Basic science research spotlight: Zainul Hasanali, MD, PhD

As an undergraduate at Boston College, Zainul Hasanali, MD, PhD, spent Sundays volunteering in the pediatric malignancies unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. The experience, which included facing the death of a beloved patient, affirmed his desire to pursue a career as a physician-scientist dedicated to fighting cancer.

After completing a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, Hasanali joined the medical scientist training program at Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine, where he earned an MD and PhD in molecular medicine in 2017.

“I was fortunate to have a string of very good mentors in medical and graduate school who happened to be blood cancer doctors,” said Hasanali, who joined IU School of Medicine as the Daniel and Lori Efroymson Scholar in Oncology and an assistant professor of medicine in fall 2025. “I was drawn into plasma cell malignancies by a mentor at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Alfred Garfall, who introduced me to myeloma and all of its unmet research needs; after that, I was off to the races.”

With funding from a National Institutes of Health K08 career development award, Hasanali investigates the survival mechanisms of normal and cancerous plasma cells.

“I study the way plasma cells, both cancerous and normal, handle stress—including the neighbor cells in the bones that help them survive—to try and understand how plasma cell diseases, like multiple myeloma, start in the first place,” Hasanali explained. “If we can learn more about these topics, we can develop drugs to fight this cancer, which is the ultimate goal of my laboratory.”

What attracted you to IU School of Medicine and IU Health?
I was looking for a place where I could explore my research ideas, turn them into new therapies and trial those therapies in patients. The School of Medicine and IU Health have a robust research infrastructure, a strong drug development program and a large myeloma program with doctors eager to trial new things.

Do you have recent findings or upcoming publications related to your work?
We have been exploring how an immune cell, the mast cell, supports the growth of myeloma (plasma cell cancer) cells in the bone marrow. Mast cells are the same ones that cause allergies. They release lots of proteins around them that we think the myeloma cells use to survive. We are currently trying to publish this finding.

How has IU School of Medicine supported your research efforts?
IU School of Medicine’s clear commitment to my research program is another reason I came to the school. I have dedicated start-up funds, a dedicated lab space, 75% of my time protected for research and my choice of how I spend my clinical time.

What are your plans for future research?
I am interested in research to uncover the proteins in the blood that promote myeloma survival and growth and develop blockers to see if we can come up with curative strategies.

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a physician-scientist?
The most rewarding thing is still the thanks I receive from patients as they make it through their treatments and when they learn that I am a research scientist too. I've lost count of the number of times I've been blessed or applauded by patients for dedicating my time to trying to make their lives better, and it still makes me smile.