Shady Younis
Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor EBVio
Dr. Shady Younis is a translational scientist and entrepreneur bringing over 15 years of cross-disciplinary expertise in immunology, virology, and computational biology. Holding MSc and PhD degrees in Medical Science from Uppsala University, he is a co-founder and Scientific Advisor at Ebvio and a co-founder of ZedCe Medicals. Dr. Younis’s research has fundamentally elucidated the host factors essential for the replication of nuclear-replicating human viruses, such as HIV, HSV, and adenoviruses. Building on this foundation during his fellowship at Stanford University, he developed a novel EBV-sequencing platform that allows for the direct identification and high-resolution molecular characterization of EBV-infected B cells in autoimmune diseases. An inventor on multiple diagnostic and therapeutic patents, he leads cross-functional translational programs designed to rapidly advance biological insights into novel small-molecule and biologic therapies for autoimmune and virus-driven pathologies.
Seminars
Examine how antigens are processed and presented within the immune system, to clarify why some resulting epitopes promote tolerance while others provoke an inflammatory response, and build a shared understanding of the biology underpinning antigen selection to inform strategic disease selection.
This session will:
- Review the criteria currently used to identify a disease-relevant antigens
- Establish what distinguishes a well-characterized target from one that remains poorly understood
- Delineate which indications have the most studied and understood biological mechanisms, to critically assess antigen choices across different ASIT technologies
- Discuss how this underlying biology connects to mechanism-of-action of a drug in the clinic, to later develop more technical discussions in a common foundation, and prepare attendees to engage more critically with the antigen-specific sessions that follow
- Reviewing emerging evidence linking Epstein-Barr virus and other viral infections to autoimmune disease onset to understand their role in disease initiation and identify opportunities for earlier disease interception
- Examining how viral and self-antigens cross-react through molecular mimicry to reveal mechanisms driving autoimmunity and identify disease-relevant targets for antigen-specific therapies
- Evaluating whether viral exposure histories and cross-reactive immune signatures can identify at-risk individuals before clinical disease develops
