For the CRCHUM interaxes conference on November 18, “Immunity to viral infections taught by hepatitis C”, our featured speaker will be Pr. Naglaa Shoukry, a regular researcher in the CRCHUM’s Immunopathology Research Theme. She is also Professor at the deparment of medicine as well as accredited professor at the department of microbiology of the Université de Montréal and the director of the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C (CanHepC). The conference will be presented in English.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects 58 million individuals worldwide and remains a public health priority despite the development of direct acting antivirals that can achieve complete cure in >95% of cases. Acute HCV infection has two dichotomous outcomes towards either spontaneous resolution or chronic infection thus it serves as an excellent model to study immunity to viral infections. Furthermore, those who resolve HCV remain at risk of reinfection representing a unique model to study long-term protective immunity against viral infections in a real-life setting and providing potential clues for vaccine development.

The seminar will focus on work from our group in collaboration with Dr. Julie Bruneau and the Montreal Hepatitis C Cohort (HEPCO) deciphering protective immunity against hepatitis C and its implications for vaccine development against HCV and other viral infections.

About Naglaa Shoukry

She obtained her Pharmacy degree from Cairo University (1991) and Ph.D. in Immunology from McGill University (2000). Her postdoctoral research has established the essential and complementary roles of CD8 and CD4 T lymphocytes in resolution and protection from hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Since joining the Université de Montréal and CRCHUM in 2005, Naglaa Shoukry has established a translational research program focused on studying immunity to HCV, immunological mechanisms of liver fibrosis progression, and liver cancer. She has published over 80 articles in high impact journals. She has maintained uninterrupted funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Furthermore, she has served on various review committees on the national and international level including CIHR, FRQS, Canada Research Chairs, NIH, DFG and the Wellcome Trust and she is an Academic Editor for PLoS One, and Frontiers in Immunology.

In recognition, CIHR profiled her achievements on World Hepatitis Day in 2013 and 2017. In 2019, she was selected as Professor of the Year by the Department of Medicine, University of Montreal and was awarded the CLF 50^th Anniversary Recognition Medal. She is the recipient of an inaugural Rosalind Franklin Award in Science (2021) that recognizes outstanding contributions from women and minorities.

Since 2015, Naglaa Shoukry has been the Director of the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C (CanHepC), federally funded network with over 100 investigators, trainees and knowledge users working towards establishing a pipeline from research to implementation and to improve the lives of Canadians living with hepatitis C and to work towards the eradication of HCV.