Azra Raza

Azra Raza is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center at Columbia University. She has previously held positions at Rush University, and the University of Massachusetts. Raza’s research focuses on myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia.

Early life

Raza was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan.^[1] As a child she became interested in biology as well as Darwinian evolution studies. After secondary school, Raza enrolled in Medical School in order to pursue her interest in the biological sciences^[2] at Dow Medical College.^[1]

Academic and research positions

Following medical school, Raza held a Residency in Baltimore-Washington area, and then studied the biology and pathology of myeloid malignancies at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute as a fellow. This was followed by a Faculty position that Raza held for six years. Raza became a Full Professor at the age of 39 at Rush University in Chicago, and eventually the Charles Arthur Weaver Professor of Cancer Research. At the Rush University of Chicago Medical Department Raza became the first Director of the Division of Myeloid Diseases. In 2004 she became the Director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Massachusetts, and then the Gladys Smith Martin Chair in Oncology. She also served as the Director of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center at St. Vincent’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Raza was subsequently appointed as a Professor of Medicine and Director of Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center at Columbia University.^[2][1] She has also lectured in her home country of Pakistan on invitation from institutions including the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation.^[3][4]

Research

Early in her career, Raza defined the Cell Cycle Kinetics of Myeloid leukemia cells in vivo in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia by studying cellular proliferation in patients. Her studies hypothesized that low blood counts in myelodysplastic syndromes were not a result of bone marrow failure, but instead a hyper-proliferative state in the marrow tissue matched by an excessive death of hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow by apoptosis.^[2]

Raza has developed a tissue bank of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia that contains several thousand specimens of patient tissue for her research. She has used these samples regularly to understand the relationship of specific genetic mutations with survival and to identify the best treatment programs for individual patients through genetic profiling.^[1] In 2014 Raza entered a research partnership with the company Cancer Genetics, in order to “to identify more accurate diagnostic and prognostic markers for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), as well as novel therapies to target this class of bone marrow cancers.”^[5] Her research into acute myeloid leukemia has shown that a mutation in bone-building osteoclast cells could be one of the causes of the leukemia they develop.^[6]

Raza has also used genomic technology as well as RNA Sequencing and global methylation studies to further research the pathology of myelodysplastic syndrome. She has described her personal philosophy as that of Humanism.^[2] She has been involved in President Barack Obama’s “cancer moonshot” program, and has commented on its effectiveness in the American media, consulting directly with Vice President Joe Biden.^[7][8] She has been called “a world authority on myelodysplastic diseases.”^[9]

Publications and speaking

In 2009 Raza co-authored the book Ghalib: Epistemologies of Elegance with Sara Suleri Goodyear, a study of the work of the Urdu poet Ghalib. The book also contains English versions of Ghalib’s Ghazals that were translated by Raza and Goodyear.^[10] She has also been involved in the interaction between New York literary circles and artists visiting from her native Pakistan,^[11] such as moderating sessions at events like the Lahore Literary Festival's 2016 edition in New York.^[12]

In 2001 she co-authored the book Myelodysplastic Syndromes & Secondary Acute Myelogenous Leukemia: Directions for the New Millennium.^[13] As a researcher, Raza has published in journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Blood, Cancer, Cancer Research, British Journal of Haematology, Leukemia, and Leukemia Research.^[14] Raza is also a contributor to The MDS Beacon^[15] and The Guardian newspaper.^[16] In addition to her lectures, she has provided speeches to conferences such as the TEDx New York.^[17] Raza is also an editor for the website 3 Quarks Daily.^[18] In 2016 Raza's work with Siddhartha Mukherjee in the use of genetically personalized cancer treatment in the New York Times Magazine.^[19]

Recognition

In 2012 Raza was a Hope Funds for Cancer Research honoree.^[20] Raza received the Distinguished Services in the Field of Research and Clinical Medicine award from her alma mater Dow Medical College in Karachi in 2014.^[21] She is the namesake of the Dr. Azra Raza scholarship award at her secondary school alma mater Islamabad Model College for Girls F-7/2.^[22][23]

Personal life

Raza was married to leukemia researcher and physician Harvey D. Preisler until his death in 2002. The two of them had one daughter together, Sheherzad Raza Preisler.^[24]

References