Dr. Mario Alles

Dr. Mario Alles is a Lecturer in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo.

He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo with Second Class Honours in 2014. He started his career as an Intern Medical Officer in Paediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynaecology at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children and De Soysa Hospital for Women, respectively. Following internship, he worked as a Medical Officer in the Emergency Treatment Unit at Base Hospital Puttalam. Dr. Alles completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Microbiology in 2018 and the MD in Medical Microbiology in 2021 from the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo. He later worked as a Senior Registrar in Clinical Microbiology at the Sri Jayawardenapura General Hospital and National Cancer Institute, Maharagama. He later completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Immunology at The Ohio State University in the United States, focusing on host-pathogen interactions, immunopathological basis for non-communicable diseases following viral infection, and novel strategies for vaccine development.

Dr. Alles is passionate about clinical research, with a strong commitment to advancing scientific knowledge through interdisciplinary collaboration, translational studies, and mentoring the next generation of researchers. He has served as principal- and co-investigator on multiple research grants, including an NIH Exploratory/Developmental (R21) Research Grant Award. He has several publications in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and has been the recipient of several awards at national and international conferences where he presented his work.

Dr. Alles serves as a member of the editorial board of the Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases, is an active reviewer for BMC Microbiology, and reviews grant applications for multidisciplinary research. He is also a member of several professional organizations such as the American Association of Immunologists, the American Society for Virology and the Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists.