Biosafety in Public Health Laboratories

Dr Nisreen AL-Hmoud is the Director of the Bio-Safety & Bio-Security Centre at the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) of Jordan.

Dr AL-Hmoud has started her teaching career as a Visiting Lecturer of Medical Microbiology at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Jordan. In February 2008, she joined Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) as an Assistant Professor, and later on as a head of department and coordinator for the master program of Environmental Technology and Management.

As a scientist, Dr AL-Hmoud is motivated to provide research that focuses on the public good; her research emphasis is the preservation of human health and biodiversity. She is particularly interested in effective and sustainable scientific international cooperation. She dedicates her research to the development of scientific capacity, in the fields of biosafety, water & food safety 
and evaluation of risks of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), for scientists, government agencies, local communities and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Jordan and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Besides that, Dr AL-Hmoud is actively contributing to Biorisk Management capacity building programs nationally and regionally. She is devoted to research that involves a holistic approach that takes into account microbiology, molecular biology, virology, toxicology and ecology; researching the most effective methods to reduce health risks associated with naturally occurring infectious disease events and other public health risks. Her research projects led to tens of papers, journal articles, commissioned reports and book chapters.

Dr AL-Hmoud is a frequent participant at international biosafety/biosecurity meetings, and has attended international governmental meetings at the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and the United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (UNSCR) Committee.

Dr AL-Hmoud received her B.S. in biology from the University of Jordan, and her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland.

Dr. Amal achieved her fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Canada. She has Certificate in Infection Control (CIC) from the Board of Infection Control & Epidemiology; certificate in Patient Safety & Quality Improvement and in global health from Dalla Lana School of Public Health the Centre for international Health in the University of Toronto (UFT).

She received Dr. Susan King Award and the winner of the SASAKAWA global health price for 2021. She is a scientific author with many published research papers.*

Dr. Al-Maani is an affiliated trainer in Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB), a member of clinical microbiology educational committee and head of research groups.

She participated as an external faculty in developing online training modules for OMSB and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the online AMR training courses.

She was a core member in the national response team for COVID- 19 pandemic, Global Community of Practice in IPC, the supervisory committee of Gulf CDC, the Global Leaders Group for AMR (GLG-AMR) and an emerging leader for the international society of infectious diseases (ISID).

She is currently working on her personal capacity as technical advisor for WHO’s Strategic Infectious Hazards advisory team.