Dr Khalil was awarded a competitive MSc scholarship in October 2003 by School of Pharmacy, Cairo, Egypt to pursue her studies at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, developing rapid detection techniques for Gram-negative and Gram-positive infections using nitrate reductase
In 2013-2014 she held a research position on a UQ-industry (Progenra Inc, USA) funded project targeting the discovery of new ubiquitin ligase inhibitors for the treatment of severe neurodegenerative diseases
In 2014-2016 she held a research position on a UQ-industry funded project targeting the discovery of new anthelmintics from microbes for the treatment of gastrointestinal infections (Haemonchus contortus)
In 2016-2019, and building on a discovery made during her PhD, she took up a postdoctoral position in a joint project between the UQ Institute for Molecular Bioscience (Prof Capon) and the UQ Diamantina Institute (Assoc. Prof. Blumenthal), funded by an Australian Tropical Medicines Commercialisation (ATMC) grant, to develop new antitubercular agents from Australian microbes