Amal Aqul, M.D.

Biography

Dr. Amal Aqul graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. She completed her Pediatric residency at UT Medical Branch in Austin. In addition to completing a Pediatric Gastroenterology fellowship at UT Southwestern, Dr. Aqul finished a specialty fellowship in Hepatology and Liver Transplant at Boston Children’s Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliated hospital. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern. 

During fellowship, Dr. Aqul joined Dr. Dietschy’s lab investigating cholesterol metabolism in different body organs, particularly in the liver and the brain. Her studies focused on the molecular mechanisms of cholesterol movement through the cells and the pathogenesis of disease resulting from disruption of these pathways. This was achieved through studying different murine models of lysosomal storage disease in Niemann-Pick C 1 (NPC1) and Lysosomal Acid Lipase (LAL) deficient mice. Studies also investigated the mechanisms of action of 2-hydroxypropyl-β cyclodextrin in promoting the release of the entrapped lysosomal cholesterol in NPC1 deficient mice, which might provide a therapeutic potential for treating the disease. 

Since Dr. Aqul joined the UT Southwestern Pediatric gastroenterology as a faculty, she has taken care of patients with a variety of general gastroenterology and hepatology disorders. She has a special interest in liver diseases such as autoimmune hepatitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and different cholestatic liver disease in infancy. Dr. Aqul manages patients with end stage liver disease on the liver transplant list before and following their liver transplant. She is an active member of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Committee at UT Southwestern and Children’s Health. In addition to outpatient clinical care, Dr. Aqul covers the inpatient hepatology and liver transplant services twelve to fourteen weeks per year. 

Dr. Aqul is actively involved in teaching the nurse practitioners, physician assistants, residents and fellows. She is on the scientific oversight committee for some of the gastroenterology fellows.