Irum Khan, MD

Dr. Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine. Her research is focused on translation studies in myeloid malignancies. She focuses on identifying therapeutic targets in myeloid leukemias and conducts preclinical studies with therapies using patient samples and animal models of leukemia. As a junior faculty member in the section of hematology/oncology, her role is that of a clinical researcher in myeloid malignancies. Dr. Khan’s clinical niche at UIC is the care of patients with acute and chronic myeloid malignancies including leukemia, myeloproliferative, and myelodysplastic disorders. She is the principal investigator on a number of clinical trials in myeloid malignancies at UIC. During her fellowship, she was one of 20 fellows selected to participate in a year-long Translational Research Training in Hematology (TRTH) program sponsored by the American and European Hematology Societies. Her project was the validation of AKT as a novel target in myelofibrosis. As junior faculty, she obtained pilot cancer center and KL2 training awards that have allowed her to gain expertise in developing animal models of myeloid diseases and studying novel therapeutics. She is the principal investigator of the Hematology Cell Bank at UIC where they have banked over 100 patients with hematologic diseases including a significant percentage of minority populations, allowing her access to samples needed to test novel targets. She is also funded by Takeda pharmaceuticals for a project validating FOXM1 as a target of one of their novel drugs. Her long-term interest lies in the development and application of targeted agents for the therapy of myeloid disorders. She is currently working in the laboratory on elucidating the role of a member of the forkhead family of transcription factors ‘FOXM1’ in AML.