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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.
Commenting on this appointment, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Professor Arnold Munnich, said: ‘A brilliant researcher and doctor, Bana Jabri will be able to use her international experience to guide the Institute along the path of progress. At the head of the Imagine Institute, she will be able to work towards broadening our understanding of genetic diseases and improving the treatments available, in line with her fundamental and translational research activities’.
The appointment of Prof. Bana Jabri as director marks a new stage for this institute specialising in genetic diseases: ‘It's a huge honour for me to be taking over as director of the Imagine Institute. I'm very excited about the challenges ahead. We are on the eve of a new revolution in genetics, where we need to address the role of the 98% of our genome that do not code directly for proteins but have a regulatory role. My ambition is to make this IHU the international benchmark in the field of genetic diseases, to inspire new scientific vocations among my peers, and to invest in technological innovation and young people. I am convinced that further strengthening collaboration with academic, medical and industrial players will enable us to speed up therapeutic discoveries and train the next generation of scientists and researchers. ’
Prof. Bana Jabri wishes to focus her ambitions on these 4 areas of development:
- An openness to international and inter-institute collaboration, facilitated by its long-standing relationships with various partners around the world
- A focus on youth and diversity, to enrich the variety of approaches and increase the Institute's international appeal.
- Ethics and patients: the genetic revolution brings with it ethical issues ranging from pre-natal diagnosis to the development of gene therapies. The complexity and seriousness of diseases means that families and parents need to be involved in research and in therapeutic and diagnostic developments.
- A shift in the scientific paradigm to a global physiological approach to genetic diseases, because these diseases never affect a single organ, but the whole human organism.
Genetics makes it possible to implement an integrated and comprehensive approach, taking environmental factors into account. Combined with in-depth, holistic phenotyping of patients and technological innovations, this approach will revolutionise the care of patients suffering from rare genetic diseases.
‘Genetics is an essential interface between all medical disciplines,’ stresses Prof. Bana Jabri. ‘Medical researchers must invest as much time in research as they do in caring for their patients. Forging strong links with patients and their families is vital if we are to optimise the effectiveness and impact of our research. "
Prof. Bana Jabri succeeds Prof. Stanislas Lyonnet, whose term of office ended on 31 December 2024. She is the first woman to hold this position since its creation in 2007. Prof Lyonnet will remain an active member of the Institute's scientific community.
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BIOGRAPHY OF PROFESSOR BANA JABRI Professor Bana Jabri's academic career began in France, where she studied medicine and obtained a biochemistry degree from the University Paris-Diderot in 1988, followed by a postgraduate diploma (DEA) from the Pasteur Institute in 1989, and a doctorate in medicine in 1991. In 1996, she completed her training with a doctorate in immunology from the Université Paris-Diderot. Her professional career began in France in 1994, where she worked as clinical head in the paediatric gastroenterology department of the Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades and in the paediatric immunology department run by Prof. Claude Griscelli, the visionary founder of Institut Imagine.
In 2002, Bana Jabri joined the University of Chicago, where she became professor and holder of the Sarah and Harold Lincoln Thompson Chair of Immunology and Medicine. Her work in the United States focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating immunity in tissues and host-microbe interactions. Her research has had profound implications for understanding the pathogenesis of coeliac disease and, more generally, autoimmune and inflammatory bowel diseases.
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.
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