Results of the 2024 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 the 2024 Researcher Mobility Awards competition to support travel between January 1 and December 31, 2024.
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Meet our 2024 Researcher Mobility Awards recipients
Sophie-Marie Aicher
Sunnybrook Research Institute
Destination: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Purpose: Develop novel white-tailed deer cell lines and organoids to investigat antiviral responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection
Supervisor: Samira Mubareka (Sunnybrook Research Institute)
Wale Ajiboye
Unity Health Toronto
Destination: Lagos, Nigeria
Purpose: Observing and learning from HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation projects in key populations in Nigeria
Supervisor: Sean Rourke (Unity Health Toronto)
Severino Jefferson Ribeiro da Silva
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
Destination: Recife, Brazil
Purpose: Conduct clinical diagnostic trials and demostrate local reagent biomanufacturing on-site in research labs
Supervisor: Keith Pardee (University of Toronto, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy)
Hammad Durrani
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
Destination: Islamabad, Pakistan
Purpose: Conduct a qualitative process evaluation of a COVID-19 and non-communicable diseases integrated m-Health project at primary care in rural Pakistan
Supervisor: Xiaolin Wei (University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health)
Chidumebi Idemili
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
Destination: Atlanta, USA
Purpose: To attend the Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID), a two-week intensive course on advanced methods for mathematical modeling
Supervisor: Sharmistha Mishra (Unity Health Toronto)
Jiazhen Jin
Department of Molecular Genetics
Destination: New York City, USA
Purpose: To learn and apply an HIV-1 latency model system
Supervisor: Alan Cochrane (University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine)
Sean Ong
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
Destination: Melbourne, Australia
Purpose: To study clinical trial design and outcome selection, trial conduct and informed consent, and analytic approaches in large pragmatic trials
Supervisors: Nick Daneman (Sunnybrook Research Institute), Rob Fowler (Sunnybrook Research Institute)
James Pollock
Department of Immunology
Destination: Nairobi, Kenya
Purpose: To attend a research retreat with the University of Nairobi STD/HIV/SRH Collaborative Working Group and to visit
Supervisor: Rupert Kaul (University Health Network)
Nancy Tahmo
Division of Epidemiology
Destination: Atlanta, USA
Purpose: To attend the Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID), a two-week intensive course on advanced methods for mathematical modeling
Supervisor: Sharmistha Mishra (Unity Health Toronto)
Jinny Tsang
Department of Immunology
Destination: Kalisizo, Uganda
Purpose: To conduct a study on how penile-vaginal sex and a microbiome-targeting treatment can impact susceptibility to HIV
Supervisor: Rupert Kaul (University Health Network)
Justin Vigar
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
Destination: Bogota, Columbia
Purpose: To validate a low-cost diagnostic platform for dengue virus as part of a large international, multi-site patient trial
Supervisor: Keith Pardee (University of Toronto, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy)
Tin Vo
Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Destination: Melbourne, Australia
Purpose: To study health system perspectives on the use of doxycycline as prophylaxis for bacterial sexually
transmitted infections
Supervisor: Daniel Grace (University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health)
