Dr. Parwiz Abrahimi MD PhD is a urologic oncologist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles California, where he cares for patients with bladder, kidney, prostate, adrenal and testicular cancers. He is dedicated to providing each patient with compassionate, individualized care while working to bring forward new treatments through cutting-edge pre-clinical translational and basic science research.

Dr. Abrahimi completed his Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E) in Bioengineering with honors from the University of Washington and completed his medical and scientific training through the Medical Scientist Training Program at Yale School of Medicine, graduating with both an MD and PhD in Immunobiology degrees with Honors. He completed urologic surgery residency and Society of Urologic Oncology fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine and postdoctoral research fellowship in immunology and cellular therapy at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is comprehensively trained in both open and minimally-invasive oncologic and benign surgieres, including MRI-targeted prostate biopsy, robotic transperitoneal and extraperitoneal radical prostatectomy, open and robotic partial and radical nephrectomy, robotic partial and radical cystectomy with urinary diversion, ureteral reconstruction, and endoscopic surgeries for both oncologic and benign indications. 

At Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Abrahimi leads a cancer therapeutics research laboratory focused on developing new immunotherapies, including engineered T cell treatments for bladder and prostate cancers. By uniting his clinical expertise as a surgeon with his research in immunology, his mission is to bring transformative discoveries from the laboratory directly to the patients who need them most. 

Maria T. Abreu, MD, is a physician-scientist and gastroenterologist who specializes in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). She received her medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine and completed a residency in medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She served as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (and head of their IBD Center), a Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Miami School of Medicine (and Director of the Crohn’s and Colitis Center), and currently is the Executive Director of the F. Widjaja IBD Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; in past years, she has served as the President of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the Chair of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IOIBD). Dr. Abreu has 30 years of leadership experience in basic, translational, and clinical research, and has authored almost 300 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and reviews. Her work has received multiple awards, including the 2019 Sherman Prize from the Bruce and Cynthia Sherman Charitable Foundation for outstanding achievements in IBD and Healio’s Lifetime Disruptor Award for addressing critical unmet needs in IBD. Her research focuses on interactions between the gut microbiome and the innate immune system in the development of IBD and IBD-associated colon cancer. Currently, Dr. Abreu’s team is investigating how diet may shape the gut microbiome and alleviate IBD symptoms. Understand the underlying mechanisms can help us develop targeted treatment strategies to help patients live their best lives.

Dr. Barham Abu Dayyeh serves as the Executive Director and Associate Dean for Innovation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In this role, he leads strategic initiatives in interventional gastroenterology, with a focus on the integration of advanced technologies to elevate the standard of patient care. As Director of Interventional Gastroenterology and Director of System Integration in Advanced Endoscopy, he oversees the development of high-value service lines and the implementation of novel therapeutic platforms, including robotics and regenerative therapies for the minimally invasive management of complex gastrointestinal diseases.

Eynav Accortt, PhD, is the Director of the Reproductive Psychology Program in the Obstetrics & Gynecology Department, Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine. She is a clinical psychologist specializing in perinatal mental health and her clinical work focuses on psychotherapeutic interventions that help women navigate the reproductive journey. This can begin when individuals decide to become pregnant, if they struggle with infertility, experience grief and loss, have depression or anxiety in their pregnancy or postpartum or experience or experience birth trauma. Her team includes a postdoctoral fellow, licensed clinical social workers, predoctoral clinical psychology trainees and social work interns. Together, they offer patient navigation services, individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, and support groups and classes (listed here).

Her research focuses on mood and anxiety disorders during the female reproductive life course and in response to chronic illness. She studies the physiological processes that are associated with higher risk for depression and anxiety in pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, and following diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in women. She is also interested in the association between maternal mental health and adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes (like preeclampsia). Dr. Accortt is currently conducting ongoing, IRB-approved research studies: NIH funded - Resources, Inspiration, Support and Empowerment (R.I.S.E.) for Black Maternal Mental Health Study; the Winnick Family Foundation funded Family Foundations Study; the Postpartum Heart Health Registry and Biorepository; and the NICU Mental Health Screening Study.

As a cancer cell biologist, my research focuses on the biochemical and mechanochemical signaling pathways that regulate key cellular processes in epithelial cancers, including cell cycle progression, cell division, tissue polarity, and cell adhesion. My work has contributed to identifying signal transduction mechanisms that maintain epithelial tissue integrity, enable evasion of apoptosis and promote oncogenesis. I have also discovered a class of dietary quinones that act as antimitotic agents by targeting the tubulin–microtubule system. My research further examines how extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and stromal stiffness influence pancreatic ductal oncogenesis and mesenchymal stem cell fate. Currently, my lab investigates how biological aging, obesity, and dietary carcinogens contribute to prostate cancer initiation and progression, and how inherited genetic risk variants shape disease trajectory and clinical outcomes. To address these questions, we develop and apply patient-derived iPSC prostate organoid models that capture individual genetic backgrounds. These systems are integrated with tumor-on-chip platforms, 3D biomimetic tissue bioprinting, functional genomics, spatial imaging, and multi-omics approaches to map disease progression, improve risk stratification, and identify mechanisms of therapy response and resistance.

Dr. Michael Ahdoot is a urologic oncologist and medical director of the academic urology practice at Cedars Sinai Hospital, in Los Angeles California. He specializes in treatment of prostate, kidney, and bladder cancers and is actively involved in clinical research.

Several of Dr. Ahdoot’s unique surgical skills include MRI-targeted prostate biopsy, robotic continence-preserving prostatectomy (also known as Retzius Sparing Prostatectomy), High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for prostate cancer ablation, robotic prostatectomy, advanced robotic partial nephrectomy, genetic testing for cancer syndromes, laser en bloc bladder tumor resection, partial/radical cystectomy, and repair of the urethra and ureter.

Dr. Ahdoot is also an innovator in the field of medicine. He holds patents for both orthopedic and urologic devices. He has also been involved in numerous clinical trials, and continues to be active in clinical research and medical device development. His research has been featured at international conferences and in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

Waseem Ahmed, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine within the Karsh Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, and currently serves as Director of the Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fellowship and Education within the F. Widjaja Inflammatory Bowel Disease Institute. He received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan and medical degree from Indiana University. He then completed an internal medicine residency at New York University, followed by a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Indiana University, and an advanced fellowship in inflammatory bowel disease at the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine. His primary motivation as a gastroenterologist is to improve education on the evaluation and management of IBD for patients, trainees, and providers via the development of innovative educational programs. Dr. Ahmed additionally acts as a clinical trialist and clinical outcomes researcher, with specific interests in drug and device studies, combined advanced targeted therapy, and acute severe ulcerative colitis.

Michael J. Alexander, MD, has led and participated in numerous research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and industry. He has had over 20 consecutive years of NIH funded research.  Over the past several years, his clinical research has focused on four primary areas: brain aneurysms (Alexander was the institutional principal investigator for the Atlas trial, Liberty trial and FRED flow diverter trial), atherosclerotic disease (cholesterol plaque) of the carotid arteries and cerebral arteries (Alexander was on the initial steering committee of the NIH-funded SAMMPRIS trial, was the institutional principal investigator on the CREST-2 carotid stent trial, and was the national principal investigator for the WEAVE and WOVEN intracranial stent trials), acute embolic stroke (he was co-investigator of the NIH-funded MR Rescue stroke trial and institutional principal investigator for the POSITIVE, THERAPY, START and PICS stroke trials), and cerebral (brain) hemorrhage (he was co-investigator in the NIH-funded MISTIE 3 and CLEAR 3 intracranial hemorrhage trials and industry funded ENRICH ICH trial).  He has been an invited lecturer at meeting in 27 countries on 6 continents.