The Dean of the College of Pharmacy at Al-Zahraa University for Women, Prof. Dr. Noor Hatif Al-Dabbagh, participated as a supervisor and member of the examination committee for the Master’s thesis defense of student Ayoub Jabbar Mohammed, specializing in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the College of Pharmacy, Mustansiriyah University. The defense was held on Monday morning, August 31, 2026, at Imam Al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) Hall at the college.

 

The thesis aimed to synthesize a series of coumarin–hydrazone derivatives coded AT1–AT6, along with two coumarin–hydrazone–4-thiazolidinone derivatives coded P20 and P21. The synthesis involved several chemical steps, including the preparation of intermediates, hydrazide formation, Schiff base formation, and cyclization using thioglycolic acid. The synthesized compounds were characterized using melting-point determination, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-NMR).

 

The study also included a computational evaluation of the designed compounds through molecular docking against carbonic anhydrase enzymes, prediction of ADMET properties, MM-GBSA binding-energy calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations to assess the stability of protein–ligand complexes. In addition, a preliminary evaluation of anticancer activity was conducted using the MTT assay on MCF-7 breast cancer cells, with comparison against non-cancerous MCF-10A cells.

 

The results showed that several of the synthesized compounds exhibited promising binding affinity toward the studied enzymatic targets, acceptable drug-like properties, suitable stability during molecular dynamics simulations, and encouraging cellular activity against cancer cells. These findings suggest that certain coumarin–hydrazone derivatives could serve as promising scaffolds for further development as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors with potential anticancer activity.

 

The Dean’s participation in postgraduate examination committees at Iraqi universities reflects the College of Pharmacy’s commitment to strengthening academic cooperation, scientific communication, and the exchange of research expertise among higher education institutions.