Leadership
Dr. Dao Nguyen, MD, MSc. Founder and Director, McGill AMR Centre
Associate professor, Departments of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Scientist, Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases program, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
Physician, Division of Respirology, McGill University Health Centre
FRQS Chercheur Boursier Clinicien, recipient of CIHR Clinician Scientist award, Vertex Cystic Fibrosis Research Innovation award, Cystic Fibrosis Scholar award and Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientist.
Dr Nguyen’s multidisciplinary research bridges fundamental microbiology and translational research. It is focused on chronic bacterial infections and the biology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, particularly the mechanisms of antibiotic tolerance and respiratory infections. She has expertise in bacteriology, biofilm biology, host-pathogen interactions, and cellular and murine models of infection. She has collaborated with academic groups from a wide range of disciplines and with the anti-infective biotechnology industry to advance the discovery of novel antibacterial and adjuvant therapies and antimicrobial biomaterials. Since 2020, she has spearheaded the creation of the new AMR Centre and leads its current activities.
Associate Directors
Dr. Makeda Semret, MD, FRCP(C). Associate director, McGill AMR Centre
Associate professor, Departments of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, McGill University
Director, Training Program in Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, McGill University
Lead, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, McGill University Health Centre
Founder and co-director, Addis Ababa University-McGill Partnership in Infectious Diseases
As the Lead for the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, Dr Semret leads the development and dissemination of infectious diseases clinical management guidelines and the implementation of interventions to optimize antibiotic prescription quality at the MUHC, a quaternary care hospital. Her clinical research is focused on assessing interventions to inform clinical decision-making in infectious diseases, with a focus on common infections among hospitalized patients. She is the Canadian coordinator and co-PI of PILGRIM, a study led by an international consortium that aims to determine the differential impact of antimicrobial prescription quality and infection control practices on gut microbiota domination by healthcare-associated pathogens. She has served as site-PI and co-investigator of multicenter international randomized controlled trials assessing various therapeutic agents for management of COVID-19, and as scientific advisor for the Federal Government of Canada COVID-19 Therapeutics Task Force. As founder and co-director of the institutional partnership between Addis Ababa University and McGill (www.amp-id.org), and co-PI of the longest cohort study on Hospital-Associated infections and AMR in Ethiopia, she is currently working on implementing bacteriology diagnostics and stewardship interventions to optimize antimicrobial use and patient outcomes in Ethiopian hospitals.
Dr. Albert Berghuis, PhD. Associate Director, McGill AMR Centre
Distinguished James McGill in the Departments of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, McGill University
Chair, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Team leader, Chemical and Structural Biology, Life Science Complex. Former Canada Research Chair in Structural Biology (Tier 1).
Dr. Berghuis’ research focuses on the structural elucidation of protein-drug interactions, particularly bacterial proteins that confers antibiotic resistance. He has expertise structural biology including various complementary biophysical techniques such as X-ray diffraction/scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. His work has informed the development of next-generation anti-infectives to overcome antibiotic resistance, and the design of adjuvants that enhance the effectiveness of antibiotics. He also serves on the editorial boards of several journals, has consulted for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, participated in and chaired expert panels advising granting agencies (e.g. CIHR, CFI, NIH), and has been a member of various advisory boards (e.g. Physical Sciences Advisory Committee for the Canadian Space Agency).
Executive Committee
Marcel Behr
Dept of Medicine (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences)
Dr. Behr is a clinician-scientist with appointments of Full Professor in the Department of Medicine and Associate member in the departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics as well as Microbiology and Immunology. He is the founding Director of the McGill International TB Centre and led it from 2012 to 2018. He is the Associate Program Leader of the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre since 2016. In 2017 he became the co-Director the McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (McGill-i4) which he now directs since 2021. He is the interim director of McGill Infectious Diseases Division. Dr. Behr trained at the University of Toronto, Queen’s, McGill and Stanford. His work has been ecognized by election into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Behr’s lab studies tuberculosis and closely-related bacteria, called mycobacteria. Using genetic techniques (DNA of the bacteria), Dr. Behr tracks the spread of bacteria over space and time. He also uses genetic methods to better understand the vaccine used against tuberculosis, called the BCG vaccine, and to look for new antibiotics to treat mycobacterial infections.
Bastien Castagner
Dept of Pharmacology & Therapeutics (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences)
Bastien Castagner obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Columbia University in New York in 2004. His postdoctoral years were spent at ETH Zürich from 2005 – 2008. From 2009 – 2014 he was a Group Leader in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zürich working on drug delivery approaches. He joined the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics at McGill in 2014 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2020. He holds the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Therapeutic Chemistry. His lab is interested mainly in drug discovery, notably against C. difficile infection. He is also interested in targeting the human gut microbiota with prebiotic approaches, in particular against cancer.
Dominic Frigon
Dept of Civil Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
Dominic Frigon is an associate professor Professor in Civil Engineering. His research interests encompass several aspects of environmental biotechnology with a focus on microbial community engineering. His research aims at constructing mathematical models describing the dynamics and activity of microbial populations present in wastewater resource recovery systems. These models are then validated in laboratory-scale and full-scale experiments using molecular (DNA-based and RNA-based) microbiology and genomic techniques.
Rees Kassen
Dept of Biology (Faculty of Science)
Rees Kassen is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Scientific Director of the Coronavirus in the Urban Environment (CUBE) initiative. After completing his PhD in 2001, Rees did postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, then joined the University of Ottawa in 2003. He moved to McGill in 2023. In addition to research and teaching, Rees is active at the interface between science, society, and policy, serving as Director of the Trottier Institute of Science and Public Policy at McGill.
Jennifer Ronholm
Dept of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry/Animal Science (Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences)
Dr. Ronholm obtained her BSc in Microbiology from the University of Waterloo in 2007 and her Doctoral degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Ottawa in 2013. She completed post-doctoral training at McGill University and at Health Canada. She was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2017. Her interests are primarily in understanding the role of the microbiome in determining susceptibility of individuals (both humans and agricultural animals) to infections.
