I received my Ph.D. from the Institute for Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen–Nurnberg, Germany. During my doctoral training, I established a novel gene therapy platform and developed an oral vaccine against listeriosis using genetically engineered Salmonella. I subsequently applied this platform during my postdoctoral fellowship at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, California, to develop a Salmonella-based cancer vaccine. Currently, I am an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Translational Research and Cellular Therapeutics at the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute (AR-DMRI), Beckman Research Institute (BRI), City of Hope National Medical Canter, California. My research focuses on the development of oral Salmonella-based vaccines for the treatment and prevention of autoimmune diseases, particularly type 1 diabetes (T1D). I have worked with this vaccination platform for more than 25 years and have successfully developed an oral Salmonella-based vaccine that prevents and treats autoimmune diabetes in animal models. Throughout my career, my overarching goal has been to develop innovative vaccine-based strategies to prevent and treat disease, with a particular emphasis on restoring immune tolerance and combating autoimmune disorders such as T1D.