Bio: Dr. Reynolds completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where she studied how intestinal helminths modulate the bacterial microbiota composition, and reciprocally, the mechanisms by which the bacterial microbiota composition affect immunity to intestinal helminths. She then moved to Vancouver, Canada, for a postdoctoral position where she investigated the mechanisms by which the bacterial microbiota and helminths affect mucosal immunity. Dr. Reynolds moved to the University of Victoria, Canada, in 2017, to establish her laboratory. Research in the Reynolds laboratory focuses on the multi-directional interactions between the mammalian immune system and intestine-dwelling organisms including helminths and bacteria. The Reynolds laboratory is currently supported by a Project Grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research and a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Bio: Dr. Julian J. Lum graduated with a PhD in Immunology from the University of Ottawa. He spent five years training at the University of Pennsylvania in the field of cancer biology with special emphasis on tumor metabolism. There he studied how cells adapt to nutrient stress and the role of autophagy in promoting cancer cell survival. In 2008, Dr. Lum returned to Canada and joined the Deeley Research Centre at BC Cancer where his current research interest is focused on the relationship between metabolism and impacts on immune responses in ovarian cancer. He is using mass spectrometry-based approaches to delineate the metabolomes of human patient samples. The goal is to identify potential targets that can be used to enhance immunotherapy for ovarian cancer. His core approach is to metabolomically engineer CAR-T cells using CRISPR-Cas-based gene-editing as way to overcome metabolic barriers in the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Lum serves as the Director of the Metabolomics Consortium of BC (Metabo-BC), a network of metabolomic experts that provide the research community a core platform to conduct metabolomics research in human health and disease. Dr. Lum is an Associate Professor with the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria and Senior Scientist, BC Cancer.

Bio: Dr. Brown graduated with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of British Columbia. She undertook postdoctoral training in systems biology, functional genomics, and phagocyte biology at the Child & Family Research Institute (Vancouver, Canada), the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK) and The University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg, Sweden). In 2014, she became the first full-time PhD scientist to join, as Assistant Professor, the UBC Division of Rheumatology at BC Children’s Hospital and Research Institute. Her research team is interested in understanding immunological drivers and subclinical markers of vasculitis and other rheumatic diseases with the eventual goal of using this knowledge to improve clinical assessment and scoring tools. Trainees have unique opportunities to work on priority clinical issues in pediatric rheumatology and obtain a true bedside-bench-bedside approach for patient-oriented health research.

Bio: Dr. Mani Larijani completed his Ph.D. jointly at the University of Toronto, and Harvard, followed by post-doctoral training in Toronto. He started his faculty career on the east coast at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2009, and in 2019 he moved to the west coast to join Simon Fraser University as the Shrum Chair in the Faculty of Science. Mani works on DNA/RNA-editing enzymes and their roles in immunology and cancer. His work has been recognized with numerous awards including the President's Award for Outstanding Research (2012), the Terra Nova Young Innovator Award (2012), the Canadian Society for Immunology New Investigator Award (2015), CIHR New Investigator Award (2010-2015), and the Shrum research Chair at SFU which is held by a mid-career researcher emerging as an international leader in their field.

Bio: Dr. Megan Levings is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Her lab studies how a special kind of white blood cell, known as a T regulatory cell, could be used as a cellular therapy to stop harmful immune responses. She leads a vibrant group of trainees and staff who are researching how to use T regulatory cells to replace conventional immunosuppression in the context of transplantation and autoimmunity. She is internationally recognized in the field of human immunology and currently chairs the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies Centers' of Excellence.

Bio: Lisa Osborne is an Assistant Professor in the Microbiology & Immunology department at the University of British Columbia, a Canada Research Chair in Host-Microbiome Interactions and founder of the UBC Gnotobiotic Facility. The overarching goal of the Osborne lab is to understand how the biodiverse collection of viruses, bacteria and helminths that reside in the gut influence host immune responses, either to enhance protective immunity against pathogens or limit autoimmune inflammation and damage.

Bio: Wafaa Antonious was contracted by the Canadian Society of Immunology (CSI) to be the Society Conference Organizer starting with the 2021 Conference. Since 1998 Wafaa has been providing secretariat and conference organization services for other biological related societies. Wafaa started first through the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies (CFBS). When CFBS folded at the end of 2008, Wafaa started January 2009 providing secretariat and conference organization services through her own company "Rofail Conference and Management Services (RCMS). Through RCMS, Wafaa provides secretariat services to other organizations, maintaining the websites, book keeping, dealing with inquiries from members and other related activities as well as organizes scientific workshops, meetings and conferences from 20 - 800 attendees.

Bio: Rachael FitzPatrick is a graduate student in Dr. Lisa Reynolds' laboratory at the University of Victoria where she researches the mucosal immune system. Rachael is particularly interested in eosinophils, a type of immune cell that is implicated in allergies, inflammatory bowel diseases and parasitic worm infections.

Bio : Dr. Manjurul Haque obtained his graduation in veterinary science in India where he also completed a master's program in Veterinary Parasitology. After that he joined a PhD program at the Institute of Parasitology, McGill University where he completed his doctoral study in 2020. Subsequently he joined Levings lab as post-doctoral fellow.

Bio: Elaine obtained her BMSc and MSc in Immunology at the University of Western Ontario. Having joined Dr. Julian Lum’s laboratory, she now focuses her research on the effect of metabolic modulation on T cell memory development and CAR-T cell efficacy.

Bio: Sarah Nersesian is a passionate researcher who loves to share scientific knowledge through illustrations and other visual communication strategies. She obtained her BSc in BioMedical Sciences from The University of Guelph and MSc in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Queen’s University. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University focusing on exploring the impact of intra-tumoural natural killer cells on tumour development and treatment responses. Over her academic journey, she has published her research in journals including, The BMJ, The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, Scientific Reports, Oncoimmunology, Frontiers of Immunology, Bladder Cancer, and The Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer. Many of these publications were accompanied by her custom scientific illustrations.

Bio: Coby Rangsitratkul obtained his BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Sherbrooke and is currently completing his MSc in Immunology in Dr. Lee-Hwa Tai’s laboratory. He focuses on developing novel oncolytic virotherapies and characterizing the resulting adaptive immune response directed against tumours.