Dr. Al-Hilal comes to UTEP from the Massachusetts General Hospital, the original teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He is interested in cardiopulmonary diseases, cancer angiogenesis, drug transport barriers, and the progression of vascular disease, particularly in the differences between physiological and pathological cues that disrupt the blood vessel morphogenesis and hemostasis. Utilizing the microfluidic technology that recapitulates tissue- and organ-level physiology, he is interested in developing disease-on-chip models to discover new molecular markers and understand their role in the progression of vascular pathologic conditions. Dr. Al-Hilal earned a doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences, and a master’s degree in pharmacy from Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea. During his studies, he was awarded with the Brain Korea 21 Scholarship. His discovery of a prion-like protein as a pro-angiogenic marker and therapeutic target for tumor angiogenesis was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. His work has led to the discovery of a new pathway for oral absorption of macromolecules via the bile acid transporter system. Dr. Al-Hilal is a member of the American Thoracis Society, and the Biomedical Engineering Society. When he is not teaching or working on his research, he enjoys outdoor sports and going for long drives. Dr. Al-Hilal quotes, “It is important to be a good person than a better scientist”.