From left: Krithika Muthuraman, Salma Sheikh-Mohamed, Alison Simmons and Maxine Ty
13 April 2026
By Betty Zou
Four University of Toronto graduates are being recognized with the 2026 Future Leaders Prize from the Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium.
The $5,000 cash prizes are awarded annually to outstanding PhD graduates who defended an infectious disease-related thesis in one of four research areas — applied or translational, clinical, fundamental and population, global and public health. The winners were chosen based on the scientific excellence and impact of their research as well as their contributions in other areas, such as mentorship and community-building.
“It’s always exciting to see trainees coming into their own as independent researchers, knowing the impact they will have as they move on in their careers,” says Natasha Christie-Holmes, director of partnerships and strategy at EPIC.
“The 2026 EPIC Future Leaders have impressed us with their determination, thoughtful leadership and their willingness to collaborate and teach, ensuring their expertise and skillsets will benefit the broader community. Congratulations to all the awardees!”
Meet the recipients of the 2026 Future Leaders Prizes below.
Krithika Muthuraman, applied or translational research
“There was no time for a learning curve,” says Krithika Muthuraman as she recalls the early days of her PhD in January 2021.
Health Canada had just approved the first COVID-19 vaccine a month earlier, but safety measures meant that research labs were still operating at a significantly reduced capacity.
Muthuraman’s project, which aimed to advance new antibody-based therapies for COVID-19, was both timely and urgent. Her research built on previous work from her supervisor Jean-Philippe Julien, a senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children, to further develop the so-called “Multabody” platform. Unlike traditional antibodies that target a single site on a pathogen, Multabodies are engineered to display multiple copies and specificities within a single molecule, allowing them to simultaneously engage multiple sites on a pathogen.
One of Muthuraman’s first tasks was to screen dozens of antibodies to identify the combinations that most effectively neutralizes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Without in-lab support, Muthuraman drew on her previous experience as a research scientist in industry to quickly strategize, define priorities and start testing. Her efforts led to the development of Multabody molecules that could neutralize different SARS-CoV-2 variants and other related coronaviruses with exceptional potency and conferred protection against SARS-CoV-2 in mouse models.
Since completing her PhD, Muthuraman has continued in Julien’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow where she is working to expanding the Multabody platform to target HIV.
“I’m really interested in understanding how this multispecific platform can be applied to overcome the broad genetic diversity of viruses,” she says. “The possibility that this work could help advance pandemic preparedness and shape how we respond to future outbreaks is what keeps me motivated.”
Salma Sheikh-Mohamed, clinical research
Like many students, Salma Sheikh-Mohamed experienced a lot of imposter syndrome during her graduate studies. She did not have an undergraduate degree in immunology and was the first in her family to pursue a PhD. Today, one PhD and nine peer-reviewed publications later, she has finally learned to trust herself, her judgement and her abilities.
Sheikh-Mohamed started her PhD with immunology professors Jen Gommerman and Olga Rojas in September 2020, before COVID-19 vaccinations were available. Her research uncovered important insights into how vaccine-induced immune responses in the upper respiratory tract contribute to protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Notably, Sheikh-Mohamed helped to establish new methods for measuring SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in saliva. Using this approach, she and her collaborators were among the first to show that lower levels of IgA antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination were associated with subsequent breakthrough infection. She also extended this work to pediatric cohorts to study the immune response in children who had received a COVID-19 vaccination. Taken together, these findings significantly advance our understanding of mucosal immunity and inform the development of future vaccines and vaccination strategies.
Beyond the lab, Sheikh-Mohamed co-founded the department of immunology’s wellness, inclusivity, diversity and equity committee to improve mental health supports and foster inclusive mentoring practices. She also co-founded Say Somaali, a Black youth-led grassroots organization dedicated to increasing educational access and leadership development among Somali youth in the Greater Toronto Area.
These days, as an assistant professor (teaching stream) in the department of immunology, Sheikh-Mohamed says her personal experiences and the mentorship she received from Gommerman and Rojas has shaped the type of teacher she hopes to be.
“My goal is to develop curricula that are inclusive and culturally sensitive and that also teach science, infectious disease and immunology,” she says.
Alison Simmons, population, global and public health
Alison Simmons’ desire to complete a PhD came out of her experience working in public health surveillance where, as she puts it, “I was counting disease cases and deaths, and I felt like I wasn’t actually making a difference.”
“The reason I decided to pursue a PhD is because I really wanted to learn how to proactively prevent mortality and morbidity,” she says.
Simmons’ PhD research, which was supervised by professor David Fisman at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, focused on vaccine-preventable respiratory infectious diseases like COVID-19, influenza, pneumococcal disease and respiratory syncytial virus. For her work, she used mathematical modelling along with federal, provincial and local public health data to study the direct and indirect impacts of vaccination on infectious diseases.
In one study, she found that COVID-19 vaccination in children and teens provided additional protection against hospitalization, even when the vaccines did not fully prevent infection. She also demonstrated that the introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine for kids led a reduction in severe cases of pneumococcal disease across the entire population.
Simmons credits the EPIC Researcher Mobility Award for enabling her to take a mathematical modelling course that — along with a health economics course taught by EPIC member and University Health Network scientist Beate Sander — gave her the skills to land a job with the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
Today, she works as a health economist at Canada’s Drug Agency where she helps to provide evidence about the value and benefits of different drugs and health technologies.
“I’m super excited to continue to pursue opportunities where my work is directly improving the health of the Canadian population,” she says.
Maxine Ty, fundamental research
The past two decades has seen a boom in research on the human microbiome, but what about the microbiome of other animals?
For her PhD, Maxine Ty studied the role of the chicken gut microbiome in supporting poultry health. This is an important question because commercially farmed chickens are often fed antibiotics as growth promoters and to prevent against disease. However, the overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming is also contributing to the growing crisis of antimicrobial resistance, leading some countries to ban antibiotic use in livestock feed.
Ty’s research, which she completed under the supervision of SickKids senior scientist John Parkinson, examined how different probiotics impacted the composition and function of the chicken gut microbiome and its susceptibility to a common food safety pathogen, Campylobacter jejuni. Her findings pave the way for next-generation probiotic supplements that can better support health, sustainability and food safety in the poultry industry.
Outside of her research, Ty helped to establish MicrobeTO and served as the inaugural co-chair of EPIC’s Trainee Advisory Committee. She says that getting involved in extracurricular activities helped her to stay more balanced during her graduate studies and led to new opportunities.
“There’s more to your PhD than just research,” says Ty. “If you branch out a bit, it can unexpectedly open a lot of doors.” Ty recently started a postdoctoral fellowship with EPIC member Deborah O’Connor, a professor of nutritional sciences at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Instead of the chicken gut microbiome, she’ll be applying her bioinformatics and computational skills to study the gut microbiomes of pre-term infants and how it impacts their health and development.
Learn more about the previous winners of the EPIC Future Leaders Prizes on our funding results page.