Professor Eyad Elkord recognized as one of the world's top 5 authors

March 12, 2024

Professor Eyad Elkord’s research on LAG-3 immune checkpoint has been internationally acknowledged, recognized and ranked by a prestigious independent third-party.

A group of researchers at Jinan University published a recent study in the esteemed “Frontiers in Immunology” titled "Bibliometric analysis of evolutionary trajectory and prospective directions of LAG-3 in cancer." They ranked countries and researchers in the field of LAG-3 protein. LAG-3 is an important immune checkpoint and antibodies have been developed and are used in cancer immunotherapy to improve clinical responses and outcomes in cancer patients.

The authors performed a comprehensive review of scholarly articles in the area related to LAG-3 research in cancer by using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. By leveraging tools such as VOSviewer and CiteSpace, a network diagram was created to visualize the various authors, countries, organizations, publishing years, journals, references, and keywords. They found 1,841 records were published in 587 publications. These records were authored by 12,849 individuals affiliated with 2491 institutions across 74 countries. The USA, China, and Germany gave the majority of records, amounting to 69.69%. Professor Elkord was ranked top 5 in the world among all authors, as a highly regarded authority in the field of LAG-3 cancer research with 14 publications (representing 0.76% of all articles published in this area); these papers were cited 675 times with an average citation of 48 times per article.

Professor John Moraros, Dean, School of Science stated that: “Professor Elkord’s  international recognition highlights his significant contributions and the impact of his research work on advancing our understanding on the important role and function of LAG-3 in the context of cancer. Professor Elkord is one of the top scientists in the world in his field. His recent recognition and continued work reaffirms our collective, growing and strong commitment to research excellence in the Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science and XJTLU.”

About Professor Eyad Elkord

Professor Eyad Elkord was a Professor of Immunology with the Department of Applied Biology, College of Science, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and holds an Honorary Professor position with University of Salford, UK. He was a Postdoctoral Scientist (Jan 2005 - Dec 2007) at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, University of Manchester (UK) and was promoted to a Research Fellow/Group Leader of the Clinical Immunotherapy Laboratory at the University of Manchester (Jan 2008 - Nov 2010). He then undertook a Lecturer position with the University of Salford and was promoted in August 2012 to a Senior Lecturer position. He moved to the College of Medicine & Health Science, United Arab Emirates University, in 2012 and was an Associate Professor of Immunology until September 2016. He then worked as a Principal Investigator at Qatar Biomedical Research Institute and a Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar.Professor Elkord is also a member of several highly regarded scientific societies and an editorial board member for peer-reviewed international journals such as Frontiers in Immunology & Oncology (specialty Cancer Immunity & Immunotherapy), BMC Cancer, Vaccines, Heliyon and Journal of Immunology Research. He is a reviewer to many international journals and well-known funding agents, such as the UK Medical Research Council, European Research Council, Dutch Research Council. Dr Elkord has 130 publications in peer-reviewed high-impact international journals with more than 11000 citations and an h-index of 48 and M-index of 2.7. In recognition of his research influence, Dr Elkord has been named in Stanford University’s yearly and career global lists of the top 2% of scientists for four consecutive years (2019-2022), achieving the position in the top 0.26% in the Immunology subfield.

His main research interest focuses on Oncoimmunology, which is an important and hot topic. He is interested in studying the tumor microenvironment and investigating mechanisms utilized by tumor cells to evade immune-mediated destruction with special focus on the role and function of immunosuppressive cells [T regulatory cells (Tregs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs)]. Professor Elkord’s research on immune regulation mechanisms, especially the role and function of T regulatory cells in cancer, is internationally recognized. And for the wider applications of his research,the Identification of biomarkers which could improve patients’ response to different modalities of immunotherapy, leading to improving quality of life for patients.

At XJTLU, Professor Elkord will teach modules in Immunology, and Biology/Molecular Biology. He is actively recruiting MRes and especially PhD students to join his recently established and dynamic Lab group so he can provide them high quality training and excellent mentorship in their educational journey. Highly competitive students, who may be interested are welcome to contact him for more information (Eyad.Elkord@xjtlu.edu.cn).

Material provided: Professor Eyad Elkord

Editor, Translation: Luyao Wang

Proofreader: Dr Lifeng Ding, Professor John Moraros

March 12, 2024