Adjunct Professor California Irvine

HAWA VAHED, Ph.D.

CAREER OBJECTIVE

Cancer Immunology, Molecular Immunology and Virology are the areas of my research expertise. Excelling as a promising researcher as opportunities unfold, thereby establishing a fruitful career in research is my career goal.

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

Research experience in maintaining a research laboratory and supervising undergraduate students.

Comprehensive knowledge in the field of cancer immunology, viral immunology, infectious diseases and vaccine development.

Extensive experience in designing, executing and interpreting complex research experiments.

Demonstrated ability to acquire technical knowledge and skills rapidly.

Innovative problem solver, able to answer and develop solutions to a problem, exceptional communication skills, both orally and on paper.

Productive external research collaborations and experience leading multi-disciplinary teams.

EDUCATION

Doctor of Philosophy, 2016

University of Karachi, Pakistan

Master of Science in Microbiology, 2007

University of Karachi, Pakistan

Bachelor of Science in Biology, 2004

University of Karachi, Pakistan

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Post-doctoral Fellow, City of Hope

Since July 2021 till present with Prof. Flavia Pichiorri

Projects:

Effect of bispecific drugs on primary AML patients and AML cell lines

Leave of Absence from job since June 2018-July 2021

Maternity leave extended due to the nonexistence of any family member in USA.

Post-doctoral Fellow, University of California Irvine

July 2016 till June 2018 with Prof. Lbachir BenMohamed

Projects:

Gene expression profiling studies of HSV-specific CD8+ T cells from SYMP and ASYMP individuals that shared the same epitope-specificity, using NanoString digital barcoding technology.

Correlation of number and function of NKT cells with severity of Herpetic Corneal Disease

Preclinical vaccine efficacy study of novel HSV-1/HSV-2 capsid and tegument proteins in models of ocular herpes (HLA transgenic rabbit) and genital herpes (guinea pig).

Mentored several undergraduate students on goals and project outlines.

Junior Specialist, University of California Irvine

May 2015 till June 2016 with Prof. Lbachir BenMohamed

Projects:

Therapeutic vaccine efficacy study of novel HSV-1 proteins in HLA transgenic rabbit and mice.

Lab Assistant, MDTOX Laboratories, Irvine

May 2014 till March 2015 under Dr. Mina Kalantari supervision

Projects:

DNA extractions, DNA quantification, PCR, ELISA, instrument and lab maintenance and SOPs writing and cGMP practices.

Junior Specialist, University of California Irvine

February 2013 till May 2014 with Prof. Lbachir BenMohamed

Projects:

Conventional PCR and gel electrophoresis for confirmation of HLA and DR genes in in-house bred HLA transgenic mice, Real time PCR for detection of different chemokines and cytokines from various cell lines and mice samples.

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Microbiology, University of Karachi, Pakistan

January 2009- November 2016, with Prof. Nusrat Jamil

Dissertation research:

My doctoral research has been focused in the area of virology. In my PhD, I worked on isolation and identification of influenza viral strains including H1, H5, H7 and H9 subtypes and study antiviral effect of honey, ginger, and garlic (commonly used to treat Flu in Asia) on isolated strains of influenza.

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

Indigenous Scholarship by Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, Pakistan

MEMBERSHIPS

ARVO (The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology)

ASM (American Society of Microbiology)

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Immunology: Proficient in Elisa, luminex, Elispot, SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, flow cytometry (surface staining and intracellular staining [ICS]), CFSE proliferation assay and CD107 degranulation assay.

Diagnostic Elisa for various viral diseases (Influenza and HSV) and quantitative Elisa of chemokine.

Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell (PBMCs) isolation from blood.

Broad experience in assessing T cell function including activation and differentiation assay

Virology and Microbiology: Virus isolation, in vitro & in vivo virus propagation, Titer estimation, Neutralization assays.

Tissue culture: Culture and maintenance of various cell lines.

Animal handling: Experience in lab animal handling including design and completion of in-vivo and ex-vivo studies in mice, rabbit and guinea pigs. Trained in standard procedures of blood collection by cardiac puncture and venipuncture, retro-orbital bleeding and perfusion. Sub-cutaneous, intra-peritoneal, intra-muscular, intra-nasal and intra-venous injections to mouse, rabbit and guinea pigs. Screening and maintenance of mouse, rabbit and guinea pigs colony.

Animal surgery: Experience in non-survival surgeries (harvesting brain, cervical lymph nodes, spinal cord, Trigeminal Ganglia, Cornea and spleen from Rabbit, Mouse and Guinea Pigs).

Animal behavioral studies: Neurological deficit scoring, activity box tests and grip strength test, clinical scoring.

Molecular biology and biochemistry: DNA cloning, sonication, agarose gel electrophoresis, RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, Real-time PCR, cloning, restriction digests, and gene expression profiling using NanoString technology.

Immunostaining: Tissue slice preparation, TC staining, HE staining and Immunohistochemistry.

Scientific software: Mac OS, Windows OS, Microsoft Office, Graphpad Prism, EndNote, Blast, SPSS, flowjo for flow cytometric analysis, nCounter for NanoString Analysis and Labdaq (for accessioning the patients history)

PUBLICATIONS:

1.Prakash S, Roy S, Srivastava R, Coulon PG, Dhanushkodi NR, Vahed H, Jankeel A, Geertsema R, Amezquita C, Nguyen L, Messaoudi I, Burkhardt AM, BenMohamed L. Unique molecular signatures of antiviral memory CD8+ T cells associated with asymptomatic recurrent ocular herpes.

Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 14;10(1):13843. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-70673-z.

2.Coulon PG, Roy S, Prakash S, Srivastava R, Dhanushkodi N, Salazar S, Amezquita C, Nguyen L, Vahed H, Nguyen AM, Warsi WR, Ye C, Carlos-Cruz EA, Mai UT, BenMohamed L. up regulation of multiple CD8+ T cell exhaustion pathways is associated with recurrent ocular herpes simplex virus type 1 infection. J Immunol. 2020 Jul 15;205(2):454-468. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.2000131.

3.Dhanushkodi NR, Srivastava R, Prakash S, Roy S, Coulon PA, Vahed H, Nguyen AM, Salazar S, Nguyen L, Amezquita C, Ye C, Nguyen V, BenMohamed L. High frequency of gamma interferon-producing PLZFloRORγtlo invariant natural killer 1 cells infiltrating herpes simplex virus 1-infected corneas is associated with asymptomatic ocular herpes virus infection. J Virol. 2020 Apr; 16;94(9):e00140-20. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00140-20.

4.Vahed H, Agrawal A, Srivastava R, Prakash S, Coulon PA, Roy S, BenMohamed L. unique type I interferon, expansion/survival cytokines, and JAK/STAT gene signatures of multifunctional herpes simplex virus-specific effector memory CD8+ TEM cells are associated with asymptomatic herpes in humans. J Virol. 2019; 93 (4): doi: 10.1128/JVI.01882-18.

5.Srivastava R, Roy S, Coulon PG, Vahed H, Prakash S, Dhanushkodi N, Kim GJ, Fouladi MA, Campo J, Teng AA, Liang X, Schaefer H, BenMohamed L. Therapeutic mucosal vaccination of herpes simplex virus 2-infected guinea pigs with ribonucleotide reductase 2 (RR2) protein boosts antiviral neutralizing antibodies and local tissue-resident CD4+ and CD8+ TRM cells associated with protection against recurrent genital herpes. J Virol. 2019 Apr; 17;93(9):e02309-18. doi: 10.1128/JVI.02309-18.

6.Roy S, Coulon PG, Srivastava R, Vahed H, Kim GJ, Walia SS, Yamada T, Fouladi MA, Ly VT, BenMohamed L. Blockade of LAG-3 immune checkpoint combined with therapeutic vaccination restore the function of tissue-resident anti-viral CD8+ T cells and protect against recurrent ocular herpes simplex infection and disease. Front Immunol. 2018 Dec; 17;9:2922. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02922.

7.Khan AA, Srivastava R, Vahed H, Roy S, Walia SS, Kim GJ, Fouladi MA, Yamada T, Ly VT, Lam C, Lou A, Nguyen V, Boldbaatar U, Geertsema R, Fraser NW, BenMohamed L. Human asymptomatic epitope peptide/CXCL10-based prime/pull vaccine induces herpes simplex virus-specific gamma interferon-positive CD107+ CD8+ T cells that infiltrate the corneas and trigeminal ganglia of humanized HLA transgenic rabbits and protect against ocular herpes challenge. J Virol. 2018 Jul; 31;92(16):e00535-18. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00535-18.

8.Khan AA, Srivastava R, Chentoufi AA, Kritzer E, Chilukuri S, Garg S, Yu DC, Vahed H, Huang L, Syed SA, Furness JN, Tran TT, Anthony NB, McLaren CE, Sidney J, Sette A, Noelle RJ, BenMohamed L. Bolstering the number and function of HSV-1-Specific CD8+ effector memory T cells and tissue-resident memory T cells in latently infected trigeminal ganglia reduces recurrent ocular herpes infection and disease. J Immunol. 2017 Jul; 199 (1): 186-203. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1700145.

9.Srivastava R, Khan AA, Garg S, Syed SA, Furness JN, Vahed H, Pham T, Yu HT, Nesburn AB, BenMohamed L. Human asymptomatic epitopes identified from the herpes simplex virus tegument protein VP13/14 (UL47) preferentially recall polyfunctional effector memory CD44 highCD62LlowCD8 + TEM cells and protect “humanized” HLA-A*02:01 transgenic mice against ocular herpes. J. Virol. 2017 Jan; 3;91(2):e01793-16. doi:10.1128/JVI.01793-16

10.Vahed H, Zafar MN, Jamil N. Role of humoral and cell-mediated immune responses against influenza infections. J Immuno Biol. 2017; 2: 117.

11.Vahed H, Jafri SB and Jamil N. Propagation of influenza virus in lymphocytes determine by antiviral effects of honey, ginger and garlic decoction. J Antivir Antiretrovir. 2016; 8:012-019.

12.Khan AA, Srivastava R, Spencer D, Vahed H, Fremgen D, Lopes PP, Hewett C, Kuang J, Ong N, BenMohamed L. Phenotypic and functional characterization of herpes simplex virus glycoprotein B epitope-specific effector and memory CD8+ T cells from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals with ocular herpes. J Virol. 2015 Apr; 89(7): 3776-92. doi: 10.1128/JVI.03419-14.

13.Srivastava R, Khan AA; Spencer D, Vahed H, Lopes PP, Pham TT, Huang J, Scarfone VM, Nesburn AB, Wechsler SL, BenMohamed L. HLA-A02:01-restricted epitopes identified from the herpes simplex virus tegument protein VP11/12 preferentially recall polyfunctional effector memory CD8+ T cells from seropositive asymptomatic individuals and protect “Humanized” HLA-A*02:01 transgenic mice against ocular herpes. J Immunol. 2015 Mar; 194 (5): 2232-48. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1402606.

14.Prakash S, Agrawal S, Vahed H, Ngyuen M, BenMohamed L, Gupta S, Agrawal A. Dendritic cells from aged subjects contribute to chronic airway inflammation by activating bronchial epithelial cells under steady state. Mucosal Immunol. 2015 Nov;7(6):1386-94. doi: 10.1038/mi.2014.28.

POSTER PRESENTATION

1.Vahed H. Srivastava R, Roy S, Fouladi MA, Kim GJ, Ly VT, Yamada T, Lam C, Boldbaatar U, BenMohamed L. Human HSV-specific memory CD8+ TEM cells with unique JAK/STAT, chemokines and anti-inflamatory gene signatures are associated with asymptomatic herpes infection. ARVO Annual Meeting 2018, Honolulu, Hawaii.

2.Vahed H. and Jamil N. Major Histocompatibility Complex System of Poultry Workers and their natural immunity against subtypes of Avian and Swine Influenza Viruses. 112th General Meeting of American Society of Microbiology; June 16-19, 2012, San Francisco, U.S.A.

3.Vahed H. and Jamil N. Natural Adaptive Immune capacities of resident of Karachi, Pakistan against Avian Influenza virus subtypes H5, H7, H9 and other Avian Viruses. IUMS 2011 (XV, International Congress of Virology); September 11-16, 2011, Sapporo, Japan.

4.Vahed H. and Jamil N. Co-infection of Poultry and Wild Birds with Newcastle Virus and Epizoonotic Influenza Virus, 110th General Meeting of American Society of Microbiology; May 23- 28, 2010, San Diego, U.S.A.

5.Vahed H. and Jamil N. Hemolytic avian viruses are active on Human RBCs carrying D-Antigen, 2nd National Conference on Health Biotechnology; May 27-28, 2008, Islamabad, Pakistan.

6.Vahed H. and Jamil N. Anti-dermatophytic activity of Azadirachta Indica (neem) on clinical isolates of dermatophytes from Karachi. Pakistan Association of Pathologists; Nov 16-19, 2005, Karachi, Pakistan.

REFERENCES

Lbachir BenMohamed

Professor & Director

Cellular and Molecular Immunology Laboratory, UC Irvine

843 Health Sciences Road

Hewitt Hall Building 843

2nd Floor, Room 2032, Irvine, CA 92697

Email: ********@***.*** Contact no: 949-***-****

Ruchi Srivastava

Associate Specialist

Cellular and Molecular Immunology Laboratory, UC Irvine

843 Health Sciences Road

Hewitt Hall Building 843

2nd Floor, Room 2032, Irvine, CA 92697

Email: *****.**********@***.*** Contact no: 949-***-****

Anshu Agrawal

Associate Adjunct Professor

School of Medicine, University of California Irvine

160 Aldrich Hall, CA 92697.

Email: ********@***.*** Contact no: 949-***-****

Mina Kalantari

Director of Molecular Genetics Department

MD TOX Laboratories

1565 Mcgaw Ave., Irvine, CA 92614

Email: ****.*********@*********.*** Contact no: 949-***-****

Home

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