Prof. Ali Fattom

Dr. Ali Fattom was born In Nahef village in the upper Galilee, Palestine. He attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem majoring in Biology, Tel-Aviv university for his Master’s degree in Microbiology, and Hebrew university for his PhD in microbial Ecology in 1983. Before joining the NIH in 1987, Dr. Fattom held an assistant professor in the Life Sciences Department at BirZeit University, Birzeit, Palestine. He joined the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD spent a 7 years tenure in vaccine research.  

Dr. Fattom joined Nabi Biopharmaceuticals in 1991, to lead a bacterial vaccines development franchise. His work on Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis and developing a protective vaccine against this pathogen is well recognized in the field.  Nicotine vaccine, a second lead vaccine invented and developed by Dr. Fattom for smoking cessation was also developed through phase II clinical trials.  

In 2011, Dr. Fattom joined the U of Michigan spin off biotechnology company Bluewillow Biologics, previously known as NanoBio Corp., as a Sr. VP of vaccine research and development.  And in 2012 Dr. Fattom became an Adjunct professor at the Nanotechnology Institute, the University of Michigan.  His efforts are focused on developing intranasal vaccines against respiratory (Flu, RSV, Anthrax, and Pertussis), and sexually transmitted (Genital herpes HSV2, Chlamydia, and HIV) diseases using NanoStatTM , a nanotechnology developed at the University of Michigan. 

Until his retirement August 2021 and for 18 months he was focusing on the fight against COVID-19 by working on development of an intranasal COVID-19 vaccine that has the potential to prevent viral infection, colonization, and shedding-spreading, thus breaking the cycle of viral transmission and the spread of the virus from person to person.  

He authored >80 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and >30 issued patents. He is a scientific reviewer for NIAID and NIDA grant applications and a reviewer for several journals including Vaccine, Infection and Immunity, Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, and NPJ Vaccine.