About me
Alaa Ali, MD, MSC, is a clinician, instructor, and investigator in clinical and translational research at MedStar Georgetown’s Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy program. Concurrrently, he holds the position of Assistant Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Upon graduating from Syria’s University of Damascus School of Medicine in 2010, Dr. Ali relocated to the United States to accept a research fellowship in breast cancer at Tulane University. He then fulfilled his residency requirement at the Saint Joseph Hospital/University of Illinois while simultaneously receiving a Master’s degree in Translational Research from Northwestern University. From 2015 to 2018, Dr. Ali was at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was an instructor in hospital medicine, a clinician specializing in leukemia/bone marrow transplantation, and then a postdoctoral fellow. Subsequently, he completed a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at the Ohio State University before joining the staff at MedStar Georgetown.
Board-certified in internal medicine, Dr. Ali is also an active researcher with many publications in such peer-reviewed journals as Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (the journal of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy), Bone Marrow Transplantation, British Journal of Haematology, American Journal of Hematology, Blood Reviews, Annals of Hematology, Hematological Oncology, Cancer Medicine and more. He is also the author of several textbook chapters and is a reviewer for Bone Marrow Transplantation and Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
Dr. Ali is a member of the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
Dr. Ali’s philosophy of care:
“The patients I see are critically ill, with complicated blood diseases and disorders. I am committed to offering them the very best care options available today, and to improving the care of tomorrow through research into potential therapies and cures for leukemia and other often-fatal diseases.”
Clinical trials
Click here for clinical trials.
About MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute
MedStar Georgetown is part of the MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute, which combines medical expertise, the latest therapies, and research across MedStar Health. Our research engine, the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the Washington, D.C., region. This partnership means we provide access to cutting-edge clinical trials and the latest breakthroughs in cancer care.
Clinical areas of focus
- Cancer Immunotherapy
Conditions and procedures
Conditions I treat
- Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
- Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)
- Adult T Cell Lymphoma
- Alk Translocation
- Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm
- Burkitt Lymphoma
- Chronic Eosinophilic Leukemia
- Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
- Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia
- Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia
- Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia
- CNS Lymphoma
- Epstein-Barr Virus Positive Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma
- Graft Versus Host Disease
- Granulocytic Sarcoma
- Hematologic Malignancies
- Hodgkin Lymphoma
- Leukemia
- Lymphoma
- Marginal Zone Lymphoma
- Multiple Myeloma
- Myelodysplastic Syndrome
- Myeloproliferative Diseases
- Non Hodgkin Lymphoma
- Peripheral T Cell Lymphoma
- Plasma Cell Dyscrasia
- Plasma Cell Leukemia Pcl
- Post Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder
- Primary Myelofibrosis
- Systemic Mastocytosis
- T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Procedures I perform
- Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant
- Autologous Bone Marrow Transplant
- Bone Marrow Biopsy
- Cancer Immunotherapy
- Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy
- Hematopoietic Bone Marrow Transplant
- Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant
- Stem Cell Harvest
- Stem Cell Transplant For Myelodysplastic Syndrome
Practice locations
Distance from Change LocationEnter your Location
3800 Reservoir Road Northwest Building 2 Washington, DC, 20007
miles away
Videos
Education
Board Certification: American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine
Board Certification: American Board of Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology
Fellowship Program: Ohio State University Medical Center (2021)
Graduate Education: Northwestern University (2015)
Residency Program: AMITA Health Saint Joseph Hospital Chicago (2015)
Medical School: University of Damascus (2010)
Hospital affiliations
News and publications
Patient story: Reclaiming an Active Lifestyle After CAR T-cell Therapy Successfully Treats Lymphoma.
Ali A and DiPersio JF (2024) ReCARving the future: bridging CAR T-cell therapy gaps with synthetic biology, engineering,and economic insights. Front. Immunol. 15:1432799. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1432799
Ali A, Zhang Y, DiPersio J. The invisible hand: How epigenetics shapes CAR T cell destiny. Mol Ther: Journal of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy. 2024. Cell Press. PMID: 38761798.
Michael Cook, Scott Dorris, Kepher Makambi, Yutong Luo, Pashna Munshi, Michele Donato, Scott Rowley, Ayman Saad, Andre Goy, Kieron Dunleavy, Alaa Ali. Toxicity and Efficacy of CAR T-cell Therapy in PCNS and SCNSL: A Meta-Analysis of 128 Patients. Blood Advances. 2022
Alaa Ali, Andre Goy, Kieron Dunleavy. CAR T-cell Therapy in Highly-Aggressive B-Cell Lymphoma: Emerging Biological and Clinical Insights. Blood. 2022
Ali AM, Julia Cooper, Alison Walker, Daniel Jones, Ayman Saad. Adult-onset acute myeloid leukaemia in a patient with germline mutation of CBL. British Journal of Hematology. 2021
Ali AM, Weisel D, Gao F, Uy GL, Cashen AF, Jacoby MA, Wartman LD, Ghobadi A, Pusic I, Romee R, Fehniger TA, Stockerl-Goldstein KE, Vij R, Oh ST, Abboud CN, Schroeder MA, Westervelt P, DiPersio JF, Welch JS. Patterns of infectious complications in acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes patients treated with 10-day decitabine regimen. Cancer Medicine. 2017;6(12):2814-2821. PMID 29058375.
Rashidi A*, Ali AM*, Vij KR, Shanley R, Romee R, Cooley SA, Westervelt P, DiPersio JF, Miller JS, Weisdorf DJ, Ustun C. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in morphologic leukemia-free aplastic state. American Journal of Hematology. 2017;92(9):E549-e552. PMID 28568483. *Shared first authorship.
Ali AM, Jacoby M, Romee R. Virescent tongue. Annals of Hematology. 2017;96(5):883-884. PMID 28243694.
Ali AM, DiPersio JF, Schroeder MA. A proposed biology- and biomarker-based algorithm for management of acute GvHD. Bone Marrow Transplantation. 2017;52(2):337-340. PMID 27869807.
Ali AM, Rashidi A, DiPersio JF. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting with hypereosinophilia: Case report and review of the literature. Blood Cells, Molecules & Diseases. 2017;65:97-100. PMID 27634176.
Ali AM, Dehdashti F, DiPersio JF, Cashen AF. Radioimmunotherapy-based conditioning for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Another step forward. Blood Reviews. 2016;30(5):389-399. PMID 27174151.
Ali AM, DiPersio JF, Schroeder MA. The Role of Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Risk Stratification of Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease: A Systematic Review. Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation: Journal of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. 2016;22(9):1552-1564. PMID 27158050.
Ali AM, Mirrakhimov AE, Abboud CN, Cashen AF. Leukostasis in adult acute hyperleukocytic leukemia: a clinician's digest. Hematological Oncology. 2016;34(2):69-78. PMID 27018197.
Ali AM, Jacoby M, Welch JS. Hand-foot syndrome following decitabine. Annals of Hematology. 2016;95(3):535-536. PMID 26542147.
Anbalagan M, Ali A, Jones RK, Marsden CG, Sheng M, Carrier L, Bu Y, Hangauer D, Rowan BG. Peptidomimetic Src/pretubulin inhibitor KX-01 alone and in combination with paclitaxel suppresses growth, metastasis in human ER/PR/HER2-negative tumor xenografts. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. 2012;11(9):1936-1947. PMID 22784709.
Anbalagan M, Moroz K, Ali A, Carrier L, Glodowski S, Rowan BG. Subcellular localization of total and activated Src kinase in African American and Caucasian breast cancer. PloS one. 2012;7(3):e33017. PMID 22457730.