Dr. Aref is a Medical Oncologist with extensive experience spanning over a decade. He obtained his medical degree in 2003, followed by a specialty qualification in Clinical Oncology (MSc Clinical Oncology, Ain Shams University, Egypt 2008, Specialty Certification of Medical Oncology, RCP, UK 2013). Dr Aref has more than a decade of clinical practice experience working across the University hospital sector in Egypt and in prestigious medical oncology centres across the Gulf countries (United Arab Emirates & Bahrain). His expertise lies in medical oncology, cancer research, cancer proteomics, biomarker discovery, and clinical trials methodology.

In 2016, Dr. Aref embarked on a research-focused journey, pursuing a PhD in Medicine at the University of Adelaide, Australia. His doctoral research delved into the impact of metabolic factors on prostate cancer screening models, incidence, and aggressiveness. During this time, he honed his skills in epidemiological and statistical methodology, specializing in regression, survival, and competing risk analysis using R software.

Transitioning to the realm of Health Technology Assessment in 2020, Dr. Aref assumed the role of Senior Analyst at the School of Public Health, University of Adelaide, where he furthered his expertise in evaluating clinical trial methods, particularly in cancer therapeutics.
In July 2021, Dr. Aref assumed his current role as Senior Researcher and Oncology team lead in the Proteomics of Cancer program (ProCan®) at Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI), Westmead, Sydney. Here, he leads multiple projects focused on exploring diagnostic and prognostic proteomic based biomarkers across various cancer types.

Dr. Aref’s contributions have been recognized through numerous publications, scholarships and grants, including the prestigious IPRS scholarship from the University of Adelaide, the Royal Adelaide Hospital Clinical Research project grant, the Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence, and the Cure Cancer ECR Grant. He is an active member of several cancer societies and research committees, including AACR, Breast Cancer Trials AU, ANZUP, GRADE-JBI, SA-PCCOC, AGITG, and the BGICS.

- Direct collaboration in prospective clinical trials aiming to improve cancer precision medicine
- Direct collaboration in developing prognostic and predictive biomarkers that can be integrated into clinical practice.
- Direct involvement in WIN academic, research and clinical activities.