Elias Sayour, MD, PhD
Special Interests
- Pediatric Brain Tumors
- Immunotherapeutics for Pediatric Tumors
Elias Sayour, M.D., PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, and Pediatrics and Principal Investigator of the RNA Engineering Laboratory within the Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy and UF Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program. He graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Fordham University in 2003, before receiving his medical degree from the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2007.
After finishing his pediatric residency at the Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center of New York at North-Shore-LIJ, he completed a hematology-oncology fellowship at Duke University in 2013. During his fellowship training, he completed a two-year NIH research fellowship in cancer biology and developmental therapeutics, under the direction of Dr. Duane Mitchell, developing an ‘off the shelf’ vaccine formulation utilizing RNA-loaded nanocarriers to induce immunity against cancer cells. While at Duke, Dr. Sayour was awarded an American Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Young Investigator’s Travel Award, a Thrasher Research Foundation Early Career Award, and a St. Baldrick’s Post-doctoral Fellowship Award.
Dr. Sayour is a board certified physician, and member of the Children’s Oncology Group, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society of Neuro-Oncology, and the American Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. He has presented his work at several national meetings while working on novel targeted vaccine strategies against malignant brain tumors. His current interests include developing innovative immunotherapeutics for pediatric tumors and invasive central nervous system malignancies.