Avani Lamba

Avani Lamba

Masters Student

Avani is an MSc student in the School of Population and Public Health at The University of British Columbia. She started at VEC in September 2021 and is working under the supervision of Dr Julie Bettinger. Her research is focused on Meningococcal disease and vaccination.

Bernice Ramos

Bernice Ramos

PhD Student

Bernice  is a graduate student in the Microbiology and Immunology program at the University of British Columbia, working under the supervision of Dr. Manish Sadarangani at the VEC. Her project focuses on describing the epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease and the effects of new generation conjugate vaccines.

Brynn McMillan

Brynn McMillan

PhD Student

Brynn McMillan is a PhD student in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia, where she is supervised by Dr. Agatha Jassem at the BC Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Manish Sadarangani at the VEC. Brynn’s research focuses on SARS-CoV-2 humoral immune responses in the context of infection and vaccine-elicited immunity.

Emily Mason

Emily Mason

PhD Student

Emily Mason is a PhD student in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia, studying under the supervision of Dr. Manish Sadarangani. She has been involved with the VEC since 2020, researching vaccine-preventable disease incidence in Canadian children. Her current work involves the development of a vaccine against Klebsiella pneumoniae and other antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Gabriel Blank

Gabriel Blank

Pediatrics Resident

Gabriel Blank is a Vancouver-based pediatrics resident who recently joined the VEC in 2021. Gabriel received his undergraduate degree in Physiology and Pharmacology prior to completing Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He has experience in multimedia video creation and project coordinating, in addition to recreational involvements in acting, singing, and related artistic endeavors. He is working alongside Dr. Bettinger and Dr. Mitchell to help create a vaccine educational video for healthcare providers.

Dr. Gabrielle Gaultier

Dr. Gabrielle Gaultier

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Gabrielle completed her PhD in the Biotechnology program at Lakehead University in October 2020. Her PhD projects investigated B-cell and antibody responses to the 13-valent pneumococcal protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccine in adults with severe chronic kidney disease (CKD), natural immunity against Haemophilus influenzae type a and B-cell subpopulations in adults with CKD, as well as antibodies specific for Streptococcus pneumoniae in Indigenous and Non-Indigenous adults. Gabrielle joined Dr. Sadarangani’s lab group in April 2021 where her research focuses on the immunological analysis of infectious diseases for the purpose of vaccine development and evaluation, with a particular emphasis on SARS-CoV-2.

Gurvir Dhutt

Gurvir Dhutt

Graduate Academic Assistant

Gurvir is a graduate student in the Master of Public Health program at the University of British Columbia. He has a Master of Science degree in Aging and Health where his studies focused on strategies to promote health and healthy aging in the older adult population. His interests in public health research broadly consist of determining the effectiveness of disease countermeasures and using these findings to develop health promotion policies for our population

Jonah Hall

Jonah Hall

PhD Student

Jonah Hall is an immunology Ph.D. student in the University of British Columbia Microbiology department with Manish Sadarangani at the VEC and Daniel Coombs of the Mathematics department as his supervisors. His research is mainly focused on the recreation and optimization of the dynamics of maternal and neonatal vaccination strategies against pertussis (whooping cough).

Jung-Bahadur Singh Kandola

Jung-Bahadur Singh Kandola

Masters Student in Experimental Medicine

Jung-Bahadur Singh Kandola is a graduate student in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia, working under the supervision of Dr. Julie Bettinger at the VEC. His research interests include understanding and addressing vaccine hesitancy in the South Asian population, with an emphasis on the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. He aims to translate knowledge into more effective and approachable interventions to address vaccine hesitancy in the information age.

Kaitlin Winter

Kaitlin Winter

Postdoctoral Fellow

Kaitlin completed her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University in June 2022. For her PhD, she developed a vaccine targeting Clostridioides difficile using Salmonella Typhimurium as a live, attenuated vaccine vector. Kaitlin joined Dr. Sadarangani's group in October 2022. She is currently working on the development of a vaccine against Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Kevin Meesters

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Kevin is a pediatrician from Belgium, currently completing his fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at BC Children’s Hospital. His doctoral research centered on the pharmacology of antimicrobials and strategies to investigate antibiotic use in children. At present, he holds a postdoc appointment in the research groups of Dr. Bettinger and Dr. Sadarangani. His current research focuses on the epidemiology and outcomes of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Liam Mullins

Liam Mullins

Graduate Student

Liam is a graduate student in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia, working under the supervision of Dr. Manish Sadarangani in the VEC since 2022. He is part of the team researching the development of vaccines for Klebsiella pneumoniae as a strategy to combat antibiotic resistance. Liam completed his B.Sc. (Hons) in Microbiology at the University of Guelph, studying E. coli efflux pumps. Outside of the lab, he is passionate about health equity and climate justice.

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Mahin Delara

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Mahin joined the VEC in late 2020 with a background in health education, applied health sciences, midwifery, maternal and child health.  Her current research focuses on evaluating vaccine effectiveness and safety in children and adolescents.

Maria Mulder

Maria Mulder

Graduate Student Researcher

Maria (they/them) is pursuing a Master in Library and Information Studies at UBC. Their general research focuses on health information as well as behaviour and practices. Maria's research at the VEC focuses on vaccine hesitancy using an information science perspective and is supervised by Dr. Julie Bettinger.

Nicholas Viegas

Nicholas Viegas

Honours Thesis Research Student

Nicholas is an honors thesis student in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UBC. He is co-supervised in the Sadarangani and Jassem labs where his research focuses on the evaluation and optimization of dried blood spot samples for the quantification of SARS-CoV-2 antibody concentration and function.

Dr. Nirma Khatri Vadlamudi

Dr. Nirma Khatri Vadlamudi

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Vadlamudi joined the VEC in early 2022, working with Dr. Bettinger and Dr. Sadarangani. Dr. Vadlamudi is an infectious disease epidemiologist and clinical researcher with 15 years of research experience related to several therapeutic areas, including Rheumatoid Arthritis, Diabetes, Colorectal Cancer, Pneumococcal disease and COVID19 . Her work with the VEC will focus on the Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program, ACTive (IMPACT) examining vaccine safety events and vaccine-preventable diseases through active surveillance.

Rhienna Patel

Rhienna Patel

UBC Science Co-op Student

 

Susmita Chakma

Susmita Chakma

Graduate Research Assistant

 

Dr. Phyu Mar Soe

Dr. Phyu Mar Soe

PhD Student

Phyu Mar is a graduate student at the School of Population and Public Health (SPPH), University of British Columbia. She joined Dr.Bettinger’s research team in July 2021 after completing her Master of Science in International Health at University of Heidelberg. Prior to joining SPPH and VEC, she was involved in research on antimicrobial resistance, HIV disease epidemiology and behavioral surveillance system at both the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS). Her research interests include child health, vaccine effectiveness and safety, disease surveillance, and infectious disease epidemiology. Her current research is on COVID-19 vaccine safety among high-risk populations.

Alumni

Continued learning is one of the Vaccine Evaluation Center’s core values. We welcome and appreciate the work of our students and trainees, including undergraduate, medical and graduate students as well as postdoctoral and clinical research fellows.

 

Graduate Students

Marian Orhierhor, MSc

2021-2023 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Madalief Ozephius, MSc
2022-2023 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Natalie Cavalin, MSc Klebsiella pneumoniae
2021-2022 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Jimmy Lopez, MSc Population and Public Health
2019-2021 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Aaron Liu, PhD Experimental Medicine
2018-2021 with Dr. Soren Gantt

Rana Minab, MSc Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
2018-2021 with Dr. Soren Gantt

Bahaa Abu Raya, PhD Experimental Medicine
2017-2021 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Catherine Byrne, PhD Microbiology and Immunology
2016-Present with Dr. Soren Gantt

May Abdel-Hamid Ahmed, MSc Population and Public Health
2016-2018 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Jessica Tuengel, PhD Experimental Medicine
2014-2021 with Dr. Soren Gantt

Adriana Cabrera, PhD Student
2019-2022 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

 

Medical Residents and Fellows

Kyle Amaral, Medical Student
2021-2023 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Eve Nakebembe, Clinical Research Doctoral Fellow
2023 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Anne (Tinta) Deasy, General Pediatrics Fellow
2021-2022 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Diana Bark, Public Health Resident
2020-Present with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

James Zlosnik, Research Associate
2016 - 2021 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Sarah Silverberg, Pediatrics Resident
2020-Present with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Abdulwahed Zainel, Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellow
2020-2022 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Dalal Mohammad, Pediatric Resident
2019-2021 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Stephan Saad, Adult Infectious Disease Fellow
2019-2021 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Nassr Nama, Pediatrics Resident
2019-2021 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Te-Yu Hung, Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellow
2019-2020 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Rabab Al-Ghaithi, Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellow
2018-2020 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

Alastair McAlpine. Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellow
2018-2020 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani

James Toft, Pediatric Resident
2018-2020 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Hana (Mijovic) Mitchell, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellow
2017-2018 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Bahaa Abu Raya, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellow
2015-2017 with Dr. Tobi Kollmann

 

Postdoctoral Fellows

Wendy Pringle, Postdoctoral Fellow
2019 -2022 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Jennifer Gillis, Postdoctoral Fellow
2021-2022 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani (Co-supervised by Dr. Gina Ogilvie)

Elisabeth McClymont, Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-Present with Dr. Soren Gantt (Co-supervised by Dr. Manish Sadarangani)

Citlali Marquez, Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-2021 with Dr. Soren Gantt

Robine Donken, Postdoctoral Fellow
2017-2020 with Dr. Manish Sadarangani (Co-supervised by Dr. Gina Ogilvie)

Clara Rubincam, Postdoctoral Fellow
2015-Present with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Raidan Alyazidi, Postdoctoral Fellow
2015-2018 with Dr. Soren Gantt

Devon Greyson, Postdoctoral Fellow
2015-2018 with Dr. Julie Bettinger

Learn more about the VEC Team

Investigators

Research Support