Dr. Zahed Khatooni is a computational immunologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), where he focuses on designing vaccines and antivirals using advanced computational techniques and immunoinformatics. His research involves developing platforms and tools to identify antigenic proteins or their fragments for effective vaccine development.
Dr. Khatooni earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacy from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a Master’s in Medical Biochemistry from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, and a Bachelor’s in Biology from Urmia University. His postdoctoral fellowship at VIDO has been instrumental in translating computational research into practical applications for vaccine development. He also has three years of experience as a course instructor at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences.
In addition to his computational expertise, Dr. Khatooni has extensive experience in wet lab research, allowing him to bridge experimental and theoretical approaches in vaccine design. His work integrates molecular biology, immunological assays, and computational simulations to develop innovative solutions for infectious disease prevention.
Dr. Khatooni's work is at the forefront of computational vaccine design, bridging theoretical chemistry with practical biomedical applications to ensure the safety and efficacy of vaccines against infectious diseases.
Research Interests
- T and B cell epitope discovery
- Protein-protein interactions in immune responses
- Molecular dynamics simulation in vaccine development
- Molecular dynamics simulation to explore immune system dynamics
- Computational tools for vaccine-antigen discovery
- Antiviral agent discovery
- Interactions between adjuvants and vaccines
- Role of flexible or rigid linkers in the effectiveness of vaccine constructs
- Quantum-driven vaccine design, leveraging both quantum mechanics and quantum computing
Current Projects
- Identifying common Swine Leukocyte Antigens (SLAs) in Canadian pig populations to enhance vaccine development
- Working on developing vaccines and antivirals against both viral and bacterial pathogens with five current projects in collaboration with VIDO PIs
- Developing a fast and reliable platform for antigen design for Pig's SLA