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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Kyle Amaral
Masters Student in Experimental Medicine
Kyle 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 2021. His project aims to evaluate the immune responses against pertussis containing vaccine given to pregnant individuals and their infants, and how these responses may differ between pregnant women living with or without HIV, and their infants.
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.
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.
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
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.
Susmita Chakma
Graduate Research Assistant
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
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