Ashraf Ibrahim

Dr. Ibrahim is a Professor at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a Senior Investigator and Vice Chair of BOD of Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA Biomed). He received his Ph.D degree in Microbial Physiology in 1991 from Loughborough University of Technology, UK.
Dr. Ibrahim completed his Postdoctoral training in Infectious Diseases at LA Biomed. His current 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 and diagnostic strategies to combat Infectious Diseases. His laboratory represents a leading group in mucormycosis research in which they established genetic manipulation of Rhizopus (the most common cause of infection), developed clinically relevant animal models of infection and pioneered the discovery of novel therapies in treating the disease. He is constantly invited to National and International Conferences to lecture on mucormycosis and coauthors the Mucormycosis Chapter in ‘Harrison’s Principle of Internal Medicine’ since 2012. Currently, his laboratory is leading the effort in developing immunotherapy and rapid diagnostics for this lethal fungal infection through STTR/SBIR funding mechanisms to Vitalex Biosciences, a company that he founded in 2013.
Dr. Ibrahim is also a leading figure in developing a vaccine that targets healthcare-related infections caused by multidrug resistant pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter and Candida. For his efforts in this field and in collaboration with NovaDigm Therapeutics (a spinoff company that he cofounded for vaccine development), Dr. Ibrahim was recently awarded a $ 5.5 million R01grant to manufacture a dual antigen vaccine.
The Ibrahim’s laboratory was, and continues to be, instrumental in the preclinical development programs of several antibiotics/small molecules advanced by industry (e.g. Merck, Astellas Pharma, Gilead, Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Cidara and A6 Pharmaceuticals, etc). These efforts range from development of antifungal agents, to targeting multidrug resistant Gram-negative sepsis.
Dr. Ibrahim currently holds several NIH and industry sponsored projects and has received over $20 million in funding for his research. He coauthored more than 150 peer-reviewed research papers, review articles and book chapters and serves as an Ad Hoc reviewer of numerous peer-reviewed Journals and NIH study sections.