The MUHC Vaccine Study Centre (epidemiological and clinical research) was founded by Dr. Elaine Mills and Deirdre McCormack. It has been in existence since 1991. Our team has conducted over 100 studies (over 8000 participants), and has a proven track record in enrolling and conducting quality vaccine and epidemiological research. We have a bilingual, cohesive research team whose members work in collaboration with participants and sponsors in a dignified and respectful environment. We collect precise data to enhance knowledge where the ultimate goal is improvement of infants’, children’s and adults’ health.
Dr Caroline Quach, co-director
Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh is a pediatric infectious diseases consultant, medical microbiologist and epidemiologist. She is the physician in charge of the infection prevention and control unit at CHU Sainte-Justine and the medical director of OPTILAB CHU Sainte-Justine
She is also a medical adviser at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) in the Biological and Occupational Health (Immunization and Infection Prevention branches) Directorate.
Dr. Quach-Thanh graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal, completed her residency training in Paediatrics at the CHU Sainte-Justine and her post-graduate training in microbiology and infectious diseases at McGill University. She is a clinical researcher (salary support from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé, chercheur boursier de mérite).
Her research interests focus on the prevention of infections – both healthcare-acquired and vaccine-preventable diseases. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University and is the co-director of the McGill University Health Center Vaccine Study Center.
Dr. Quach-Thanh is the Past President of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada (AMMI Canada), the Chair of the Quebec Immunization (CIQ) the Chair of Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI-PHAC). She is a member of the central committee of the Quebec nosocomial infections surveillance program (SPIN). Dr. Quach-Thanh is a member of the Pediatric Leadership steering committee of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and a member of the research committee from the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society (PIDS).
She was awarded the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation Research Award (2014), the SHEA William Jarvis Award for Best International Infection Control Paper published, awarded at ID Week 2015, and the John Embil Mentorship Award in Infectious Diseases, from the Canadian Foundation for Infectious Diseases (2016).
Dr Michael Libman, co-director
Dr Libman’s research focuses on tropical and travel related illness. His primary focus is on the epidemiology of imported infections. Much of his work is through the GeoSentinel network, a multi-centre collaboration among clinics seeing post travel illness, under the oversight of the International Society for Travel Medicine and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. He is also involved in the study of diseases found in our native and northern communities. His lab studies new methods for the diagnosis of parasitic infections. Dr Libman is also the director of the J.D. MacLean Centre for Tropical Diseases at McGill University.
Clinical Research Manager:
Deirdre McCormack, BSc(N), RN
Nurse coordinators:
Monica Makarewicz, RN
Janice Couture, RN
Giuliana Alfonso, RN
Patricia Brown, RN
Diane Delli Colli, BSc(N), RN
Jill Gale, BSc(N), MSc(N), RN
Research Nurses:
Sandra Safulko, BSc(N), RN
Carina Mazloumian, BSc(N), RN
Sylvie Nicholson, RN
Research assistants:
Cathy Clarke
Alice Weir
Allison Couture, BEd
Mila Gonzales, MSc
Joanne Richardson
Sazini Nzula, PhD
MUHC Investigators:
Michael Libman, MD
Ines Colmegna, MD
CHU Sainte-Justine Investigator:
Caroline Quach, MD MSc
Soren Gantt, MD PhD MPH
Montreal Children’s Hospital Investigators:
Earl Rubin, MD
Francisco Noya, MD
Jesse Papenburg, MD MSc
Marie-Astrid Lefebvre, MD MSc
Marina Salvadori, MD