R. Mark Ghobrial, MD, PhD

J.C. Walter Jr. Presidential Distinguished Chair, Director, J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center
Professor of Surgery, Academic Institute
Full Member, Research Institute
Houston Methodist
Weill Cornell Medical College


Sherrie and Alan Conover Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation


Biography

After receiving his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from Cairo University Medical School in Cairo, Egypt, Dr. Ghobrial completed several surgical residencies in the United Kingdom and the United States. While a surgery resident at University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas, he completed a PhD in Immunology at the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1994. After residency, he accepted a position as clinical instructor in the Department of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and was awarded a Dumont-UCLA Transplant Fellowship. He received his full professorship in 2005 and served as Director of the Pancreas Transplant Program and Living Donor Liver Transplantation, and Service Director for Liver, Pancreas, and Small Bowel Transplantation. He was recruited to the Houston Methodist Hospital in 2008.

Description of Research

One of the primary goals of Dr. Ghobrial´s research is to increase donor tolerance to organ transplants and allografts. Dr. Ghobrial has shown in preclinical studies that tolerizing the host to dominant donor epitopes induces tolerance in the recipient. By engineering chimeric proteins, or proteins that contain sequences from both donor and recipient, and exposing the recipient to these proteins prior to tissue graft, peripheral, long-term tolerance is induced. Dr. Ghobrial also has a long-standing interest in the effects of Hepatitis (B and C) on transplantation patients.

Areas Of Expertise

Liver resection Transplantation Hepatocellular carcinoma Liver transplant Liver disease
Education & Training

Clinical Fellowship, Dumont-UCLA Transplant Center
MD, University of Cairo Medical School
Residency, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
PhD, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Publications

Bloodstream infections after solid organ transplantation: clinical epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance (2016–21)
Adelman, MW, Connor, AA, Hsu, E, Saharia, A, Mobley, CM, Victor, DW, Hobeika, MJ, Lin, J, Grimes, KA, Ramos, E, Pedroza, C, Brombosz, EW, Ghobrial, RM & Arias, CA 2024, , JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, vol. 6, no. 1, 158. https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlad158

Invertebrate Immunity, Natural Transplantation Immunity, Somatic and Germ Cell Parasitism, and Transposon Defense
Kloc, M, Halasa, M, Kubiak, JZ & Ghobrial, RM 2024, , International journal of molecular sciences, vol. 25, no. 2, 1072. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25021072

CD4+ T cell immunity is dependent on an intrinsic stem-like program
Zou, D, Yin, Z, Yi, SG, Wang, G, Guo, Y, Xiao, X, Li, S, Zhang, X, Gonzalez, NM, Minze, LJ, Wang, L, Wong, STC, Osama Gaber, A, Ghobrial, RM, Li, XC & Chen, W 2024, , Nature immunology, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 66-76. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01682-z

ASO Visual Abstract: Treatment Disparities Partially Mediate Socioeconomic- and Race/Ethnicity-Based Survival Disparities in Stage I-II Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Swords, DS, Newhook, TE, Tzeng, CWD, Massarweh, NN, Chun, YS, Lee, S, Kaseb, AO, Ghobrial, M, Vauthey, JN & Tran Cao, HS 2023, , Annals of Surgical Oncology, vol. 30, no. 13, pp. 8019-8020. https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-023-14229-1

Transplant Oncology: An Emerging Discipline of Cancer Treatment
Abdelrahim, M, Esmail, A, Abudayyeh, A, Murakami, N, Victor, D, Kodali, S, Cheah, YL, Simon, CJ, Noureddin, M, Connor, A, Saharia, A, Moore, LW, Heyne, K, Kaseb, AO, Gaber, AO & Ghobrial, RM 2023, , Cancers, vol. 15, no. 22, 5337, pp. 5337. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15225337

Treatment Disparities Partially Mediate Socioeconomic- and Race/Ethnicity-Based Survival Disparities in Stage I–II Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Swords, DS, Newhook, TE, Tzeng, CWD, Massarweh, NN, Chun, YS, Lee, S, Kaseb, AO, Ghobrial, M, Vauthey, JN & Tran Cao, HS 2023, , Annals of Surgical Oncology, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 7309-7318. https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-023-14132-9

Management of Established Small-for-size Syndrome in Post Living Donor Liver Transplantation: Medical, Radiological, and Surgical Interventions: Guidelines from the ILTS-iLDLT-LTSI Consensus Conference
Kirchner, VA, Shankar, S, Victor, DW, Tanaka, T, Goldaracena, N, Troisi, RI, Olthoff, KM, Kim, JM, Pomfret, EA, Heaton, N, Polak, WG, Shukla, A, Mohanka, R, Balci, D, Ghobrial, M, Gupta, S, Maluf, D, Fung, JJ, Eguchi, S, Roberts, J, Eghtesad, B, Selzner, M, Prasad, R, Kasahara, M, Egawa, H, Lerut, J, Broering, D, Berenguer, M, Cattral, MS, Clavien, PA, Chen, CL, Shah, SR, Zhu, ZJ, Ascher, N, Ikegami, T, Bhangui, P, Rammohan, A, Emond, JC & Rela, M 2023, , Transplantation, vol. 107, no. 10, pp. 2238-2246. https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000004771

Modern Outcomes After Liver Retransplantation: A Single-center Experience
Connor, AA, Saharia, A, Mobley, CM, Hobeika, MJ, Victor, DW, Kodali, S, Brombosz, EW, Graviss, EA, Nguyen, DT, Moore, LW, Gaber, AO & Ghobrial, RM 2023, , Transplantation, vol. 107, no. 7, pp. 1513-1523. https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000004500

Development and validation of a REcurrent Liver cAncer Prediction ScorE (RELAPSE) following liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: Analysis of the US Multicenter HCC Transplant Consortium
Tran, BV, Moris, D, Markovic, D, Zaribafzadeh, H, Henao, R, Lai, Q, Florman, SS, Tabrizian, P, Haydel, B, Ruiz, RM, Klintmalm, GB, Lee, DD, Taner, CB, Hoteit, M, Levine, MH, Cillo, U, Vitale, A, Verna, EC, Halazun, KJ, Tevar, AD, Humar, A, Chapman, WC, Vachharajani, N, Aucejo, F, Lerut, J, Ciccarelli, O, Nguyen, MH, Melcher, ML, Viveiros, A, Schaefer, B, Hoppe-Lotichius, M, Mittler, J, Nydam, TL, Markmann, JF, Rossi, M, Mobley, C, Ghobrial, M, Langnas, AN, Carney, CA, Berumen, J, Schnickel, GT, Sudan, DL, Hong, JC, Rana, A, Jones, CM, Fishbein, TM, Busuttil, RW, Barbas, AS & Agopian, VG 2023, , Liver Transplantation, vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 683-697. https://doi.org/10.1097/LVT.0000000000000145

Factors affecting survival after liver retransplantation: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Brombosz, EW, Moore, LW, Mobley, CM, Kodali, S, Saharia, A, Hobeika, MJ, Connor, AA, Victor, III, DW, Cheah, YL, Simon, CJ, Gaber, AO & Ghobrial, RM 2023, , Frontiers in Transplantation, vol. 2, pp. 1181770. https://doi.org/10.3389/frtra.2023.1181770

Comparative transcriptome profile of mouse macrophages treated with the RhoA/Rock pathway inhibitors Y27632, Fingolimod (Gilenya), and Rezurock (Belumosudil, SLx-2119)
Subuddhi, A, Uosef, A, Zou, D, Ubelaker, HV, Ghobrial, RM & Kloc, M 2023, , International Immunopharmacology, vol. 118, 110017, pp. 110017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110017

Progress in Combined Liver-lung Transplantation at a Single Center
Connor, AA, Huang, HJ, Mobley, CM, Graviss, EA, Nguyen, DT, Goodarzi, A, Saharia, A, Yau, S, Hobeika, MJ, Suarez, EE, Moaddab, M, Brombosz, EW, Moore, LW, Yi, SG, Gaber, AO & Ghobrial, RM 2023, , Transplantation Direct, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. E1482. https://doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000001482

Macrophages and stem/progenitor cells interplay in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle: a review
Kloc, M, Uosef, A, Ubelaker, HV, Kubiak, JZ & Ghobrial, RM 2023, , Stem Cell Investigation, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 9. https://doi.org/10.21037/sci-2023-009

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Solid Tumors in the Adjuvant Setting: Current Progress, Future Directions, and Role in Transplant Oncology
Abboud, K, Umoru, G, Esmail, A, Abudayyeh, A, Murakami, N, Al-Shamsi, HO, Javle, M, Saharia, A, Connor, AA, Kodali, S, Ghobrial, RM & Abdelrahim, M 2023, , Cancers, vol. 15, no. 5, 1433. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15051433

Pre-transplant Biomarkers of Immune Dysfunction Improve Risk Assessment of Post-transplant Mortality Compared to Conventional Clinical Risk Scores
Medina-Morales, JE, Panayotova, GG, Nguyen, DT, Graviss, EA, Prakash, GS, Marsh, JA, Simonishvili, S, Shah, Y, Ayorinde, T, Qin, Y, Jin, L, Zoumpou, T, Minze, LJ, Paterno, F, Amin, A, Riddle, GL, Ghobrial, RM, Guarrera, JV & Lunsford, KE 2023, , Research square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2548184/v1

Outcomes in liver transplant recipients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease-related HCC: results from the US multicenter HCC transplant consortium
US Multicenter HCC Transplant Consortium 2023, , Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 34-47. https://doi.org/10.1097/LVT.0000000000000007

Enhanced recovery for liver transplantation: recommendations from the 2022 International Liver Transplantation Society consensus conference
ERAS4OLT.org collaborative 2023, , The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 81-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(22)00268-0

960P Personalized circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) monitoring for recurrence detection and treatment response assessment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
Abdelrahim, M, Esmail, A, He, AR, Franses, J, Bhan, I, Victor, III, DW, Kodali, S, Connor, AA, Saharia, A, Brdiges, C, Tin, T, Brewer, C, Jurdi, A, Liu, MC & Ghobrial, RM 2023, , Annals of Oncology, vol. 34, pp. S600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2023.09.2106

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Solid Tumors in the Adjuvant Setting: Current Progress, Future Directions, and Role in Transplant Oncology: Cancers
Abboud, K, Umoru, G, Esmail, A, Abudayyeh, A, Murakami, N, Al-Shamsi, HO, Javle, M, Saharia, A, Connor, AA, Kodali, S, Ghobrial, RM & Abdelrahim, M 2023, .. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15051433

Trial in Progress: Atezolizumab and Bevacizumab Pre-liver Transplantation for Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma beyond Milan Criteria: Abstracts of the 15th Biennial Congress of the European-African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA), 6-9 June 2023, Lyon, France.
Abdelrahim, M, Sapisochin, G, OKane, G, Esmail, A, Saharia, A & Ghobrial, RM 2023, , HPB, vol. 25, pp. S560-S561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpb.2023.07.756