Dr. Charu Kaushic

Principal Investigator

 Dr. Kaushic completed her Ph.D. at National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, India in the area of reproductive immunology and then spent a few years at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire with Dr. Chuck Wira, learning all about mucosal immunity of the reproductive tract.
 

Her research interest is women’s reproductive health, specifically basic research examining susceptibility and immune responses to sexually transmitted pathogens, particularly, HIV-1 and HSV-2. Dr. Kaushic’s lab has been funded by CIHR, CANFAR and OHTN. Her lab’s research is currently funded by a CIHR grant focused on examining interactions between HIV-1 and HSV-2 in the female genital tract.

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Dr. Charu Kaushic has served in the role of Scientific Director of the CIHR-Institute of Infection and Immunity (III) since July 1, 2018. In her role as the Scientific Director for CIHR-III, Dr. Kaushic is responsible for making decisions for CIHR strategic investments in the area of infection and immunity, nationally and internationally. She also represents CIHR and the Government of Canada at various national and international forums related to infectious diseases. In this capacity, she serves as Chair of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R), a global consortium of funders in pandemic preparedness and emergency response research. She is also an Executive Committee Member of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, a national Task Force mandated to deliver a coordinated sero-survey agenda for the deployment of public health measures and work closely with a range of partners on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine surveillance across Canada. Dr. Kaushic also represents Canada on the Global AMR R&D Hub as well as the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR) Management Board.

Outside of the lab, Dr. Kaushic likes to spend time with her family. She has two sons and when she and her husband are not busy, they like to travel and see new places and experience different cultures. They also like camping, hiking, canoeing and throwing BBQ and pool parties at their house!

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Dr. Aisha Nazli

Research Scientist

Aisha received her MSc and MPhil from the University of Karachi, Pakistan and PhD from the University of Nottingham, England. Her PhD research examined gene expression and manipulation to study Listeria monocytogenes pathogenicity. She was awarded multiple accolades during her studies, including the Overseas Research Studentship (ORS), University of Nottingham Scholarship and Pakistan Commonwealth Scholarship. After completing her PhD, Aisha did a short postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Nottingham. In 2001, Aisha moved to Canada and accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University, within the Mucosal Immunology in Intestinal Disease Research Program.

In 2005, Aisha joined the Kaushic lab as a postdoctoral fellow. Shortly thereafter, she was appointed as a Research Associate and later progressed to the position of Research Scientist in 2009. Her research in the Kaushic lab focuses extensively on different aspects of host-pathogen interactions and host immune responses against several sexually transmitted pathogens, including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). In 2010, Aisha’s first HIV paper was published in a leading infectious disease journal, PLOS Pathogens. The novel impactful findings in this publication received international attention from both the news media and scientific community and has been accessed more than 21,231 times and cited more than 500 times.

Outside of the lab, Aisha enjoys spending time with family, along with painting, calligraphy, and gardening.

Dr. Firoz Mian

Research Associate

Firoz obtained both a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and MSc from Bangladesh Agricultural University. He then completed a PhD in bacteriology at the University of Putra Malaysia while holding a prestigious World Bank scholarship. His doctoral thesis mainly focused on the molecular and phenotypic characterization of various strains of Streptococcus spp. Firoz was also awarded the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) Postdoctoral fellowship at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea to work in the Signal Transduction and Proteomics lab under Dr. Pann-Gill Suh.

In 2005, Firoz joined the McMaster Immunology Research Centre (MIRC) where he worked in Dr. Ali Ashkar’s lab for 7 years, beginning as a Postdoctoral fellow and later transitioning to the role of Research Associate Academic. During this time his research was centered around better understanding pathogen-host interactions at the molecular and cellular level using mouse models, specifically examining the pathogenesis and immune responses for both the Herpes Simplex Virus-2 (HSV-2) and influenza virus (H1N1). His research on the evaluation of therapeutic potentials of different TLR ligands was integral in the discovery of FimH, E. coli fimbrial adhesin as a novel TLR-4 ligand that provides strong protection against HSV-2 and H1N1. Following a short stint at the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto engaging in a mouse model study of the co-pathogenesis of  H1N1 and MRSA, Firoz moved back to McMaster working with Dr. John Bienenstock at St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton for 8 years. Here he explored the impacts of probiotics and their microvesicles on gut immunoregulation, stress, depression  as well as allergy and asthma prevention using mouse models. More recently, his research brought him back to MIRC to work in Dr. Brian Lichty’s lab where he generated and tested bioengineered exosomes targeting DEC205/DC and MARCO/macrophages both in vitro and in mouse models as a potential STING-based cancer therapy.

Firoz’s extensive experience combined with his interests in infectious diseases and microbiome research has led him to join the Kaushic lab where he has begun as a Research Associate as of August 2022. Firoz will be involved in exploring the role of the human vaginal microbiome with and without the influence of female sex hormones or contraceptives in pathogenesis and immune regulation within the female genital tract using mouse models of HIV-1 and HSV-2 infections. 

In his free time Firoz loves spending time with family, watching sports (Cricket, soccer), travelling and gardening. 

Dr. Biban Gill

Postdoctoral Fellow

Biban completed her BSc in Cell and Molecular Biology (Hons, with Distinction) at the University of Toronto in 2016. Recently she has also obtained her PhD here at McMaster University in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology under the supervision of Dr. Britz-McKibbin, where her research focused on using metabolomic technologies to study how our environmental exposures impact chronic disease burden worldwide. Biban was awarded a CIHR postdoctoral fellowship and joined the Kaushic lab in July 2022, where she will apply her knowledge in metabolomics to obtain a functional perspective of the dynamic vaginal microbiome to characterize bacterial-host metabolite relationships, their role in the genital epithelial barrier, and inflammatory response to predict HIV susceptibility. Overall, Biban aims to take an integrative, multi-omics approach for the elucidation of protective factors and high-risk conditions for HIV, with potential applications towards other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

During her spare time Biban enjoys travelling, hiking, rock climbing and baking.

Nuzhat Rahman

PhD Student

Nuzhat joined the Kaushic lab in Fall 2020 under the Medical Sciences graduate program and is currently a second-year PhD student. Her project is focused on creating human vaginal microbiota associated mouse models that can be used to assess the effect of the vaginal microbiota composition on outcomes associated with viral sexually transmitted infections. Currently, she is looking at the effect of eubiotic and dysbiotic vaginal microbiota on HSV-2 and HIV infection and working on determining the mechanism of how the vaginal microbiota affects STI infection.

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Nuzhat graduated from the University of Alberta in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science with Specialization in Immunology and Infection. During her degree, she completed an undergraduate project in Dr. David Evans' lab looking at the role of the H3L protein in poxvirus plaque size and infectivity.

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In her free time, Nuzhat enjoys trying new recipes, reading, and travelling.

Ravneet Hansi

PhD Student

Ravneet completed her BSc (Honours) in Biology at Carleton University in 2019 and she recently also graduated from the University of British Columbia with an MSc in Experimental Medicine. During her MSc degree, she conducted her thesis work under the supervision of Dr. Janice Leung at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation in Vancouver, BC. Her project focused on the cellular mechanisms at the airway epithelial level to understand why people living with HIV tend to experience worse symptom manifestations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Ravneet joined the Kaushic lab in Fall of 2022 to complete her PhD in the Medical Sciences graduate program under the supervision of Dr. Charu Kaushic. Overall, Ravneet is excited to apply her background in epithelial cell culture and virus work to the female reproductive tract during her PhD.

In her free time, Ravneet enjoys spending time with family, playing music, doing henna, hiking, and trying new restaurants!

Elizabeth Ball

PhD Student

Elizabeth completed a BSc (Honours) degree in Biology at Queen’s University.  She then worked at the Ministry of Environment in surface water science, followed by several years of industry experience in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and data analytics in Toronto.

She returned to academia in the fall of 2020 to complete her MSc in Medical Sciences at McMaster University where she studied the relationship between movement behaviours and inflammation in children with chronic inflammatory disease using a combination of wet and dry lab techniques. She has a deep interest in infectious disease and immunology and as such she is very excited to work with pathogens as they relate to women’s health for her PhD in Medical Sciences. Elizabeth joined the  Kaushic lab in 2022.

Outside of her scientific research interests, Elizabeth loves to run, rock climb, camp, hike, travel, and she is an avid photographer.