Courtesy of KAATSU Global, Huntington Beach, California.
David Alleva, Ph.D. swam competitively as a child and teenager in Virginia. As one of the top high school swimmers in America, he then went on to represent Indiana University at the NCAA level while majoring in biology and training under International Swimming Hall of Fame coach Doc Counsilman. He culminated his lengthy swimming career on the professional marathon swimming circuit while obtaining his Ph.D. in immunology.
Dr. Alleva had 12 research papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals during his Ph.D. candidacy, a highly unusual achievement. Incredibly, he studied, researched and published about immunology while at the same time training for and winning some highly competitive professional marathon races including the 36.2 km Atlantic City Swim Around the Island around Absecon Island in New Jersey in 8 hours 5 minutes in 1989 and the 36 km Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli in 6 hours 57 minutes in 1990 at the age of 26.
Ultimately, Dr. Alleva was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Swimmer in its Class of 1992.
Over the next 30 years, Dr. Alleva went on to become a scientific leader in drug discovery and the development of immunotherapeutics and vaccines in several biopharmaceutical companies. During his illustrious scientific career, he has published over 30 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and developed one of the first antigen-specific immunotherapeutic clinical candidates for Type 1 diabetes. He is currently the Executive Director of immunotherapeutics at Akston Biosciences.
In today’s WOWSA Live interview with Steven Munatones, Dr. Alleva talks about vaccine development, differences, benefits and risks – a very timely topic while Americans battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information on his work at Akston Biosciences located in Beverly, Massachusetts, visit www.akstonbio.com.
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