- Jonathan E. Rhoads Professor of Surgical Science II, Department of Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Ali Naji is the J. William White Professor of Surgical Research in the Department of Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Director of the JDRF-Penn Islet Transplantation Program. He received his MD from Shiraz University and his PhD in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania, completing surgical training at Penn before joining the faculty.
Dr. Naji’s research has focused for decades on the immunobiology of type 1 diabetes and transplantation tolerance, with particular emphasis on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern destruction and survival of pancreatic islet beta cells. He serves as Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP), a multi-institutional resource that has transformed how the autoimmune islet microenvironment is studied through deep, multi-modal characterization of pancreas tissue from donors with and without diabetes.
An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a leader of Penn’s clinical islet transplantation program, Dr. Naji has trained generations of transplant immunologists and serves as a senior advisor to the Penn Institute for Immunology and Immune Health and the Penn Colton Center, where his work anchors collaborative efforts in immune tolerance and beta-cell preservation.<
