People Biography

Biography

Dr. Sara obtained her medical degree with excellence from Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, receiving several honors during her studies. She later completed her Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Hamad bin Khalifa University in 2019. The focus of her Ph.D. was on the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and human pluripotent stem cell technologies in monogenic disorders. Dr. Sara has successfully published multiple high-impact publications in the field of pluripotent stem cell technology and NGS. Dr. Sara is an alumna of Harvard Medical School where she completed the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics (CBT) program during her postdoctoral fellowship with a special focus on melanoma, immunotherapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Dr. Sara further completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Clinical Research Center in Sidra Medicine-Qatar focusing on mesenchymal stem cells isolated from adipose tissue (2015-2018). Dr. Sara joined the dermatology and venereology residency program at HMC in 2018 and served as the chief resident in 2020. Dr. Al-khawaga is currently leading the GeriDerm (Geriatric Dermatology Service) and the lead for the first National Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS)/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) in Qatar. Dr. Sara received the National Educational Excellence in Research, an award from His Highness The Amir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani in 2021, and was awarded the Regional Research award from The Arab Board in 2023, a highly competitive award from the Middle East. Dr. Sarah has recently been appointed as a professor in the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation.