Speakers info

Miguel R. Abboud, MD

Professor and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, American University of Beirut - Medical Center, Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon, Beirut, Lebanon 

Earned  his medical degree at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon in 1982. In 1984, he completed his residency in the Department of Pediatrics, also at the American University of Beirut. He was a Fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The New York Hospital , Cornell University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA. Starting as an Assistant Professor in 1989, he was appointed Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston in 2001. At MUSC, Dr. Abboud’s research focused on sickle cell disease. He authored a number of studies on this disease and was an original member of the steering committees for the STOP I and STOP II trials. He also worked extensively on the pathophysiology of the disease and the development of new modalities of therapy such as hematopoietic stem cell transplant. 

In August 2002, he was appointed the first Medical Director of the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL) at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon and Professor of Pediatrics at AUB. He established highly visible and successful bone marrow transplant, limb salvage surgery, and sickle cell disease programs as well as an acute lymphoblastic leukemia protocol. The sickle cell program at AUBMC has grown and now provides comprehensive service to over 350 children and adolescents with this disease. The program research focuses now on pulmonary hypertension, vasculopathy, and pain in sickle cell disease. In February 2011, he was appointed as Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at AUBMC. He was offered tenured appointment as Professor of Pediatrics at AUB in July 2018.

 Dr Abboud was appointed to the Medical and Research Advisory Committe (MARAC) of the SCD Association of America in May 2019. He is also the past chair of the Red Cell Biology Scientific Committee of the American Society of Hematology. He is a consultant on multiple Sickle Cell Disease multicenter clinical trials and has over 190 publications in the field.