Research
Dr. Ibrahim conducts translational research in infectious diseases with emphasis on understanding pathogenesis of invasive fungal infections and development of preventative vaccines and immunotherapies with the goal to improve survival of patients infected with these lethal pathogens.
Biography
Dr. Ashraf Ibrahim is a Professor of Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and a senior researcher and Director of the Graduate Studies Program at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry-Microbiology in 1986 from Kuwait University with honors. He then attended Post graduate school at Loughborough University of Technology, UK where he obtained a Ph.D. degree in Microbial Physiology in 1991 under the mentorship of Professors R.J. Stretton and M. A. Ghannoum.
Dr. Ibrahim completed his Postdoctoral training in Infectious Diseases in the laboratory of Dr. John Edwards, Jr. at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. His research focuses on molecular pathogenesis, host-pathogen interactions, immunotherapies, and models of infections to advance the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms and virulence factors of fungal and bacterial infections and translate this knowledge into novel therapeutic strategies.
He founded Vitalex Biosciences, a company focused on development of vaccines, immunotherapies and diagnostics of fungal infections. His research is focused on the following areas: the host-pathogen interactions in mucormycosis and the development of rapid diagnostics and novel antibody-based therapy; unnatural immunity for the development of vaccine strategies that target multidrug resistant organisms including MDR Candida species, and Gram-negative bacteria; and antifungal drug discovery.
Dr. Ibrahim’s research is funded by the NIH and industry-sponsored projects and has received over $45 M in funding for his research. He coauthored >200 peer-reviewed research papers, review articles and book chapters. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology and a receiver of several prestigious awards for excellence in research. Dr. Ibrahim served as a standing member of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Drug Discovery and Molecular Pharmacology A (DMPA) and Drug Discovery and Mechanisms of Antimicrobial Resistance (DDR) (2019-2023).