As President of Academic & External Affairs and Chief Scientific Officer, Daniel Simon, MD leads the system’s strategy and performance across the spectrum of research including basic, translational, clinical and health services/outcomes. He also oversees UH’s graduate medical education and has primary responsibility for academic affiliations, including with Case Western Reserve University, Oxford University, NEOMED and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He is charged with elevating the system’s performance in medical education and discovery to the highest levels and driving strategic philanthropy. Additionally, Dr. Simon oversees the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals -- part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development and has executive leadership responsibility for the Office of Community Impact, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Daniel Simon, MD, is a practicing cardiologist and continues to play a leading role in national and international clinical trials investigating new devices and anti-thrombotic drugs. A recipient of numerous research awards, Dr. Simon was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of University Cardiologists, and the Association of American Physicians. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed basic science and clinical journals.

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Grace McComsey, MD, is an internationally known researcher in the field of HIV. She is the author of over 250 peer-reviewed publications in the area of metabolic and cardiovascular complications of HIV infection and its treatment. Dr. McComsey has served as principal investigator on more than 15 grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH), in addition to several Foundation and Industry grants. She is currently serving as principal investigator on four NIH grants, focused around understanding the heightened inflammation and immune activation and its effect on metabolic and cardiovascular comorbidities in adults and children living with HIV.Dr. McComsey has received several awards as the result of her research, including a Research Award from the HIV Medical Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America recognizing her work in HIV metabolic complications and the YWCA Women of Professional Excellence Award. Dr. McComsey has earned recognition by her peers and regularly voted among the Best Doctors in America and Best Doctors in Cleveland. Additionally she has repeatedly been named one of America’s Top Physicians and among the Exceptional Women in Medicine.

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Jignesh Dalal, MD is Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University and Director of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant & Cellular therapies at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. His research interest include cellular therapies for hemoglobinopathies(Sickle Cell disease and Thalassemia), and outcome research and management of complex genetic disorders with cellular therapies. He has received faculty teaching awards numerous times for teaching and mentoring. He is serving as Associate Editor and Editorial Member for Frontiers in Oncology, Pediatric Blood & Cancer. He is Principal Investigator for Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium and North American Immuno-Hematology Clinical Education and Research Consortium.

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Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, is among an elite group of physician scientists whose work has helped transform global perceptions of the impact of the environment on cardiovascular health. He is passionate about technology innovation in cardiovascular medicine for the development of personalized approaches to heart disease prevention.

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Rose Gubitosi-Klug, MD, PhD, clinical and laboratory research focuses on the development, progression, and pathogenesis of the complications of diabetes, with the hopes of preventing these complications in her young patients. She is principal investigator of the Clinical Coordinating Center of the NIDDK-funded Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Control Study (EDIC), the follow-up study to the landmark Diabetes Control and Complications Trial.

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Dr. Pan is the Deputy Director of Research and Dr. Lester E. Coleman, Jr. Chair in Cancer Research & Therapeutics for the University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. In addition, he is Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at CWRU School and Medicine and Co-Leader of Molecular Oncology Program at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. In his role as Deputy Director of Research, Dr. Pan focuses on advancing our research efforts at UH Seidman. In addition to maintaining his own vibrant research program in head and neck cancer, he will focus on developing a unifying research vision for our cancer center that spans basic, translational and clinical research. Dr. Pan will also co-lead an effort to grow the federal and non-federal research portfolio, help recruit and retain outstanding cancer researchers, help training students, residents, and fellows, and catalyze collaborative programmatic research efforts across UH Seidman. Dr. Pan comes to University Hospitals from The Ohio State University Medical Center where he was Professor and Vice Chair of Research of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery; Director, Head and Neck Oncology Research Program; and Co-Leader of the Translational Therapeutics Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a recognized leader in his field and has served on several high profile national posts including editorial board member of Cancer Research and a member of the National Cancer Institute Head and Neck Cancer Metastatic and Recurrent Disease Task Force from 2011-2017. Currently, he is Chair of the NIH/NIDCR Data and Safety Monitoring Board, Translational Science Co-Chair of EA2182, and invited extramural member of the NCI Head and Neck Cancer Think Tank to guide the NIH’s funding priorities for head and neck cancer for the next decade.

Reine Abou Zeidane received the M.D. degree from the School of Medicine, Lebanese University in Lebanon in 2022. She then completed a research Fellowship in clinical oncology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, after which she joined the Speers Lab at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2023 as a research fellow.
In her current position, Reine is working under the mentorship of Dr. Corey Speers to study the mechanisms of treatment resistance in aggressive breast cancer and investigate the role of radiosensitization and genomic biomarkers in optimizing breast cancer treatment.

Amitabh Chak, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Oncology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Brenda and Marshall B Brown Master Clinician in Innovation and Discovery at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. His research interests include genetics of Barrett’s esophagus and its translational applications, endoscopic management of pancreaticobiliary disease, and EUS. Dr. Chak is the former Director of Endoscopy and is currently the Director of Clinical Research in the Division and the Program Director of the Michael V. Sivak, Jr, Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship. He has received the Department of Medicine Educator Award, Best Research Mentor Award, Master Clinician Educator Award, and the Distinguished Clinical Physician Award. Dr. Chak has served as Senior and Associate Editor for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (GIE) for nine years and has also served on numerous committees of the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), chaired the Continuing Medical Education and the GIE Editorial Board committees, served on the ASGE Governing Board, and is a current member of the ASGE Foundation.

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Kenneth Remy, MD, is an international expert in adult and pediatric sepsis, COVID disease, and global health. As an adult and pediatric critical care physician, his laboratory is focused on two areas: heme-based trafficking and signaling in immune dysregulation in context of diseases of intravascular hemolysis (COVID, sepsis, malaria, sickle cell disease, thalassemia) and after red blood cell transfusion; and real time immunophenotyping of pro and hypoinflammatory states to identify timing for immunoadjuvant therapies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Remy has cared for over two thousand patients in the adult and pediatric ICU while pivoting his laboratory activities to understanding the evolution of the disease in both a hematologic and immune functional approach. Dr. Remy in collaboration with Dr. Richard Hotchkiss were among the first in world to demonstrate a covid-19 immunosuppressive phenotype demonstrating significant T cell exhaustion in patients with critical illness.

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