MI4 announces new Early Career Investigator Awards

With this donation from Pfizer Canada, early career scientists and researchers across the McGill and MUHC community have an opportunity to carry out research across three broad thematic areas: Pandemic Threats, Antimicrobial Resistance, Microbes that Shape Human Health.

With the support of Pfizer Canada, the McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) provides early career scientists and researchers from McGill the opportunity to undertake innovative research to curb the threat of infectious and immune diseases. MI4 has announced the winners of the final round of the MI4 Pfizer Early Career Investigator Award.

Please join the Macdonald Campus community in congratulating Qian Liu, Associate Professor in the Institute of Parasitology for her winning submission.

Dr. Liu's project will study Nipah virus to increase scientific understanding of how viruses infect cells and how the cell's innate immune defenses fight novel viral infections, knowledge which is critical to developing intervention strategies against emerging viral diseases. Nipah virus can be transmitted from animals to humans or from human to human and has a mortality rate of 40-70%. It is listed in the WHO blueprint priority diseases for research and development because of its epidemic potential and lack of countermeasures. This research will provide new insights into the subtle mechanisms of Nipah virus infection and interferon-induced transmembrane proteins, which restrict the virus' entry into our cells.