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I’m the first person in my family to become a doctor, and I love being a physician because I enjoy interacting with people. As a resident, I looked after people who had blood cancer and other blood disorders, and I decided to pursue this as a specialty because I liked getting to know patients over time. It was gratifying to see how people’s lives changed for the better because of the care we provided.

At �ٺ���Ƶ’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, I serve as director of the Center for Blood Cancers, leading efforts to enhance our clinical and translational research programs for blood cancers. I also serve as director of the Clinical Myeloma Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center, where I treat patients who have blood cancer, particularly multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that originates in bone marrow plasma cells and can affect the bones, kidneys, and blood. 

I see people who are newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma as well as those who have relapsed disease, or have the related conditions such as smoldering myeloma, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), and amyloidosis.

When a patient comes to me for care, I develop an individual treatment plan by learning everything I can about the person, including examining his or her symptoms and conducting a laboratory analysis of the myeloma cells. I believe that it’s important to craft a good roadmap and apply laboratory-based research to patient care. I treat every person as unique, and at each point in the journey, I assess whether we are on the right path or if we need to adjust the treatment plan.

My research focuses on the biology and treatment of myeloma and related conditions. Throughout my career, I have worked to examine potential new drugs and genetic technologies that can be used to treat myeloma more effectively. With clinical trials, I hope to explore new ways to diagnose and treat these conditions—I am keen to do away with invasive bone marrow diagnostic tests and replace them with blood tests or imaging.

I have published more than 350 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, and I’m an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Hematology. I am passionate about patient education and advocacy, and speak regularly at international meetings.