Wail M. Hassan, Ph.D, M(ASCP)CM

Professor
Department(s) of Biomedical Sciences
Section: Microbiology
UMKC School of Medicine
816-235-6478
hassanwm@umkc.edu
M3-417
Education and Background

B.Sc. - Microbiology - Alexandria University, Egypt
Ph.D. - Microbiology - The University of Southern Mississippi
Pg.D. - Parasitology and Medical Entomology - High Institute of Public Health / Alexandra University, Egypt

Meet Wail Hassan
Biography

Dr. Hassan is an associate teaching professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at UMKC School of Medicine. He has been maintaining certification in microbiology by the American Society for Clinical Pathology since 1997. Before joining UMKC, he was an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Before then he completed his postdoctoral training at University of Colorado at Boulder, Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences (National Naval Medical Center), and University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Hassan’s doctoral dissertation focused on developing a multivariate statistical approach to predicting sources of fecal contamination based on the DNA fingerprints of enteric bacteria.

Specialties and Research/Medical Interests

Autism spectrum disorder, multivariate immune profiling

Research Focus

Dr. Hassan laboratory is interested in (1) applications of multivariate immune profiling in infectious disease and (2) biomarkers of autism spectrum disorder.

Multivariate immune profiling: Numerous, diverse cell types orchestrate immune surveillance and responses. At any point of time, many of these cells are relentlessly communicating with each other and with other cell types. Such communications are made possible by a constantly changing, intricately regulated, and enormously diversified collection of immune modulators and receptors that are under the control of multiple signaling pathways and recycling programs. In order to protect the host against invading infectious agents and harmful neoplasms, the immune system must recognize danger and swiftly eliminate it. However, it is equally important to contain the immune response to limit collateral damage often inflected on host tissues and prevent chronic immune activation and autoimmunity. In brief, the system is enormously complex. Our research aims to employ this complexity to create meaningful profiles, or immunological signatures. To better understand, diagnose, and manage infectious diseases and immunological disorders, it is imperative to distinguish the immunological signature associated with relevant states of health and disease. Some of these signatures are as simple as a titer of neutralizing antibodies induced by a vaccine or natural infection (e.g. hepatitis B, tetanus, and diphtheria). However, other diseases are more complex (e.g. HIV), so much so that correlates of immune protection remain poorly defined, and the mere presence of high titers of neutralizing antibodies is not consistently protective against various strains of the virus. Furthermore, immunological signatures may be used as a prognostic tool if a well-defined signature is linked to a specific outcome. To decipher meaningful immune profiles in complex disorders that often culminate in different unexpected outcomes (e.g. sepsis), we use multivariate data analysis to combine multiple analytes into one profile.

Biomarkers of autism spectrum disorder: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects one out of each 160 children worldwide, and one out of 68 children in the United States. Although, currently, there is no known curative therapy for ASD, early intervention often results in significant improvements in the quality of life of those affected by the disease. Effective biomarkers are essential for the early diagnosis of ASD and may even help better understand the disorder, its categories, and the mechanisms underlying its pathogenesis. To date, there is no consensus on what biomarkers to use, despite years of active research. Our goal is to design multivariate biomarkers that are able to augment current diagnostic strategies and make early detection of ASD a reality.

Selected Publications
  1. Wail M. Hassan, Abeer Al-Dbass, Laila Al-Ayadhi, Ramesa Shafi Bhat, Afaf El-Ansary*. (2022) Discriminant analysis and binary logistic regression enable more accurate prediction of autism spectrum disorder than principal component analysis. Scientific Reports, 12:3764 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07829-6.
  2. Solaiman M. Al-Hadlaq, Hanan A. Balto, Wail M. Hassan, Najat A. Marraiki, and Afaf El-Ansary*. (2022) Biomarkers of non-communicable chronic disease: an update on contemporary methods. PeerJ, 10:e12977 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12977.
  3. Jing Hu*, Guorong Chen, Wail M. Hassan, Jianbin Lan, Wantong Si, Wei Wang, Guixing Li, and Guozhen Du*. (2021) The impact of fertilization intensity on soil nematode communities in a Tibetan Plateau grassland ecosystem. Applied Soil Ecology, 170: 104262, published online 10/14/2021.
  4. Anna Curtis*, Christian C. Lamb, Wail M. Hassan, and John W. Foxworth. (2020) Brevibacillus laterosporus bacteremia in an adult. Cureus, 12(9): e10481. doi:10.7759/cureus.10481.
  5. Anjana Sasidharan, Wail M. Hassan, Christopher J. Harrison, Ferdaus Hassan, Rangaraj Selvarangan*. (2020) Host Immune Response to Enterovirus and Parechovirus Systemic Infections in Children. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 7(8): ofaa261. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa261. eCollection 2020 Aug.
  6. Rania Shaker M. Labban, Hanan Al-Fawaz, Ahmed T. Almnaizel, Wail M. Hassan, Ramesa Shafi Bhat, Nadine M. S. Moubayed, Geir Bjørklund, and Afaf El-Ansary*. (2020) High-fat diet-induced obesity and impairment of brain neurotransmitter pool. Translational Neuroscience, Vol. 11:1-14
  7. Afaf El-Ansary, Wail M. Hassan, Maha Daghestani, Laila Ayadhi, and Abir Ben Bacha. (2020)Preliminary evaluation of a novel nine-biomarker profile for the prediction of autism spectrum disorder. PLOS ONE (accepted 1/6/2020 [PONE-D-19-27381R1])
  8. Jing Hu, Wail M. Hassan, Guorong Chen, Yanlin Li, Wenqiao Fan, and Wei Wang. (2019) Yaks and sheep trigger different changes in the grasshopper assemblages of the Qilian Mountains via differentially altering plant assemblages. Ecological Entomology, Vol. 44: 800-809.
  9. Wail M. Hassan, Gregory F. Burton, Gabriella A. Pinter, Istvan G. Lauko, Mackenzie Johnson, and Nader N. Mahdi. (2019) Multivariate profiling of African green monkey and rhesus macaque T lymphocytes. Scientific Reports, Vol. 9(1):4834-4848.
  10. Kathryn Cooper, Wail M. Hassan, and Hesham H. Ali. (2019) Identification of temporal network changes in short-course gene expression from Caenorhabditis elegans reveals structural volatility. International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design, Vol. 12(2):171-187.
  11. Wail M. Hassan, Laila Al-Ayadhi, Geir Bjørklund, Altaf Alabdali, Salvatore Chirumbolo, and Afaf El-Ansary. (2018) The use of multi-parametric biomarker profiles may increase the accuracy of ASD prediction. Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, Vol. 66(1): 85-101.
  12. Jing Hu and Wail M. Hassan. (2017) The impact of herbivore grazing intensity on soil nematode communities and microbial biomass on the Tibetan Plateau. Russian Journal of Nematology, Vol. 25(1): 37-50.
  13. Jing Hu, Guorong Chen, Wail M. Hassan, Han Chen, Junyong Li, and Guozhen Du. (2017) Fertilization influences the nematode community through changing the plant community in the Tibetan Plateau. European Journal of Soil Biology, Vol. 78: 7-16.
  14. Afaf El-Ansary, Wail M. Hassan, Hanan Qasem, and Undurti N. Das. (2016) Identification of biomarkers of impaired sensory profiles among autistic patients. PLOS ONE, Vol. 11(11): e0164153.
  15.  Wail M. Hassan, Vishantie Dostal, Brady N. Huemann, John E Yerg, and Christopher D. Link. (2015)Identifying Ab-specific pathogenic mechanisms using a nematode model of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging, Vol. 36(2): 857-866.
  16. Wail M. Hassan, David A. Merin, Virginia Fonte, and Christopher D. Link. (2009) AIP-1 ameliorates β-amyloid peptide toxicity in a Caenorhabditis elegans Alzheimer’s disease model. Human Molecular Genetics, Vol. 18(15): 2739-2747.
  17. Mathew Eberly, Muhamuda Kader, Wail Hassan, Kenneth A. Rogers, Jianzhong Zhou, Yvonne Mueller, Mary Mattapallil, Michael Piatak, Jr., Jeffrey D. Lifson, Peter D. Katsikis, Mario Roederer, Francois Villinger, and Joseph J. Mattapallil. (2009) IL-15 induced upregulation of CD4 is the primary cause for increased permissibility to SIV during acute infection. Journal of Immunology, Vol. 182(3): 1439-1448.
  18. Muhamuda Kader, Wail M. Hassan, Mathew Eberly, Michael Piatak, Jeffrey D. Lifson, Mario Roederer, and Joseph J. Mattapallil. (2008) Anti-retroviral therapy prior to acute viral replication preserves CD4 T cells in the periphery but not in rectal mucosa during acute simian immunodeficiency virus infection. Journal of Virology, Vol. 82(22): 11467-11471.
  19. Wail M. Hassan, Rudolph D. Ellender, and Shiao Y. Wang. (2007) Fidelity of bacterial source tracking: Escherichia coli vs Enterococcus spp and minimizing assignment of isolates from non-library sources. Journal of Applied Microbiology, Vol. 102: 591-598.
  20. Sherif M. Karam, Wail M. Hassan, and Rony John. (2005) Expression of Retinoid Receptor in Multiple Cell Lineages in the Gastric Mucosae of Mice and Humans. Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Vol. 20(12): 1892-1899.
  21. Wail M. Hassan, Shiao Y. Wang, and Rudolph D. Ellender. (2005) Methods to Increase Fidelity of Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic PCR Fingerprint-Based Bacterial Source Tracking Efforts. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 71(1):512-8.
  22. Sherif M. Karam, Timothy Straiton, Wail M. Hassan, and Charles Philippe Leblond. (2003) Defining Epithelial Cell Progenitors in the Human Oxyntic Mucosa. Stem Cells, Vol. 21 (3):322-36.