Faculty Biographies
December 17, 2025, Virtual
Elias Jabbour, MD
MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
Dr Elias Jabbour is professor of medicine, Department of Leukemia, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), Houston, Texas. He graduated from the Saint Joseph University School of Medicine, Beirut, and joined the Hotel Dieu de France University Hospital as a resident. He pursued a fellowship in hematology-oncology at the Gustave Roussy Institute, France. In 2003, he joined MDACC as a fellow in the Department of Hematology/Leukemia and Stem Cell Transplantation. He later joined the faculty in the Leukemia Department as assistant professor.
Dr Jabbour is actively involved in research in both acute and chronic forms of leukemia. He was involved in clinical trials that led to the approval of several drugs in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). He actively assisted in developing chemotherapeutic and biologic agents in leukemias and contributed to the development of others. Dr Jabbour has designed more than a dozen clinical trials assessing new combinations for the management of de novo ALL, elderly ALL, and relapsed/refractory disease. Of note, he developed a protocol that has shown significant improvements in survival rates for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL. In addition, he developed another innovative treatment approach for these patients by combining blinatumomab, a bispecific monoclonal antibody, with ponatinib, offering a chemotherapy-free regimen that it is hoped will further increase cure rates. Another area on which he focused his research is elderly patients with ALL. The aggressive biology of the disease and elderly patients’ poor tolerance of intensive chemotherapy leads to low survival rates for this patient population.
Dr Jabbour is currently investigating an innovative strategy combining new monoclonal antibodies such as inotuzumab ozogamicin, a conjugated anti-CD22 antibody, and blinatumomab with minimal chemotherapy. If successful, such strategies will likely increase the cure rates of adult patients with ALL to the high level achieved in pediatric patients.
Dr Jabbour has taken an active role in the medical community, participating in numerous scientific meetings. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications (>550 peer-reviewed publications) and abstracts, and serves as a reviewer for many scientific journals. He has received several prestigious awards, among them merit awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (2005, 2006, 2007) and the American Society of Hematology (2005, 2006, 2007). He also received several other honors, including the Kimberly Patterson and Shannon Timmons fellowships and the highly coveted Celgene Future Leader in Hematology (2007) and Young Investigator in Hematology (2016) awards.
Ajlan Al Zaki, MD, PhD
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Cancer Institute United Arab Emirates
Dr Ajlan Al Zaki is a physician-scientist within the Hematology and Blood Cancer Department of the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Cancer Institute, United Arab Emirates. He earned his PhD in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA, and his medical degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC. Dr Al Zaki was also accepted into the highly selective Stanford translational investigator program in Palo Alto, CA, where he completed his residency in internal medicine. He pursued subspecialty training in hematology and oncology with a fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.
While at MD Anderson, Dr Al Zaki cared for patients with hematologic malignancies and gained extensive experience in clinical trial development, helping establish and serving as co-principal investigator on several investigator-initiated clinical trials, further honing his expertise in translational research and the design of patient-centered therapeutic studies. His research focused on understanding the mechanisms of chimeric antigen T-cell therapy-associated toxicities.
Dr Al Zaki is widely regarded for his translational research expertise and his commitment to advancing access to innovative cancer therapies in the Middle East and beyond. He is the author of 32 peer-reviewed publications, holds 5 patents, and has contributed to multiple book chapters in the field of hematologic malignancies. In addition, Dr Al Zaki has received numerous honors, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award and the Waun Ki Hong Award for Achievement in Basic Science, and he was selected for both the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Research Mentorship Program and the Lymphoma Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. His doctoral research earned him the Solomon P. Pollack Award.
