I am an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Indiana University. My research and clinical interest focus on DNA repair in lung diseases especially lung cancer. Under the mentorship of Dr. Catherine Sears and funded by a NIH T32 training grant, I optimized the flow cytometry-based method to measure DNA repair capacity (DRC) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, measuring non-homologous end-joining and nucleotide excision repair. I am currently working some research project which is an extension of my fellowship research project and will be executed through an approved IRB to recruit patients to measure DRC in patients with and without lung cancer. We will be looking at the correlation between DNA repair and different comorbidities, gender, race, as well as exposures to difference carcinogens, mainly tobacco, and as a marker of response to chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation. We are hoping that this project will shed more light on the role of DRC in lung cancer development, prognosis, and response to treatment. Through my fellowship training, I have acquired the basic research experience and skills that enable me to carry out this research project. Additionally, I have the clinical experience in caring for lung cancer patients which will further enrich my expertise to execute transitional research projects. Finally, I am looking forward to collaborating with other Simon Cancer Center’s researchers to study the role of DNA repair in developing lung cancer and other malignancies (like esophageal cancer), and cancer behavior in correlation with DNA repair. My ultimate goal is to determine the impact of DRC on lung cancer risk and treatment response.
Fellowship - Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 06/2020
Residency - Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 06/2013
M.D. - Damascus University, Damascus, Syria 05/2009
