Associate professor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Faculty of Medicine

Prof. Mariana Baz has been an assistant professor at Université Laval since 2022. She also holds the Sentinel North Research Chair in Respiratory Viruses at the Animal-Human Interface: Emergence and Control and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Pre-Pandemic and Pandemic Viruses and Therapeutic Strategies at the same institution. Prof. Baz is Associate Director of the Containment Level 3 (CL3) laboratory at the Infectious Diseases Research Centre (CRCHU Québec-Université Laval). Prior to her current position, Prof. Baz was Senior Scientist and Head of the Antiviral Susceptibility Division at the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Influenza Reference and Research at the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity (University of Melbourne) in Melbourne, Australia.

Prof. Baz trained in Uruguay (BSc in Biochemistry), Canada (MSc and PhD), and the United States (post-doctorate). She is an experienced virologist in pathogenesis, transmission, antiviral therapies, and vaccine development/evaluation of seasonal and pandemic respiratory viruses as well as viruses with pandemic potential. Her laboratory focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms involved in mammalian respiratory virus adaptation, amplification, and disease transmission among animals and from animals to humans as well as new therapeutic strategies against different respiratory viruses, including seasonal and pandemic influenza viruses, seasonal coronaviruses, and SARS-CoV-2, using different in vitro, ex vivo, and animal models such as mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, and ferrets, representing high-risk populations (immunosuppressed, obese, elderly, and others).

Prof. Baz has received several national and international awards including the “Fellows Award for Research Excellence” from NIH and the Vaccine and Edward Jenner Vaccine Society Young Investigator Program. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals such as NEJM, Lancet ID, J Am Chem Soc, PLoS Path, J Virol, Clin Infect Dis, mBio, J of Virology, Emerg Infect Dis, etc., and is involved in several editorial and review boards for different scientific journals as well as in federal and government agencies in Canada and Uruguay.