Results of the 2023 Doctoral 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 Doctoral Awards are designed to support a cohort of multi/interdisciplinary trainees engaged in collaborative research in infectious disease. These competitive awards support excellent students supervised by faculty from the University of Toronto and EPIC’s partner research institutes.
We are pleased to share the results of our inaugural Doctoral Awards competition that we launched in February 2023 for students who achieved PhD candidacy in 2022.
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Meet our 2023 Doctoral Awards recipients
Afia Amoako
Division of Epidemiology
Thesis title: The unequal landscape of COVID-19 in Toronto
Supervisor: David Fisman (University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health)
Natalie Au
Department of Biochemistry
Thesis title: Immunological and structural characterization of gonococcal TbpB for vaccine development
Supervisor: Trevor Moraes (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Anna Bojagora
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Unraveling the interplay between Neisseria gonorrhoeae-induced immunopathogenesis and female reproductive hormone cycling in the development of pelvic inflammatory disease in mice
Supervisor: Scott Gray-Owen (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Duncan Carruthers-Lay
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Exploring the metabolism of Neisseria gonorrhoeae during infection through genome scale metabolic modelling
Supervisors: John Parkinson (Hospital for Sick Children) and Scott Gray-Owen (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Ryan Chieu
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Analysis of genital microbiome function during Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection using metatranscriptomics pipeline
Supervisors: John Parkinson (Hospital for Sick Children) and Scott Gray-Owen (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Julien Couture-Senecal
Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Thesis title: Investigating the immune stimulation of lipid nanoparticles to design safer mRNA vaccines
Supervisor: Omar F. Khan (University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering)
Dana El Soufi El Sabbagh
Department of Pharmacology
Thesis title: NLRP3 inflammasome role on development of cognitive impairment after SARS-Cov2
Supervisor: Ana Andreazza (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Zaky Hassan
Department of Biochemistry
Thesis title: Receptor interactions and neutralization of carbohydrate binding β-coronaviruses
Supervisor: James Rini (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Minh Sang Huynh
Department of Biochemistry
Thesis title: Investigating the mechanism of Slam-dependent translocation of surface lipoproteins in Gram-negative bacteria.
Supervisor: Trevor Moraes (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Madeline Jarvis-Cross
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Thesis title: Combining theory and empiricism to understand pandemic emergence in the Anthropocene
Supervisor: Martin Krkosek (University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts and Science)
Min Jin
Department of Biochemistry
Thesis title: Receptor binding interactions and neutralizations of alphacoronaviruses
Supervisor: James Rini (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Manisha Kabi
Department of Cell and Systems Biology
Thesis title: Pathogenic mechanisms of HIV infection: Insertion site induction of HIV expression
Supervisor: Guillaume Filion (University of Toronto Scarborough)
Faraz Khoshbakhtian
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Thesis title: Strategic vaccination for pandemic mitigation: graph-based machine learning for critical node detection
Supervisor: Dionne Aleman (University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering)
Mindy Lam
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Identifying novel modulators of the TIFA immune signaling pathway
Supervisor: Scott Gray-Owen (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Seungwoo Lee
Department of Immunology
Thesis title: Ultrasound-guided transfection of claudin-5 improves lung endothelial barrier function in lung injury without impairing innate immunity
Supervisor: Tania Watts (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Jady Liang
Department of Physiology
Thesis title: Development of novel inhalation approaches for robust sterilizing mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern
Supervisor: Haibo Zhang (Unity Health Toronto)
Nafisa Mahbub
Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Thesis title: An automated and miniaturized device for multiple nucleic acid sequence detection
Supervisor: Warren Chan (University of Toronto, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering)
Andrew Mazzanti
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Defining the molecular and developmental impact of preimplantation retroviral infection
Supervisor: Miguel Ramalho-Santo (Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute)
Krithika Muthuraman
Department of Biochemistry
Thesis title: Rational design of novel antibodies to achieve ultrapotent and broad neutralization against HIV-1
Supervisor: Jean-Philippe Julien (Hospital for Sick Children)
Amanda Norton
Department of Geography and Planning
Thesis title: Examining the relationship between social vulnerability, COVID-19, and air pollution exposure: a mediation and moderation analysis of ecological data
Supervisor: Matthew Adams (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Adeteju Ogunbameru
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
Thesis title: Economic relief programs to mitigate the impact of infectious disease outbreaks: health benefits, equity-impact and cost-effectiveness
Supervisor: Beate Sander (University Health Network)
Adrienne Ranger
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology
Thesis title: Elucidating the role of the intestinal epithelial NAIP-NLRC4 inflammasome in the innate immune response against enteric pathogens
Supervisor: Stephen Girardin (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Rajiv Sanwal
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology
Thesis title: Ultrasound-guided transfection of claudin-5 improves lung endothelial barrier function in lung injury without impairing innate immunity
Supervisor: Warren Lee (Unity Health Toronto)
Salma Sheikh-Mohamed
Department of Immunology
Thesis title: Investigating anatomic locations of B cell priming and effector functions following intramuscular vs intranasal SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination
Supervisor: Jen Gommerman (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Emily Somerset
Department of Statistical Sciences
Thesis title: Methodological developments in the statistical modelling of COVID-19 in wastewater
Supervisors: Patrick Brown (University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts and Science) and Monica Alexander (University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts and Science)
Justin Vigar
Department of Pharmacy
Thesis title: Using cell-free synthetic biology to enable rapid, low-cost molecular diagnostics
Supervisor: Keith Pardee (University of Toronto, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy)
Anna Waldmann
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Development of a proteomic pipeline to elucidate the interactome of Salmonella effectors with host cell proteins during infection
Supervisor: John Brumell (Hospital for Sick Children)
Yin Chen Wan
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Genome-wide identification of genetic variants that influence susceptibility to bacterial infection
Supervisors: Aaron Reinke (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Angcy Xiao
Department of Molecular Genetics
Thesis title: Elucidating mechanisms of resistance and susceptibility to Microsporidia in wild isolates of C. elegans
Supervisor: Aaron Reinke (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Karen Yeung
Department of Immunology
Thesis title: The role of innate APC-derived 4-1BBL on memory CD8 T cell formation during influenza infection
Supervisor: Tania Watts (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Qi (Tim) Zhang
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
Thesis title: Essays in physician prescribing behavior
Supervisor: Xiaolin Wei (University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health)
