Guy Boivin

Dr. Guy Boivin is a professor in the Department of Pediatric of the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. He held the Canada Research Chair in Emerging Viruses and Antiviral Resistance during 14 years, as well as a «Foundation» grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for 7 years. He was also co-principal investigator of major grants, such as the FPQIS ($ 12M), for the development of new generation influenza vaccines in the elderly.

Dr. Boivin is the author or co-author of over 400 scientific publications and 390 presentations at various international conferences and symposia. He has also contributed to the creation of 17 patents and is co-founder of the company Signia Therapeutics, specializing in the repositioning of drugs to counter viral respiratory infections and of the company Vaxxel, that develops vaccines against respiratory viruses. He is the director of a NC3 laboratory that is operational since 2020, which expands the various research projects to highly pathogenic respiratory viruses, such as avian influenza viruses (H5N1, H7N9) and other emerging respiratory viruses. (SARS-CoV-2). He is also the co-director of the international lab RespiVir jointly with Dr Rosa-Calatrava from Lyon, France.

His research program focuses on the pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of viral infections. He studies herpetic and respiratory viruses, including those causing the flu (human and avian flu). More recently, he has also been interested in SARS-CoV-2 responsible for COVID-19 and in the interactions between respiratory viruses at cell, host and epidemiological levels. He uses cell and molecular biology technologies, as well as different animal models to evaluate new antiviral molecules, elucidate mechanisms of resistance to antiviral agents, and generate new vaccines. He uses human airway epitheliums and human brain organoids as well as animal models to study the innate immune response to respiratory virus and herpes virus infections and to evaluate immunomodulatory compounds. He has completed several multicenter studies to assess the clinical and epidemiological impact of emerging respiratory viruses. He collaborates with many fundamental and clinical research groups as well as various pharmaceutical companies. His work has already had a significant impact on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of frequent and potentially life-threatening viral infections.