This seminar is a part of the Department of Laboratory Medicine‘s seminar series.
This seminar will be held by Karen Maxwell who is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Director of Research Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She also holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Bacteriophage Biology and Therapeutics.
Talk title: “Exploring the Dark Matter of Phage Genomes and its Role in Antiviral Defence”
Description: Bacteria possess a diverse array of anti-phage defences, many of which are encoded in prophages and other mobile genetic elements. These defences provide a selective advantage to the cell containing the prophage in the presence of phage challenge. However, this advantage is balanced by potential cost to bacterial fitness as these systems can be energetically costly to produce and run the risk of triggering autoimmunity. We are investigating the mechanisms through which prophages provide their host with antiviral defence and characterizing their regulation to gain insight into the complicated evolutionary dance taking place between bacteria and the phages that infect them.
Date: 14 January 2026
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Room 2170, Medical Sciences Building
Registration is not required.