Alan P. Escher

Alan was born on July 15, 1958 and passed away on Sunday, July 21, 2013. Alan Pierre Escher received his BSc magna cum laude from the University of Connecticut in 1984, and received his Doctoral Degree in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from Cornell University in 1992. Following a one year post-doctoral stay in Edmonton, Alan came to Loma Linda University in 1993 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology. In 1993 Alan received the prestigious Marlene De Luca Memorial Award for his work in the development of plant based luciferase expression vectors. As an Associate Professor, Alan pursued his favorite interest in the development of a pro-apoptotic DNA vaccine for type 1 diabetes. In 2006 Alan was made Associate Director of the Center for Transplant Immunology Research in the Loma Linda School of Medicine. He and his collaborators later successfully translated the technology to prevention of skin allograft rejection as proof-of-concept for application to organ transplantation. More recently, Alan co-founded the start –up biotechnology company SEKRIS Biomedical, Inc., and was the Executive Vice President and the head of its R&D program. We are sadly shocked to hear about and mourn the untimely death of Dr. Alan Escher who passed away on Sunday, July 21, 2013 as a result of a severe motor vehicle accident. Alan is survived by his wife , son and daughter. Alan was a dear friend to many of us at Loma Linda University and his keen powers of scientific observation, sense of fairness and dry sense of humor will be sorely missed in a world the worse for his leaving.