Dr. Cole H. Sterling

Richard F. Ambinder, M.D., Ph.D., currently serves as the James B. Murphy Professor of Oncology and the Director of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. He is program co-leader of the Hematologic Malignancies and Bone Marrow Transplantation Program and leads the AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) site at Johns Hopkins and the AMC Translational Sciences Working Group nationally. Dr. Ambinder graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, after which he received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before completing his residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the Johns Hopkins University, and completed his oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins. Within the clinic, Dr. Ambinder is active in the treatment of lymphoma and Kaposi’s sarcoma. Dr. Ambinder’s research is focused on exploring opportunities to prevent or treat cancer with viral infections. Virus-associated tumors are among the most common malignancies in certain populations and regions. For instance, Burkitt's lymphoma (EBV) and Kaposi's sarcoma (KSHV) are common in equatorial Africa, nasopharyngeal carcinoma (EBV) is common in southern Chinese populations or those with southern Chinese origins, and immunoblastic lymphomas (EBV) are common in immunocompromised patients (organ transplant recipients, AIDS patients, etc). Thus, Dr. Ambinder’s new approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment stand to have a direct impact on the lives of cancer patients around the globe. Additionally, the study of how viruses can impact these tumors is important in creating model systems for the development of new approaches to cancer care. Currently, many immunotherapies target unidentified antigens, making the measurement of relevant immune responses problematic at best. However, in EBV-associated tumors the antigens are well defined, thus allowing the Ambinder lab to define the epitope-specific cellular immune responses. As a result of this breakthrough, interventions designed to alter immune response —whether they be vaccine based interventions, adoptive immunotherapy interventions, or pharmacologic interventions — may all be assessed in terms of relevant surrogate markers. Much in the same way the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma with radiotherapy and chemotherapy paved the way for the modern approach to cancer treatment more broadly, the treatment of EBV-associated tumors (including Hodgkin's lymphoma) may pave the way to the more generalized use of these modalities to treat a myriad of cancer types. Dr. Ambinder is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of T-Cell Lymphoma. His top areas of expertise are Hodgkin Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, B-Cell Lymphoma, Tissue Biopsy, and Bone Marrow Aspiration.

Richard J. Jones, M.D., is a Professor of Oncology and Medicine, Director of the Bone Marrow Transplantation Program, and Co-Director of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Jones received his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Bucknell University prior to completing his medical degree at the Temple University School of Medicine. He then completed his residency at Temple University Hospital, where he was appointed to serve as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine. Dr. Jones later came to Johns Hopkins to complete his Medical Oncology Fellowship, and was then recruited to the faculty. Dr. Jones’ research is aimed at better understanding the biology of normal and cancer stem cells, with the goal of translating promising findings to the clinic particularly in the area of blood and marrow transplantation (BMT). Dr. Jones' laboratory discovered one the most commonly-used stem cell markers, Aldefluor which identifies cells based on their expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1), and have used this marker to identify and characterize normal stem cells and cancer stem cells from many hematologic malignancies. This work also led to the development of post-transplant cyclophosphamide and effective related haploidentical BMT. Cyclophosphamide is metabolized by ALDH1, which is the reason both stem cells and memory lymphocytes are resistant to the drug. Recently, Dr. Jones' laboratory found that cytochrome P450 enzymes are a major mechanism by which the bone marrow stem cell niche protects both normal and leukemia stem cells. Dr. Jones co-leads the Hematologic Malignancies and Bone Marrow Transplantation Research Program. In addition to his promising work in the laboratory, Dr. Jones is recognized as a gifted mentor. During his tenure at Hopkins, he has trained a generation of leading physician-scientists who have excelled at Johns Hopkins and across the country. Dr. Jones has also authored numerous peer-reviewed articles that have been published in such prestigious journals as Blood, Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, PNAS, the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the British Journal of Haematology, and Leukemia. Dr. Jones is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of T-Cell Lymphoma. His top areas of expertise are Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Leukemia, and Splenectomy.

Khaled M. El-Shami, M.B.Ch.B., Ph.D., is a medical oncologist at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital, as well as an assistant professor of oncology in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Listen to Dr. El-Shami's Cancer Matters podcast episode to learn more about his work. Dr. El-Shami's clinical interests are in hematologic malignancies, including leukemias, lymphomas and myelomas.. Dr. El-Shami graduated from Alexandria University Faculty of Medicine in Alexandria, Egypt, where he did a residency in the Department of Neurosurgery. He was a Chevening Scholar as a M.S. student in molecular genetics at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, as well as a Sam Cohen Windhoek Scholar as a Ph.D. student in cancer immunology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. Dr. El-Shami also completed a residency in internal medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine, a fellowship in tumor immunology and biology at the National Cancer Institute, and a fellowship in medical oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. El-Shami previously served as faculty at Georgetown University and George Washington University. Dr. El-Shami has been named a Top Doctor by Washingtonian Magazine for several years. Dr. El-Shami is a member of the American Association for Advancement of Science, the American Association of Cancer Research, the American Association of Immunologists, the American Society for Gene Therapy and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. El-Shami's research focus is on hematologic malignancies, including acute and chronic leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes, myeloprolifetive neplasms and lymphomas. He has received the National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Scholars Award, an American Medical Association Seed Grant and an American Society of Clinical Oncology Merit Award. Dr. El is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of T-Cell Lymphoma. His top areas of expertise are Large-Cell Immunoblastic Lymphoma, Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia without Maturation, and Bone Marrow Aspiration.