Ali T. Taher, MD, PhD, FRCP
Ali T. Taher, Professor of Medicine at the Division
of Hematology & Oncology Department of Internal
Medicine, is the Director of the Naef K. Basile
Cancer Institute (NKBCI) at the American
University of Beirut Medical Center and appointed
in December 2021 as the Associate Vice President
for Medical Advancement and Communications.
He was also the Founding Director Fellowship and
Residents Research Program (FRRP), Faculty of
Medicine. Nationally, Prof. Taher is an integral
member of a team of consultants at the Thalassemia
Department of the Chronic Care Center (CCC)
located in Lebanon where he has contributed to state
of the art programs for prevention and management of
thalassemia patients in the country. In May 2018 Prof. Taher was granted Tenure in the
current rank as full time professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of
Medicine at AUBMC.
Prof. Taher has received numerous awards for his contribution in research and in benign
hematology including, Honorary Award – Lebanese Medical Students' International
Committee in 2003 through 2006, the Medal of Honor for Achievement from the
Lebanese Order of Physicians in 2004, Honorary Award – King Faysal Specialist
Hospital and Research Center in April 2004, the Souad Subah Award for Best Scientific
Work in August 2005, Gold Medal from the Ministry of Health – Lebanon in
November 2008, and a Gold Medal Award, AUB Alumni Association, Medical
Chapter in April 2010. He was also selected to join the “Alpha Omega Alpha Honor
Medical Society”. In 2013, Prof. Taher was recognized with the “International Leader in
Thalassemia” award by the Sultan Bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Awards
presented to a those that have contributed significant work in Thalassemia and
Hemoglobinopathies and has achieved a measurable impact in improving patients’
quality of life. Prof. Taher was also awarded in 2016 a Research Excellence Award
presented by the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research. In September 2021,
Prof. Taher was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the category of MENA
Oncology by the Emirates Oncology Society (EOS) and the Emirates Medical
Association. In June 2022, Prof. Taher was selected as the recipient of the 2022
European Hematology Association (EHA) Education and Mentoring Award. Most
recently in October 2022, Prof. Taher was awarded the prestigious Kuwait Foundation
for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) Prize for the year 2021 for his research work
on β-thalassemia. Prof. Taher was also awarded in October 2022 the National Cedar
Medal by the Lebanese government in recognition of his contributions to the health and
humanitarian fields.
Prof. Taher was granted in 2011 the “Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians
(FRCP)” in appreciation of his dedication to advancing knowledge and research, as well
as being awarded in 2012 a “Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD)” from LeidenUniversity Medical Center (LUMC) for his ground-breaking work on thalassemia
intermedia which unraveled morbidity behind the disease.
Prof. Taher has been invited to over 200 conferences both regionally and internationally
as a keynote speaker, chairperson and moderator and has over 509 manuscripts
published in leading peer-reviewed international journals (Citations: 24,809; h-index:
76). He is the principal investigator on key clinical trials evaluating the efficacy and
safety of iron chelation therapy in transfusion dependent thalassemia (TDT) and non-
transfusion dependent thalassemia (NTDT) along with new modalities of treatment. Prof.
Taher currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board of different journals. He is also
the current associate editor of the journal Annals of Hematology. He also serves as editor
for several books and guidelines in Thalassemia. He has also been an active reviewer for
several scholarly and high impact factor journals in Hematology including The Lancet,
New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Hematology, Haematologica,
Blood, Blood Advances, Blood Reviews and Hemasphere in addition to being an abstract
reviewer for major congresses. Prof. Taher has taken part of as principal investigator in
several Phase 1, 2, 3 & 4 clinical trials. He currently ranks in the Top 100 of the world’s
most productive authors in Hematology (in the past 10 years), Top 5 of the most
published authors in the Arab world (2012 to present) and among the top in the world in
publications on Thalassemia and Iron Chelation Therapy. In November 2020, an
international study produced a composite citation-based indicator and listed Prof. Taher
among the world's top 2 percent of scholars in his respective field. In November 2021,
Prof. Taher was recognized and placed in the top 0.1% of scholars writing about Anemia
over the past 10 years by Expertscape's PubMed-based algorithms.
Prof. Taher has always set an example of how fruitful research partnerships can be, by
participating in studies of large collaborative networks (“National Institutes of Health”
(NIH), USA). He has also shown leadership in creating local and regional scientific
interest groups and associations that promote partnerships in science. Such partnerships
within the Middle East and with Italy in particular were a success story which yielded
data that reshaped our understanding of NTDT. Such work had a major impact on
establishing management guidelines by the “Thalassaemia International Federation”
(TIF) for both regularly transfused and non-transfusion-dependent thalassemias, for
which Prof. Taher served as an Editor.
Prof. Taher has been acting as a scientific advisor and consultant for the TIF to support
all their global efforts to promote optimal care for thalassemia patients through working
on clinical, awareness, and education initiatives. He is also an active member of some of
the most prestigious Hematology societies in the world including the American Society
of Hematology (ASH), EHA, Academy of Sickle Cell and Thalassemia, European
School of Hematology, and The International Society on Thrombosis and
Hemostasis (ISTH). He is currently the chair of the EHA Scientific Working Group
(SWG) on Red Cells and Iron and member of the EHA Education committee. Prof. Taher
has also been recently elected on December 2021 to serve on the ASH Scientific
Committee on Iron and Heme.
Prof. Taher continues to evaluate new treatment strategies and chelators to help achieve
optimal control of iron overload in these patient populations. In recognition of the quality
of his research and his dedication to find new treatments to improve the thalassemic
patients’ quality of life, Prof. Taher’s research has received numerous grants. Prof.
Taher’s ultimate passion is mentoring and sharing his knowledge with the young
generation of physician scientists.