Dr. Nawar Al-Obaidi, MD
In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 overwhelmed northern New Jersey, VICE on Showtime filmed Dr. Nawar Al-Obaidi at work in a Secaucus hospital. Years earlier, he had been working at the bench, helping to determine the molecular structures of proteins. Today he puts that rare combination of frontline medicine and hard science to work for every patient at Clinique La Roya.
- Frontline physician: cared for critically ill COVID-19 patients at Hudson Regional Hospital, as featured on VICE on Showtime (2020).
- Scientist: co-author of 17 peer-reviewed papers, including in Nature, and an author on more than 250 protein structures in the Protein Data Bank.
- Hospital leader: former chief resident, former chief hospitalist, and chair of the credentialing committee at Hudson Regional Health.
- Board-certified internist (ABIM) with advanced aesthetic training in injectables, lasers and energy-based devices.
His mission: to build the biggest internal medicine practice in the country through Alobaidi MD and Clinique La Roya, so that patients get physician-level care in the hospital, in rehab and in the clinic.
What this means for you
You will be treated by a physician, not just a technician. Every treatment plan starts with your whole health, from medications and medical history to how your skin heals, and comes from a doctor trained to make decisions under pressure.
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Places I work in currently
- Clinique La Roya: founder & medical director. 18 W Ridgewood Ave, Floor 2, Paramus, NJ
- Alobaidi MD LLC: physician practice for nursing-home and rehab patients
- Hudson Regional Hospital, Secaucus: chair of the credentialing committee
- Saint Barnabas Medical Center (RWJBarnabas Health), Livingston: hospitalist
- Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center, Montclair
- Kindred Hospital East New Jersey, Passaic (at St. Mary's General Hospital, 350 Boulevard)
- CareOne at Wellington, Hackensack: medical director
- Optima Care Fountains, Secaucus: attending physician
- Runnells Center for Rehabilitation & Healthcare, Berkeley Heights: attending physician
- Lincoln Park Care Center, Lincoln Park: attending physician
- Harbour View Senior Living, North Bergen: attending physician
- Atlas Rehabilitation & Healthcare at Daughters of Moses, Clifton: attending physician
- Berkshire Post Acute, Wayne: attending physician
Aesthetic medicine
What this means for you: natural-looking results, planned with medical safety in mind. At Clinique La Roya, Dr. Al-Obaidi personally oversees physician-led aesthetic care, including injectables, laser treatments and energy-based devices. He combines an internist's medical judgment with advanced aesthetic training.
Clinical career
Dr. Al-Obaidi completed anesthesiology and ICU training and then his internal medicine residency at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, where he served as chief resident. He went on to serve as chief hospitalist at Hudson Regional Hospital.
COVID-19 frontline service
In spring 2020 he cared for critically ill patients at Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus, at the center of the New York–New Jersey surge. His work was featured in VICE on Showtime's Inside One New Jersey Hospital Battling Coronavirus (May 2020).
Watch the film · Deadline coverage
Research & publications
From 2010 to 2016, Dr. Al-Obaidi directed prokaryotic protein production for structural genomics research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He co-authored 17 peer-reviewed papers, in journals including Nature, Nature Chemical Biology, PNAS, JACS and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He is also an author on more than 250 protein structures in the international Protein Data Bank.
- Bouvier JT, Sernova NV, Ghasempur S, et al.. Novel Metabolic Pathways and Regulons for Hexuronate Utilization in Proteobacteria. J Bacteriol. 2019;201:. PubMed · DOI
- Carter MS, Zhang X, Huang H, et al.. Functional assignment of multiple catabolic pathways for D-apiose. Nat Chem Biol. 2018;14:696-705. PubMed · DOI
- Calhoun S, Korczynska M, Wichelecki DJ, et al.. Prediction of enzymatic pathways by integrative pathway mapping. Elife. 2018;7:. PubMed · DOI
- Zhang X, Carter MS, Vetting MW, et al.. Assignment of function to a domain of unknown function: DUF1537 is a new kinase family in catabolic pathways for acid sugars. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016;113:E4161-9. PubMed · DOI
- Yadava U, Vetting MW, Al Obaidi N, et al.. Structure of an ABC transporter solute-binding protein specific for the amino sugars glucosamine and galactosamine. Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun. 2016;72:467-72. PubMed · DOI
- Huang H, Carter MS, Vetting MW, et al.. A General Strategy for the Discovery of Metabolic Pathways: d-Threitol, l-Threitol, and Erythritol Utilization in Mycobacterium smegmatis. J Am Chem Soc. 2015;137:14570-3. PubMed · DOI
- Wichelecki DJ, Vetting MW, Chou L, et al.. ATP-binding Cassette (ABC) Transport System Solute-binding Protein-guided Identification of Novel d-Altritol and Galactitol Catabolic Pathways in Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58. J Biol Chem. 2015;290:28963-76. PubMed · DOI
- Huang H, Pandya C, Liu C, et al.. Panoramic view of a superfamily of phosphatases through substrate profiling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015;112:E1974-83. PubMed · DOI
- Vetting MW, Al-Obaidi N, Zhao S, et al.. Experimental strategies for functional annotation and metabolism discovery: targeted screening of solute binding proteins and unbiased panning of metabolomes. Biochemistry. 2015;54:909-31. PubMed · DOI
- London N, Farelli JD, Brown SD, et al.. Covalent docking predicts substrates for haloalkanoate dehalogenase superfamily phosphatases. Biochemistry. 2015;54:528-37. PubMed · DOI
- Wichelecki DJ, Vendiola JA, Jones AM, et al.. Investigating the physiological roles of low-efficiency D-mannonate and D-gluconate dehydratases in the enolase superfamily: pathways for the catabolism of L-gulonate and L-idonate. Biochemistry. 2014;53:5692-9. PubMed · DOI
- Wichelecki DJ, Graff DC, Al-Obaidi N, et al.. Identification of the in vivo function of the high-efficiency D-mannonate dehydratase in Caulobacter crescentus NA1000 from the enolase superfamily. Biochemistry. 2014;53:4087-9. PubMed · DOI
- Kim J, Xiao H, Bonanno JB, et al.. Structure-guided discovery of the metabolite carboxy-SAM that modulates tRNA function. Nature. 2013;498:123-6. PubMed · DOI
- Okoh AK, Fugar S, Dodoo S, et al.. Derivation and validation of the bridge to transplantation with left ventricular assist device score for 1 year mortality after heart transplantation. The BTT-LVAD score. Int J Artif Organs. 2022;45:470-477. PubMed · DOI
- Okoh AK, Selevanny M, Singh S, et al.. Racial disparities and outcomes of left ventricular assist device implantation as a bridge to heart transplantation. ESC Heart Fail. 2020;7:2744-2751. PubMed · DOI
- Okoh AK, Selevany M, Heaton J, et al.. Outcomes of Obese Patients Bridged to Heart Transplantation with a Left Ventricular Assist Device. ASAIO J. 2021;67:137-143. PubMed · DOI
- Dong D, Carlson J, Ruberwa J, et al.. Unmasking the Masquerader: A Delayed Diagnosis of MS and Its 4.5 Years of Implications in an Older African American Male. Case Rep Med. 2019;2019:5787206. PubMed · DOI
Education & certifications
- MD, University of Baghdad College of Medicine, 1998
- Internal medicine residency, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (chief resident)
- Board certified, American Board of Internal Medicine
- Licensed in New Jersey, New York and California
Languages
English, Arabic
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Clinique La Roya, 18 W Ridgewood Ave, Floor 2, Paramus, NJ.