About

Costantine Daher, PhD

Dr. Costantine Daher was appointed as interim dean of the Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing in September 2019. Dr. Daher joined LAU as an instructor of biology in 1991 and became an assistant professor in 1998, after earning his PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Surrey in England. He was then promoted to associate professor in 2005 and full professor in 2016. He served as chair of LAU’s Department of Natural Sciences between 2005 and 2014 and was also appointed assistant dean of the School of Arts and Sciences between September 2014 and August 2018 and interim dean of the School of Arts and Sciences during the academic year 2018-2019.

Education

Scholarly Interests

Dr. Daher has published more than 55 peer-reviewed research articles. His research was originally focused on natural products with specific interests including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-ulcer and anti-cancer activities.

Lately, Dr. Daher was mostly engaged in drug discovery in cancer therapy. He is working in two directions: targeted and conventional chemotherapy. In targeted chemotherapy, photoactivatable synthetic Ruthenium-based organometallic compounds are used in vitro and in vivo in order to find an effective alternative therapy that helps reduce side effects associated with conventional chemotherapy. 

On the other hand, since platinum-based conventional chemotherapy has been shown to be very effective in treating many types of cancers, Dr. Daher is also heavily engaged in the search for novel platinum II- and platinum IV-based chemotherapeutic agents that could constitute a safe and effective treatment approach for cancer patients. 

Selected Publications

Maria George Elias, Yve Najm Mrad, Bilal Nehmeh, Carol Dagher, Mohamad Mroueh, Robin I. Taleb, Costantine F. Daher (2022). Wild Daucus Carota Oil Extract: An Innocuous Preventative and Chemotherapeutic Agent Against Chemically Induced Breast Cancer. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 7(2), 442-455.

Mehanna, S., Mansour, N., Daher, C.F., Dagher, C., Khnayzer, R.S. (2021). Drug-free phototherapy of superficial tumors: White light at the end of the tunnel. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology, 2021, 224, 112324

Maria George Elias, Stephanie Mehanna, Elias Elias, Rony S. Khnayzer, Costantine F. Daher (2021). A photoactivatable chemotherapeutic Ru(II) complex bearing bathocuproine ligand efficiently induces cell death in human malignant melanoma cells through a multi-mechanistic pathway. Chemico-Biological Interactions, 348, 109644

Najwa Mansour , Kikki Bodman-Smith, Rony S Khnayzer, Costantine F Daher (2021). Photoactivatable Ru (II) complex bearing 2,9-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline: A potent chemotherapeutic drug inducing apoptosis in triple negative human breast adenocarcinoma cells. Chemico-Biological Interactions, Feb 25;336:109317.

Wassim Shebaby, Jane Saliba, Wissam H. Faour, Jana Ismail, Marissa El Hage, Costantine F. Daher, Robin I. Taleb, Bilal Nehmeh, Carol Dagher, Edwin Chrabieh, Mohamad roueh (2021). In vivo and in vitro anti-inflammatory activity evaluation of Lebanese Cannabis sativa L. ssp. indica (Lam.). Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 270 (2021) 113743.

Christelle Fayad, Hassib Audi, Rony S. Khnayzer, Costantine F. Daher (2021) The Anti-Cancer Effect of Series of Strained Photoactivatable Ru(II) Polypyridyl Complexes on Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer and Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells. Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, Feb; 26(1):43-55. doi: 10.1007/s00775-020-01835-7.

Stephanie Mehanna, Kikki Bodman-Smith, Costantine F Daher, Rony Khnayzer (2020). Rapid quantification of ruthenium(II) polypyridyl anti-cancer drugs using selective ligand dissociation LC-MS/MS method. Analytical Methods, 2020, DOI: 10.1039/D0AY01250E

Tamer Ibrahim, Mohamad Mroueh, Wissam Faour, Wassim Shebaby, Costantine Daher, Hanan Ragab (2020). Synthesis, Biological Evaluation and Modeling of Hybrids from tetrahydro-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b] quinolines as Dual Cholinestrase and COX-2 Inhibitors. Bioorganic Chemistry, Vol. 100, July 2020, 103895.

Hassan H. Hammud, Ulrich Kortz, Saurav Bhattacharya, Sally Demirdjian, Essa Hariri, Samih Isber, Eun Sang Choi, Babak Mirtamizdoust, Mohamad Mroueh, Costantine F. Daher (2020). Structure, DFT studies, Magnetism and Biological activity of Bis[(μ2-azido)-chloro-(1,10-phenanthroline)-copper(II)] complex. Inorganica Chimica Acta, Vol. 506, 1 June 2020, 119533.

Shebaby W, Elias A, Mroueh M, Nehme B, El Jalbout ND, Iskandar R, Daher JC, Zgheib M, Ibrahim P, Dwairi V, Saad JM, Taleb RI, Daher CF (2020). Himachalol induces apoptosis in B16-F10 murine melanoma cells and protects against skin carcinogenesis. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Jan 6:112545.

Andree Elias, Wassim N. Shebaby, Bilal Nehme, Wissam Faour, Bassem Bassil, Joelle Hakim, Rita Iskandar, Nahia Dib-Jalbout, Mohamad Mroueh, Costantine F. Daher, Robin I Taleb (2019). In vitro and in vivo evaluation of the anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities of 2-himachalen-7-ol isolated from Cedrus libani. Scientific Reports Sci Rep. 9(1):12855. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-49374-9.

Stephanie Mehanna, Najwa Mansour, Hassib Audi, Kikki Bodman-Smith, Mohamad A. Mroueh, Robin I. Taleb, Costantine F. Daher, and Rony S. Khnayzer (2019). Enhanced cellular uptake and photochemotherapeutic potential of a lipophilic strained Ru(II) polypyridyl complex”. RSC Advances 9(30):17254-17265.

Hamid E. Daaboul, Carole Dagher, Robin I. Taleb, Kikki Bodman-Smith, Wassim N. Shebaby, Mirvat El-Sibai, Mohamad A. Mroueh, Costantine F. Daher (2019). β-2-himachalen-6-ol inhibits 4T1 cells-induced metastatic triple negative breast carcinoma in murine model. Chemico-Biological Interactions, 309:108703.