People
Research Interests
HIV/AIDS vaccine, SIV/macaque model of AIDS, Phage Display and Antibody Engineering, Virus evolution and escape of antibody responses
About Me
Dr. Ismael Fofana was born in Côte d’Ivoire (Africa). He has a multicultural background with experiences from Africa, Japan and the US. He is currently an Assistant Professor of the Practice at Boston College. He joined Boston College in 2012 as a Research Assistant Professor and became a Visiting Assistant Professor before transitioning to his current position.
He has a Doctorate degree in Genetics – Molecular Virology  from the University of Cocody (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). He worked on his PhD Research Dissertation when he was a research scholar at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St-Louis Missouri, in collaboration with Washington University in St-Louis.
Prior to joining Boston College, he worked for 2 years as a Research Scientist at the Institute for Genetic Medicine in Sapporo (Hokkaido, Japan). Thereafter, he spent over 4 years as a Research Fellow/Research Associate at the New England Primate Research (Harvard Medical School).
Other than Science, he is passionate about sports especially soccer. He is a die-hard Chelsea FC fan.
2012–2016
Research Assistant Professor
Biology department, Boston College
Chestnut Hill, Mass.
2011–2012
Research Associate
Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology
New England Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School
2007–2011
Postdoctoral Research fellow
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
New England Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School
2005–2007
Research scientist
Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University
Sapporo, Japan
2001–2004
Research scholar (Ph.D. Dissertation Research)
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
St. Louis, Missouri
Current Lab Members
Undergraduate Researcher
Undergraduate Researcher
Undergraduate Researcher
Undergraduate Researcher
Undergraduate Researcher
Undergraduate Researcher
Undergraduate Researcher
Undergraduate Researcher
Alumni
- Major: Biochemistry
- Graduation Year: 2022
- BI483 Advance Lab Course: Fall 2021, Spring 2022
- Fofana Lab: Spring 2019 - Spring 2022
- Currently: PhD Student in Biomedical Science at the University of Notre Dame
- Major: Biology, Public Health Minor
- Graduation Year: 2021
- Fofana Lab: Spring 2018
- Currently: MD/MPH Student with a focus on global health at Creighton University School of Medicine
- Major: Biology
- Graduation Year: 2021
- Lab Course: 2020 Fall, 2021 SpringÂ
- Fofana Lab: Spring 2019- Spring 2021
- Currently: Medical Student at SUNY DownstateÂ
- Major: Biology
- Graduation Year: 2020
- Lab Course: 2018 Fall, 2019 Spring, 2020 Spring
- Fofana Lab: Spring 2018- Spring 2020
- Currently: Senior Research Technician at Structural Biology Core, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Major: Biology
- Graduation Year: 2020
- Lab Course: Spring 2019
- Fofana Lab: Spring 2019- Spring 2020
- Currently: EMT
- Major: Biology
- Graduation Year: 2020
- Lab Course: Spring 2019
- Fofana Lab: Spring 2019- Spring 2020
- Currently: Temple Medical SchoolÂ
- Major: Biochemistry
- Graduation Year: 2020
- Lab Course: 2020
- Currently: PhD Student in Medical Informatics at UCLA
- Major: Biochemistry
- Graduation Year: 2019
- Fofana Lab: 2017-2018
- Currently: PhD Student in Medical Informatics at UCLA
- Major: Biology
- Graduation Year: 2019
- BI483 Advance Lab Course: 2018
- Fofana Lab: 2018-2019
- Currently: MD Candidate at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Major: Biochemistry
- Graduation Year: 2019
- BI483 Advance Lab Course: 2019
- Currently: MD Candidate at Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont
- Major: Biology, Economics Minor
- Graduation Year: 2018
- BI483 Advance Lab Course: 2017 Fall
- Fofana Lab: 2018
- Currently: Lab Technician in Rochester Human Immunology Lab at University of Rochester
- Major: BiochemistryÂ
- Graduation Year: 2018
- BI483 Advanced Lab Course: Fall 2016
- Fofana Lab: Spring 2017
- Currently: Medical Student at Drexel University College of Medicine, MS2
- Major: Biochemistry
- Graduation Year: 2017
- BI483 Advanced Lab Course: 2016 January through May
- Fofana Lab: 2016 Summer through 2017 Spring
- Currently: PhD Student in the Junhyong Kim Lab at the University of Pennsylvania
- Major: BiochemistryÂ
- Graduation Year: 2017
- BI483 Advanced Lab Course: 2016
- Fofana Lab: 2016 through 2017
- Currently: Head & Neck Surgery Resident at Albany Medical Center
- Major: Biochemistry, Studio Art Minor
- Graduation Year: 2017
- BI483 Advanced Lab Course: 2016
- Currently: AI Data Scientist, Viridios AI