Irene Ghobrial is an American-Egyptian physician who is a professor at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where her research investigates the progression of multiple myeloma. She is interested in why certain patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma develop B cell malignancies. She leads the Stand Up to Cancer multiple myeloma dream team.
Early life and education
Ghobrial was born in Egypt and studied medicine at Cairo University. After graduating, she moved to Detroit, where she completed her specialist training at Wayne State University. She has said that she experienced considerable challenges as an immigrant, but ultimately completed her internal training. In 2000, she moved to the Mayo Clinic, where she worked with Karen Hedin and Robert A. Kyle in hematology and oncology.
Research and career
Ghobrial is an expert in multiple myeloma, cancer of the plasma cells. Myleoma is a rare condition that disproportionately impacts African Americans, often at a young age. Ghobrial studies how multiple myeloma use cell dissemination and cell metastasis, and looks to identify warning signs that will permit earlier treatment. She believes that these treatments may begin as early as during smouldering myeloma, a precancerous condition that occurs when the immune system is strong and the tumor burden is low.
In 2011, Ghobrial was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation. In 2018, she was awarded $10 million from Stand Up to Cancer to establish the Multiple Myeloma Dream Team, which looks to understand the precursors that indicate a risk of developing myeloma. She leads the clinical trial PROMISE (Predicting Progression of Developing Myeloma in a High-Risk Screen Population), which built a cohort to identify individuals with a high likelihood of developing multiple myeloma. Her research uses mass spectrometry to screen for monoclonal gammopathies (abnormal proteins found in the blood), and revealed that 13% of her patient cohort had MGUS. Her research demonstrated that Black individuals were considerably more likely to have MGUS than previously expected.
Ghobrial worked with chemists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to design nanoparticle-based strategies for targeted cancer therapies, which promotes the accumulation of drugs at tumor sites and reduces toxic side effects.
In 2022, Ghobrial was awarded the William Dameshek Prize.
Selected publications
Personal life
Ghobrial spends her spare time raising money for cancer charities. She has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and run a marathon to raise money for leukaemia and lymphoma research.
References
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people) Cairo University alumni Wayne State University alumni Cancer researchers Egyptian emigrants to the United States Harvard Medical School faculty Egyptian women physicians 20th-century American women physicians Egyptian women scientists 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American physicians 21st-century American women physicians Members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation