Mohammad Haris, PhD

Dr. Haris received his bachelor’s degree in life sciences with major in Chemistry, and later completed his master in Biochemistry. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Imaging from Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India in 2007. Afterwards, he did his postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Radiology at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, and subsequently he became research scientist in the same department. During his tenure at Penn, he developed various novel MR imaging methods to image metabolites in vivo with potential applications in cancer, cardiovascular disorders, and neurological & neurodegenerative diseases. He was the first to develop an MR method for imaging cellular energetics by targeting creatine recovery kinetics using CEST MRI. Dr. Haris joined the research department at Sidra Medicine as a Principal Investigator in October 2013. Also, he holds an Adjunct Professor appointment at Qatar University.

The group focuses on developing and optimizing novel noninvasive MRI methods for diagnosing and studying physiological and functional aberrations in various human pathologies, ranging from cancer to neurological disorders. At Sidra, Dr. Haris and his lab members are venturing into new areas, such as developing new contrast methods in MRI, and methods for monitoring response to cancer immunotherapy in vivo. Dr. Haris and his team are also focusing on neuroimaging-genetics approach to identify new biomarkers for the early diagnosis of neurological disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), by integrating the multimodal brain imaging with genomic data. Dr. Haris’s lab is dedicated to serve as a center of excellence in imaging science and technology through intensive interactions with academia, industry, and other laboratories in Qatar and abroad.

Ajaz A Bhat, PhD