Talal El Zarif

Talal El Zarif, MD, is an Internal Medicine resident in the Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) at Yale University. Originally from Sidon, Lebanon, he earned his medical degree from the Lebanese University. Following medical school, he pursued a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Cancer Center in the lab of Professor Matthew Freedman, focusing on cancer epigenomics and liquid biopsies for early detection of cancer.

Dr. El Zarif also led clinical and translational research at the Lank Center of Genitourinary Oncology under the mentorship of Professor Toni Choueiri, investigating predictive biomarkers, clinical outcomes, and immune checkpoint inhibitor toxicities in patients with cancer. His work has been published in Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology, European Urology, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Clinical Cancer Research, Cell Reports and other leading journals, and has been presented at national and international conferences.

Currently, Dr. El Zarif’s clinical interests lie in Cardio-Oncology, where he seeks to bridge his oncology research expertise to study cardiovascular disease and side effects, particularly in patients with cancer receiving systemic therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors. He is an active member of the American College of Cardiology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Association for Cancer Research and aspires to pursue a career as a physician-scientist specializing in cardiology.