III Institute Advisory Board Members – Biographies
Jean S. Marshall (Chair)
Professor, Microbiology and Immunology
Arthur B. McDonald Chair
Dalhousie University
Dr. Jean Marshall received her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Manchester, U.K. She completed postdoctoral training both in Manchester and at McMaster University where she became an Assistant Professor. In 1997 she relocated to Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, where she is a Professor and former head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Marshall’s team is internationally recognized for its studies of mast cells and Toll-like receptors. Her laboratory has investigated many aspects of host defence and defined novel roles for mast cells and their mediators in responses to viral infection, immune regulation and cancer. She has published over 120 peer reviewed papers which range from basic cell biology to clinical studies and has led multidisciplinary research teams in the chronic inflammation, cancer and food allergy research areas. She is a former president of the Canadian Society for Immunology and was awarded an Arthur B. McDonald Chair by Dalhousie University. Dr. Marshall participates in peer review for multiple funding agencies and journals and has chaired peer review committees for CIHR. Her work has been continuously funded by CIHR for over 25 years and her team’s work has also attracted funds from a variety of other agencies. She places a particular emphasis on the laboratory training and mentoring of young scientists many of whom have gone on to successful careers.
Shelly Bolotin
Director, Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases
Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Toronto
Scientist, Public Health Ontario
Dr. Shelly Bolotin is the Director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, and an Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, at the University of Toronto. She is also a scientist at Public Health Ontario.
Dr. Bolotin received a BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University, an MSc in virology and PhD in microbiology at the University of Toronto, and an MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In addition to working in Academia, Dr. Bolotin has worked in public health at the provincial and national levels, focusing on surveillance and public health emergency response.
Dr. Bolotin’s research program utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach to evaluate whether our population is adequately protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Applying a public health lens, her studies combine epidemiological and microbiological methods to answer questions related to population immunity and vaccine effectiveness, and determine our future risk for outbreaks or epidemics.
Lori L. Burrows
Associate Director, Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research
Professor, Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University
Professor Lori Burrows is a microbiologist and international expert on the structure, function, and regulation of type IV pili (T4P), ubiquitous bacterial virulence factors used for adherence, DNA uptake, biofilm formation, and twitching motility. Her fundamental studies have played a significant part in revealing the mechanism of T4P function, which is necessary for the design of anti-virulence therapies. Her team also studies biofilm formation, focusing on the stimulation of biofilm development by sub-inhibitory antibiotic concentrations and exploitation of that stimulation phenotype to uncover new antimicrobials for multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria. A third area of interest is the characterization of bacteriophages as sources of novel lectins and as potential treaments for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Burrows’ research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Glycomics Network, the Ontario Research Fund, and industrial support. She has published over 120 peer reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters. She is the Associate Director (Partnerships and Outreach) of McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Diseases Research, a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Bacteriology (ASM), the Journal of Biochemistry (ASBMB), and ACS Infectious Diseases. She received the 2020 CSM Murray Award for Career Achievement from the Canadian Society for Microbiologists to recognize her contributions to the field.
Sarah Crome
Scientist, University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, Multi Organ Transplant Program
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Immunology
Dr. Sarah Crome is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute within the University Health Network (UHN). Her expertise is in human immunology, immune tolerance and immunotherapy. Dr. Crome’s research program is focused on uncovering cells and molecules that regulate immune tolerance, and identifying underlying causes of transplant rejection. Her translational research as part of the Multi Organ Transplant Program at UHN involves the identification of novel immunotherapeutic targets and development of cell-based therapies for transplantation and autoimmunity.
Dr Crome’s scientific career started at the University of British Columbia, where her research defined molecular, epigenetic and cellular regulatory mechanism that control human CD4+ T helper 17 cell development and their pro-inflammatory functions. Her postdoctoral work at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre discovered a novel innate lymphoid cell (ILC) population that inhibits the activity and expansion of tumor-associated T cells and is associated with poorer clinical outcomes in ovarian cancer. Dr. Crome holds the Next Generation of Scientists award from the Cancer Research Society and is a Medicine By Design Investigator.
Nathalie Grandvaux
Professor, Université de Montréal
Associate Scientific Director - Student and Postdoctoral Affairs
Montreal University Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM)
Dr. Nathalie Grandvaux is a Professor at Université de Montréal and Associate Scientific Director - Student and Postdoctoral Affairs at the Montreal University Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). After training as an engineer in biochemistry at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France, she obtained a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Université de Grenoble, France in 1999. Following a postdoctoral fellow at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical research, McGill University, she joined the department of biochemistry and molecular medicine at Université de Montréal and the CRCHUM in 2005. She leads a transdisciplinary research program that led to the identification of new molecular mechanisms of the Interferon-mediated antiviral response, an endeavor that is part of a global effort to identify broad-spectrum antivirals. Author of 70 scientific publications, she made seminal contributions to the characterization of the host defense against viruses. Her leadership has been recognized by major awards and distinctions, including a Canada Research Chair Tier II, the 2019 Paul Man lectureship award for research in respiratory research and 2019 mentorship award from the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine. A recognized leader in community development, she is the co-founder and was the first president of the Canadian Society for Virology from 2019-2020 and currently its Past-President. In April 2020, she was appointed co-director of the Quebec COVID - Pandemic Network that was created to promote transdisciplinary research to respond to the pandemic management in Quebec. A tireless advocate for disseminating evidence-based scientific information to the general public, she makes numerous media appearances. She is a frequent peer reviewer, scientific officer and chair in grant reviews for various Canadian and international organizations and a member of several advisory committees.
Trevor Hart
Director, HIV Prevention Lab and HOPE Centre for Sexual and Gender Minority People
Professor, Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Trevor Hart is the Director of the HIV Prevention Lab. He holds a Research Chair in Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health from the Ontario HIV Treatment Network. Dr. Hart is currently leading 4 studies, 2 of which are intervention/therapy studies. Of his two most recent grants, the Sexual Confidence study is a cognitive behavioural treatment to reduce social anxiety, increase substance use management, and to reduce HIV risk among HIV-negative gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men who choose not to use Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) medications. Dr. Hart is also a co-PI on Engage, a cohort study of prevalent and recent infections of HIV and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs) among 2,100 gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
Dr. Hart received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Temple University. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in HIV clinical research at Emory University School of Medicine, through which he received training in HIV behavioural prevention at the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has received several awards for his advancements to research and clinical work, including membership in the College of New Scholars, Arts, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada, the CAHR-CANFAR Excellence in Research Award, Fellow of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), and a recent Ryerson University Sarwan Sahota Distinguished Research Award.
Suzanne Hindmarch
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science,
University of New Brunswick
Dr. Suzanne Hindmarch is a political scientist with research expertise in the politics of infectious disease response. Her CIHR- and SSHRC- funded research program investigates the origins, impacts and efficacy of the diverse policy and political strategies through which infectious disease is addressed at global, national and sub-national levels. In particular, Dr. Hindmarch examines the conditions under which the health of equity-deserving groups including Indigenous, racialized, LGBTQIA+ and global South populations is (or is not) advanced in infectious disease response, especially in the context of global health security. She also studies the interface of global and domestic infectious disease governance, asking why global infectious disease response strategies are adopted, adapted or resisted domestically, and how states advance domestic priorities via global health governance mechanisms.
Dr. Hindmarch holds a PhD in political science (Toronto), an MA in international development studies (Dalhousie) and a BA in political science (Alberta). Prior to her academic career she worked in community-based AIDS organizations and in the Public Health Agency of Canada. She is the author of Securing Health: HIV and the limits of securitization, co-editor of Seeing Red: HIV/AIDS and Public Policy in Canada, and has published widely on the global and domestic politics of AMR and of HIV/AIDS.
Manisha Kulkarni
Associate Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa
Director, Interdisciplinary Spatial Informatics for Global Health (INSIGHT) Lab, University of Ottawa
Manisha Kulkarni, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. She received a B.Sc. (Environmental Biology) and Ph.D. (Entomology) from McGill University with subsequent postdoctoral training in spatial modelling at the University of Ottawa. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa in 2014, Dr. Kulkarni contributed broadly to the development and evaluation of public and global health initiatives in Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa as Malaria Advisor for HealthBridge, Epidemiologist in the Centre for Food-borne, Environmental and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Health Specialist at the Canadian International Development Agency.
Dr. Kulkarni directs the Interdisciplinary Spatial Informatics for Global Health (INSIGHT) research lab where her research program uses geospatial and molecular tools to investigate the socio-ecological determinants of infectious disease emergence and risk in global settings, with a focus on vector-borne diseases (particularly malaria, arboviruses, and Lyme disease) and maternal and child health. She holds an Early Researcher Award and recently received a Knowledge Mobilization Excellence Award for her public health research on Lyme disease ecology and epidemiology. Her research is funded by CIHR, IDRC, PHAC, NSERC and the UK MRC-Wellcome Trust Joint Global Health Trials Scheme, with projects in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Canada
Mona Loutfy, MD
Professor, Infectious Diseases Specialist & Clinical Researcher
Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital
Dr. Mona Loutfy is an Infectious Diseases Specialist, Senior Clinician Scientist, and Professor at Women’s College Hospital and the University of Toronto. Her main clinical practice is in inner city Toronto where she specializes in the care of cis and trans women, gender diverse people, youth and couples with HIV and people with socially complicated lives. She also specializes in reproductive health and HIV. In 2006, Dr. Loutfy founded the Women and HIV Research Program at the Women’s College Research Institute, which uses community-based research and works in partnership with women living with HIV to carry out critical research to optimize the lives and care of women with HIV and their families. With many partners, Dr. Loutfy has been leading the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study, the largest community-based HIV study in Canada for over a decade. In 2017, Dr. Loutfy was awarded a CIHR Foundation Grant and in 2023, she was awarded a CIHR-WAGE Women’s Health Research Hub Grant for her work on the Women-Centred HIV Care model. In partnership with community leaders and by using anti-oppression, anti-racism, social justice and feminist frameworks, Dr. Loutfy and her team have made a significant difference in advocating for access to and delivery of high-quality care for women living with HIV.
Srinivas Murthy
Professeure agrégée, Département de science politique
Université du Nouveau¬ Brunswick
Srinivas Murthy is a dually-trained Pediatric Critical Care and Infectious Diseases physician at the University of British Columbia and BC Children's Hospital. His clinical expertise is in managing severely ill, infected patients, with both routine and emerging infections, both domestically and around the world. His research expertise is in innovative clinical trials, global health, and guideline methodology.
Sheela Ramanathan
Professor, Department of Immunology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke
Dr. Sheela Ramanathan obtained PhD in immunology from Madurai Kamaraj University in India for the work on immune response towards Mycobacterium leprae antigens in leprosy patients across the disease spectrum. Dr. Ramanathan completed post-doctoral training in pre-clinical disease models of autoimmune uveitis (with Dr. Philippe Druet in Paris) and autoimmune type-1 diabetes (with Dr. Philippe Poussier in Toronto). As an independent researcher at Université de Sherbrooke since 2007, Dr. Ramanathan investigated how GIMAP5 protein controls the activation of T lymphocytes and how Interleukin-15 promotes autoimmune diabetes, obesity, fatty liver disease and liver fibrosis. Currently, Dr. Ramanathan’s research is focussed on understanding the pathogenesis of long COVID and immune response to COVID-19 vaccines in rheumatoid arthritis patients and the elderly population, in close collaboration with other researchers and clinicians at Université de Sherbrooke. Dr. Ramanathan’s research is funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Stuart Turvey, MBBS, DPhil, FRCPC
Professor, Pediatrics, University of British Columbia
Clinician-scientist, BC Children’s Hospital
Pediatric Immunologist, BC Children’s Hospital
Dr. Stuart Turvey is a Professor of Pediatrics at The University of British Columbia where he holds both the Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Precision Health and the Aubrey J. Tingle Professorship in Pediatric Immunology. He is a clinician-scientist and Pediatric Immunologist based at BC Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Turvey’s research program is focused on determining the early-life origins of asthma and allergic disease, as well as harnessing the power of genomics to diagnose, treat and prevent pediatric immune disorders. His ability to transition from the clinic to the lab allows Dr. Turvey to take a precision health approach that is sensitive to the developmental course of the child. His work determines and responds to the underlying cellular, molecular and genetic abnormalities responsible for disease.
Dr. Turvey and his team generate new knowledge to define the mechanisms of disease pathogenesis and, ultimately, to identify new strategies to treat and even prevent these burdensome and often life-threatening conditions.
Jude E. Uzonna
Professor, Departments of Immunology and Medical Microbiology
Associate Dean (Research), Max Rady College of Medicine
University of Manitoba
Dr. Uzonna obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree with distinction from the University of Nigeria and a Ph.D. degree from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. He did his postdoctoral fellowship training at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He is a Professor in the Departments of Immunology and Medical Microbiology and currently the Associate Dean (Research) at the Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, the University of Manitoba. He was a Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator and Research Manitoba Chair Professor in Infection and Immunity.
Dr. Uzonna’s research program (which is currently funded by CIHR and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council [NSERC]) focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate immunity to infectious diseases, particularly those caused by protozoan parasites. He is particularly interested in unravelling host and parasite factors that regulate induction, maintenance and loss of protective immunity, with a view to exploiting the information gained from these studies for the development of effective vaccines and vaccination strategies against diseases caused by protozoan parasites. In addition, he is interested in understanding the immunomodulatory mechanisms that regulate the pathophysiology of sepsis and septic shock.
Dr. Uzonna has received numerous professional, academic, teaching, research and community awards, including the Canadian Society for Immunology (CSI) Investigator Award, CIHR New Investigator Award, Ken Hughes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biomedical Research, Faculty of Graduate Studies Outstanding Mentorship Award and The Manitoba Black Community Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mentorship and Education. He is (or has served as) a member of editorial board or guest editor for many journals including, The Journal of Immunology, Infection and Immunity, Frontiers in Immunology, Immunology and Cell Biology, PLoS Pathogens, etc. He has extensive grant review experience and is currently a member of the CIHR Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Panel. He has mentored many trainees who are currently working in various fields including research, academia, and biotechnology.
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