My Journey to Camel Science: A Pharmacologist and Drug Discovery Specialist for the Camel Health

This article presents my personal and scientific perspective as a pharmacologist and drug discovery specialist for camel research. My main aim over the last ten years was to provide a multidisciplinary contributions for the advancement of camel health through pharmacology, molecular modelling, bioinformatics, and veterinary medicine. Between 2014 and 2024, this research resulted in 54 publications across 26 journals with a strong international collaboration network involving 99 coauthors. The main areas of research were drug discovery for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), pharmacokinetics of veterinary drugs in camels, bibliometric research on camel science around the globe, meta-analyses for the therapeutic applications of camel milk, camels as hosts for zoonotic diseases, trypanosomiasis as a neglected disease in camels, identification of antiparasitic molecules, molecular modeling of pathogen–host interactions including the understanding of camel-specific metabolic pathways. The use of a One Health strategy through these multidisciplinary contributions resulted in the discovery of new therapeutic options for camel diseases. The research also led to 15 patents in drug discovery, including United States patents targeting MERS-CoV fusion inhibition and broad-spectrum antitrypanosomal compounds relevant to camel health. These interdisciplinary studies combined with my experimental pharmacology findings represent an integrated effort in computational drug discovery, in vitro investigative pharmacology, and One Health approach applied to camel diseases that deserves a new therapeutic option. Personally, I am grateful for the opportunities I was blessed with through this journey and I look forward to further efforts and discoveries that will contribute effectively to camel health and welfare.