Bana Jabri MD, PhD

Professor Bana Jabri is a world-renowned paediatrician and immunologist specialising in the study of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. A French-Syrian-Armenian medical professor trained in France, she began her career at the Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades in Paris.

She later joined the University of Chicago, where she became a full professor in 2005 and was awarded the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Chair of Immunology and Medicine in 2018. In Chicago, she successively directed the centres for digestive diseases, coeliac diseases and human immunology. Her groundbreaking work in mucosal immunity and celiac disease has won her numerous awards. Recognised for her scientific excellence, Bana Jabri is returning to the paediatric campus that she knows so well and will become Director of Institut Imagine on 1 January 2025 for a 5-year term.

Throughout her career in the United States, she has maintained collaborations with French institutions, in particular the Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades (AP-HP), fostering international scientific exchanges. Bana Jabri has received several scientific awards, including the William K. Warren, Jr. Prize (2009) for excellence in celiac disease research and the Lloyd Mayer Prize (2017) in mucosal immunology. In addition, she was elected a Fellow of the Association of American Physicians in recognition of her outstanding contributions to medicine.

Alongside her research activities, Bana Jabri is actively involved in training the next generation of researchers, supervising PhD students and postdoctoral fellows and directing educational programmes in immunology at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Through her commitment to teaching, she has helped to shape the curriculum and inspire many students and young researchers. For her excellence in education, she has been honoured with the Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award.