Kaushic Lab

July 06, 2020

Charu wrote an article about understanding immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 for the Royal Society of Canada and it was also published by the Globe and Mail. Thank you Charu for updating all!

May 08, 2020

​Congratulations to Puja , on the successful defense of her PHD's thesis! Your hard work has showed  awesome results. You made Kaushic Lab proud, Puja!!

May 07, 2020

Congratulations to Ramtin on scripting a chapter of his success story by completing his Master degree. Keep writing bigger, brighter things. May success always come your way in life, Ramtin! 

May 06, 2020

Congratulations to Haley on the successful defense of her Master's degree and best wishes for her next adventure in MD Programs. Way to go Haley!

March 17, 2020

Enjoy this time with your family and keep sending pictures.……….it will cheer the rest of us up.

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June 15, 2019

The Kaushic lab attended the annual American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI) meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Haley and Puja both delivered excellent talks while Allison and Aisha showcased their research with posters. Ramtin took home the prestigious John Gudson Award for his presentation showcasing his work with B cells and HSV-2. Way to go, Ramtin!  

May 29, 2019

Once again the Kaushic lab was well represented at the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Plenary where both Allison and Puja took home awards for Outstanding Oral Presentations. Well done!

March 15, 2019

Allison attended the 66th Annual Scientific Meeting for the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI) in Paris, France! She represented the Kaushic lab with a well attended presentation on her project investigating HSV-2 infection during pregnancy. Bravo, Allison!

January 30, 2019

Congratulations to Jeff Lam, M.Sc. on the successful defense of his Master's thesis!!! Your hard work has finally paid off! Way to go Jeff!

December 05, 2018

Happy Holidays from the Kaushic lab! This year we had lunch at Aberdeen Tavern to celebrate the season and exchange Secret Santa gifts. 

November 12, 2018

Allison was awarded a very competitive CIHR Travel Award, to present her research at an upcoming conference. Way to go Allison!

November 09, 2018

Congratulations to Ryan who was awarded the IIDR Award of Excellence (runner-up) in the undergraduate category for his excellent poster presentation! Other Kaushic lab members who also presented posters included Allison, Ramtin and Haley.

November 09, 2018

Congratulations to Puja for receiving the prestigious Michael Kamin Hart Memorial Scholarship PhD Award. This award is given to a trainee selected by the Executive Committee of the Institute for Infectious Disease Research, who demonstrates “the same degree of academic excellence, leadership, and enthusiasm for science that was evident in Michael”.

October 31, 2018

Great job to everyone who helped carve the Kaushic pumpkin! This year we decided to go with the scariest sight for any researcher…the ever so dreaded p value of 0.06!

August 03, 2018

The Kaushic lab had fun celebrating the last few days of summer at the annual MIRC BBQ @ the Christie Lake Conservation Area.

June 13, 2018

Puja presented a poster at the second biennial Mucosal Immunology Course & Symposium (MICS 2018) co-hosted by the Society for Mucosal Immunology and the European Mucosal Immunology Group. The international conference took place at Oxford University, UK, and was well-represented by the McMaster Immunology Research Centre!

June 08, 2018

The Kaushic Lab took a well deserved break and spent the day at Canada's Wonderland! Choo choo!

May 18, 2018

​Last week Jocelyn and Allison attended the Southern Ontario Reproductive Biology (SORB) Conference at the University of Guelph. Allison delivered an oral presentation and Jocelyn presented a poster. SORB is a great opportunity to learn about local reproductive biology research being conducted using all sorts of creatures; bats and chickens were just a few animals featured this year!

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Keep up the great research everyone!

May 03, 2018

Congratulations Charu on being named the scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity! She will be the first woman to hold this title!

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The CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity supports research in the areas of infectious disease and the immune system and will be housed at McMaster for at least the next four years. This is also the first time a CIHR institute will be based at McMaster.

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What a great and well deserved honour!

May 01, 2018

Congratulations to all the recent award winners in the lab! All of your hard work and effort has been recognized!

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Puja: CIHR Banting and Best Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral Award

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Haley and Ramtin: CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarships - Masters Award

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Ryan: 2018 BHSc Summer Research Award

January 15, 2018

We would like to say a tremendous THANK YOU to everyone who supported our bake sale earlier this week to raise funds for the Nairobi Children's Home. The fundraiser was a great success! Together, we were able to raise $700 from the bake sale, and received $300 additional donations from friends and family who also wanted to contribute, bringing our grand total to $1000!! This is absolutely AMAZING and would not have been possible without all of your support and generosity. This money will go a very long way in Kenya to greatly benefit the children in the orphanage.

Thank you to all of those who stopped by and donated funds, as well as the individuals (Jocelyn Wessels, Kristen Mueller, Allison Felker, Haley Dupont, Sara Dizzell) who helped bake the yummy goods we all got to enjoy! 

December 20, 2019

Wishing everyone the happiest of holidays from the Kaushic Lab

November 09, 2017

Check out the below article highlighting Jocelyn's recent publication!

"McMaster study: Highrisk sexual behavior among women may increase risk of acquiring STIs"

November 03, 2017

Great job to Matt whose paper was published this week in AJRI. His paper "Medroxyprogesterone acetate-treated human, primary endometrial epithelial cells reveal unique gene expression signature linked to innate immunity and HIV-1 susceptibility" uses transcriptomics data to look at gene expression differences of endometrial epithelial cells treated with physiological levels of hormones or hormonal contraceptives.  

October 30, 2017

This week Jocelyn's paper was published in PLoS One, compared the vaginal microbiota of women engaged in high-risk sexual behavior such as sex work and found great bacterial diversity and lower protective bacteria species compared to women living in the same region not engaged in sex work.

Read the associated press release for the paper here: McMaster Researchers Find Association between High-Risk Sexual Behaviour and Women's Reproductive Health

(Photo Credit: Christy Groves, IIDR)

October 31, 2017

Great job to everyone who participated in the MIRC Pumpkin Carving Competition! This year's competition was extremely tight but we were lucky in bringing home 1st place for the second year in a row! Thanks for the devil of a reviewer #3 for the inspiration!

October 26, 2017

Congratulations to Jocelyn and Puja who both took home poster awards in their respective categories as the 2017 IIDR Trainee Research Day!

October 18, 2017

Team building exercise - how many Kaushic members does it take to build 2 Ikea carts?

October 20, 2017

Way to go Puja on her first author publication "A novel role for IL -17 in enhancing type 1 helper T cell immunity in the female genital tract following mucosal HSV -2 vaccination" published in Journal of Virology. All of your hard work paid off! Click below to read more:

September 21, 2017

A huge congratulation to Danielle who successfully defended her Masters Thesis today! Great work Danielle - on to bigger and better adventures!

September 19, 2017

Congratulations to Charu who was awarded the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology Award, one of the highest awards from the Society.

This award is presented annually to a senior investigator who has made outstanding contributions to the area of reproductive immunology.

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Great work Charu!!

June 15, 2017

This month MIRC hosted the 4th Annual D.Y. Perey Symposium to showcase all of the amazing research happening in the center. Jocelyn did a great job presenting her researcher in her oral presentation, while Danielle, Puja, and Matt did an amazing job on their Posters.

Special congratulations to Matt who took home the Best 3 Minute Poster Award for his work on transcriptomics analysis of different hormones.

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May 18, 2017

Congratulations to all of the Kaushic FHS Research Plenary Award Winners

Dr. Kaushic was nominated and received the FHSPD Association Excellence in PDF Supervision.

Dr. Jocelyn Wessels won Best in Category Outstanding Oral Presentation Award - Postdoctral fellow.

Puja Bagri was awarded the Outstanding Oral Presentation Award - Doctoral. 

Danielle Vitali was awarded the Excellence in Poster Presentation Award - Masters.

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Great Job Everyone!!

May 23, 2017

Amazing work to Puja, Danielle, and Jocelyn at the 2017 FHS Research Plenary. All three walked away with awards for their fantastic research & presentations. Keep up the great work!

May 05, 2017

Congratulations to all the recent award winners in the lab! All of your hard work and effort has been recognized!

Jocelyn: CIHR Fellowship

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Puja: 2017-2018 Ontario Graduate Scholarship

2017 Department Research Excellence Scholarship by the Department of Pathology & Molecular Medicine

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Jeff: 2017-2018 Ontario Graduate Fellowship

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Nishant: 2017 IIDR Summer Fellowship

April 22, 2017

Kaushic lab members sporting some amazing signs at the Hamilton March for Science. 

March 01, 2017

Check out the International Women's Day Spotlight on our very own Puja Bagri!

March 01, 2017

In honour of International Women's Day the IIDR is celebrating the many successful and inspiring women in the institute. Check out Dr. Kaushic's Spotlight interview below!

February 03, 2017

Jocelyn and Charu were recently in Nairobi and visted the Baba Dogo Community Clinic in Nairobi where we will be collecting samples for next phase of the microbiome study from the lower-risk women.

January 27, 2017

Last week McMaster hosted Medical Science Research Day which was well represented by the Kaushic Lab.

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Keep up the great research everyone!

January 13, 2017

The lab hosted a very successful bake sale on Thursday to raise money for The Good Samaritan Children's Home that Jocelyn will be visiting next week when she goes to Nairobi, Kenya. 

The Good Samaritan Children's Home serves about 300 orphaned children in Nairobi. The home is small, and relatively empty of material possessions, but Mercy (the lady who runs the Orphanage) ensures that it is always filled with love. Jocelyn is going to bring  them some school supplies and other necessities thanks to all the amazing donations collected at the bake sale.

December 16, 2016

The Kaushic Lab celebrated our annual Holiday Lunch with a fantastic secret Santa exchange - Selfie sticks, storm trooper scarfs, wine & lots of chocolate! 

October 31, 2016

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the MIRC Halloween pumpkin carving competition. Our submission "Lets Talk about Sex Baby: the Story of HIV transmission" was hands down the favourite and took home 1st place! Great job everyone!

October 26, 2016

Fantastic job to everyone who presented at the IIDR Trainee Day. Sara Dizzel was awarded the  Michael Kamin Hart Memorial Scholarship for demonstrating academic excellence, leadership and enthusiasm for science. Dr. Jocelyn Wessle's was awarded the Post-Doc level poster award and Puja Bagri received runner up outstanding poster at the PhD level. Keep up the amazing work everyone!

October 26, 2016

The lab met with Dr. Frank Plummer when he visited McMaster for the Gairdner Lecture series. We joined Dr. Plummer for breakfast and then presented some of our HIV research. It was especially exciting to discuss Jocelyn's work on the Kenya Sex Worker Cohort and her analysis of their microbiome, as Dr. Plummer first established this famous Cohort. His Gairdner Lecture was a fascinating look behind the scenes of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

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October 24, 2016

Charu, Kristen, Jocelyn, Danielle & Sara attended OHTN's annual conference in Toronto, HIV Endgame: closing the gaps in the care cascade. 

Everyone did a great job on their oral presentations

Jocelyn, Sara, Phil and Charu attended HIVR4P in Chicago this week.

September 01, 2016

The event was hosted by The AIDS Network in Hamilton and was called 'Get YR Walk ON'. It was to raise money for free programs The AIDS Network offers such as, emergency food bank, transportation to and from medical appointments, education, counselling, support groups etc. The event raised over $12,000.00 dollars. Great job Sara for organizing another great event!

August 26, 2016

Another beautiful summer day for the McMaster Immunology Research Center's annual BBQ!

August 17, 2016

Yung Lee's, an undergraduate student, paper was just published in Viruses. Yung examined how hormones affect susceptibility to HSV-2 in vaginal cells. Great job Yung!

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July 04, 2016

Congratulations to Jocelyn for receiving the Ontario Women’s Health Fellowship award! Keep up the awesome work Jocelyn! Read more about her fellowship on the MIRC website

Congratulations to Sara for receiving a travel award for the conference and one of 16 abstracts selected for an e-poster oral presentation.

Sara from out lab won the Best Poster Presentation Award at the 3rd Annual D.Y.E Perey Symposium! Also, our lab members, Puja, Danielle, and Yung also presented their poster that day. Great job everyone! 

May 10, 2016

Our lab's master's students Danielle & Sara both won the Best Poster Award at the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Plenary! Also, our post-doctoral fellow, Jocelyn, was selected to do an oral talk for the Plenary. Congratulations everyone!  

May 04, 2016

Charu was interviewed today by CHCH news regarding Varun's PLoS Pathogens paper

Our lab's Ph.D. Student, Dr. Varun Anipindi's recent publication was featured on the PLOS Pathogen's homepage as "Featured Research." Congratulations Varun! 

This weekend, Yung (2nd year BHSc) was awarded the Best Overall Poster Presentation at the 29th Annual Ontario Biology Day 2016 for his research project (from over 85 different poster presentations from different universities!). This was a province-wide biology research conference with hundreds of researchers from different universities across Ontario. Yung's poster is titled, "Examining the Effect of Female Sex Hormones on Susceptibility to HSV-2 Using a Novel Air-Liquid Interface Culture." 

April 05, 2016

Kaushic Lab's one incoming PhD Dr. Joceyln Wessels and two outgoing PhD Dr. Kristy Roth  and Dr. Jessica Kafka celebrated their PhD convocation this Saturday! We wish you the best in their future endeavors!

October 14, 2015

Sara Dizzell, a Master’s student from Dr. Charu Kaushic’s lab, was awarded with the top poster presentation in the MSc category, for her work on establishing a model to better understand the role of sex hormones and microbiota on the regulation of genital epithelial cell barrier function.

October 30, 2015

Kaushic lab won 3rd place!

September 01, 2015

An article about our primary culture system was featured recently on "The Scientist"! Please take a read for more information on some of the things we do in the Kaushic lab. Thank you Sara for providing the images from her work in the article. 

September 15, 2015

On September 15-16 at NIH (NIAID), Bethesda, MD, Dr. Kaushic attended the interdisciplinary meeting titled 'Risks of Young Age and Mucosal Injury in HIV Susceptibility (RAIS).'

The meeting was organized by National Institutes of Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-Department of AIDS (DAIDS), Office of AIDS Research (OAR), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Office of Research in Women’s Health (ORWH).

This  meeting brought together experts to discuss a range of topics including role of age and trauma in risk of HIV infection, understanding adolescent biology, general biology of HIV transmission, biology of mucosal trauma and  repair and new models to understand age and sexual trauma. The goal of the meeting was to identify research gaps and steps to move the research forward.

In the meeting, Dr. Kaushic presented a talk, 'Role of Mucosal Barriers in HIV Infections'