Faculty

Dr. Jose Rey-Ladino
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
College of Medicine
Alfaisal University
Riyadh, KSA

Email: jladino@alfaisal.edu
Tel : +(966-1) 215-7654 office

Education:
Ph.D (Microbiology and Immunology)	1996	University of British Columbia, Canada
Ph.D (Parasitology)	1982	Saint Petersburg Veterinary Institute, Russia
B.Sc (Biology)	1976	University of Los Andes, Colombia

Awards and Honors

Young Investigator Award, American Association of Clinical Investigation, USA
Young Investigator Award, American Federation of Clinical Research, USA
Research Fellow, the World Health Organization (WHO), Switzerland
Research Fellow, The Russian Agreement on Cultural Exchange, Russia
Institute for Health Research Fellowship, Canada

Appointments

Research Associate, International Centre for Tropical Medicine, Colombia 1983
Post-Doctoral Fellow, BC Cancer Research Centre, Canada 1996
Senior Research Associate, BC Cancer Research Centre, Canada 1999
Research Scientist, University of British Columbia CDC, Canada 2002
Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow, Griffith University, Australia 2008
Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia 2011-present

Research Interests

Vaccines that protect against intracellular infections such as malaria and Leishmania and Chlamydia require strong cellular responses based on T cells in addition to antibodies. Dendritic cells are important immune cells that express many pattern recognition receptors and are remarkable effective at processing and presenting antigens to naïve T cells. My research explores these unique properties of dendritic cells to design vaccines that target intra cellular infections. This approach includes the identification of protective vaccine candidate antigens, optimization of vaccine adjuvants and implementation of innovative vaccine delivery systems. Experimental vaccines based on dendritic cell approaches have been demonstrated to be highly efficient and promise to rationalize the way vaccines are prepared.

Current Projects

A novel approach to Chlamydia trachomatis vaccine development: targeting vaccines to dendritic cells (DCs) in vivo. This study intends to prepare vaccines that target specific DCs subsets in vivo. Antibodies recognizing DCs populations are conjugated to Chlamydia antigens and delivered together with adjuvants in a vaccine. This vaccine would trigger an immune response based on CD4+ and/or CD8+ T cells depending on the DCs groups targeted. The project has been submitted to the Natural Health and Medical Research Council of Australia for funding, 2012.
Identification of novel vaccine adjuvants within a collection of natural products. This study intends to identify vaccine adjuvants within collections of natural products. It is based on the ability of adjuvants to induce immunogenicity of dendritic cells. The project is to be submitted to KACTS, Saudi Arabia.
Identification of novel T cell protective antigens from Leishmania major. Using a combination of dendritic cell technology and the genome sequence of L. major, this project proposes to isolate and identify T cell antigens from the surface MHC of dendritic cells infected with Leishmania. To be submitted to KACTS, Saudi Arabia.

Relevant publications:

Rey-Ladino, J. Allen G. Ross, Allan W Cripps, Donald P. McManus and Ronald Quinn, 2011. Natural Products and the search for vaccine adjuvants, Vaccine, 29(38): 6464-71
D.P. McManus, D. J. Gray, Y Li, G. M. Williams, Z. Feng, J. Rey-Ladino, D. Stewart, & A.G. Ross (2010). Schistosomiasis in the People's Republic of China: The Era of the Three Gorges Dam. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 23 (2): 442-466
Jiang, X., Shen, C., Rey-Ladino, J., Yu, H. and Brunham, RC. 2008. Characterization of a dendritic cell line (JAWS II) and bone marrow-derived dendritic cells in Chlamydia antigen presentation and induction of protective immunity. Infection and Immunity, 78(6): 2392-401
Karunakaran, KP., Jose Rey-Ladino, Nikolay Stoynov, Kyra Berg, Caixia Shen, Xiozhou Jiang, Leonard, J. Foster and Robert C. Brunham, 2008. The immune proteome of Chlamydia: discovery and evaluation of novel T cell antigens. Journal of Immunology, 180(4): 2459-65
Rey-Ladino, Jose, Xiaozhou Jiang, Brent Gabel, Caixia Shen and Robert C.Brunham. 2007. Survival of Chlamydia muridarum within dendritic cells. Infection and Immunity, 75(8):3707-14.
Brunham Robert C., and Jose Rey-Ladino, 2005. Immunology of Chlamydia infection: implications for a Chlamydia trachomatis vaccine. Nature Reviews Immunology, 5:149-161
Rey-Ladino, Jose, Koochesfahani KM, Shen C, Brunham RC, 2005. A live and inactivated Chlamydia trachomatis mouse pneumonitis strain induces the maturation of dendritic cells that are phenotypically and immunologically distinct. Infection and Immunity, 73:1568-77.
Reza MM, Jose Rey-Ladino (co-principal), 2003. Faye DL, Shaw D, and Takei, F. Membrane cholesterol regulates LFA-1 function and lipid rafts heterogeneity. Blood ,102:215-22.
Rey-Ladino, Jose, Huber M, Liu L, Damen EJ, Krystal G, Takei F. !999. The SH2-containing inositol-5’-phosphatase, SHIP, enhances LFA-1 (CD11a/CD18)-mediated cell adhesion and defines two signaling pathways for LFA-1 activation. Journal of Immunology, 162: 5792-99.
Rey-Ladino, Jose, Pyszniak A, Takei F, 1988. Dominant-negative effect of the lymphocyte function associated antigen-1 CD18 cytoplasmic domain on leukocyte adhesion to ICAM-1 and fibronectin. Jorunal of Immunology, 160: 3494-3501.

Alfaisal University
Master Plan Video