MEHDI ABOUZARI, M.D., PH.D.

Assistant Professor, Wellness Officer, UCI MS-BATS Faculty

Dr. Mehdi Abouzari is a translational physician-scientist who focuses on improving existing treatment options for hearing problems by implementing randomized clinical trials and development of technology-based platforms and devices that address hearing loss and tinnitus. One of Dr. Abouzari’s distinct role as a faculty at the UCI Otolaryngology is his leadership on a series of projects on the application of novel machine learning algorithms for clinical decision making. Moreover, he has initiated a collaboration with the UCI Center for Neural Circuit Mapping to achieve spatial transcriptomics and protein expression profiling of head and neck cancers at single-cell resolution.

Teaching and mentorship play a pivotal role in Dr. Abouzari’s academic career. In 2020, he received the “Tom Angell Mentoring Award” from the UCI Graduate Division for providing outstanding mentorship to medical students and residents. Since 2020, Dr. Abouzari has been an active mentor in the ICTS-MSRP program and as of September 2023, he has been appointed as one of the MS-BATS program faculty.

Dr. Abouzari excels in professional competence and activity both nationally and internationally. He is an associate fellow of the American Neurotology Society and serves as an associate editor of the journal "Frontiers in Audiology and Otology". Dr. Abouzari has also been invited to serve as a commentator for one of the Nature journals – Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy – in the field of hearing research, a distinction that notes his prominence as a physician-scientist in this field.