Principal Investigator
Jelani Zarif, PhD
Director, Zarif Lab
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jelani C. Zarif is the Robert E. Meyerhoff Endowed Professor and Associate Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a member of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. His research focuses on understanding how immune cells within the tumor microenvironment—particularly tumor-associated macrophages—promote prostate cancer progression, immune evasion, therapeutic resistance, and metastasis. His laboratory integrates cancer immunology, translational research, and clinically relevant models to identify biomarkers and develop strategies that reprogram or target immunosuppressive myeloid cells, with the goal of improving responses to immunotherapy and other standard cancer treatments.
Dr. Zarif earned his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University and completed postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins. His work has been recognized through awards and research support from organizations including the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, and the Department of Defense.
- Hometown: Chicago, IL
- Favorite Book: Between the World and Me
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner: Dr. Donald Coffey
Lab Members
Fan Shen, M.B.B.S., M.S.
Postdoctoral Fellow
- Hometown – Guangzhou, China
- Favorite Book – Sophie’s World
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Nikola Tesla
Kenneth Adusei
PhD candidate
- Hometown- Hampton, VA
- Favorite Book – My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. Rosalind Franklin
Alex Lee
PhD Candidate
- Hometown – Honolulu, HI
- Favorite book – The Emperor of All Maladies
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. Sidney Farber
Monali Praharaj, MS
PhD candidate
Pathobiology Graduate program
- Hometown – Odisha and Mumbai, India
- Favorite Book – Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of A P J Abdul Kalam
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Drs. Saumya Swaminathan, Marie Curie and James P. Allison.
Thomas Nirschl
PhD Candidate
Pathobiology Graduate Program
- Hometown is – Herndon, Virginia
- Favorite book – Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. James P. Allison
Xiaoxu Wang, MS
PhD Candidate
Immunology Graduate program
- Hometown – Zibo – Shandong Province, China
- Favorite Book – Journey Under the Midnight Sun
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi
Raekwon Williams
Ingenuity Scholar
Raekwon is a Senior Baltimore Polytechnic HS and an Ingenuity Scholar.
- Hometown – Baltimore, MD
- Favorite Book – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. John Carpten
Administration
Anna Smith
Administrator
- Hometown – Baltimore, MD
- Favorite Book – The other Wes Moore
- Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. Mae C. Jemison
Alumni
Margueritta El Asmar, MD
Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital
Debebe Theodros, MD, PhD
Resident Physician at Stanford health in Neurosurgery
Collaborators
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
University of California - San Diego Moores Cancer Center
San Diego, CA
Compugen, LLC
Holon, Israel