Fayez Safadi was born in Damascus, to Syrian parents from Damascus. Received his schooling years in Saudi Arabia. After high school graduation, Dr. Safadi started his scientific journey at the University of Damascus (Biochemistry major), after three years in college, he moved to the UK to continue his education where he earned an Honorary Degree (B.Sc.) in Biochemistry, Physiology and Nutrition from the University of Southampton. Then he went on to continue his graduate education at the same university where he earned his MPhil (master of philosophy) and Ph.D. in cancer and genetics. His Ph.D. was on the therapeutic role of vitamin D on breast cancer. Following his graduate studies, he moved to the USA where he did his research fellowship in Endocrinology and Genetics on the effect of vitamin D on skeletal physiology and pathology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Faculty (academic) Career: After his training, Dr. Safadi joined Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia for his first faculty appointment. He spent almost 13 years at Temple. he developed an active, federally and privately funded medical research program in bone diseases. My group is working to identify a treatment for multiple bone diseases such as osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis. I am also an educator for professional (medical, and dental) as well as graduate (MS and Ph.D.) students. Further, at Temple, I also performed multiple administrative duties from being the co-founder of the musculoskeletal research group at Temple University, to be the Vice Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the college of Medicine and the director of the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program. In 2011, Dr. Safadi was recruited to the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) in to direct the Musculoskeletal Research Group, he becomes the Ohio Research Scholar at NEOMED and Professor in the College of Medicine. He also serves as a Senior Scientist at Akron Children’s Hospital where he further developed medical research interests in pediatric rare diseases with skeletal anomalies. Most recently, Dr. Safadi was nominated and awarded the 2024 University Hospital (UH)-NEOMED Faculty Scholar. Dr. Safadi’s research was published in over 100 publications, including scientific journals, book chapters, reviewers, and textbooks.
Dr. Safadi has multiple patents some published, and others are pending.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship: I am also very passionate in entrepreneurship where I am the founder of a start-up (GPN Therapeutics, Inc.) company for a technology to treat bone regeneration and currently I serve as the Chief Scientific Officer. I am passionate of taking our technology into the market and treat patients with bone diseases, train young generation of medical and graduate students.
Leadership and Mentorship: I served on multiple leadership positions. I served as the vice chair for research in the department of anatomy and cell biology at Temple University School of Medicine. I also directed multiple teaching courses, graduate programs. I direct the musculoskeletal research program at NEOMED. I also chair multiple committees on faculty development, education, and research program development. I also served as the president of the faculty at NEOMED. In term of mentorship, I have mentored numerous students, from Ph.D., MS, BS, medical, dental, pharmacy, and science students. I also trained many high school and middle school students for research and education. I graduated from two leadership institute programs at Temple University and NEOMED.
International contributions:
Dr. Safadi presented his research to national and international conferences, such as Orthopedic Research Societies, MEMBS, European Societies. Dr. Safadi spoke at universities, research institutes, hospitals in the USA, middle east (UAE, Qatar, Saudis Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan), Europe (Sweden, Netherland, Spain, UK), Asia (China) and others. Dr. Safadi also served as panelist, chair multiple program and research conferences nationally and internationally. He also served member of scientific committees for multiple conferences.
Community service:
Dr. Safadi serves on multiple review and editorial board members, review scientific journals and textbook. He also speaks to local schools and universities for scientific careers and educational programs. He has also been a reviewer for grants (Federal, foundation and industry).
