Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut MD

Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut, MD, is the Ruth Dunietz Kushner and Michael Jay Serwitz professor and System chair of Neurology at Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and New Jersey Medical School. In addition, he directs the Rutgers Center for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and is the immediate past-President of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ACTRIMS).

After graduating medical school Alpha Omega Alpha from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and completing neurology training at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Dhib-Jalbut joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he specialized in Neuroimmunology. He then launched his career as a physician-scientist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he rose through the academic ranks before his recruitment in 2003 to chair the Department of Neurology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. In 2015, he was appointed joint chair of Neurology for both medical schools at Rutgers. Under his leadership, academic Neurology grew significantly on both campuses with a robust clinical and translational research program.

Dr. Dhib-Jalbut has made seminal contributions to the field of neuroimmunology and neurovirology that have led to our understanding the immunopathogenesis of serious neurologic diseases and developing therapies for MS. Early in his career, he discovered novel mechanisms that underlie virus persistence in the brain that explained a chronic fatal sequalae of measles infection known as Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis. He also described for the first time a paralyzing neurologic disorder caused by the retrovirus HTLV-II. He subsequently pioneered studies designed to deliver therapeutics to the brain in MS models using engineered stem cells as vehicles. In addition, he played a pivotal role in a number of clinical trials that led to the FDA approval of the first drugs for the treatment of MS. He was also among the earliest investigators to discover the immunological pathways that underlie the mechanisms of action of these drugs in MS. His current research is focused on identifying biomarkers and predictors of clinical response to MS therapies and the role of the gut microbiome in triggering MS. His research has been funded over the years by the NIH, the Veteran’s Administration, the National MS Society, and the pharmaceutical industry.

As an internationally recognized expert in the clinical and scientific aspects of MS, he has held a number of leadership positions. As president of ACTRIMS, he chaired the International MS meeting in Boston in 2014. He currently serves as associate editor of the Multiple Sclerosis journal and previously held the same position for the Journal of Neuroimmunology. He has served on study sections and data safety monitoring boards for the NIH, MS Society and other national and international agencies. He is an elected fellow of the American Neurological Association. He has been on the Best Doctors in America list since 2009 and has been recognized by several awards including the Norman H. Edelman Clinical Science Mentoring Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the Medical Excellence Award from the National MS Society, the Edward J. Ill Award for Excellence in clinical research, and the Excellence in Research Award from the New Jersey Health Foundation.