UT San Antonio
Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

Carine Jaafar

Postdoctoral Fellow

  • Professional Background

    Education

    • 2020 - PhD - American University of Beirut
    • 2014 - MS - American University of Beirut
  • Publications
    1. Gonzalez-Cantu, H., Nascimento da Conceicao, V., Munawar, S.Y., Johns, K., Jaafar, C., Reyna, N., Multani, A., Estrada-Zuniga, C., Zhou, D., Aguiar, R.C.T., Yuan, Y., & Dahia, P.L.M.* (2026). The transmembrane protein TMEM127 regulates activation and fate of an MHC-I degradation complex by WWP2 modification.Manuscript submitted; available as a bioRxiv preprint. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.29.735340v1
    2. Jaafar, C., Ethiraj, P., Qiu, Z., Lin, A.-P., Ferrari, P.S.S.M., & Aguiar, R.C.T.* (2025). α-Ketoglutarate promotes amino acid depletion and suppresses B-cell lymphoma growth and development. Blood. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2024028069 
    3. Diaz Duque, A.E., Ferrari, P.S.S.M., Ethiraj, P., Jaafar, C., Qiu, Z., Holder, K.N., Butler, M.J., Huelgas-Morales, G., Karnad, A., Dahia, P.L.M., & Aguiar, R.C.T.* (2024). First-line combination of R-CHOP with the PDE4 inhibitor roflumilast for high-risk DLBCL. Cancers, 16(22), 3857. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16223857 
    4. Jaafar, C., & Aguiar, R.C.T.* (2024). Dynamic multilayered control of m6A RNA demethylase activity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(46), e2317847121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2317847121 
    5. Qiu, Z.§, Khalil, J.§, Ethiraj, P.#, Jaafar, C.#, Lin, A.-P., Holder, K.N., Ritter, J.P., Chiou, L., Huelgas-Morales, G., Aslam, S., Zhang, Z., Liu, Z., Arya, S., Gupta, Y.K., Dahia, P.L.M., & Aguiar, R.C.T.* (2023). IRF8-mutant B-cell lymphoma evades immunity through a CD74-dependent deregulation of antigen processing and presentation in MHC-II complexes. Science Advances, 9(40), eadk2091. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adk2091 
    6. Ethiraj, P., Sasi, B., Holder, K.N., Lin, A.-P., Qiu, Z., Jaafar, C., El Khalili, A., Desai, P., Saksena, A., Ritter, J.P., & Aguiar, R.C.T.* (2022). Cyclic AMP signaling, MYC, and HIF1α intersect to regulate angiogenesis in B-cell lymphoma. British Journal of Haematology, 198, 349–359. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.18196 
    7. Lin, A.-P., Qiu, Z., Ethiraj, P., Sasi, B., Jaafar, C., Rakheja, D., & Aguiar, R.C.T.* (2022). MYC, mitochondrial metabolism, and O-GlcNAcylation converge to modulate the activity and subcellular localization of DNA and RNA demethylases. Leukemia, 36(4), 1150–1159. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-021-01489-7 
    8. Omais, S., Hilal, R.N., Halaby, N.N., Jaafar, C., & Ghanem, N.* (2022). Aging entails distinct requirements for Rb in maintaining adult neurogenesis. Aging Brain, 2, 100041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbas.2022.100041 
    9. Omais, S., Halaby, N., Habashy, K.J., Jaafar, C., Bejjani, A., & Ghanem, N.* (2019). Histological assessment of Cre-LoxP genetic recombination in the aging subventricular zone of Nestin-CreERT2/Rosa26YFP mice. Methods in Molecular Biology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2019_214 
    10. Omais, S., Jaafar, C., & Ghanem, N.* (2018). 'Till death do us part': A potential irreversible link between aberrant cell cycle control and neurodegeneration in the adult olfactory bulb. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12, 144. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00144  
    11. Jaafar, C., Omais, S., Al Lafi, S., Al Jamal, N., Noubani, M., Skaf, L., & Ghanem, N.* (2016). Role of Rb during neurogenesis and axonal guidance in the developing olfactory system. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 9, 81. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2016.00081 
    12. Naser, R., Vandenbosch, R., Omais, S., Hayek, D., Jaafar, C., Al Lafi, S., Saliba, A., Baghdadi, M., Skaf, L., & Ghanem, N.* (2016). Role of the retinoblastoma protein, Rb, during adult neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb. Scientific Reports, 6, 20230. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep20230 
    13. Vandenbosch, R., Clark, A., Fong, B.C., Omais, S., Jaafar, C., Dugal-Tessier, D., Dhaliwal, J., Lagace, D.C., Park, D.S., Ghanem, N., & Slack, R.S. *(2016). RB regulates the production and survival of newborn neurons in the embryonic and adult dentate gyrus. Hippocampus, 26(12), 1515–1523. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22613