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.

Terry Duguid, B.Sc. (Hon), M.E. Des.

Mr. Terry Duguid is the inaugural President and CEO of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases (ICID). Mr. Duguid also provides oversight to the National Collaborating Centre on Infectious Diseases, hosted within ICID.

Mr. Duguid has a broad range of experience in both public and private sectors in the areas of public health, environment, tourism and trade.  He is an environmental biologist who served as Chairman of the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission from 2000-2004.

In 2001, Terry Duguid served as Executive Director for the Manitoba Climate Change Task Force. In 1998, he played the same role with the Mid-Continent Trade Corridor Task Force. From 1996-1998, Mr. Duguid served as President and CEO of Gateway North Marketing Agency, an organization formed to promote the Port of Churchill and Hudson Bay Rail Line. Mr. Duguid was a Winnipeg City Councillor from 1989-1995 and was the Chair of the Committee on Works and Operations for four years (1991-95).

Mr. Duguid is a Member of the Research Enterprise Committee of the St. Boniface General Hospital. He has served on a boards and committees for a variety of bodies, including Eco Action 2000, Wapusk National Park, Concordia Hospital, and the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy.

Dr. Henry G. Friesen

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. Joanne C. Keselman

Dr. Joanne Keselman received her doctoral degree in quantitative psychology from the University of Manitoba in 1978 and is currently Vice-President (Research) at the University of Manitoba. Prior to assuming this position in 1998, she served for five years as Associate Vice-President (Research).

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.