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PCIRN Trainees
Constantina Boikos u Constantina is completing Karen Yam u The last year of Karen’s PCIRN
her PhD in Epidemiology at McGill University. Under fellowship coincided with a busy fi nal year of post-
the supervision of Dr. Caroline Quach and Dr. Lawrence doctoral fellowship. The main focus was to investigate
Joseph, her research focuses on effects of vaccination low-dose, adjuvanted vaccines in a mouse model. Major
with the live-attenuated intranasal infl uenza virus vaccine differences were observed in the immune response
(LAIV) in children and adolescents with cystic fi brosis. after immunization with high-dose or adjuvanted low-
Her PhD dissertation is specifi cally evaluating adverse dose vaccines in mice. A manuscript focusing on these
events following immunization with LAIV, changes differences in the short-time was recently submitted, and
in acute-phase infl ammatory biomarkers post-LAIV a second manuscript focusing on the long-term memory
administration as well as shedding of vaccine-strain response is near completion.
virus in this patient population. As a PCIRN trainee, she
published the paper “Safety of Live-Attenuated Infl uenza Katie Young u Katie is a 6th year PhD student in the
Vaccination in Cystic Fibrosis” in Pediatrics. Her research Brian Ward Laboratory, at McGill University in Montreal,
interests include infectious disease epidemiology and QC. She spent a large part of 2014 fi nishing up
vaccine development and safety. bench-work experiments for her project “Immunologic
Characterization of Infl uenza HA VLP Vaccines Produced
Sarah Buchan u Sarah is completing her PhD in in Plants”. She presented her fi ndings at both the PCIRN
Epidemiology at University of Toronto. Work on the Annual General Assembly and at the 11th Canadian
project entitled, “Impact of Pharmacist Delivery of Immunization Conference. Katie is currently in her fi nal
Infl uenza Vaccines on Uptake in Canada” is ongoing, PhD year, and aims to submit her thesis by August 2015.
with the analysis planned using data from the 2007-
2013 cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey Melanie Samson u Melanie is a post-doctoral
(CCHS). Preliminary results from the CCHS public use fellow at Université Laval where she is working on the
fi le were presented at the 2014 Canadian Immunization development of mutations in the haemagglitinin (HA)
Conference in Ottawa, as part of the Student Vaccinology and neuraminidase (NA) genes of infl uenza viruses
Research Program. Analysis with the full dataset is exposed to neurominidase inhibitors (NAIs).
planned to be completed this spring with fi nal results to
follow.
Miguel Retamal u Miguel is completing his PhD
in Microbiology and Immunology at Université Laval.
Monoclonal antibodies constitute important biological
tools for infl uenza haemagglutinin epitope mapping
through the generation of escape mutants, which could
provide insights into immune evasion mechanism
and may benefi t the future development of vaccines.
Within this scope, PCIRN funding enabled Dr. G. Boivin
laboratory at Laval University, to generate such mAbs.
20 neutralizing mAbs directed towards H1 of A(H1N1)
pdm09 and 13 neutralizing mAbs directed towards H1
of the previous seasonal H1N1 fl uvirus. 11 strategic
mutations were identifi ed within the pdm09 virus and 8
strategic mutations within the seasonal 2009 virus. Such
fi ndings were published within the Journal of General
Virology in July 2014.
Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN)
Constantina Boikos u Constantina is completing Karen Yam u The last year of Karen’s PCIRN
her PhD in Epidemiology at McGill University. Under fellowship coincided with a busy fi nal year of post-
the supervision of Dr. Caroline Quach and Dr. Lawrence doctoral fellowship. The main focus was to investigate
Joseph, her research focuses on effects of vaccination low-dose, adjuvanted vaccines in a mouse model. Major
with the live-attenuated intranasal infl uenza virus vaccine differences were observed in the immune response
(LAIV) in children and adolescents with cystic fi brosis. after immunization with high-dose or adjuvanted low-
Her PhD dissertation is specifi cally evaluating adverse dose vaccines in mice. A manuscript focusing on these
events following immunization with LAIV, changes differences in the short-time was recently submitted, and
in acute-phase infl ammatory biomarkers post-LAIV a second manuscript focusing on the long-term memory
administration as well as shedding of vaccine-strain response is near completion.
virus in this patient population. As a PCIRN trainee, she
published the paper “Safety of Live-Attenuated Infl uenza Katie Young u Katie is a 6th year PhD student in the
Vaccination in Cystic Fibrosis” in Pediatrics. Her research Brian Ward Laboratory, at McGill University in Montreal,
interests include infectious disease epidemiology and QC. She spent a large part of 2014 fi nishing up
vaccine development and safety. bench-work experiments for her project “Immunologic
Characterization of Infl uenza HA VLP Vaccines Produced
Sarah Buchan u Sarah is completing her PhD in in Plants”. She presented her fi ndings at both the PCIRN
Epidemiology at University of Toronto. Work on the Annual General Assembly and at the 11th Canadian
project entitled, “Impact of Pharmacist Delivery of Immunization Conference. Katie is currently in her fi nal
Infl uenza Vaccines on Uptake in Canada” is ongoing, PhD year, and aims to submit her thesis by August 2015.
with the analysis planned using data from the 2007-
2013 cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey Melanie Samson u Melanie is a post-doctoral
(CCHS). Preliminary results from the CCHS public use fellow at Université Laval where she is working on the
fi le were presented at the 2014 Canadian Immunization development of mutations in the haemagglitinin (HA)
Conference in Ottawa, as part of the Student Vaccinology and neuraminidase (NA) genes of infl uenza viruses
Research Program. Analysis with the full dataset is exposed to neurominidase inhibitors (NAIs).
planned to be completed this spring with fi nal results to
follow.
Miguel Retamal u Miguel is completing his PhD
in Microbiology and Immunology at Université Laval.
Monoclonal antibodies constitute important biological
tools for infl uenza haemagglutinin epitope mapping
through the generation of escape mutants, which could
provide insights into immune evasion mechanism
and may benefi t the future development of vaccines.
Within this scope, PCIRN funding enabled Dr. G. Boivin
laboratory at Laval University, to generate such mAbs.
20 neutralizing mAbs directed towards H1 of A(H1N1)
pdm09 and 13 neutralizing mAbs directed towards H1
of the previous seasonal H1N1 fl uvirus. 11 strategic
mutations were identifi ed within the pdm09 virus and 8
strategic mutations within the seasonal 2009 virus. Such
fi ndings were published within the Journal of General
Virology in July 2014.
Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN)
