Rate My Professor Rosangela Mezghanni

Rosangela Mezghanni, PhD, serves as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, within the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health. She earned a B.Sc. in Medical Analysis from Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Brazil, in 1987; a Diplome d'Etudes Approfondie in Microbiology from Paris Descartes University, France, in 1994; and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Paris Descartes University in 1999. Dr. Mezghanni joined the Center for Vaccine Development in 2000 as a postdoctoral fellow and advanced to her current faculty position, accumulating over 20 years of experience in clinical immunology studies.

Her primary research interests lie in human translational immunology, focusing on innate and adaptive immune responses to gastrointestinal pathogens such as Salmonella Typhi, Shigella, and toxigenic E. coli. Dr. Mezghanni examines the activation, expansion, and epigenetic modifications of innate-like T cells in response to vaccination and infection. Central to her work is a patented multicellular three-dimensional organotypic model of human intestinal mucosa (US Patent No. 9,200,258, issued December 1, 2015), co-invented with Alessio Fasano and Marcelo B. Sztein, which replicates intestinal epithelial differentiation and facilitates analysis of host-pathogen interactions, antigen trafficking, and inflammation. She has directed immunological components of clinical trials for vaccines against typhoid and tularemia under Good Laboratory Practice standards, with expertise in flow cytometry and mucosal immunology. Key publications under her maiden name Salerno-Goncalves include "Crosstalk between leukocytes triggers differential immune responses against Salmonella enterica Serovars Typhi and Paratyphi" (PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2019), "Differential functional patterns of memory CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells from volunteers immunized with Ty21a typhoid vaccine observed using a recombinant Escherichia coli system expressing S. Typhi proteins" (Vaccine, 2020), "Vaccine-related major cutaneous reaction size correlates with cellular-mediated immune responses after tularaemia immunisation" (Clinical & Translational Immunology, 2021), and "Early Host Immune Responses in a Human Organoid-Derived Gallbladder Monolayer to Salmonella Typhi Strains from Patients with Acute and Chronic Infections: A Comparative Analysis" (Frontiers in Immunology, 2024). Dr. Mezghanni mentors pre- and postdoctoral fellows and teaches courses in Immunology and Vaccinology. She has presented seminars on trained immunity and epigenetic memory in innate immune cells.