Dr. Brian Ward

Infectious disease – caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites – has killed countless millions of people throughout history. Old diseases – like cholera and leprosy – die-hard, and newly minted diseases – like HIV and SARS – appear each year. Dr. Brian Ward, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and associate Director of the McGill Center for Tropical Diseases, is a world authority on infectious disease and immunology.

Medical science has done much to eradicate infectious disease over the past 50 years – vaccines have successfully controlled diseases like smallpox and polio for example. But no vaccine is 100 percent effective; antibiotic and antiviral resistant disease strains are developing, and experts fear that the world may be on the brink of an influenza pandemic. According to Dr. Ward, we are in the middle of a raging war against infectious disease. “Problems appear continuously through the emergence of truly ‘new’ infections and the genetic modification of old infections ” he noted. “We must constantly develop new strategies to defeat them.”

Dr. Ward’s research is currently conducted in seven countries worldwide, and supported by Canadian and international funding agencies as well as private foundations and industry. His laboratory at the MUHC consists of 18 technologists, graduate students and post doctoral fellows, who work diligently in a triple pronged offensive against a multitude of pathogens, covering:

• Vaccines – from concept to community, including the factors responsible for poor vaccine efficacy, vaccine failure and disease susceptibility
• Novel treatments and new diagnostic test development for parasitic diseases, like malaria and African sleeping sickness
• Studies of genetic and behavioural factors involved in HIV transmission

Dr. Ward completed his medical training at McGill University in 1980. As a student at McGill, he received numerous scholarships and awards including the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. In the UK, he conducted graduate work at Oxford University and the University of London. Dr. Ward was recruited back to McGill University in 1991.

In addition to his positions at McGill University and the MUHC, Dr Ward is Director of Health Canada’s National Reference Center for Parasitology (NRCP). The NRCP has developed several new tests for a number of parasitic diseases around the world, while providing valuable reference, diagnostic and consultative services at provincial, national, and international levels.

Dr. Ward has served, and continues to serve, on numerous national and international advisory committees in the areas of vaccine use, vaccine safety and disease containment strategy. He is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Human Vaccines, and has been awarded the Exceptional Public Service Award from the US Secretary of Defense for his role in the evaluation of vaccine-associated adverse events following anthrax and smallpox immunizations.

For further information, please contact Dr. Brian Ward using the Email contact form or by phone at 514 934-8049