Results of the 2023 Researcher Mobility Awards Competition

The Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) is an integrated network for researchers, trainees and partners working to confront infectious disease challenges. We unite members across the University of Toronto and its hospital partners to accelerate cross-disciplinary work in the understanding and development of new countermeasures against pathogens. A key pillar of EPIC’s work is training the next generation of infectious disease research leaders that will help stop future pandemics and reduce the societal burdens of infectious disease. 

EPIC Research Mobility Awards supports high-calibre doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows developing new skillsets and strengthening global linkages by providing financial support for them to undertake research training or complete collaborative field work outside of Toronto. Through these opportunities, Research Mobility Award recipients will bring back new knowledge and techniques to our local infectious disease research community and strengthen our research network’s ties to national and international research partners.   

We are pleased to share the results of our inaugural Researcher Mobility Awards competition that we launched in March 2023 for travel between January 1 and December 31, 2023. 

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Meet our 2023 Researcher Mobility Awards recipients

Raja Faisal Abbas

Raja Faisal Abbas

Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation

Destination: Islamabad, Pakistan and Bali, Indonesia

Purpose: Evaluate the policy formulation process around antimicrobial stewardship programs in Pakistan and Indonesia

Supervisor: Xiaolin Wei (University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health)

Martin Grunnill

Martin Grunnill

Public Health Ontario

Destination: Squamish, British Columbia

Purpose: Attend an international workshop called Taming the BEAST which aims to provide participants with the skills and core knowledge to use a software package called BEAST 2 to analyse genetic sequences

Supervisors: Samira Mubareka (Sunnybrook Research Institute), Venkata Duvvuri (Public Health Ontario)

Hannah Kozlowski

Hannah Kozlowski

Hospital for Sick Children

Destination: Bangkok, Thailand

Purpose: Develop a protocol for high sensitivity sequencing of dengue virus RNA from human blood samples using Oxford Nanopore sequencing

Supervisor: Shaun Morris (Hospital for Sick Children)

John MacPherson

John MacPherson

Department of Molecular Genetics

Destination: Boston, USA

Purpose: Learn techniques for studying the bacterial pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis

Supervisor: Alex Ensminger (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)

Kuganya Nirmalarajah

Kuganya Nirmalarajah

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Destination: Squamish, British Columbia

Purpose: Attend an international workshop called Taming the BEAST which aims to provide participants with the skills and core knowledge to use a software package called BEAST 2 to analyse genetic sequences

Supervisors: Samira Mubareka (Sunnybrook Research Institute), Venkata Duvvuri (Public Health Ontario)

Madeleine Oman

Madeleine Oman

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Destination: Konstanz, Germany

Purpose: Learn new methodologies to study virus evolution in an algae model system

Supervisor: Rob Ness (University of Toronto Mississauga)

Alison Simmons

Alison Simmons

Division of Epidemiology

Destination: London, UK

Purpose: Attend a mathematical modelling course titled Model Fitting and Inference for Infectious Disease Dynamics

Supervisors: David Fisman and Ashleigh Tuite (University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health), 

Jinny Tsang

Jinny Tsang

Department of Immunology

Destination: Kalisizo, Uganda

Purpose: Study how penile-vaginal sex causes genital inflammation in both partners that can increase susceptibility to HIV

Supervisor: Rupert Kaul (University Health Network)

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