Professor, Université de Montréal

Scientific Director,National Immune-Monitoring Laboratory (University of Montreal) Dr. Associate Scientific Director (Basic Sciences and Strategy),  CHUM.

Dr Sékaly received several honours and awards including a Doctorat Honoris Causa from Lyon University (France), the Cinader Award from the Canadian Society for Immunology (2007). He became a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2006.  He got a Doctoral Fellowship of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research of Switzerland, the Forgaty Fellowship of the National Institutes of Health of Maryland, USA and the fellowships named Chercheur-boursier «Senior 1» of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, Prix du jeune chercheur of the Club de recherches cliniques du Québec and Senior Scientist Salary Support Awards from the Medical Research Council of Canada.  Dr Sékaly obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Université of Lausanne in 1984 and went on to perform a postdoctoral fellowship, from 1984 to 1987, on immunogenetics and molecular biology of major histocompatibility complex molecules.

He has been involved in the areas of AIDS and AIDS pathogenesis for the past fifteen years.  His work on AIDS initially involved the characterization of the interactions between CD4, the envelope protein of HIV gp120 and class II MHC molecules of the major histocompatibility complex molecules and the natural ligand of CD4.  He has also generated seminal observations on the interactions between class II molecules and several of their ligands including the T cell receptor and bacterial and retroviral superantigens.  His work shifted to HIV pathogenesis in 1993.  Using several novel technologies developed in his lab, he was able to demonstrate in collaboration with the researchers Dr Fauci and Dr Pantaleo the features of the primary cellular immune responses in HIV infected patients.  The technologies involved the development of several PCR or flow cytometry based assays to look at the diversity and persistence of the T cell receptor repertoire and the function of T cells elicited during primary HIV infection.  Several new modifications have now been brought to these assays and they allow the characterization of the qualitative and quantitative features of the immune response at the single cell level including class I and class II tetramers.

As Founder and Scientific Director of the CANVAC Network of Centre of Excellence, as well as Scientific Director of Inserm Unit on Human Immunology,  Dr Sékaly hopes to improve the quality of life of Canadians by using novel technologies and a multidisciplinary approach in order to develop vaccines for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases like AIDS, hepatitis C and cancer.