Board Members

Dr. Lorne A. Babiuk (Chair)

Lorne Babiuk joined the University of Alberta as Vice-President (Research) on July 1, 2007. Prior to moving to the University of Alberta, he spent 34 years as a Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. The majority of his term at the University of Saskatchewan was associated with building a very successful research institution - VIDO (Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization). Under Dr. Babiuk’s leadership, VIDO became internationally recognized as a leader in novel vaccine development. In 2005, he completed a $19.4 million expansion of VIDO and just prior to his leaving VIDO, he successfully assembled the funding for the construction of a $110 million level three biocontainment facility for work on infectious diseases (InterVac).

Dr. Babiuk is an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Prix Galien Canada Research Award for 2005. He has received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and has held prestigious national and international awards for excellence in research and for transferring research into the commercial arena, including an NSERC Chair in Biotechnology, Canadian Society of Microbiology Award, and Xerox-Canada Forum Award.

He has served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board or Board of Directors for numerous companies involved in commercializing biological research, and as a consultant to Genetech, Molecular Genetics Inc., and CIBA-GIEGY; and he has conducted due diligence studies for investors and companies regarding the commercial potential of specific scientific proposals. In addition to the ICID board Chairmanship, Dr. Babiuk chairs the Institute Advisory Board of the CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity.

He has mentored more than 90 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who have obtained positions in industry, academia and government, served as a member of many grant and government committees and a reviewer for various scientific journals, as well as serving on general editorial boards.

He has published more than 460 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 100 book chapters and reviews, and is holder of 25 issued patents and 18 patents pending.

His specialty areas are molecular virology, vaccinology, immunology and viral pathogenesis with emphasis on respiratory and viral infections. Recent interest has been in novel vaccine development using genomics, and in delivery to induce mucosal immunity, as well as helping set science policy in Canada.

In addition to being a visionary, Dr. Babiuk is also an accomplished fundraiser and builder of people and facilities – as evidenced by the recent completion of a $19 million research wing and the upcoming construction of a $110 million Biosafety Level III biocontainment facility.

Dr. Friesen obtained his M.D. degree from the University of Manitoba. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCP). He began his career in research in endocrinology at the New England Medical Center, Boston. His academic appointments include McGill University from 1965 to 1973 and the University of Manitoba 1973 to 1992, where he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Physiology. His discovery of the human pituitary hormone prolactin and its role in health and disease, defining it as a major cause of infertility, and his collaborating with others in the introduction of new therapies have resulted in the effective treatment of tens of thousands of women worldwide. Dr. Friesen has published over 400 papers in scientific journals and served as a mentor for more than eighty post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, many of whom today are in leadership positions around the world.

He has received many distinguished awards, including a Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1977 and 2001, the McLaughlin Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, the Koch Medal: the highest award of the Endocrine Society, the Order of Canada (promoted to Companion in 2001), the Order of Manitoba, eight honorary degrees, and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2001. He is also a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. In 2006 Dr. Friesen was awarded the Frederic Newton Gisborne Starr Award by the Canadian Medical Association, the highest award of the association.

In the last decade, Dr. Friesen has served Canada with great distinction as the seventh President of the Medical Research Council of Canada. He has proved to be an outstanding advocate of biomedical and health research and has been an eloquent and persuasive voice into government for the funding of research. He was also the guiding force that led the government to form the Canadian Health Services Foundation. His efforts led to substantial improvements in the credibility, profile, and scope of the Medical Research Council, setting the stage for the transformation of the organization. Dr. Friesen was both architect and champion for a bold new vision for Health Research in Canada. Through imaginative leadership and tireless effort he set the stage in 2000 for the establishment of a new agency designed to encompass all aspects of Health Research along with major new funding: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He was the founding Chair of Genome Canada for a five-year term ending in 2005, a corporation created to spearhead the development of genomics research and its impact in Canada. In 2006 he was appointed Chair of the Board of the Gairdner Foundation.

Currently Dr. Friesen is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Medicine.

Dr. Digvir S. Jayas

Distinguished Professor Dr. Digvir Jayas was educated at the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in Pantnagar, India; the University of Manitoba, and the University of Saskatchewan. Before assuming the position of Acting Vice-President (research), he held the position of Associate Vice-President (Research) for eight years. Prior to his appointment as Associate Vice-President (Research he was Associate Dean (Research in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Department Head of Biosystems Engineering. He is a Registered Professional Engineer and a Registered Professional Agrologist.

Dr. Jayas holds a Canada Research Chair in Stored-Grain Ecosystems, and he conducts research in the areas of physical properties of agricultural products; modified atmosphere storage of grains, oilseeds, potatoes, and meats; mathematical modeling of biological systems; and digital image processing for grading and processing operations in the Agr-Food industry. He has authored or co-authored over 650 technical articles in scientific journals, conference proceedings and books.

Dr. Jayas has received awards from several organizations in recognition of his research and professional contributions. He is the recipient of the 2008 Dr. John M. Bowman Memorial Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation Award. Dr. Jayas is a member of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce, Composite Innovation Centre, Agriculture Institute of Canada (AIC), Manitoba Institute of Agrologists (MIA), Canadian Academy of Engineers (CAE), Canadian Council of Professional Engineers, Manitoba Health Research Council, and St Boniface General Hospital Research Enterprise Committee. He is also chair of the board of directors of RESOLVE, a prairie research network on family violence, and of the advisory board of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, a research centre dedicated to the discussion, discovery and development of functional foods.

Gerry Labossière B.A.,B. Comm., CA

Mr. Labossière is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba. His rich work experience includes the position of Auditor for the City of Winnipeg, Chief Executive for a Deposit Insurance Corporation for Financial Cooperative Institutions in Manitoba, and Principal in charge of the Financial Services Practice of Coopers & Lybrand Consulting Group in Winnipeg. Gerry was one of the founders of Momentum Healthware Inc., a company that provides software and services to the North American Healthcare market. In 2001 Gerry started  AIS which has rapidly become one of the Canadian leaders in healthcare eLearning solutions. AIS was recognized in 2006 as the 2nd fastest growing company in Manitoba. The company has clients in North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

His extensive and diverse background includes strategic planning, performance improvement, financial management, controllership, marketing, receivership, computer audit and audit.

Gerry has been extensively involved on the boards of many volunteer organizations over the past 20+ years, especially in the health care sector. He has served as Chair of two large nursing homes, one of which, Tache Centre with 315 beds, in one of the largest in Canada. He has served as Chair of four voluntary Heath Foundations and on the Strategic Planning & Priorities Committee for St. Boniface Hospital. He sat on the Board of Centre de Sante, a community care centre that is pioneering primary care reform in Manitoba. Currently Mr. Labossière is Chair for the Catholic Health Corporation (Grey Nuns and Benedictines) which regroups sixteen health organizations, including two hospitals, three care homes, three community/mental health clinics and a child children and young adults home for the disabled.

Dr. Mary Pat Moyer

Dr. Mary Pat Moyer is a recognized biomedical scientist, entrepreneur and technology business leader. She founded the innovative life sciences company, INCELL Corporation (1993; www.incell.com), after over 20 years as an academic scientist, as Director of the Center for Human Cell Biotechnology, Division Head of Surgical Research, and Professor of Surgery, Microbiology, Cellular and Structural Biology, Pediatrics, and Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology, emphasis in virology, from the University of Texas at Austin. As a biology major, she received BS and MS degrees from Florida Atlantic University. She is an advocate for accelerating development of products from the laboratory to the clinic.

As CEO and Chief Science Officer, she has orchestrated INCELL’s growth in research and clinical products, pre-clinical testing services and R&D for new products, with seven small business research grants awarded through NIH since 1997, and from the company’s self-generated corporate capital from sales of products and services. This includes two major pioneering products: (1) An adjunct cancer therapy to improve quality of life and treatment outcomes of cancer patients currently being enrolled at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in a trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute; and (2) An oral vaccine against smallpox being developed and tested in collaboration with the USAF, and providing platform technology for influenza and other vaccines. She is spearheading a Texas and international initiative to accelerate manufacturing of biomedical products such as vaccines, other therapeutics and medical devices, through an initiative called BIO-MAP, the Bio-Manufacturing Alliance Partners. An authority in microbiology, cancer, biodefense, and stem cells, Dr. Moyer has published over 200 scientific papers and abstracts, co-authored a textbook “Colon Cancer Cells”, and served as a Consultant to national and international government agencies (e.g, WHO, NIH, NASA, DoD), universities and industry. She gives extensive professional and community service, and has a role on many advisory boards and committees.

Dr. Moyer has received many awards, including: 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in “Life Sciences-Emerging Companies”, 1999 inductee into the national Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame; the 1999 Entrepreneurial Spirit Award from National Association of Women Business Owners, the SA Women’s Chamber of Commerce 1999 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year Award, the ITEC 2000 Information Technology Achievement Award, and the Women’s Leadership Award 2000 from the San Antonio Business Journal. In 2001, she was selected as a Fellow of the internationally recognized IC2 Institute in Austin. In 2002 she received the “Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award” from the American Association of University Women, and the Governor’s Recognition Award for Texas Women in Leadership. Regional recognition in 2003 included “Faces of the Medical Community”, “Innovative Small Business Leader”, and UTSA Management of Technology awards. She was one of only six national executives selected to present INCELL’s corporate development, business model, and scientific work at the national NIH Small Business Innovative Research meetings in 2003 and 2004, and represented Texas at the 2003 national Research!America Stem Cells conference panel and debate in Austin, and at the 2005 Stem Cells Panel -Training Session of the Texas Legislature. In 2004 she received the West SA Chamber of Commerce Doctoral Achievement Award, was selected by Governor Perry to serve on the Texas Workforce Investment Council (2004-2007) and received the Athena Award for Women in Leadership. She was a nominee for the 2005 national Trailblazer Award.

Dr. Moyer is Founder and President of the SanAntonio Austin Life Sciences Association (SALSA; www.bio-salsa.org) where she has chaired the Biodefense Summit for the past four years, works passionately as a technology community activist for Texas and San Antonio, and serves on the boards of many for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She is also CEO and President of TEKSA Innovations Corp. (1999; www.teksa.net), an INCELL-managed consortium that is mentoring small businesses in life science, information technology and engineering as a means to implement the formation and growth of technology companies and to promote regional, national, and international economic development.

Dr. Rafick-Pierre Sékaly

Dr. Sékaly is a full professor at Université de Montréal. Dr. Sékaly obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Université of Lausanne in 1984 and went on to perform a postdoctoral fellowship, from 1984 to 1987, on immunogenetics and molecular biology of major histocompatibility complex molecules

He received several honours and awards including the Fogarty Fellowship of the National Institutes of Health of Maryland, USA and the fellowships named Chercheur-boursier «Senior 1» of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, Prix du jeune chercheur of the Club de recherches cliniques du Québec and Senior Scientist Salary Support Awards from the Medical Research Council of Canada. He is now the Canada Chair in Human Immunology. He has been involved in the areas of AIDS and AIDS pathogenesis for the past fifteen years. Using several novel technologies developed in his lab, he was able to demonstrate in collaboration with the researchers Dr. Fauci and Dr. Pantaleo the features of the primary cellular immune responses in HIV infected patients. His work on AIDS initially involved the characterization of the interactions between CD4, the envelope protein of HIV gp120 and class II MHC molecules of the major histocompatibility complex molecules and the natural ligand of CD4. He has also generated seminal observations on the interactions between class II molecules and several of their ligands including the T cell receptor and bacterial and retroviral superantigens. He is also a pioneer in the area of immune monitoring and developed with his team several assays which allow the characterization of the qualitative and quantitative features of the immune response using multiparametric flow cytometry at the single cell level including class I and class II tetramers.

Dr. Sekaly is the Scientific Director of the National Immune Monitoring Laboratory. His group was also among the first to demonstrate that the thymus, the major site of T cell production was still active in adults and was the target of viruses such HIV.

As Founder and Scientific Director of the CANVAC Network of Centre of Excellence, Dr. Sékaly hopes to improve the quality of life of Canadians by using novel technologies and a multidisciplinary approach in order to develop vaccines for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases like AIDS, hepatitis C and cancer.


Dr. Subhash Kapre  

Dr. S. V. Kapre has been with Serum Institute of India Limited, for over 40 years.  He has been a Member of the Board of Directors since 1993.

He has a wide experience in the development and manufacture of a range of Vaccines ranging from Bacterial Vaccines, Recombinant based Vaccines & Viral Vaccines.  He has been responsible in successfully  scaling up Projects from R & D stage to Production units.  The key factor at the development stage was innovatively  setting up Production Plants & Systems to be able to make these Vaccines at affordable prices, thereby enabling the Company to help reduce child mortality in the least Developed Nations.  This was done in view of the need of designing Plants with cGMP, which has yielded pre-qualifications of many essential Vaccines needed by the World.

His current interest is in establishing a Cellular Immunology Research Laboratory to establish an In Vitro Test Model to assess the efficacy of newly developed  Vaccines before getting into human trials.  He is also working on various delivery systems for Vaccines and amongst them the Aerosol Measles Vaccine Project has now come to completion.

Apart from many Scientific Publications to his credit, he also engages in philanthropic activity and is the President of the Hemophilia Association, Pune Chapter, India.

He is an Advisor to many faculties at the Pune University & works closely in the development area of Academics, in the field of Life Science.

He is on the Board of a U.S. Company and is overseeing the USFDA Registration of various Anti-Cancer Products which would be made at Serum Institute of India Ltd and to be sold through the American Company.

Dr. Andrew Potter, PhD

Dr. Andrew Potter is an internationally recognized authority on vaccine development. Dr. Potter is renowned for his visionary research into how bacteria cause disease and for his groundbreaking projects at VIDO that have generated "world firsts" in disease prevention and more than 50 patents for animal vaccine development and therapeutics. He initiated VIDO's partnership with the University of British Columbia in developing the world's first vaccine to protect food and water from E. coli O157:H7, and was the first to develop a licensed animal vaccine through the use of biotechnology. Dr. Potter is skilled at maintaining an effective team culture in a complex environment, bridging the academic and commercial arenas, and ensuring that investments in research benefit society. He will lead VIDO/InterVac's participation in the University of Saskatchewan School of Public Health and has fostered linkages with researchers in other Canadian universities and with industry in order to enhance the capacity of Canada's infectious disease research community.

Dr. Potter spent his undergraduate years at Carleton University and earned his PhD in microbiology in 1981 from the University of Otago (New Zealand). He joined VIDO in 1985 as a research scientist after being recruited from Health Canada in Ottawa, and was appointed Associate Director (Research) in 1994. His initial interest was in how pathogens cause respiratory disease in animals.
He currently runs a successful research program well-funded by competitive grants at the national level. Recently, he has been working on the application of genomics to the animal health field, as well as forging links between the animal and human infectious disease research communities to ensure that technologies common to both fields can be leveraged to their greatest benefit.

He has mentored more than 30 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who currently hold positions in industry, academia and government worldwide.

Potter has served on a number of public and private sector committees, and has been instrumental in transferring VIDO technology from the laboratory to the private sector, as evidenced by numerous license agreements negotiated over the years. He interacts frequently with major animal health companies and serves as a consultant to numerous smaller ones. 

 
Dr. Martin T. Schechter OBC, MD, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS