Kelly MacDonald
Dr. Kelly MacDonald holds the U of T / OHTN Endowed Chair in HIV Research and is the Director of the HIV Research Program and an Associate Professor of Medicine Immunology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is also a Microbiologist and Infectious Disease physician at Mount Sinai Hospital. She completed her medical degree at the University of Manitoba and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington.
Research
As a clinician-scientist, Kelly focuses her research on host genetic and pathogen-driven variation in host immune response to HIV and its application in vaccine design. She was a founding board member of the OHTN and served for six years. She has also served on the Federal Ministerial Council on HIV/AIDS and as Chair of the HIV Vaccine Program of the Canadian Vaccine Network.
Kelly was the first researcher to hold the Chair in HIV Research, funded in part by the OHTN and the first such chair dedicated to HIV in the country. She has held the post for eight years.
Her research includes the following OHTN grants:
- Qualitative Differences in CD8 Effector Function, Impact on HIV Immune Selection (2005-2006)
- Using the Molecular Structure of Virus-Neutralizing HIV Epitopes to Custom Design Effective Synthetic Vaccines (2004-2007)
- Impact of HIV-1 Specific Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses on Incident HIV-1 Infection in a Cohort of Highly Exposed Uninfected Sex Workers (1998-2002)
- Interaction & specificity of Cellular & Humoral Immune Responses in HIV-1 Exposed Uninfected Individuals (1998-2002)
Findings
Selected recent publications:
Impact
Kelly’s work has challenged conventional thinking in medical research to find a vaccine for the HIV virus. Her investigations into the potential role of immune responses and the factors that protect children from being infected by their mothers has opened new frontiers in the field, and changed the way that other vaccine studies are approached. She is committed to working across disciplines to study the virus and understand the intricacies of the epidemic and how to stop it. Recognized internationally as a leading scientist, she has worked in both North America and Africa, and is a mentor and guide to a new generation of researchers.