Omar Abdel-Wahab

Omar Abdel-Wahab has made seminal discoveries elucidating how recurrent mutations in RNA splicing factors drive myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia, revealing that SF3B1, U2AF1, SRSF2, and ZRSR2 mutations alter splicing in distinct, non-overlapping ways. His work demonstrated that these spliceosome mutations are early clonal events in myeloid malignancies and identified the specific mis-spliced transcripts that contribute to disease pathogenesis. He has been instrumental in developing therapeutic strategies targeting the mutant spliceosome. His research has fundamentally changed understanding of RNA processing defects as cancer drivers.