Dr. Ali Ashkar is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. Ali's first career interest was to become a veterinarian and he received his DVM degree in 1992. Ali began his pursuit of research in 1996, and he completed his Ph.D with Dr. Anne Croy, a world expert in innate immunity at the feto-maternal interface. In 2001, he moved to McMaster University to study innate mucosal immunology with Dr. Ken Rosenthal. In 2003, Ali was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, here at McMaster University, where he established an active lab in innate immunity. Today he has achieved full professorship in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University, and has been named as Canada's Tier 1 Research Chair for Innate Immunity and Natural Killer Cell Function.

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Research Interests:

1 - NK cell biology

2 - IL-15 signaling

3 - Innate immunity

4 - Innate anti-viral and anti-tumor defense

5 - IL-15, obesity and immunometabolism

6 - Humanized mice as an experimental model for human specific disease