Molecular Pharmacology Program

The Omar Abdel-Wahab Lab

Research

Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD

Chair, Molecular Pharmacology Program, SKI; Evnin Family Chair in Molecular Pharmacology; Attending Physician, Leukemia Service

Omar Abdel-Wahab is the Chair of SKI Molecular Pharmacology Program and an Attending Physician on the Leukemia Service in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

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Featured News

In the Lab

Research Suggests How Boosting Neoantigens Can Make Immunotherapy More Effective

In mice, drugs that change the way proteins are assembled appear to make checkpoint inhibitor drugs work better.

In the Lab

Sloan Kettering Institute molecular biologist Christine Mayr

Scientists Find Cancer Drivers Hiding in a New Place

New findings from researchers at the Sloan Kettering Institute suggest that cancer causes may be lurking in the molecule that bridges DNA and protein.

In the Lab

MSK physician-scientist Omar Abdel-Wahab

Splicing May Be an Effective Target in the Fight against Cancer

New drugs are being developed that target part of the process to make proteins.

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Publications Highlights

Montoya S, Bourcier J, Noviski M, Lu H, Thompson MC, Chirino A, Jahn J, Sondhi AK, Gajewski S, Tan YSM, Yung S, Urban A, Wang E, Han C, Mi X, Kim WJ, Sievers Q, Auger P, Bousquet H, Brathaban N, Bravo B, Gessner M, Guiducci C, Iuliano JN, Kane T, Mukerji R, Reddy PJ, Powers J, Sanchez Garcia de Los Rios M, Ye J, Barrientos Risso C, Tsai D, Pardo G, Notti RQ, Pardo A, Affer M, Nawaratne V, Totiger TM, Pena-Velasquez C, Rhodes JM, Zelenetz AD, Alencar A, Roeker LE, Mehta S, Garippa R, Linley A, Soni RK, Skånland SS, Brown RJ, Mato AR, Hansen GM (co-corresponding), Abdel-Wahab O (co-corresponding), Taylor J (co-corresponding). Kinase-impaired BTK mutations are susceptible to clinical-stage BTK and IKZF1/3 degrader NX-2127. Science. 2024 Feb 2;383(6682):eadi5798. doi: 10.1126/science.adi5798. Epub 2024 Feb 2. PMID: 38301010.

Knorr K, Rahman J, Erickson C, Wang E, Monetti M, Li Z, Ortiz-Pacheco J, Jones A, Lu SX, Stanley RF, Baez M, Fox N, Castro C, Marino AE, Jiang C, Penson A, Hogg SJ, Mi X, Nakajima H, Kunimoto H, Nishimura K, Inoue D, Greenbaum B, Knorr D, Ravetch J (co-corresponding), Abdel-Wahab O (co-corresponding). Systematic evaluation of AML-associated antigens identifies anti-U5 SNRNP200 therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Nat Cancer. 2023 Oct 23. doi: 10.1038/s43018-023-00656-2. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37872381.

Mi X, Penson A, Abdel-Wahab O, Mailankody S. Genetic Basis of Relapse after GPRC5D-Targeted CAR T Cells. N Engl J Med. 2023 Oct 12;389(15):1435-1437. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2308544. PMID: 37819961.

Wang E, Pineda JMB, Kim WJ, Chen S, Bourcier J, Stahl M, Hogg SJ, Bewersdorf JP, Han C, Singer ME, Cui D, Erickson CE, Tittley SM, Penson AV, Knorr K, Stanley RF, Rahman J, Krishnamoorthy G, Fagin JA, Creger E, McMillan E, Mak CC, Jarvis M, Bossard C, Beaupre DM, Bradley RK, Wang E, Pineda JMB, Kim WJ, Chen S, Bourcier J, Stahl M, Hogg SJ, Bewersdorf JP, Han C, Singer ME, Cui D, Erickson CE, Tittley SM, Penson AV, Knorr K, Stanley RF, Rahman J, Krishnamoorthy G, Fagin JA, Creger E, McMillan E, Mak CC, Jarvis M, Bossard C, Beaupre DM, Bradley RK (co-corresponding), Abdel-Wahab O (co-corresponding). Modulation of RNA splicing enhances response to BCL2 inhibition in leukemia. Cancer Cell. 2023 Jan 9;41(1):164-180.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2022.12.002. Epub 2022 Dec 22. PMID: 36563682; PMCID: PMC9839614.

Chen S, Vedula RS, Cuevas-Navarro A, Lu B, Hogg SJ, Wang E, Benbarche S, Knorr K, Kim WJ, Stanley RF, Cho H, Erickson C, Singer M, Cui D, Tittley S, Durham BH, Pavletich TS, Fiala E, Walsh MF, Inoue D, Monette S, Taylor J, Rosen N, McCormick F, Lindsley RC, Castel P, Abdel-Wahab O. Impaired Proteolysis of Noncanonical RAS Proteins Drives Clonal Hematopoietic Transformation. Cancer Discov. 2022 Oct 5;12(10):2434-2453. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-1631. PMID: 35904492;

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People

Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD

Chair, Molecular Pharmacology Program, SKI; Evnin Family Chair in Molecular Pharmacology; Attending Physician, Leukemia Service

Physician-scientist Omar Abdel-Wahab studies the functional genomics of hematopoietic malignancies.
MD, Duke University School of Medicine

abdelwao@mskcc.org: Email Address
View physician profile: Physician profile

Members

Yuxi Ai

Research Scholar

Salima Benbarche

Senior Research Scientist

Cynthia Castro

Research Technician

Bing-Yi Chen

Research Scholar

Nina Fox

Research Technician

Takeshi Fujino

Research Fellow

Won Kim

Graduate Student

Alex Lewis

Research Technician

Jennifer Lewis

Medical Student

Bin Lu

Research Associate

Xiaoli Mi

Fellow

Jahan Rahman

Computational Biologist II

Erich Sabio

Senior Research Scientist

Robert Stanley

Fellow

Steven Tittley

Research Lab Manager

Kenyon Weis

Research Technician

Pu Zhang

Research Scholar

Qian Zhang

Research Scholar

Jihae Ahn

Volunteer

Shlomzion Aumann

Research Fellow

Lillian Bitner

Research Technician

Jessie Bourcier

Research Fellow

Anna Chan

Research Technician

Sisi Chen

Research Scholar

Hana Cho

Research Assistant

Young Rock Chung

Research Technician

Daniel Cui

Research Technician

Caroline Erickson

Research Technician

Luisa Escobar Hoyos

Research Fellow

Simon Hogg

Research Fellow

Monisha Hosier

Administrative Assistant II

Daichi Inoue

Visiting Investigator

Michelle Ki

Research Technician

Eunhee Kim

Research Fellow

Min Kim

Research Technician

Katherine Knorr

Fellow

Stanley Lee

Research Associate

Bo Liu

Research Associate

Sydney Lu

Assistant Member, Myeloma Service

Jean Baptiste Micol

Research Fellow

Alessandro Pastore

Senior Research Scientist

Alexander Penson

Senior Computational Biologist

Danielle Richards

Program Assistant

Ruth Saganty

Michael Singer

Research Technician

Justin Taylor

Instructor (Dept. of Medicine)

Eric Wang

Research Scholar

Akihide Yoshimi

Senior Research Scientist

Xiao Zhang

Achievements

Josie Robertson Investigator (2012-2017)
Seldin-Smith Award for Pioneering Research, American Society of Clinical Investigation
Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Clinical Scholar Award
William Dameshek Prize, American Society of Hematology

Joanne Levy Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement, American Society of Hematology
V Scholar Award, V Foundation
Junior Faculty Scholar Award, American Society of Hematology (ASH)
Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Get in Touch

abdelwao@mskcc.org

Lab Head Email

Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Omar Abdel-Wahab discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

AIchemy, Inc.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
Array Biopharma
Professional Services and Activities
AstraZeneca
Professional Services and Activities
Codify Therapeutics, Inc.
Equity; Intellectual Property Rights; Professional Services and Activities
Envisagenics
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)

Epizyme
Intellectual Property Rights
Harmonic Discovery Inc.
Equity
Janssen Global Services, LLC
Professional Services and Activities
Loxo Oncology
Professional Services and Activities

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at ecoi@mskcc.org.

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