Dr. Azza Gadir completed her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Talal Chatila at Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital, where her published research was focused on the immunological mechanisms that underlie the role of the gut microbiome in conferring protection to diseases early in life. For this work, she holds issued and pending patents and has collaborated with industry partners to accelerate the discovery of microbiome-related immunotherapies for food allergy.

In addition to her academic work, Azza has served as a scientific advisor for the startup, Adeo Health Science, and consulted for Alivio Therapeutics, a Puretech ventures company, developing therapies for inflammatory diseases.

Azza grew up in London and received an MSc from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and her PhD in immunology from University College London.

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In conversation with Azza:

Share your life story in six words:
Crossed an Ocean. Found some bugs.

Why do you think bacteria are important?
Bacteria play important roles in both our internal and global ecosystems. Our bodies are not just human, we are Holobionts.

How do you define science?
Seeking objective truth.

Favorite microbiome-nurturing food?
Greek yogurt

Scientist, dead or alive, you’d like to have lunch with?
Peter Medawar or Marie Curie

Microbiome perturbation you’re working on:
Hi-Chews (apple)

One fact most people don’t know about you:
I’m a certified phlebotomist 🧛

Social channels?
@azzagadir

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Key Publications:

Azza Abdel-Gadir, Emmanuel Stephen-Victor, Georg K Gerber, Magali Noval Rivas, Sen Wang S, Hani Harb, LeighAnne Wang, Ning Li, Elena Crestani E, Sara Spielman, Will Secor, Heather Biehl, Nicholas Dibendetto, Xiaoxi Dong, Dale T Umetsu, Lynn Bry, Rima Rachid, Talal A Chatila. “Microbiota therapy acts via a regulatory T cell MyD88/RORγt pathway to suppress food allergy.” Nature Medicine (2019)

G Reid, AA Gadir, R Dhir. “Probiotics: Reiterating What They Are and What They Are Not”. Frontiers Microbiology (2019)

Christina SK Yee, Sultan Albuhairi, Elizabeth Noh, Kristel El-Khoury, Shervin Rezaei, Azza Abdel-Gadir, Dale T Umetsu, Elizabeth Burke-Roberts, Jennifer LeBovidge, Lynda Schneider, Rima Rachid. “Long-Term Outcome of Peanut Oral Immunotherapy Facilitated Initially by Omalizumab.” The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice 7 (2), 451-461. e7 (2019)

A Abdel-Gadir, AH Massoud, TA Chatila. “Antigen-specific Treg cells in immunological tolerance: implications for allergic diseases.” F1000Research 7 (2018)

A Abdel‐Gadir, L Schneider, A Casini, LM Charbonnier, SV Little. “Oral Immunotherapy With Omalizumab Reverses the Th2 Cell‐Like Program of Regulatory T cells and Restores their Function.” Clinical & Experimental Allergy (2018)

TA Chatila, L Bry, G Gerber, A Abdel-Gadir, R Rachid. “Therapeutic microbiota for the treatment and/or prevention of food allergy.”US Patent App. 15/801,811 (2018)

Brandy Reid, Pierre-Olivier Girodet, Jonathan S Boomer, Azza Abdel-Gadir, Kathy Zheng, Michael E Wechsler, Leonard B Bacharier, Susan J Kunselman, Tonya S King, Elliot Israel, Mario Castro, Manuela Cernadas, Jonathan M Green. “Vitamin D3 treatment of vitamin D–insufficient asthmatic patients does not alter immune cell function.” Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 138 (1), 286-289. e9 (2016)

A Abdel-Gadir, TA Chatila. “B cells.” (Chapter) Global Atlas of Allergy, 62-63 (2014)

Oliver T Burton, Stephanie L Logsdon, Joseph S Zhou, Jaciel Medina-Tamayo, Azza Abdel-Gadir, Magali Noval Rivas, Kyle J Koleoglou, Talal A Chatila, Lynda C Schneider, Rima Rachid, Dale T Umetsu, Hans C Oettgen. “Oral immunotherapy induces IgG antibodies that act through FcγRIIb to suppress IgE-mediated hypersensitivity.” Journal of allergy and clinical immunology 134 (6), 1310-1317. e6 (2014)