Dr. Shirwan is Professor of Child Health and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. He obtained his PhD from the University of California in Santa Barbara, CA, and performed postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. Dr. Shirwan served on the Faculty of various academic institutions in the United States, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, Alleghany University of Health Science, Philadelphia, PA, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Dr. Shirwan pioneered the concept of transient and positional display of immunological ligands on the surface of cells and tissues as a safe and practical alternative to gene therapy for localized immunomodulation with applications to transplantation tolerance, autoimmunity, and cancer immunoprevention and immunotherapy. Dr. Shirwan is an inventor on over a dozen of issued patents, widely published, organized and lectured at numerous national/international conferences. He has continuously been funded by federal and non-federal funding agencies and serves on the editorial board of various scientific journals.