Prof. Mohamed I. Husseiny

My scientific career began as I pursued bachelor’s and master’s degrees in pharmaceutical sciences and medical microbiology, respectively. I completed my Ph.D. at the Institute for Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. During my Ph.D., I established a novel system for gene therapy. I developed an oral vaccine against Listeriosis using genetically engineered Salmonella. I employed the same system to develop a vaccine for cancer during my postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Seeger at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. I joined Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope as assistant research professor in 2014, I established a now Salmonella-based vaccine to treat animal models of autoimmune type 1 diabetes. I worked with this vaccination strategy for over 20 years. The data was published in well-recognized journals. The discoveries I made were incorporated into a submitted patent application. Also, the impact of my scientific work was acknowledged in several awards. Throughout my career, my goal remains to employ vaccine strategies to ameliorate and prevent disease but especially autoimmune disease such as type 1 diabetes.