Bissan Al-Lazikani

Bissan Al-Lazikani is a Senior Professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she leads research at the intersection of cancer biology, pharmacology, and computational drug discovery. Her work focuses on identifying novel therapeutic targets, elucidating oncogenic mechanisms, and developing precision oncology strategies. Recent breakthroughs include the creation of a context-aware pharmacodynamic biomarker resource to accelerate drug development, the discovery that human DEAH-box RNA helicase 8 regulates HSF1-mediated stress responses and cancer-associated pre-mRNA splicing, and the development of Charles, a self-critical agentic AI drug discovery analyst for cancer. She has also contributed to chemoproteomic mapping of the human purine interactome and mediator kinase inhibitor selectivity in colorectal cancer. Her interdisciplinary collaborations integrate molecular biology, cell biology, and AI-enabled approaches to advance cancer therapeutics.