Jelani Zarif

JELANI CHINELO ZARIF, Ph.D., M.S., is an Assistant Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Zarif is also a member of the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. The Zarif laboratory studies molecular mechanisms by immune cells within the tumor microenvironment that ultimately promote tumor growth, therapeutic resistance, and metastasis. The Zarif laboratory also focuses on discovering and investigating new biomarkers that may be expressed on myeloid cells known as macrophages that could predict clinical response to standard of care treatments for prostate cancer.

A Chicago native, Dr. Zarif obtained both his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Jackson State University and then earned his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University.  He then completed two post-doctoral fellowships at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has been the recipient of several research awards, including the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Young Investigator award, The Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund, Department of Defense Translational Research award and the NCI K22 Career Transition award.