David Huw Davies
Associate Professor in Residence, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Co-Director, Adeline Mah Vaccine Research Center
Biography
David Huw Davies, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in Residence and Co-Director of the Adeline Mah Vaccine Research Center in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine. Davies received his Ph.D. in Zoology/Immunology from University College London and completed postdoctoral training in comparative immunology at Texas A&M University and tumor immunology at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Before joining UC Irvine, he served as Senior Lecturer in Immunology at King's College London, where he supervised 11 doctoral students and held grants from the Medical Research Council and other UK funding agencies.
Davies has developed high-throughput proteomic screening technologies for vaccine and diagnostic antigen discovery, including protein microarray platforms that have screened over 25,000 genes from more than 30 pathogens against thousands of sera collected worldwide. His laboratory uses systems immunology approaches, in vivo immunogenicity and efficacy assays, cellular bioassays, and transcriptomics to dissect the cellular and molecular pathways underlying novel adjuvants and combination adjuvants. He has served as principal investigator on grants from NIH/NIAID, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, with vaccine research spanning influenza, Q fever, malaria, orthopoxviruses, human papilloma viruses and other infectious diseases.
Davies has served on numerous NIH study sections since 2010, including COVID-19 rapid response awards, and several vaccine development initiatives. He is a registered expert for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and has been an invited peer reviewer for approximately 30 scientific journals. His work has resulted in over 130 peer-reviewed publications and several patent applications related to vaccine development and diagnostic technologies.
Return to topEducation
- BS in Zoology, University College London, 1980
- PhD in Zoology/Immunology, University College London, 1983
Areas of Expertise
- Vaccine development
- Novel adjuvant screening in preclinical models
- Molecular mechanisms of combination adjuvants
- Single-dose vaccine strategies for variant pathogens
- High throughput vaccine and diagnostic antigen discovery
Recent Publications
- Hernandez-Davies J., Felgner J., Strahsburger E., Laster J., Jain A., Yates T., Silzel E., Assis R., Nakajima R., Jasinskas A., Yeromin A., Pone E.J., Jan S., de la Maza L.M., Liang L., Felgner P., Wagar L.E., Gregory A.E., Davies D.H., “Comparative evaluation of 5 combination adjuvants on immunogenicity and efficacy of approved seasonal influenza vaccines” (opens in new tab), Npj Vaccines, vol. 11, 2026.
- Pone E.J., Felgner J., Hernandez-Davies J., Davies D.H., “The Squalene Oil-in-Water Nanoemulsion Vaccine Carrier AddaVax Potentiates TLR-Induced B-Cell Responses” (opens in new tab), Cytometry Part A, 2026.
- Dollinger E, Hernandez-Davies JE, Felgner J, Jain A, Nie Q, Othy S, Pone E, Davies DH, “Combination adjuvant improves influenza virus immunity by down-regulation of immune homeostasis genes in lymphocytes.” (opens in new tab), Immunohorizons, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. vlae007, 2025.
- Pone E.J., Felgner J., Hernandez-Davies J., Gach J.S., Albin T., Davies D.H., “Detection and Validation of Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin Specific, Cross-Reactive, and Heteroclitic B Cells Induced by a Combination Vaccine Adjuvant” (opens in new tab), Cytometry Part A, vol. 107, pp. 817-836, 2025.
- Felgner J., Hernandez-Davies J.E., Strahsburger E., Silzel E., Nakajima R., Jain A., Laster J., Chiang J.-L., Tsai Y., Felgner P.L., Davies D.H., Liang L., “Lipid Nanoparticle Development for A Fluvid mRNA Vaccine Targeting Seasonal Influenza and SARS-CoV-2” (opens in new tab), Npj Vaccines, vol. 10, 2025.
- Ramirez A., Hernandez-Davies J.E., Jain A., Wang L., Strahsburger E., Davies D.H., Wang S.-W., “Co-Delivery of Multiple Toll-Like Receptor Agonists and Avian Influenza Hemagglutinin on Protein Nanoparticles Enhances Vaccine Immunogenicity and Efficacy” (opens in new tab), Advanced Healthcare Materials, vol. 14, 2025.
- Felgner J, Clarke E, Hernandez-Davies Jenny E., Jan S, Wirchnianski A, Jain A, Nakajima R, Jasinskas A, Strahsberger E, Chandran K, Bradfute S, Davies D.H, “Broad antibody and T cell responses to Ebola, Sudan, and Bundibugyo ebolaviruses using mono- and multi-valent adjuvanted glycoprotein vaccines.” (opens in new tab), Antiviral Research, vol. 225, pp. 105851, 2024.
- JE Davies, M Hwang, E Dollinger, J Felgner, A Jain, Q Nie, S Othy, EJ Pone, DH Davies, “Pandemic preparedness: Addition of TLR agonists CpG+MPLA to emulsified H5 confers protection against H5N1 challenge after a single dose” (opens in new tab), J. Immunol, vol. 210, no. 1_Supplement, pp. 223.23, 2023.
- Hernandez-Davies J. E., Dollinger E, Pone E.J., Felgner J, Strohmeier S, Jan S, Albin T.J., Jain A, Nakajima R, Jasinskas A, Krammer F, Esser-Kahn A, Felgner P. L., Nie Q, Davies D. H., “Magnitude and breadth of antibody cross-reactivity induced by recombinant influenza hemagglutinin trimer vaccine is enhanced by combination adjuvants” (opens in new tab), Scientific Reports, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 9198, 2022.
- Pone, E.J., Hernandez-Davies, J. E., Jan, S., Silzel, E., Felgner, P.L., Davies, D. H., “Multimericity amplifies the synergy of BCR and TLR4 for B cell activation and antibody class-switching” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Immunology, vol. 13, 2021.
- Hernandez-Davies JE, Felgner J, Strohmeier S, Pone EJ, Jain A, Jan S, Nakajima R, Jasinskas A, Strahsburger E, Krammer F, Felgner PL, Davies DH, “Administration of Multivalent Influenza Virus Recombinant Hemagglutinin Vaccine in Combination-Adjuvant Elicits Broad Reactivity Beyond the Vaccine Components” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Immunology, vol. 12, pp. 692151, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- Davies DH, Liang X, Hernandez JE, Randall A, Hirst S, Mu Y, Romero KM, Nguyen TT, Kalantari-Dehaghi M, Crotty S, Baldi P, Villarreal LP, Felgner PL, “Profiling the humoral immune response to infection by using proteome microarrays: high-throughput vaccine and diagnostic antigen discovery” (opens in new tab), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 102, no. 3, pp. 547-52, 2005.
- Davies DH, McCausland MM, Valdez C, Huynh D, Hernandez JE, Mu Y, Hirst S, Villarreal L, Felgner PL, Crotty S, “Vaccinia virus H3L envelope protein is a major target of neutralizing antibodies in humans and elicits protection against lethal challenge in mice” (opens in new tab), Journal of virology, vol. 79, no. 18, pp. 11724-33, 2005.
- Davies DH, Molina DM, Wrammert J, Miller J, Hirst S, Mu Y, Pablo J, Unal B, Nakajima-Sasaki R, Liang X, Crotty S, Karem KL, Damon IK, Ahmed R, Villarreal L, Felgner PL, “Proteome-wide analysis of the serological response to vaccinia and smallpox” (opens in new tab), Proteomics, vol. 7, no. 10, pp. 1678-86, 2007.
- Davies DH, Wyatt LS, Newman FK, Earl PL, Chun S, Hernandez JE, Molina DM, Hirst S, Moss B, Frey SE, Felgner PL, “Antibody profiling by proteome microarray reveals the immunogenicity of the attenuated smallpox vaccine modified vaccinia virus ankara is comparable to that of Dryvax” (opens in new tab), Journal of virology, vol. 82, no. 2, pp. 652-63, 2008.
- Vigil A, Davies DH, Felgner PL, “Defining the humoral immune response to infectious agents using high-density protein microarrays” (opens in new tab), Future microbiology, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 241-51, 2010.
- Jing L, Davies DH, Chong TM, Chun S, McClurkan CL, Huang J, Story BT, Molina DM, Hirst S, Koelle DM, “An extremely diverse CD4 response to vaccinia virus in humans is revealed by proteome-wide T-cell profiling” (opens in new tab), Journal of virology, vol. 82, no. 14, pp. 7120-34, 2008.
- Davies DH, Duffy P, Bodmer JL, Felgner PL, Doolan DL, “Large screen approaches to identify novel malaria vaccine candidates” (opens in new tab), Vaccine, vol. 33, no. 52, pp. 7496-505, 2015.
- Kalantari-Dehaghi M, Chun S, Chentoufi AA, Pablo J, Liang L, Dasgupta G, Molina DM, Jasinskas A, Nakajima-Sasaki R, Felgner J, Hermanson G, BenMohamed L, Felgner PL, Davies DH, “Discovery of potential diagnostic and vaccine antigens in herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 by proteome-wide antibody profiling” (opens in new tab), Journal of virology, vol. 86, no. 8, pp. 4328-39, 2012.
- Nakajima R, Supnet M, Jasinskas A, Jain A, Taghavian O, Obiero J, Milton DK, Chen WH, Grantham M, Webby R, Krammer F, Carter D, Felgner PL, Davies DH, “Protein Microarray Analysis of the Specificity and Cross-Reactivity of Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin-Specific Antibodies” (opens in new tab), mSphere, vol. 3, no. 6, 2018.
- King CL, Davies DH, Felgner P, Baum E, Jain A, Randall A, Tetteh K, Drakeley CJ, Greenhouse B, “Biosignatures of Exposure/Transmission and Immunity” (opens in new tab), The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, vol. 93, no. 3 Suppl, pp. 16-27, 2015.
Contact Information
Email: ddavies@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-0460
Address: 847 Health Sciences Quad, Room 2521
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Last updated on 4/28/2026.