Paul J. Shami, MD
Professor of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine
Paul Shami is a professor of medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Utah and a member and clinical investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). He is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology.
Shami was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. He attended the American University of Beirut where he obtained a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Chemistry in 1984. He was then accepted at the American University of Beirut School of Medicine where he obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1988. Shami then came to the United States for his residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. While at Duke he trained in the laboratory of Dr. J. Brice Weinberg, a leader in the field of nitric oxide biology. After 3 years as a member of the Duke faculty, he was recruited in 1997 to the University of Utah School of Medicine. He initially established his research lab at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center where he was Chief of Hematology/Oncology between 2002 and 2005. In 2004 his lab was moved to the University of Utah. He now sees patients exclusively at HCI.
In his research capacity, Shami oversees the leukemia program at HCI where he has established the most comprehensive leukemia clinical trials program in the Intermountain West. Because of his expertise and national recognition in the treatment of blood cancers he sits on the Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome panels of the National Cancer Center Network. NCCN panels develop guidelines that are followed nationally and internationally for the treatment of cancer.
Shami's research efforts focus on the development of new therapies for cancer. In collaboration with a team of chemists (led by Dr. Larry Keefer) at the National Cancer Institute, he has developed a new class of drugs that deliver nitric oxide to cancer cells in a targeted fashion. To lead this effort, he founded JSK Therapeutics Inc. (JSKT), a Utah-based biotech start-up company. Shami has received multiple grants and significant support from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the National Cancer Institute.
