Associate Professor;
Vaccine Immunology
Immunology and immunopathology of vaccines; Nutrition, immunity and infectious diseases
Accepting graduate students
Department of Microbiology
Montreal General Hospital
1650 Cedar Avenue
Room R3.133
Montreal, QC H3G 1A4
Tel: (514) 934-1934 x.42810
Fax: (514) 933-7146
brian [dot] ward [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Email)
Research Orientations
While vaccines have been successful in controlling some human diseases (eg: small-pox), millions of people continue to suffer and die from vaccine-preventable illnesses. For example, measles virus infects >10 million children every year causing between 0.5-1 million deaths. Although most measles-related mortality occurs in the developing world, even countries with high vaccination rates suffer periodic outbreaks as a result of poorly understood vaccine failure. We are involved in a number of field-based, basic studies in which we hope to identify the factors responsible for poor measles vaccine efficacy in the developing world (eg: Peru, Haiti) and vaccine failure in the developed world.
Pertussis (whooping cough) is another pathogen which continues to kill hundreds of thousands of children despite the availability of a vaccine for more than 30 years. The efficacy of the pertussis vaccine currently used in Canada is only 40-50%. We do not understand what constitutes 'effective' immunity against pertussis hence we are limited in our ability to develop more successful vaccines. We have developed a variety of tools for measuring humoral and cellular immune responses to vaccines which we are applying in field evaluations of new vaccines directed against both measles and pertussis.
Human pathogens can do damage either directly or indirectly. Measles infection is associated with a range of immunopathologic conditions. Poorly understood mortality occurs for months to years after exposure to wild-type measles and even to high titers of vaccine-strain measles virus. We are involved in several field- and lab-based studies of the immuno-pathologic potential of measles.
Another area if interest is the role of nutrition in modulating immunity to infectious agents. We are involved in three field studies examining nutritional factors in the horizontal transmission of HIV (Zimbabwe), in measles vaccine responses (Peru) and in the modulation of Chagas Disease expression (Brazil).
Selected Recent Publications
Lajoie J, Zijenah LS, Faucher MC, Ward BJ, Roger M; ZVITAMBO Study Group. "Novel TAP1 polymorphisms in indigenous Zimbabweans: their potential implications on TAP function and in human diseases." Hum Immunol. 2003 Aug;64(8):823-9.
Lajoie J, Zijenah LS, Faucher MC, Ward BJ, Roger M; ZVITAMBO Study Group. "New transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP-2) polymorphisms in the Shona people of Zimbabwe." Hum Immunol. 2003 Jul;64(7):733-40.
Jenkins AL, Gyorkos TW, Culman KN, Ward BJ, Pekeles GS, Mills EL. "An overview of factors influencing the health of Canadian Inuit infants." Int J Circumpolar Health. 2003 Mar;62(1):17-39. Duval B, De Serre G, Shadmani R, Boulianne N, Pohani G, Naus M, Rochette L, Fradet MD, Kain KC, Ward BJ. "A population-based comparison between travelers who consulted travel clinics and those who did not." J Travel Med. 2003 Jan-Feb;10(1):4-10.
De Serres G, Duval B, Shadmani R, Boulianne N, Pohani G, Naus M, Fradet MD, Rochette L, Ward BJ, Kain KC "Ineffectiveness of the current strategy to prevent hepatitis A in travelers." J Travel Med. 2002 Jan-Feb;9(1):10-6.
Grant J, Mahanty S, Khadir A, MacLean JD, Kokoskin E, Yeager B, Joseph L, Diaz J, Gotuzzo E, Mainville N, Ward BJ "Wheat germ supplement reduces cyst and trophozoite passage in people with giardiasis." Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2001 Dec;65(6):705-10.
MacDougall LA, Gyorkos TW, Leffondre K, Abrahamowicz M, Tessier D, Ward BJ, MacLean JD "Increasing referral of at-risk travelers to travel health clinics: evaluation of a health promotion intervention targeted to travel agents." J Travel Med. 2001 Sep-Oct;8(5):232-42.
Bautista-Lopez NL, Vaisberg A, Kanashiro R, Hernandez H, Ward BJ "Immune response to measles vaccine in Peruvian children." Bull World Health Organ. 2001;79(11):1038-46.
Marcus VA, Ward BJ, Jutras P Intestinal amebiasis: a diagnosis not to be missed. Pathol Res Pract. 2001;197(4):271-4; discussion 275-8.