes exploring hemocyanin-derived antimicrobial peptides as therapeutics against biofilms and understanding the binding interaction of a peptide with a drug target using an in silico approach.

Research Areas: Antimicrobial peptide, Structural Biology, Biofilm.

Research Interests:

• The role of metals (especially nickel, Ni) and hydrogen (H2) in pathogenic bacteria, such as Helicobacter pylori, Salmonella Typhimurium and Klebsiella pneumoniae. We are interested in all aspects of Ni homeostasis, including Ni transport , Ni storage, Ni-dependent gene regulation and Ni-maturation of enzymes such as urease and hydrogenase; the latter are complex processes that require a battery of accessory proteins.                                                                                                
• Metal chelation and metal compounds as novel approaches to combat multi-drug resistant bacteria, including MDR Salmonella and MDR (NDM-1 positive) Klebsiella.                                                                                                     
• The maturation and role of iron-sulfur clusters in H. pylori, which relies exclusively on the Nif system to synthesize and distribute its Fe-S clusters; this is highly unusual since the Nif system is dedicated to the Fe-S maturation of nitrogenase, an enzyme that is not present in H. pylori.                                                                                                                                                     
• The characterization of respiratory pathways and virulence factors in the emerging pathogen Campylobacter concisus, a bacterium strongly associated with oral and inflammatory bowel diseases. Our lab recently reported the construction of C. concisus mutants for the first time. We were able to successfully inactivate genes encoding for a H2-evolving hydrogenase and a tetrathionate reductase. 

Email: ahmadayad@outlook.my

• Kong L, Qatran Al-Khdhairawi A, Tejo B. Rational design of short antifreeze peptides derived from Rhagium inquisitor antifreeze protein. Biocatal Agric Biotechnol. 2020;23:101447. doi:10.1016/j.bcab.2019.101447
• Qatran Al-Khdhairawi A, Ng S, Muhamad A, Mohd Basyaruddin A, Tejo B. Rational Design and Characterization of Short Antifreeze Peptides Derived From Lolium Perenne Antifreeze Protein. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cryobiol.2021.11.084
• Al-Zrkani M, Abdulkareem R, Al-Fahad D, Al Shouber M, Nasr A, Al-Khdhairawi A. Elucidating novel antibacterial compounds from the NPASS database against the FimH lectin domain for the treatment of urinary tract infections: an in-silico study. 10.1080/07391102.2022.2059009
• Hassan H, Hassan A, Mohamed E et al. Conducting the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant with Phytoconstituents from Euphorbia dendroides to Repudiate the Binding of Spike Glycoprotein Using Computational Molecular Search and Simulation Approach. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules27092929