Adham Elshamy, (BPharm), MSc Student

Area of Study / Keywords

Clinical Pharmacy Pharmacokinetics Translational Research Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

About

Adham Elshamy is a Master's student in the Neuro-CPK lab, at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta. Adham earned his bachelor's degree in Pharmacy from Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University (Cairo, Egypt) in 2022 when he graduated first in his class. Completing his academic accomplishment, Adham served as a Teaching Assistant in the Clinical Pharmacy Department at his alma mater for 18 months. In September 2024, he joined the Neuro-CPK lab to commence his graduate studies under Dr. Sherif Mahmoud's supervision. Beyond academia, Adham has a one-year experience as a community pharmacist in his home country, engaging in medication dispensing, patient counseling and clinical management.

Education

Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm), Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Research

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a neurocritical care emergency condition that occurs due to aneurysmal rupture leading to blood pooling in the subarachnoid space. While SAH represents 5% of all stroke cases, the high mortality rate approaching 50% is substantially due to SAH complications manifesting as vasospasm and delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI). Nimodipine is the sole FDA-approved drug as a prophylactic measure for these complications. However, many studies have reported pharmacokinetic (PK) variations and interindividual discrepancies in nimodipine plasma levels among SAH patients. "ASH-I" pilot study quantified nimodipine enantiomers utilizing a home-developed and validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method (LC-MS/MS). Nonetheless, this study's preliminary findings suggested a group of covariates that might be the reason for the observed PK differences.

Adham's project focuses on "ASH-II", a multi-center, prospective observational clinical study designed to define if an association exists between nimodipine plasma levels and clinical outcomes. Furthermore, this study aims to explore a range of the possible covariates that might count as predictors influencing patients' recovery. This project can be considered as a pivotal step toward bridging benchside and bedside findings into a tailored treatment care plan, serving as a potential for implementing precision medicine among neurocritically ill patients. 

Sherif Hanafy Mahmoud, Maged Kharouba, Asma Aboelezz, Adham Elshamy, Ellen Gunn

Frontiers in Neurology. 2025 July; 16 10.3389/fneur.2025.1630163