New Faculty Announcement: Dr. Kareem Azab, Furino Chair in Bioengineering
The Department of Bioengineering is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Kareem Azab as an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and the Furino Chair in Bioengineering. Currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Texas, Dr. Azab will join McGill University in January 2027.
The Salvatore Furino Chair in Bioengineering was established through a generous gift from Joanne Furino. Salvatore Furino, a graduate of McGill’s Civil Engineering department, was a co-owner and senior partner of the leading civil infrastructure construction company H. J. O’Connell Ltd. The Furino family established the endowment to honor Salvatore’s legacy and support cancer research.
Dr. Azab is a Rising Star Scholar of Cancer Research from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Victor J. Dzau Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholar of the National Academy of Medicine. His research centers on developing innovative bioengineering approaches to understand cancer biology, and translating these discoveries into new therapeutic strategies, with a strong emphasis on nanomedicine, drug delivery, and gene delivery. His laboratory integrates tumor microenvironment biology, tissue engineering, nanotechnology, nanomedicine, and immunoengineering, with a particular focus on developing engineered delivery systems for multiple myeloma and other hematologic and solid tumors.
A central theme of Dr. Azab’s research is the design of targeted nanomedicines and advanced drug- and gene-delivery platforms that can selectively transport therapeutic agents, nucleic acids, and gene-modulating payloads to tumors and their microenvironment. His laboratory develops nanoparticles and other engineered delivery systems to improve therapeutic stability, biodistribution, cellular uptake, and controlled release while minimizing off-target toxicity. These approaches are combined with tissue-engineered and microphysiological tumor models that better recapitulate human disease and enable more predictive evaluation of drug and gene-delivery strategies, therapeutic resistance, and precision medicine. In parallel, he engineers delivery platforms that reprogram the tumor microenvironment and enhance anti-tumor immunity.
At McGill, Dr. Azab plans to integrate these multidisciplinary concepts into undergraduate and graduate education, connecting fundamental principles of bioengineering, nanotechnology, drug delivery, and gene delivery with real-world challenges in cancer research and therapeutic development. A major emphasis will be on translational thinking—teaching students not only how to engineer new delivery technologies, but also how to optimize their performance and move them from the laboratory toward meaningful clinical applications.