个人简介

Tommy Alain, Ph.D., is a newly appointed Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, and an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa. His training is in virology, innate immune responses, cell biology, and oncology. During his doctoral research, he studied the virology and the oncolytic potencies of reovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus, and myxoma virus against brain cancers under the mentorship of two pioneers of oncolytic viruses in Canada, Dr. Peter Forsyth and Dr. Patrick Lee at the University of Calgary. He then pursued his post-doctoral studies at McGill University in the laboratory of Dr. Nahum Sonenberg, a world-leading expert in mRNA translational control, where he expanded his technical expertise in the control of translation initiation and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, linking both viral immunity and oncology research. His work on how the translation initiation factor eIF4E and downstream effectors of mTOR modulate innate immune responses to viruses, as well as anti-proliferative efficacies of anti-cancer therapeutics, led to a number of high profile publications. To date, Dr. Alain has published over 40 reports. He maintains numerous national and international collaborations with scientists in the academic and private sectors. Dr. Alain is also a member of the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium led by Dr. John Bell at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.