Our Leadership

Jack is St. Joe's Research Leader, a world-renowned scientist, and a former Canadian Olympian in water polo. Jack earned Canada's highest honour as a Member of the Order of Canada, which recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to a community, and service to the nation.

Jack is recognized worldwide for his outstanding research in immunology, cancer, and fibrosis. This work increased the world's understanding of how people respond to infections, autoimmune diseases and chronic conditions - including cancer - at the molecular level.

Jack's work on pulmonary fibrosis over the past 30 years led to the development of two new drug therapies for this lethal pulmonary disease.

Marek's primary research interests are in respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, and the role of chronic infections in respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

This includes developing and evaluating accurate, convenient, and cost-effective diagnostic tests for SARS-Coronavirus, influenza, and rhinovirus. He developed the mid-turbinate swab for self-collection of respiratory viruses, and led a randomized clinical trial of vitamin D for preventing respiratory infections.

Marek is a physician, professor and researcher. He trained at the University of Western Ontario (MD 1987), Dalhousie University (1988), the University of London, and McMaster University (1991-2002), including Royal College certification in Internal Medicine (1995), Infectious Diseases (1998), and Medical Microbiology (1998). He obtained his PhD in 2002 in Health Research Methodology.

Marek is a Microbiologist and Infectious Diseases Physician based at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, where he also serves as Medical Co-Director for Infection Prevention and Control. He provides patient care in infectious diseases and HIV.

As a laboratory physician, Marek provides leadership for the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program as Interim Chief and Medical Director since May 2019. He has also had leadership roles in Virology, Parasitology, and Microbiology over the past 20 years. As a McMaster University faculty member since 2001, he has taught clinical epidemiology and diagnostic research methods, and trained over 40 microbiologists and infectious diseases physicians.

Marek has over 350 publications, abstracts, and book chapters, and served as co-editor for BMJ Books "Evidence-Based Infectious Diseases".

David completed his undergraduate degree at McMaster University in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program. David completed his combined MD/Ph.D. degree at McMaster University and is presently a Resident in the University of Toronto Dermatology program.

David’s research interests are focused around molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases and implementation of this work in clinical laboratories.

David and his fantastic team have been instrumental in developing innovative approaches to COVID-19 testing. He created McMaster Molecular Medium, a sample transport fluid capable of inactivating the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen, which has allowed for a significant increase in testing capacity and throughput by reducing a significant number of manual pre-processing steps.

David also helped develop polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that are used for routine COVID-19 testing in several Ontario clinical laboratories.

Karen received her undergraduate Honours BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Guelph. Karen completed her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and her Post-doctoral Fellowship in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta. Dr. Mossman received the Milstein Young Investigator Award and the Christina Fleischmann Award from the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research. Dr. Mossman has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has contributed as author and editor to numerous books, including virology textbooks.

Dr. Mossman joined McMaster University in 2001, with a research focus on host/virus interactions in normal, healthy cells and in cancer cells, to find novel therapies for emerging viral infections and cancer.

These studies led to the development of viruses for cancer immunotherapy. Karen's group recently helped isolate SARS-CoV-2 from Canadian patients, and is actively working on COVID-related studies.

As Vice President Research, Dr. Mossman oversees research administration, university research centres and institutes, the McMaster Nuclear Reactor, international research partnerships, research commercialization & innovation, industry partnerships, and the McMaster strategic research plan. She is the Chair of the Board of the McMaster Innovation Park.

Gail completed her undergraduate Honours BSc in Microbiology at the University of Glasgow, UK, in 1998, her Ph.D. in Cell Biology at the University of Manchester, UK, in 2003 and her Postdoctoral Fellowship in Regenerative Medicine (CIHR funded) in 2007, at McMaster University.

Dr. Martin transferred to Business Development and Administration in 2007 in the McMaster Industry Liaison Office, and later at McGill University. Protecting intellectual property and moving technologies from academia to society, engaging industry partners to maximize the social and economic impact of university technologies from a broad range of sectors including biotech, aerospace, natural resources, and pharma.

As Executive Director of The Research Institute of St. Joe's Hamilton, Gail supervises the research administration team that provides services, including: financial oversight, contract review, lab management, IT support services, and research marketing and public relations efforts to researchers and the Research Institute.

Working with the VP Research, Gail continues to build and maintain a strong relationship with St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, and the St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation, ensuring alignment of strategic and research priorities.

After his formal training as a CPA and CA with Ernst & Young, Brian refined his financial, analytical, and administrative expertise in a broad range of organizations across North America and internationally.

Having worked for years in two of the most regulated industries - pharmaceuticals and aviation - Brian understands and respects compliance and adherence to regulatory requirements.

Over more than 25 years of international experience in industrialized and emerging nations, Brian became adept at adapting to different corporate cultures. Brian has expertise working within government regulations. In starting new businesses in emerging nations, he satisfied all environmental, immigration, finance, health and safety, customs, and civil aviation requirements.

Brian has been a CFO/COO and board member for publicly traded Biotech companies reporting in Canada and in the USA. He has held key executive positions in several start-ups, including biotechs, and serves as the CFO in a full-service clinical research organization conducting clinical trials from Phase 1 to BE/BA.