Speakers – IDIGH – CRP Joint Research Day

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Mamatha Bhat

MD, MSc, PhD, FRCPC

Title of Talk: Development of Multimodal AI tools to Personalize the Care of Transplant Recipients

Dr. Mamatha Bhat is a Hepatologist and Clinician-Scientist at the University Health Network’s Ajmera Transplant Centre, Scientist at TGHRI and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Bhat completed her medical school and residency training at McGill University. She then completed a Transplant Hepatology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, followed by a CIHR Fellowship for Health Professionals, through which she completed a PhD in Medical Biophysics. The goal of Dr. Bhat’s research program is to improve long-term outcomes of liver transplantation by developing tools of Artificial Intelligence integrating clinical and ‘omics data, and has been funded by CIHR, Terry Fox research institute, Canadian Liver Foundation, American society of Transplant among others. She has published over 170 papers in journals such as Lancet Digital Health, Journal of Hepatology, JAMA Surgery, Gut and Hepatology. Dr. Bhat has been the recipient of recognitions such as the 2024 William Goldie Prize from the Department of Medicine, 2024 Gary Levy Research excellence award from the Ajmera transplant centre, 2022 CASL Research Excellence award and the 2021 American Society of Transplantation Basic Science Career Development Award. Dr. Bhat is also Director of the Clinician-scientist training program in the Dept of Medicine at U of T, Partnership & Engagement Lead for the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM), and past Chair of the International Liver Transplant Society Basic and Translational Science Research committee.

IDIGH PIs

Dr. Alexandra DePokomandy

MD, M.Sc

IDIGH Program Co-Leader
Scientist, RI-MUHC, Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program, Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University
Département de médecine générale, Division of Secondary Care, MUHC

Title of Talk: HPV-related cancers in people living with HIV

Dr. Alexandra de Pokomandy is a family physician specialized in HIV care and epidemiologist. Her clinical practice is at the Chronic Viral Illness Service (CVIS) of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) – Glen site. Her main research interests are in prevention of comorbidities in people living with HIV, with a particular focus on cancers related to human papillomavirus (HPV) and women’s health. In addition to clinical supervision offered to medical students and residents at the CVIS, she supervises graduate students and teaches epidemiology in the graduate program of the Family Medicine Department at McGill University.

Dr. Matthieu Allez

MD, PhD

Scientist, RI-MUHC, Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program
Bruce Kaufman McGill IBD Research Chair
Professor, member of the division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (MUHC).

Title of Talk:TBD

His clinical activity is centered on the management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). He worked at Hôpital Saint-Louis (APHP and Université Paris Cité), as head of the department of Gastroenterology, and director of lab team Intestinal Immunity in Inflammation and Cancer at INSERM U1160 at the Saint-Louis Research Institute. He founded the REMIND group in 2006, a national network aimed to develop translational research on IBD. He was the first scientific officer of ECCO, and is an IOIBD member.
His research focuses on inflammatory bowel diseases, a group of immune-mediated inflammatory disorders characterized by uncontrolled inflammation of the intestinal mucosa. He focuses on the role of innate and adaptive immunity and is interested in a variety of models to study the causes and mechanisms of these diseases, such as the postoperative situation where some patients relapse and others do not, or the response to advanced therapies. The main goals are to better characterize disease subtypes, to identify biomarkers that predict success or failure of advanced therapies, and to identify optimal combinations and novel therapeutic targets.

CRP PIs