Academic Rank:
Affiliate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Affiliation(s):
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Location:
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Short Bio
As you read this paragraph, two infants in the world will have died from an infection for which there is an effective vaccine. Worldwide we could save 5 million infants every year—if only we could immunize them on time. There appear to be many reasons—none of them insurmountable—why the world fails to save the lives of these children. The work in our lab focuses on part of the science to help solve this problem: we are developing a vaccine system that with only one immunization given at birth will protect from a wide range of specific infectious diseases, as well as from allergies, autoimmune diseases and malignancies, for the entire life. We are systematically analyzing the human neonatal and infant response to danger signals (e.g. TLR-ligands) and vaccines. This way, we will learn what aspects of the newborn’s immune system work well. With that knowledge, we hope to identify immune modulators or adjuvants that would aid in their immune response to vaccines and help protect them from disease. This work is done in close collaboration with several national and international research centres through large clinical trials. Our lab uses state-of-the-art technology (high-throughput flow cytometry, multiplex ELISA, real-time PCR, SNP genotyping, microarrays, etc.) to get the most information from very small samples. Part of this also requires a solid investment into development of optimal bioinformatics tools, and we are part of an international group focused on this important task. Parallel to the human descriptive studies, we are developing a vaccine platform in mice on which we can test our vaccines and define the exact molecular mechanisms at work. For example, we use genetically altered strains of Listeria monocytogenes to target our vaccines to only those cells we want to infect, to then deliver its vaccine antigen, induce the desired immune response, and disappear—all without causing any harm to the newborn. Our preliminary data gives us great hope that our final goal is within reach.
Academic Backgrounds
- MD and PhD (Microbiology and Immunology), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, New York)
- Fellowship, Pediatric Infectious Disease, University of Washington
Awards & Recognition
- Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Investigator Award
- Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Career Development Award
- Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences
- Pfizer Postdoctoral Fellowship in Infectious Diseases
- Alpha Omega Alpha (National Honour Medical Society)
Current Openings & Opportunities
Current Projects In My Lab include
Research
- Immunology and immunological diseases
- Developmental immunology/ neonatal immunology
- Infectious disease
- Vaccines
Our lab uses state-of-the-art wet-lab technology and bioinformatic approaches (systems biology) to get the most information out of the smallest samples from newborns and infants around the world. Parallel to these obervational human cohort studies, we are developing in vitro (culture) and in vivo (animal) models where we establish concrete cause & effect of the relationships identified in our systems biological studies. This combined approach allows us to systematically dissect the key cellular and molecular mechanisms important in the human neonatal and infant response to infection or vaccination. Based on that knowledge, we are identifying immune modulators that help protect newborns from disease, and aid in their immune response to vaccines important for global health. This work is done in close collaboration with several large national (e.g. CHILD) and international research groups from Africa and Asia, to Europe, Australia and North America.