ProfessorMohamed Shamji

Professor Shamji completed his clinical scientist fellowship training in clinical immunology at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London, United Kingdom (UK) in 2004. He then pursued his interest in translational research and completed his PhD studies in allergy and clinical immunology at the National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK in 2010. He established his research group (Immunomodulation and Tolerance group) within Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Imperial College London.

Professor Shamji has a specific interest in type 2 inflammation and immune tolerance in the context of upper airway (i.e. allergic rhinitis and chronic rhinosinusitis), lower airway (i.e. asthma) and food allergies. Research within his group spans across three key areas that include basic science, translational science and data science, covering all areas from discovery, pre-clinical studies and clinical trial or real-world evidence studies. Furthermore, his research encompasses around the use of big data utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to allow data integration to uncover mechanism and biomarkers of allergen specific immunotherapy (AIT). A large variety of discovery and biomarker technological platforms are available in-house within his research group to enable end-to-end research investigations.

The prolific nature of his group has resulted in imperative discoveries and findings that include:
- iTR35, SATB1- Tregs and CD52+ Tregs in allergy and following AIT
- ILC2s and IL-10+ ILC2s in allergy and following AIT
- Epigenetic changes in Tfh and Tfr following SCIT and SLIT
- Bregs in SCIT and SLIT

Through academic, pharmaceutical and biotech collaborations, pre-clinical and experimental medicine studies within his research group have allowed progression of various therapeutic approaches to different clinical stages:
- Viral-like particles expressing Ara h 2 as a novel approach of peanut immunotherapy (Phase 1 adaptive trial design)
- Short-course of mix grass with micro crystalline tyrosine for AIT (Phase 2 to Phase 3)
- Peptide immunotherapy (Phase 1a to Phase 3)
- Anti-Fel d 1 monoclonal antibodies for passive AIT (First-in-human studies)
- Peanut allergy trial: The Boiled Oral Peanut Immunotherapy (BOPI) and SOCMA (in collaboration with Professor Adnan Custovic and Dr Paul Turner)
- Grass pollen AIT trial: Grass immunotherapy plus dupilumab for tolerance evaluate (GRADUATE) (in collaboration with Professor Stephen Durham)
- Asthma Trial: Preventing childhood Asthma using Prophylactic house dust mite Allergen immunotherapy (PAPA trial) (in collaboration with Professor Hasan Arshad)

Research within Professor Shamji’s group is currently funded by multiple academic grants from National Institute of Health (NIH, USA), UK charities and research councils (NIHR and MRC) and various external grants from leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Throughout the years, his research has resulted in a substantial number of peer-reviewed publications in high impact journals that includes Immunity, JAMA, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Allergy, with over 13,000 overall citations throughout the years. Professor Shamji currently acts as co-editor-in-chief for the Clinical Experimental Allergy, Journal of British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. He also serves as an editorial board member for Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), European Allergy and Clinical Immunology (Allergy) and an associate editor for Clinical and Translational Allergy (CTA).

In parallel to his commitment as a principal investigator and head of Immunomodulation and Tolerance Group, Professor Shamji is internationally renowned and holds various international and national positions. He currently serves as the Secretary-General (2024-2026) for European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (EAACI), a non-profit organisation with over 16,000 members across 125 countries and 32 patients organisation over several million patients in EU and UK He also acted as past Vice-President of Congresses of EAACI (2022-2024) and chair of EAACI Research and Outreach Committee (2020-2022) and Immunotherapy Interest Group (2019-2020). Additionally, he has been an AAAAI international Fellow since 2014 and a committee member for the Immunotherapy, Allergen Standardization and Allergy Diagnostic interest section (IASAD) (2011-present) and Immunotherapy, Rhinitis, Sinusitis, Ocular allergy and Cough (IRSOC) (2015-). He represents basic science on the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) annual meeting programme planning committee. He was invited to become a senior affiliate member of Royal College of Physicians.

In recognition of his expertise in the field of allergen immunotherapy mechanisms/biomarkers, he was made the recipient of AeDA Award from the German Allergy Society in 2021 and PhARF Award in 2018, the latter being regarded as the most prestigious award in allergy. Moreover, he has been invited to speak at plenary, keynote, symposia and expert discussion sessions and workshops at the European Academy Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), American Academy Asthma Allergy and Immunology (AAAAI) and the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology as well as industry-sponsored meetings.