Molecular Basis of Bacterial Infection:

For all those wishing to be briefed on the fundamentals and the latest developments in the study and understanding of the molecular basis of bacterial infection including academics, physicians and health personnel working in the infectious disease area, students at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels working in the general area of microbiology, as well as colleagues in industry involved in the development and manufacture of vaccines, antibacterials and/or antibiotic medicines.

Brett Finlay is a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, and the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia. He obtained a BSc (Honors) in biochemistry at the University of Alberta, where he also did his PhD (1986) in biochemistry under Dr. William Paranchych, studying F-like plasmid conjugation. Dr. Finlay’s research interests are focused on host-pathogen interactions, at the molecular level. By combining cell biology with microbiology, he has been at the forefront of the emerging field called Cellular Microbiology, making several fundamental discoveries in this field, and publishing over 250 papers. His laboratory studies several pathogenic bacteria, with Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli interactions with host cells being the primary focus. He is well recognized internationally for his work, and has won several prestigious awards including the E.W.R. Steacie Prize, the CSM Fisher Scientific Award, a MRC Scientist, five Howard Hughes International Research Scholar Awards, a CIHR Distinguished Investigator, BC Biotech Innovation Award, the Michael Smith Health Research Prize, the IDSA Squibb award, the Jacob Biely Prize, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.