Jawad Fares: Difference between revisions

Lebanese physician-scientist

Jawad Youssef Fares (Arabic: جواد يوسف فارس; born 1991 in Madrid, Spain) is a Lebanese physician–scientist in neurosurgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University. He is known for his work in translational neuro-oncology, particularly in developing therapeutic and molecular approaches for brain tumors.

Fares was born in 1991 in Madrid, Spain, and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. ^[2] He completed a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) at the American University of Beirut, and a Master of Science in Neuropsychology from the Lebanese University. ^[3]
In 2018, Fares relocated to the United States, where he pursued a postgraduate program in Cancer Biology and Therapeutics at Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in brain tumor biology and gene therapy at Northwestern University in the laboratory of Maciej Lesniak, before continuing his neurosurgery training at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. ^[4]

Fares’s research primarily focuses on neuro-oncology, molecular biology, and translational medicine, following earlier contributions to the study of injury and health outcomes in conflict settings.

Fares’s research in neuro-oncology bridges molecular discovery with translational and clinical investigation to advance therapies for gliomas and brain metastasis. He has been part of multidisciplinary efforts to redefine brain metastasis as a primary disease of the central nervous system, emphasizing the molecular divergence of intracranial metastases from their systemic counterparts and the therapeutic implications of that distinction.^[5] His work, published in The Lancet Oncology, proposed a new conceptual framework for studying and treating brain metastases as distinct entities within oncology.^[6]

At Northwestern University, Fares has contributed to the first-in-human gene therapy trial using neural-stem-cell–based delivery of an oncolytic adenovirus for malignant glioma, a milestone study demonstrating the safety and biological activity of targeted viral therapy within the human brain.^[7] His translational work also encompasses biomarker-guided drug repurposing and small-molecule therapeutics, including studies identifying metixene as a potential treatment for metastatic cancers such as breast, lung, and melanoma, as well as their brain metastases, through modulation of the NDRG1 pathway and induction of incomplete autophagy.^[8]

Earlier in his career, Fares studied the medical and psychological consequences of armed conflict, focusing on civilian injuries caused by cluster munitions in Lebanon.^[9] He analyzed trauma patterns, amputations, and long-term functional outcomes among survivors, and developed the Fares Scale of Injuries due to Cluster Munitions to classify injury severity and distribution.^[2] His work provided one of the first comprehensive assessments of the public health impact of cluster munitions and helped advance the study of health outcomes in populations affected by war.

• Fares, J.; Ahmed, A. U.; Ulasov, I. V.; Sonabend, A. M.; Miska, J.; Lee-Chang, C.; Balyasnikova, I. V.; Chandler, J. P.; Portnow, J.; Tate, M. C.; Kumthekar, P.; Lukas, R. V.; Grimm, S. A.; Adams, A. K.; Hébert, C. D.; Strong, T. V.; Amidei, C.; Arrieta, V. A.; Zannikou, M.; Horbinski, C.; Zhang, H.; Burdett, K. B.; Curiel, D. T.; Sachdev, S.; Aboody, K. S.; Stupp, R.; Lesniak, M. S. (August 2021). “Neural stem cell delivery of an oncolytic adenovirus in newly diagnosed malignant glioma: a first-in-human, phase 1, dose-escalation trial”. The Lancet Oncology. 22 (8). Elsevier: 1103–1114. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00245-X. PMC 8328944. PMID 34214495.

• Fares, J.; Petrosyan, E.; Dmello, C.; Lukas, R. V.; Stupp, R.; Lesniak, M. S. (February 2025). “Rethinking metastatic brain cancer as a CNS disease”. The Lancet Oncology. 26 (2). Elsevier: e111–e121. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(24)00430-3. PMID 39914421.

• Fares, J.; Petrosyan, E.; Kanojia, D.; Dmello, C.; Cordero, A.; Duffy, J. T.; Yeeravalli, R.; Sahani, M. H.; Zhang, P.; Rashidi, A.; Arrieta, V. A.; Ulasov, I.; Ahmed, A. U.; Miska, J.; Balyasnikova, I. V.; James, C. D.; Sonabend, A. M.; Heimberger, A. B.; Lesniak, M. S. (December 15, 2023). “Metixene is an incomplete autophagy inducer in preclinical models of metastatic cancer and brain metastases”. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 133 (24). American Society for Clinical Investigation. doi:10.1172/JCI161142. PMC 10721147. PMID 37847564.