Dr. Chehab is a Professor in Laboratory Medicine. He earned his PhD in Basic Medical Sciences at the American University of Beirut and trained at UCSF with Y.W. Kan, MD, working on the molecular genetics of the thalassemia syndromes. After a two-year stint to industry at Applied Biosystems and Cetus Corporation, he joined the UCSF faculty in February 1990 to set up and run the clinical molecular diagnostics (MDx) laboratory in the Department of Laboratory Medicine. As one of the few academic MDx laboratories in the US at that time, the UCSF MDx lab quickly gained popularity by attracting specimens from the local, regional and international medical centers. The MDx lab has grown over the years as a successful clinical service for genetics and somatic disorders and as a teaching ground for residents and fellows enrolled in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology training programs.

Dr. Chehab is a member of the UCSF Institute of Human Genetics and the Diabetes Center. His basic science research activities extend from uncovering the role of leptin in the initiation of reproductive function to the regulation and modulation of enzymatic steps in the late steps of cholesterol biosynthesis. His most recent endeavors are aimed at using critical CpG sites in the MGMT promoter to develop new treatment modalities for glioblastoma using CRISPR/Cas9 based-strategies.

A list of Dr. Chehab’s published work can be found here