The Canadian Society for Immunology is pleased to feature new and upcoming Canadian immunologists identified by our CSI Executive. These individuals have demonstrated outstanding and novel research in Canada and contribute to the future health of Canada.
New Immunology Faculty
Troy Baldwin, University of Alberta, AB Troy Baldwin completed his Ph.D. training in Dr. Hanne Ostergaard’s laboratory at the University of Alberta where he was interested in understanding the role of the extracellular domain of the protein tyrosine phosphatase CD45. In 2002, he started his post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Kristin Hogquist in the Center for Immunology at the University of Minnesota. It was here where his interest in T cell development began. In 2007, Dr. Baldwin started his own independent laboratory in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta. His current research is aimed at determining how signals received by an immature thymocyte promote either survival and differentiation (positive selection and lineage commitment) or cell death (negative selection). He utilizes in vivo mouse models to address the molecular mechanisms underlying this binary fate decision in hopes of one day understanding how the immune system naturally induces self-tolerance.
Dr Javier M Di Noia graduated in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a PhD student he characterized the genetic diversity and role of a family of surface molecules from the human pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi, under the supervision of Dr Alberto C.C. Frasch. After obtaining his PhD in 2000, Dr Di Noia moved to the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK for post-doctoral training with Dr Michael S. Neuberger. There he continued to worked on the mechanisms generating antibody diversity by somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. He took a position as director of a research unit at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) in June 2006 where he continues to be interested in antibody diversification as a paradigmatic example of genetic diversity generation. The focus of his laboratory is on the mechanisms of antibody diversification in mature B cells. These mechanisms allow an efficient humoral immune response during infection by increasing the size and affinity of the antibody repertoire, isotype switching and generating the B-cell memory underpinning the efficacy of vaccination. However, as antibody diversification entails DNA damage in the B cell genome, it must minimize the chances of oncogenic side effects such as widespread mutation and chromosomal translocations. The laboratory is working on understanding the initiation; regulation and processing of the DNA damage actively introduced by the enzyme Activation Induced Deaminase in the immunoglobulin genes of activated B cells. They have recently identified mechanisms determining the subcellular localization of Activation Induced Deaminase so as to regulate its access to the genome. The laboratory is also exploring other systems that may produce genetic diversity through active mutagenesis and could be at work in human pathogens. Dr Di Noia holds a Canada Research Chair in Genetic Diversity. He has appointments as Assistant Research Professor with the Department of Medicine at the University of Montréal and as Adjunct Professor with the Department of Medicine at McGill University.
Jen Gommerman received her Ph.D. (Immunology) at the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada) where she studied growth factor receptor signaling. She did a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School (Boston) studying the complement pathway and then joined Biogen-Idec Inc. as a staff scientist. During her tenure at Biogen, she became interested in the TNF superfamily of molecules. After 3 years in industry, she returned to academia as an Assistant Professor and CIHR New Investigator in the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto in 2003. Dr. Gommerman’s work continues to focus on how members of the TNF superfamily of molecules regulate immunity and autoimmunity. Specifically, her lab has identified a key role for the Lymphotoxin pathway in the function of dendritic cells during the immune response, and her team has uncovered how the Lymphotoxin pathway integrates with other dendritic cell-intrinsic signaling cascades such as those induced by CD40. She also studies how CD40 and Lymphotoxin pathways collaborate in optimizing germinal centre responses and how these pathways overlap in mediating pathology of the central nervous system during Multiple Sclerosis. More recently iher lab has been exploring how members of the TNF family regulate the mucosal immune system and her group aims to understand the consequence of these signals during the host response to pathogens.
Dr. Alberto Martin obtained his Undergraduate degree from McGill University, and his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto with Dr. Florence Tsui. He continued his training as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Matthew Scharff's laboratory at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he studied mechanisms of secondary antibody diversification that occur in B cells such as somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. In 2003, Dr. Martin was recruited to the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor and was recently promoted to Associate Professor. He is a holder of a Canada Research Chair tier II award, and was awarded the Canadian Society for Immunology New Investigator Award in 2008. His laboratory continues to investigate the mechanisms of antibody diversification and its role in neutralizing pathogens and its relationship with the oncogenic process.
Woong-Kyung Suh, Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), PQ
Dr. Woong-Kyung (Kyung) Suh did his graduate study in Dr. David Williams’ laboratory at University of Toronto working on a biochemical analysis of MHC class I biogenesis (Ph. D., 1998). He moved on to the field of molecular and cellular immunology for his postdoctoral training with Dr. Laurie Glimcher at Harvard (1998-1999) and then with Dr. Tak Mak at Ontario Cancer Institute (1999-2005). During the time, Dr. Suh worked on factors that derive Th1/Th2 differentiation (with Dr. Glimcher) and T cell costimulation (with Dr. Mak). In 2005, Dr. Suh initiated his own laboratory at IRCM in Montreal. The long-term goal of Dr. Suh’s research group is to understand how T cell immunity and tolerance is regulated by T cell costimulation using genetically modified mouse models. The main research project is to elucidate the signal transduction mechanisms of the T cell costimulatory receptors in follicular B helper T cell (Tfh) development and function. Dr. Suh’s group is also investigating the role of inhibitory B7 family members in immune evasion of cancer cells with an aim to discover new therapeutic targets for cancer treatment.
Dr. Colby Zaph grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan and his dream was always to be a professional hockey player. But as you can see he never made it that far. So now he is an immunoparasitologist at The Biomedical Research Centre at the University of British Columbia. He learned basic immunology from Dr Peter Bretscher at the University of Saskatchewan, where he obtained a B.Sc. in Biochemistry. After attending the Biology of Parasitism course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, he attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, USA where he carried out his Ph.D. studies with Dr Phil Scott. During his Ph.D., he studied the memory T cell response that develops following infection with Leishmania. After finishing his Ph.D., he entered the lab of Dr David Artis, a new faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, studying the immune response to the gastrointestinal parasitic nematode Trichuris. The current focus of Dr. Zaph's lab is delineating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate the balance between immunity and inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract.
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