Radwa Hanafy is an ORISE postdoctoral research fellow at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where she investigates the effects of xenobiotics on the gut microbiome. Prior to taking up this position, she performed research on anaerobic fungi both as a PhD student and postdoctoral researcher.

Radwa undertook her PhD at the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at Oklahoma State University under the supervision of Prof. Noha Youssef. Her PhD focused on understanding factors affecting the diversity and community structures of anaerobic fungi (AF) in different herbivorous guts using culture-based and culture-independent approaches. Also, Radwa is an expert in the isolation and characterization of anaerobic fungi.

Radwa’s AF culturing efforts yielded more than 200 different AF isolates that broadly captured both inter- and intra-genus level diversity. Also, these isolates reshaped understanding of AF taxonomy and led to the discovery of eleven novel genera (Pecoramyces,  Feramyces, Agriosomyces, Aklioshbomyces, Capellomyces, Ghazallomyces, Joblinomyces, Tahromyces, Khoyollomyces, Aestipascuomyces and Paucimyces).

After completing her PhD, Radwa was a postdoctoral researcher for several years in the lab of Prof. Kevin Solomon in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware (UD). During her time at UD, Radwa worked on developing robust genetic tools for AF to understand their role in the herbivorous gut. This toolset also provides a framework for engineering AF for applications in sustainability and bioproduction.

You can find out more about Radwa’s research via her Research Gate page and by following her on X.