Khaled Abdelaziz

Assistant Professor of Immunology and Microbiology
Faculty Scholar-Clemson University School of Health Research
Animal and Veterinary Sciences Department

Office: 125 Poole Agricultural Center
Phone: 864-656-0493

Email: khaled2@clemson.edu

Educational Background

Ph.D
Veterinary Medical Science (Immunopathology), Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Canada and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Egypt 2011

MS
Veterinary Medical Science (Pathology), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Egypt 2007

BVSc
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt 2003

Courses Taught

AVS 4140/6140 - Basic Immunology
AVS 4650/6650 - Animal Physiology I
AVS 4670/6670 - Animal Physiology II
AVS 4920 - Creative Inquiry (hands-on learning experience with microbiology techniques)
AVS 8220 - Special Problems
Guest lecturer AVS 8080 - Comparative Nutrition
Guest lecturer AVS 8050 - Seminar

Profile

Dr. Abdelaziz's educational background includes a Ph.D. and postdoctoral training. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Pathobiology at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. Following that, he was appointed as a Research Associate in the same department. Before joining Clemson University, Dr. Abdelaziz gained industry experience in the poultry vaccine field. He worked for two years at Ceva Animal Health Inc. in Canada as an Innovation and Development Scientist. In that role, he was responsible for developing and licensing vaccines against poultry coccidiosis. These vaccines were developed in compliance with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regulations. With his expertise in animal sciences and experience in vaccine development, Dr. Abdelaziz brings valuable knowledge and skills to his role as an Assistant Professor at Clemson University.

Research Interests

My research interests lie in developing novel strategies to promote gut health and prevent enteric bacterial and parasitic infections in poultry.

Dietary supplementation of antibiotic in poultry feed enhances feed efficiency and growth performance and reduce levels of enteric pathogens. However, due to public health concerns about the impact of antibiotic residues on human health and the potential emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, in 2017, FDA regulations banned antibiotics use for growth-promoting purposes across the US. The removal of infeed-antibiotics has resulted in the re-emergence of the well-controlled diseases of poultry, such as necrotic enteritis, consequently leading to their use at therapeutic doses for the treatment of these diseases. The drugs used to treat these diseases during outbreaks are category 1 or 2, which are unfavorable from a “One Health” perspective. Due to these concerns, there is an increased interest in the use of antimicrobial alternatives (such as prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, phytobiotics, essential oil, organic acids, enzymes, vaccines and immunostimulants) to fill this gap.

My current research focuses on developing novel immune-based strategies, including vaccines, immunostimulants, and investigating the potential use of probiotics as an alternative to antibiotics to:
- Promote poultry gut health and immune system development and function.
- Prevent or reduce intestinal colonization of chickens by bacterial pathogens of food
safety concerns, including Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella sp.
- Prevent and control enteric diseases in chickens, including coccidiosis and necrotic
enteritis.

The outcomes of this research will promote the USA’agri-food brand through the production of safe, sustainable, socially responsible, and high-quality poultry products. This research will lessen the impact of the future significant reduction of the use of antibiotics in poultry production, mitigating against the emergence of AMR, responsible for 700,000 annual deaths globally and thereby enhancing consumer confidence in USA poultry products.

Another area of research in my laboratory is to develop Microbial Ecosystem Therapeutics (microbial consortia) for use in the treatment of human campylobacteriosis.

Lab Members

Graduate students:
Mostafa Naguib, PhD
Shreeya Sharma, PhD
Sukhman Kaur. PhD
Ari Bragg, MS
Taylor Hancock, MS

Publications

Book chapters:

Raveendra R. Kulkarni, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Bahram Shojadoost, Jake Astill, Shayan Sharif. Improving Gut Health in Poultry (2019), Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited, Cambridge, CB22 3HJ, UK.

Publications since 2019:
Alizadeh M, Oladokun S, Fletcher C, Boodhoo N, Fazel F, Shojadoost B, Raj S, Zheng J, Abdelaziz K, Sharif S. Evaluating the protective effects of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) 21 ligand, CpG ODN, against necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens. PLoS One. 2025 Mar 13;20(3):e0319404.

Abdellatif DM, El-Sawah AA, Elkady MF, Ali A, Abdelaziz K, Shany SAS. Widespread Detection of Fowl Adenovirus Serotype 2/11 Species D Among Cases of Inclusion Body Hepatitis–Hydropericardium Syndrome in Chickens in Egypt. Microorganisms. 2025; 13(5):1107.

Naguib M, Sharma S, Schneider A, Bragg AJ, Abdelaziz K. A multi-antigen Campylobacter vaccine enhances antibody responses in layer breeders and sustains elevated maternal antibody levels in their offspring. Poult Science 2025;104(4):104898.

Sharma S, Alizadeh M, Pratt S, Stamatikos A, Abdelaziz K. Differential Expression of Key Immune Markers in the Intestinal Tract of Developing Chick Embryos. Veterinary Sciences 2025;12(2):186.

Mostafa Naguib, Shreeya Sharma, Abigail Schneider, Sarah Wehmueller, Khaled Abdelaziz*. Comparative Effectiveness of Various Multi-Antigen Vaccines in Controlling Campylobacter jejuni in Broiler Chickens. Vaccines 2024;12(8):908.

Khaled Abdelaziz, Thandi Nixon, Annie Joye, Hosni Hassan, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Shayan Sharif, Raveendra R. Kulkarni. Modulation of Functional Activity of Heat-Stressed Chicken Macrophages by Poultry-Derived Probiotic Lactobacilli. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 2024,00: 1–12.

Khaled Abdelaziz, Yosra A. Helmy, Alexander Yitbarek, Douglas Hodgins, Tamer A. Sharafeldin, Mohamed S. H. Selim. Advances in Poultry Vaccines: Leveraging Biotechnology for Improving Vaccine Development, Stability, and Delivery. Vaccines 2024,12(2),134.

Seyed Hossien Kairmi, Khaled Abdelaziz, Heidi Spahany, Jake Astill, David Trott, Blake Wang, Alice Wang, John Parkinson, Shayan Sharif. Intestinal microbiome profiles in broiler chickens raised without antibiotics exhibit altered microbiome dynamics relative to conventionally raised chickens. PLoS ONE 2024,19(4):e0301110.

Mohammadali Alizadeh, Bahram Shojadoost, Charlotte Fletcher, Alice Wang, Khaled Abdelaziz, Shayan Sharif. Treatment of chickens with lactobacilli prior to challenge with Clostridium perfringens modifies innate responses and gut morphology. Research in Veterinary Science 2024,172:105241.

Hazem M. Elkholy, Mohamed A. Abdelwahab, Muhammad Naveed, Khaled Abdelaziz, Muhammad Rabnawaz. Food-safe Glycidyl-free Chain Extenders for Polylactide. Green Chemistry 2024,26:3968.

Shreeya Sharma, Raveendra R. Kulkarni, Shayan Sharif, Hosni Hassan, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Scott Pratt, Khaled Abdelaziz. In ovo Feeding of Probiotic Lactobacilli Differentially Alters Expression of Genes Involved in the Development and Immunological Maturation of Bursa of Fabricius in Pre-hatched Chicks. Poultry Science 2024,103(1):103237.

Mohammadali Alizadeh, Sugandha Raj, Bahram Shojadoost, Ayumi Matsuyama, Nitish Boodhoo, Khaled Abdelaziz, Shayan Sharif. In ovo administration of retinoic acid enhances cell-mediated immune responses against an inactivated H9N2 avian influenza virus vaccine. Vaccine 2023,S0264-410X(23)01261-6.

Ahmed H. Abed, Ismail A. Radwan, Ahmed Orabi, Khaled Abdelaziz. The combined effects of probiotic CLOSTAT® and Aviboost® supplement on growth performance, intestinal morphology, and immune response of broiler chickens. German Journal of Veterinary Research 2023,3(3):7-18.

Raveendra R Kulkarni, Carissa Gaghan, Javid Mohammed, Shayan Sharif, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz. Cellular Immune Responses in Lymphoid Tissues of Broiler Chickens Experimentally Infected with Necrotic Enteritis-Producing Clostridium perfringens Strains. Avian Diseases 2023,67(2),186-196.

Carissa Gaghan, Kaitlin Gorrell, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Shayan Sharif, and Raveendra R. Kulkarni. Intracloacal Inoculation of Broiler Chickens with Clostridium perfringens Strains: Evaluation of Necrotic Enteritis Disease Development and Lymphoid Immune Responses. Microorganisms 2023,11(3),771.

Yosra A. Helmy, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Hanan Abd El-Halim Hawwas, Soumya Ghosh, Samar Sami AlKafaas, Mohamed M. M. Moawad, Essa M. Saied, Issmat I. Kassem, Asmaa M. M. Mawad. Antimicrobial resistance and alternatives to antibiotics for control of bacterial infections with an emphasis on foodborne pathogens. Antibiotics 2023,12(2),274.

Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Mankerat Singh, Shayan Sharif, Shreeya Sharma, Raveendra R Kulkarni, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Alexander Yitbarek, Yosra A. Helmy. Intervention strategies to control Campylobacter at different stages of the food chain. Microorganisms 2023,11(1),113.

Raveendra R Kulkarni, Carissa Gaghan, Kaitlin Gorrell, Shayan Sharif, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz. Probiotics as Alternatives to Antibiotics for the Prevention and Control of Necrotic Enteritis in Chickens. Pathogens 2022;11(6):692.

Seyed Hossien Kairmi, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Alexander Yitbarek, Mehdi Sargolzaei, Hedieh Sadeghiisfahani, Jake Astill, Bahram Shojadoost, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Raveendra Kulkarni, John Parkinson, Shayan Sharif. Effects of therapeutic levels of dietary antibiotics on the cecal microbiome composition of broiler chickens. Poultry Science 2022,101(6):101864.

Maxine Ty, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Vanessa Demey, Mathieu Castex, Shayan Sharif, John Parkinson. Performance of distinct microbial based solutions in a Campylobacter infection challenge model in poultry. Animal Microbiome 2022,4:2.

Mohammadali Alizadeh, Jake Astill, Nadiyah Alqazlan, Bahram Shojadoost, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Jegarubee Bavananthasivam, Janan ShojaDoost, Negin Sedeghiisfahani, Shayan Sharif. In ovo co-administration of vitamins (A and D) and probiotic lactobacilli modulates immune responses in broiler chickens. Poultry Science 2022,101:101717.

Bahram Shojadoost, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Nitish Boodhoo, Jake Astill, Seyed Hossein Karimi, Janan Shoja Doost, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Raveendra Kulkarni, Shayan Sharif. Effects of treatment with lactobacilli on necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens. Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins 2022,14(6):1110-1129.

Mohammadali Alizadeh, Bahram Shojadoost, Jake Astill, Nitish Boodhoo, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Raveendra Kulkarni, Shayan Sharif. Necrotic Enteritis in Chickens: A Review of Pathogenesis, Immune Responses and Prevention Focusing on Probiotics and Vaccination. Animal Health Research Review 2021,22:147–162.

Mohammadali Alizadeh, Jegarubee Bavananthasivam, Bahram Shojadoost, Jake Astill, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Nadiyah Alqazlan, Nitish Boodhoo, Janan Shoja Doost, Shayan Sharif. In ovo and oral administration of probiotic lactobacilli modulate cell- and antibody-mediated immune responses in newly hatched chicks. Frontiers in Immunology 2021,12:664387.

Jegarubee Bavananthasivam, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Jake Astill, Nadiyah Alqazlan, Ayumi Matsuyam, Bahram Shojadoost, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Shayan Sharif. The effects of administration of probiotics with Marek’s disease vaccine against challenge with very virulent Marek’s disease virus in chickens. Vaccine 2021,39(17):2424-2433.

Jegarubee Bavananthasivam, Jake Astill, Ayumi Matsuyama-Kato, Khaled TahaAbdelaziz, Bahram Shojadoost, Shayan Sharif. Gut microbiota is associated with protection against Marek's disease virus infection in chickens. Virology 2021,553:122-130.

Bahram Shojadoost, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Janan Shoja Doost, Jake Astill, Shayan Sharif. In ovo inoculation of vitamin A modulates chicken embryo immune functions. Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research 2021,41:20-28.

Nadiyah Alqazlan, Jake Astill, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Éva Nagy, Byram Bridle, Shayan Sharif. Probiotic Lactobacilli Enhance Immunogenicity of an Inactivated H9N2 Influenza Virus Vaccine in Chickens. Viral Immunology 2021,34(2):86-95.

Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Jake Astill, Shayan Sharif. Campylobacter-derived ligands induce cytokine and chemokine expression in chicken macrophages and cecal tonsil mononuclear cells. Veterinary Microbiology 2020,246:108732.

Mohamadali Alizadeh, Bahram Shojadoost, Jake Astill, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Jegarubee Bavananthasivam, Raveendra R. Kulkarni, Shayan Sharif. Effects of in ovo inoculation of multi-strain lactobacilli on cytokine gene expression and antibody-mediated immune responses in chickens. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2020,7:105.

Nadiyah Alqazlan, Mohammadali Alizadeh, Nitish Boodhoo, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, EvaNagy, Byram Bridle, Shayan Sharif. Probiotic Lactobacilli Limit Avian Influenza Virus Subtype H9N2 Replication in Chicken Cecal Tonsil Mononuclear Cells. Vaccines 2020,8:605.

Bahram Shojadoost Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Tamiru Negash Alkie, Alexander Bekele-Yitbarek, Neda Barjesteh, Adrianna Laursen, Trevor K. Smith, Janan Shojadoost, Shayan Sharif. Supplemental dietary selenium enhances immune responses conferred by a vaccine against low pathogenicity avian influenza virus. Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology 2020,227:110089.

Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Jake Astill, Raveendra R.Kulkarni, Leah R. Read Afsaneh Najarian, Jeffrey M. Farber, Shayan Sharif. In vitro assessment of immunomodulatory and anti-Campylobacter activities of probiotic lactobacilli. Scientific Reports 2019,9:17903.

Neda Barjesteh, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Raveendra Kulkarni, and Shayan Sharif. Innate antiviral responses are induced by TLR3 and TLR4 ligands in chicken tracheal epithelial cells: Communication between epithelial cells and macrophages. Virology 2019,534:132-142.

Saeed A. El-Ashram, Shawky M Aboelhadid, Sahar M Gadelhaq, Walid M Arafa, Abdel-Razik H Abdel-Razik, Abohamra S, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz. Oral inoculation ultraviolet-irradiated Eimeria species oocysts protects chickens against coccidiosis. Parasitology Research 2019,118(11):3173-3183.

Tamiru N Alkie, Alexander Yitbarek, Douglas C. Hodgins, Raveendra R Kulkarni, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Shayan Sharif. Development of innate immunity in chicken embryos and newly hatched chicks: A disease control perspective. Avian Pathology 2019,7:1-75.

Bahram Shojadoost, Raveendra R. Kulkarni, Alexander Bekele-Yitbarek, Adrianna Laursen, Khaled Taha-Abdelaziz, Tamiru Negash Alkie, Neda Barjesteh, Wanderly M. Quinteiro-Filho, Trevor K. Smith, Shayan Sharif. Dietary selenium supplementation enhances antiviral immunity in chickens challenged with low pathogenicity avian influenza virus subtype H9N2. Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology 2019,207:62-68.

Links

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Clemson University School of Health Research (CUSHR)
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