Biography

Dr. Halwani obtained a PhD in virology and immunology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada where he was studying HIV viral assembly and viral cellular interaction. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship at the CHUM research center with Dr. Rafick Sekaly where he was trained as an immunologist studying qualitative and quantitative immune correlates of protection against viral infection especially HIV. Dr. Halwani developed extensive expertise in both molecular biology and cellular immunology including the development of assays to measure T cell survival and persistence in non-humans primates. He was also among the first to successfully implement the use of phosFLow technology, which allows measuring phosphorylated molecules by flow cytometry to monitor T cell activation ex vivo, on samples from non-human primates. Dr. Halwani is currently an associate professor at King Saud University (KSU),Saudi Arabia. He is also the scientific director of Prince Naif Center for Immunology Research at KSU (PNCIR) which is a national immunology laboratoryinvolved in studying asthma pathogenesis as well as primary immune deficiencies. During asthma, inflammatory cells within the airway including neutrophils, eosinophils, B and T lymphocytes, as well as airway structural cells release inflammatory mediators that orchestrate to insure sustained chronic inflammation of the airways leading to tissue remodeling. Dr. Halwani is interested in investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in these processes from various angles leading to the identification of new molecular targets for better control of chronic inflammatory diseases. He is also involved inthe development of novel therapyapproacheswith effective clinical applications.