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Salama, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from University of California Berkeley in 1995. Her dissertation, conducted with Randy Schekman, Ph.D., and supported by an National Science Foundation fellowship, focused on defining the vesicle coat (COPII) that drives movement of secretory protein cargo between the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus. In the laboratory of Stanley Falkow, Ph.D., in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Salama then became interested in the ability of pathogenic bacteria to manipulate host cells and tissues. During her postdoctoral fellowship, supported by the Jane Coffin Child Memorial Fund for Medical Research, Salama spearheaded the development of genetic and genomic tools and an animal model of infection for the study of Helicobacter pylori, the first bacteria to be designated as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization.

In 2001, Salama was recruited to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center as an assistant professor in human biology. Now a full professor, her work focuses on the role of genetic variation and cell morphology in chronic stomach colonization by H. pylori, as well as how this organism modifies stomach tissues to simultaneously promote long term bacterial persistence and stomach cancer development.

Salama prioritizes training and mentoring of the next scientific generation. She was Co-Director of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program jointly administered University of Washington and Fred Hutch from 2016-2022 and currently leads the Office of Education and Training at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center as Senior Vice President of Education.