㽶Ƶ

AMR Centre newsletter
For the latest in
AMR news & events

Annual McGill AMR Symposium |June 3, 2024

McGill’s University Centre, Ballroom, 3rd Floor
3480 McTavish St, Montreal

The McGill AMR Centre hosted its 4th Annual Symposium on Monday June 3rd and welcomed over 120 people to this in-person event.Thank you to all who joined the conversation on the Genomics and Evolution of AMR.With 13 flash talks, 47 posters and a “Career Insight” lunch with 6 non-academic guest experts, trainees also had a highly interactive and stimulating day!

Program: Genomics and Evolution of AMR

8:30 AM Registration opens

9:00 AM Welcome

9:05 AM Keynote presentation: Kate Baker, University of Liverpool and University of Cambridge, "Dysentery over the course of the antibiotic era: from intrinsic to extensive drug resistance"

10:00 AM Break

10:30 AM Faculty short talks

  • Patricia Fontela, Pediatrics, 㽶Ƶ
    "Antibiotic use in the critical care setting: a quest for balance"
  • Jesse Shapiro, Microbiology & Immunology, 㽶Ƶ
    "Interactions between antibiotics, phages, and pathogens within cholera patients"
  • Christian Landry, Biology, Université Laval
    "Studying the evolution of antifungal resistance at high-resolution"

11:30 AM Trainee flash talks

  • Oral 1 Farhan Rahman Chowdhury
  • Oral 2 Georgi Merhi
  • Oral 3 Dongyun Jung
  • Oral 4 Damitha Gunathilake

12:00 PM Lunch break/Career Insights Trainee Luncheon with non-academia experts:

  • Sadjia Bekal, Clinical specialist in medical biology, Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec
  • Adam Belley, Senior Director, Clinical Microbiology, Venatorx PharmaceuticalsInc.
  • Jessica Blavignac, Director, Medical & Scientific Affairs, bioMérieux Canada Inc.
  • DianaIglesias,Innovation and Program Director, Scientific Affairs, Genome Quebec
  • Frédéric Leduc, Chief Scientific Officer, EVAH Corp
  • Joshua Pottel, CEO, Molecular Forecaster Inc.

1:00 PM Trainee flash talks

  • Oral 5Bridget 'Brien
  • Oral 6 Mark Hemmings
  • Oral 7 Mathieu Giguère
  • Oral 8 Jinxin Liu
  • Oral 9 Océane Goncalves
  • Oral 10 Ori Solomon
  • Oral 11 Parham Ghasemloo Gheidari
  • Oral 12 Laura Dominguez Mercado
  • Oral 13 Haijiao Lin

2:00 PM Poster Session and Break

3:00 PM Faulty short talks

  • Frédérique Le Roux, Microbiology, Infectious Diseases & Immunology, Université de Montréal
    "Exploring Bacterial and Phage Interactions in Their Natural Environment"
  • Rees Kassen, Biology, 㽶Ƶ
    "Network topology accelerates the emergence and spread of resistance"
  • Louis-Patrick Haraoui, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Université de Sherbrooke
    "Artificial intelligence to detect novel antibiotic resistance genes"

3:55 PM Closing

4:00 PM Networking reception

    About our Speakers

    Profile of Kate BakerKeynote Dr Kate BakerBVSc PhD MRCVS FHEA,University of Liverpool and University of Cambridge, England
    Dr Baker is a Chair in Applied Microbial Genomics at the University of Liverpool and the United Kingdom Health Security Agency and leads Prokaryotic Research at the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. Originally training and working as a veterinarian in Australia, she moved to the UK to complete her PhD at the University of Cambridge and Zoological Society of London and a postdoctoral position at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. She started her research group at the University of Liverpool in 2016 and has recently moved to the University of Cambridge in 2023, where she continues her research on the genomic epidemiology of bacterial pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. She is an Associate Editor of Nature Antimicrobials and Resistance, a member of the WHO technical advisory group on Vaccines for AMR, and has experience in science policy.

    Talk title: "Dysentery over the course of the antibiotic era: from intrinsic to extensive drug resistance"
    ٰ:The causative agents of bacillary dysentery, bacteria of the genus Shigella, were the leading cause of diarrhoeal disease during WW1. Today, they remain the leading cause of diarrhoeal disease in children under five years old in lower- to middle- income nation settings and are a WHO AMR priority pathogen. I will talk through how a decade of genomic studies of Shigella spanning the pre, peri, and post antibiotic era (including some with a special connection to McGill) highlight how the diversity and adaptability of these pathogens allowed them to maintain their top ranking despite our control efforts, and ways in which we can leverage genomic data to identify new ways to tackle them.
    Profile of Patricia FontelaPatricia Fontela,MD, PhD
    Dr Fontela is a pediatric intensivist and epidemiologist at 㽶Ƶ. Her research focuses on the personalization of antibiotic use in the pediatric critical care setting. She studies the determinants that influence antibiotic use, the clinical reasoning behind antibiotic-related decisions, and the use of biomarkers to guide antibiotic treatments in this setting.

    Profile of Louis-Patrick HaraouiLouis-Patrick Haraoui, MD, MSc, FRCPC
    Dr Haraoui is a clinician-researcher focusing on antimicrobial resistance throughout the One Health spectrum. He works as a physician at Hôpital Charles-Le Moyne and is Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Université de Sherbrooke. He is a FRQS clinical research scholar, a CIFAR-Azrieli Global Scholar and holds uninterrupted research funding since 2018.

    Profile of Rees KassenRees Kassen, PhD
    Prof Kassen is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Trottier Professor of Science and Public Policy at 㽶Ƶ, where he also leads the Coronavirus in the Urban Built Environment initiative as its scientific director. He was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow and Elizabeth Wordsworth Research Fellow at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. He was an Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Scholar (Yale University, 2022), a Leopold Leadership Fellow (2013), NSERC Steacie Fellow (2010), and a World Economic Forum Young Scientist (2010-2012).

    Profile of Christian LandryChristian Landry, PhD
    Dr Landry obtained his BSc and MSc degrees from Université Laval (1995-2000). He trained as a PhD student at Harvard University (2001-2006) where he worked on the evolution of gene expression networks. He did a postdoctoral internship on the organization and evolution of protein interaction networks at Université de Montréal (2007-2009). Since 2009, he has been an independent investigator at Université Laval and now holds the CIHR Canada Research Chair in Cellular Systems and Synthetic Biology.

    Profile of Frédérique Le Roux Frédérique Le Roux, PhD
    Prof. Le Roux is Professor of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the Université de Montréal, a Canada Excellence Research Chair and member of IVADO. Her research program focuses on understanding phage-bacteria interactions in the environment.

    Profile of Jesse ShapiroJesse Shapiro, PhD
    Prof Shapiro is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Investigator at the McGill Genome Centre. He uses genomics to track how microbes evolve and adapt in environments ranging from the human gut to freshwater lakes. His recent work has focused on rapid evolution of pathogens within patients, interactions between ecological and evolutionary dynamics, and the forces shaping bacterial pangenome evolution.

    About our Non-academia Experts

    Profile of S BekalSadjia Bekal, PhD
    Dr Bekal holds a PhD in molecular microbiology from University of Burgundy, France. She joined the provincial public health laboratory (LSPQ) in 2003. She is responsible of genomic surveillance and outbreaks monitoring of bacterial enteric in the context of One Health through PulseNet-Canada, Foodnet_Canada and Cipars networks. Since 2008, she is an associated professor at the microbiology, infectiology and immunology of Université de Montréal. Her research projects focus the use of genomics for bacterial typing, virulence and antimicrobial resistance characterization.

    profile of Adam BelleyAdam Belley,PhD,
    Mr Belley, a McGill alumnus, is now the Senior Director of Clinical Microbiology at Venatorx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company focused on discovering and developing new agents for resistant bacterial infections. In previous roles, he contributed to the development and regulatory approval of oritavancin (2014) and cefepime-enmetazobactam (2024), therapies used for serious infections caused by resistant bacterial pathogens.

    Profile of Jessica BlagovichJessica Blavignac
    Ms Blavignac joins us with over 20 years of experience within the Medical Affairs career path of the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries, holding positions following the classic progression from Medical Science Liaison to Director of Medical & Scientific Affairs, most recently at bioMérieux Canada. This background has allowed her to lead several national-scale medical education projects and more than 35 scientific and clinical research programs supporting a variety of therapeutic fields. Jessica holds a bachelor's degree from McMaster University, where she also pursued graduate studies in Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences.

    profile of Diana IglesiasDiana Iglesias
    Ms Iglesias is the Scientific Affairs Innovation and Programs Director at Génome Québec. As Programs Director at Génome Québec, she works with funding partners in the successful delivery and implementation of research programs. She helps connect researchers and stakeholders to address complex challenges and translate genomics research and innovation into solutions.

    profile of Frederic LeducFrédéric Leduc
    Mr Leduc is an active member of the Canadian life sciences community, contributing through biotech start-ups, partnership events, and training scientific entrepreneurs. He joined EVAH in 2022 to develop innovative solutions for animal health and sustainability. Previously, he co-founded Immune Biosolutions, raising over $30M and developing groundbreaking immunotherapies. Mr Leduc also serves on the board of BIOQuébec and Nets 4 Net Zero (a non-profit organization) and participates in various sustainability initiatives.

    profile of Josh PottelJoshua Pottel,PhD
    Mr Pottel is the CEO at Molecular Forecaster Inc. (MFI): a research-as-a-service (RaaS) company delivering customized collaborative computer-aided drug design (CADD) solutions. He received his PhD at 㽶Ƶ in the lab of Prof. Nicolas Moitessier and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Brian Shoichet at UCSF. He now combines his trainings as a chemist and as an entrepreneur to grow a sustainable service and software provider in drug discovery. More broadly, he hopes to be a critical contributor to scientific research and to foster entrepreneurship within a growing Canadian biotech sector.

    Back to top