Mansour Mohamadzadeh, PhD

Dr. Mohamadzadeh is an immunologist with expertise in the fields of inflammation, systemic/mucosal immunology, infection, and vaccine delivery. He is also experienced in working with various therapeutic approaches that focus on the role of innate immune cells, particularly dendritic cells, and how these cells determine the fate of virgin T and B cells toward various T and B cell subset activation in steady state, infection, and auto inflammatory diseases, including IBD and colon cancer. Additionally, his focus is currently centered on an oral targeted vaccine that not only induces intestinal but also systemic immune responses against pathogen challenge.

Dr. Mohamadzadeh is an immunologist with over 25 years of expertise in the fields of inflammation, systemic/mucosal immunology, infection, and vaccine delivery. He is also experienced in working with various therapeutic approaches that focus on the role of innate immune cells–particularly dendritic cells, and how these cells determine the activation and differentiation of T lymphocytes, including T cells, such as TH17 or extrathymic regulatory T cells (Tregs) in steady state, during infection, and throughout autoinflammatory intestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). In his opinion, understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying intestinal immune regulation is most effective when host interactions with intestinal bacterial species and their bacterial products are fully understood, and when the critical molecules that culminate in inflammation or anti-inflammatory responses are identified. Thus, his research is firmly centered on the specifics of beneficial gut microbes, their unique properties, and their role in the induction of stimulatory or regulatory signals in innate cells and T lymphocytes, contributing directly to further proinflammation or regulation of inflammatory diseases (IBD, NEC). Pragmatically, his research is tightly entwined with generating novel therapies for intestinal disorders (e.g. NEC) using beneficial bacteria such as P. UF1 to significantly regulate induced pathogenic inflammation in sufferers who urgently need it. Furthermore, his team also established a novel targeted vaccine platform, dual route vaccine, to mobilize protective humoral immunity against infectious agents, including botulinum neurotoxin A complex (BoNT/A), in animals and man. The same dual route vaccine platform is currently optimized to elucidate the efficacy of probiotic bacterium, P. UF1, expressing PD-1 molecule to generate neutralizing antibody against PD-1 to inhibit T cell exhaustion and to protect against melanoma cancer. This elegant and less costly approach will be further developed and tested in higher animals, including dogs affected by melanoma and hopefully in phase 1 clinical trial in man in the near future.