Hassan Hijazi


Professional Experience

  • PhD Project (2021 - 2025): Studying Perturbed Histone Acylations in Huntington’s Disease by Proteomics

    • EDyP Lab - CEA Grenoble/France

    • This project aims to identify and quantify differentially abundant histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) between WT and Huntington’s disease mouse models. For this purpose, I:

      • extract histones from testis and brain tissues and prepare them for MS analysis by derivatizing free amines on unmodified or monomethylated lysine side chains and free N-termini. I do this in-gel and in-solution.

      • I use Orbitrap mass spectrometers (QEx HF and Ascend) to acquire data in DDA and PRM mode.

      • I interrogated the data using Mascot for identification and Proline or Skyline for validation and quantification.

      • I manually validate the MS/MS spectra to confirm identifications, especially for combinatorial hPTM patterns and isobaric peptides.

      • I analyzed proteomics data from stable isotope tracing experiment after heavy glucose injection in terms of heavy acetyl incorporation and other PTMs.

      • I implemented and optimized histone derivatization protocols in the lab using either propionic or trimethylacetic anhydride.

      • I wrote R scripts to organize and visualize the results. I ended up wrapping all the scripts in the form of an R package, which accelerated data analysis and ensured reproducibility and transparency in reporting the results end-to-end, in addition to plots that allow you to have a look at the result and also for quality checks to spot anomalies immediately.

  • 6-month internship (2021): Impact of detergents on sequencing membrane proteins using MALDI-MS

    • Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS) - Grenoble/France

    • Detergents are known to interfere with the protein mass spectra reducing the resolution and mass accuracy of the fragment ions. Thus it is important to remove of as much detergent as possible just before MALDI sequencing. During this internship, I screened a variety of detergents (non-ionic and zwitterionic) and explored their differential effects on different soluble proteins. I then investigated an E. coli membrane receptor, FhuA, as a case study illustrating the sequencing profiles of FhuA solubilized by different detergents.


  • 6-month internship (2020): Ultradeep Sequence-Function Mapping of Prokaryotic Promoter Libraries

    • Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) - ETH - Basel/Switzerland

    • Promoters are crucial for initiation of transcription and therefore regulation of gene expression. However, we still do not fully understand how a promoter sequence encodes its functional properties. This hampers the progress of synthetic biology and challenges its engineering discipline. To overcome this limitation, we adapted a recently developed DNA-based phenotyping approach (ultradeep Acquisition of Sequence-Phenotype Interrelations; uASPIre) to enable high throughout recording of prokaryotic promoters. We developed a double recombinase system that allows us to quantitatively measure sequence-function relationships of large promoter libraries with high temporal resolution. To better understand the underlying mechanisms, we further developed a computational model to predict expression and activity of Bxb1, one of the used recombinases.

Publications

Mind Your Spectra: Bullet Points to Validate the Identification of Isobaric Histone Peptidoforms

Hassan Hijazi, Julie Manessier, Sabine Brugiere, Tina Ravnsborg, Marie Courçon, Ole N Jensen, Anne-Marie Hesse, Christophe Bruley, Delphine Pflieger

J. Proteome Res. 24 May 2025

DOI

Quantitative Profiling of Histone Variants and Posttranslational Modifications by Tandem Mass Spectrometry in Arabidopsis

Vangeli Geshkovski, Hassan Hijazi, Julie Manessier, Sabine Brugière, Marie Courçon, Gilles Vachon, Delphine Pflieger & Cristel C. Carles

Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2873)), 23 November 2024

DOI

Sequencing intact membrane proteins using MALDI mass spectrometry

Edison Zhamungui Sánchez; Hassan Hijazi; Jana Haidar; Enrica Mecarelli; Elda Bauda; Isabelle Petit-Härtlein; Jean-Marie Teulon; Jean-Luc Pellequer; Elisabetta Boeri Erba

Front. Anal. Sci., 13 July 2023

DOI

Toehold switch based biosensors for sensing the highly trafficked rosewood Dalbergia maritima

Paul Soudier, Daniel Rodriguez Pinzon, Tristan Reif-Trauttmansdorff, Hassan Hijazi, Maëva Cherrière, Cátia Goncalves Pereira, Doriane Blaise, Maxime Pispisa, Angelyne Saint-Julien, William Hamlet, Melissa Nguevo, Eva Gomes, Sophia Belkhelfa, Anna Niarakisc, Manish Kushwaha, Ioana Grigoras

Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology 30 March 2022

DOI

Education

  • PhD in Chemical Biology [2021 - 2025] | Université Grenoble Alpes

  • Master 2 in NanoBiology [2021] | Université Grenoble Alpes

  • Master 2 in Systems and Synthetic Biology [2020] | Université Paris-Saclay

  • Master 1 in Animal Biology [2014] | Lebanese Univeristy

  • BS in Life & Earth Sciences [2013] | Lebanese Univeristy

Computational Skills

  • Programming languages: R and Python

  • Graphics software: Inkscape

  • Writing: \(\LaTeX\)

Languages

  • English (Fluent)

  • French (Intermediate)

  • Arabic (Native)

Conferences

  • French Proteomics Society - Club-Jeunes (FPS-CJ)

    • Bourdeaux - France (2021) [Flash Talk]

  • Joint Meeting of Spanish, French, and Portuguese Proteomics Societies

    • ProteoVilamoura - Vilamoura - Portugal (2022) [Flash talk]
    • ProteoAix - Aix-en-Provence - France (2023) [Poster]

  • Symposium “Signaling through Chromatin” - Grenoble -France (2023) [Poster]

  • Mass Spectrometry and Proteomic Analysis (SMAP) conference - Lille - France (2024) [Bioinformatics workshop on using MGFBoost for reliable histone post-translational modification identification]

  • HUPO - Dresden - Germany (October 2024) [Poster]

  • EuPA - Saint-Malo - France (June 2025) [Oral talk]

Professional Activities

  • A member of French Proteomics Society - Club Jeunes (FPS-CJ Bureau).

  • A member of 2020 iGEM team of Paris Saclay - Evry (Golden Medal Winner)

  • Students co-supervision (2023-2024) for their masters project.

Teaching Experience

  • Introduction to Proteomics lecture (4 h) for master students as part of ‘UE Biotechnology of DNA systems’ | Université Grenoble Alpes [October 2024]

  • Introduction to Proteomics lecture (3 h) for master students as part of ‘High Throughput Biology’ course | Université Grenoble Alpes [November 2024]

  • Math and Biology Teacher [2015 - 2019] | Accra Community School - Ghana

Let’s Connect!

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