Mona O. Mohsen

About

My research interest is focused on cancer immunology/immunotherapy. Specifically, I work on developing therapeutic cancer vaccines, immune-enhancers, checkpoint-inhibitors and other immunotherapeutic approaches for different solid tumours such as breast cancer, melanoma and head/neck carcinoma. I work with virus-like nanoparticles (VLPs) as an efficient platform for vaccine development. Designing and developing universal and also personalised cancer vaccines are of high-interest. I have provided proof-of-concepts (PoCs) for effective therapeutic cancer vaccines and immune-enhancers in different preclinical murine models. I have been awarded several funding grants allowing to finance my own research group. I have also worked during my postdoc period on developing vaccines against infectious diseases such as MERS, Dengue and SARS-CoV-2. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been appointed as the head of corona-preclinical development team in Prof. Bachmann's lab where I worked and led the group with great enthusiasm and published several papers, several of them as corresponding author.

Employment

• University of Bern Group Leader
  2019 - Present

Education

• University of Oxford PhD
  2015 - 2018
• Qatar University Master in Biomedical Research
  2013 - 2015

Projects & Funding

• Personalized, antigen-directed immunotherapy delivered to lymph nodes National Institutes of Health
  2023 - 2027
• Preclinical efficacy of a personalized therapeutic vaccine to prevent postoperative metastases in mammary carcinoma Jubiläumsstiftung von Swiss Life
  2023 - 2024
• Nanoparticle Trafficking in Trees Visualized by Virus-Like Particles Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
  2023 - 2025
• Intratumor immunotherapy using TLR7/8 loaded nanoparticles formulated with an inflammasome activating micron-sized particulate adjuvant (MCT) in solid murine tumor models Swiss Cancer League
  2021 - 2024
• Development and exploration of a novel personalized breast-cancer vaccine based on virus-like particles by incorporating tumor- specific T-cell epitopes Qatar Foundation
  2019 - 2021

Publications (70)

• Probing novel epitopes on the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein for vaccine development
  npj Vaccines 2024 DOI: 10.1038/s41541-024-01006-8
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• Correction: Rothen et al. Preclinical Evaluation of Novel Sterically Optimized VLP-Based Vaccines against All Four DENV Serotypes. Vaccines 2024, 12, 874
  Vaccines 2024 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines12101189
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• Preclinical Evaluation of Novel Sterically Optimized VLP-Based Vaccines against All Four DENV Serotypes
  Vaccines 2024 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines12080874
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• Green Routes: Exploring Protein-Based Virus-like Nanoparticle Transport and Immune Activation in Nicotiana benthamiana for Biotechnological Applications
  Vaccines 2024 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines12080831
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• Regulation of pulmonary plasma cell responses during secondary infection with influenza virus
  Journal of Experimental Medicine 2024 DOI: 10.1084/jem.20232014
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• Identifying Key Drivers of Efficient B Cell Responses: On the Role of T Help, Antigen-Organization, and Toll-like Receptor Stimulation for Generating a Neutralizing Anti-Dengue Virus Response
  Vaccines 2024 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines12060661
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• A tetravalent nanovaccine that inhibits growth of HPV-associated head and neck carcinoma via dendritic and T cell activation
  iScience 2024 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109439
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• Intranodal Injection of Immune Activator Demonstrates Antitumor Efficacy in an Adjuvant Approach
  Vaccines 2024 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines12040355
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• On the role of antibody affinity in the IgE mediated allergic response
  2023 DOI: 10.22541/au.167997965.58090746/v1
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• The next generation virus-like particle platform for the treatment of peanut allergy.
  Allergy 2023 DOI: 10.1111/all.15704
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• Alzheimer's Disease: A Brief History of Immunotherapies Targeting Amyloid β.
  International journal of molecular sciences 2023 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24043895
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• Vaccination using mutated receptor binding domains of SARS-CoV-2: Evidence for partial immune escape but not serotype formation.
  Frontiers in immunology 2023 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1114396
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• Emerging COVID-19 variants and their impact on SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, therapeutics and vaccines.
  Annals of medicine 2022 DOI: 10.1080/07853890.2022.2031274
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• In situ delivery of nanoparticles formulated with micron-sized crystals protects from murine melanoma.
  Journal for immunotherapy of cancer 2022 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2022-004643
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• Virus-like particle vaccinology, from bench to bedside.
  Cellular & molecular immunology 2022 DOI: 10.1038/s41423-022-00897-8
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• Virus-Like Particles Are Efficient Tools for Boosting mRNA-Induced Antibodies.
  Frontiers in immunology 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.864718
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• Increased Receptor Affinity and Reduced Recognition by Specific Antibodies Contribute to Immune Escape of SARS-CoV-2 Variant Omicron.
  Vaccines 2022 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10050743
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• Increased receptor affinity of SARS-CoV-2: a new immune escape mechanism.
  NPJ vaccines 2022 DOI: 10.1038/s41541-022-00479-9
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• Intranasal administration of a virus like particles-based vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern.
  Allergy 2022 DOI: 10.1111/all.15311
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• Increased receptor affinity and reduced recognition by specific antibodies contribute to immune escape of SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron
  2022 DOI: 10.1101/2022.03.11.483934
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