Dr Kelvin will be a Key Note Speaker on “Vaccines and the Future for Developing Countries: The case of COVID-19 Pandemic crisis”

Dr. Kelvin is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His research focuses on infectious diseases that account for about 1/3 of all deaths worldwide. The majority of these are in developing countries where children are at the highest risk. Furthermore, infectious pathogens directly or indirectly lead to the development of 1/3 of all cancers. Dr. Kelvin’s research team conducts studies to identify pathogenic mechanisms of immune evasion and disease severity in ancient infectious diseases, infectious emerging diseases, and cancer development. His main studies are on host pathogen interactions in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. With extensive global collaborations, Dr. Kelvin has studied several important epidemics and pandemics, including SARS-CoV, pandemic H1N1, H7N9, MERS-CoV, and most recently SARS-CoV-2. Using systems biology approaches Dr. Kelvin’s team examines biomarkers and gene expression patterns to identify host signatures that can be used as diagnostic or prognostic markers od disease severity. This approach was used successfully to examine host responses in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-1 during the 2003 pandemic. His team were able to construct signatures of severe disease that included increased levels of circulating CXCL-10, IL-6, IL-10 and IL-15 as well as gene expression signatures of interferon response genes. Using more extensive tools covering a wide array of cytokines, inflammation, cardiovascular markers as well as single cell sequencing the international consortium studying SARS-CoV-2 led by Dr. Kelvin have identified key signatures of cytokines, clinical findings, and circulating levels of viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA, that identify patients requiring ICU admission. Further studies are examining the biomarkers in global populations in an attempt to define linkages between severe SARS-CoV-2, genetic susceptibility, socioeconomic conditions, comorbidities, age, and coinfections.

Dr. Kelvin has an internationally based research program and carries out studies in Shantou, China, Sardinia, Italy, and Canada (Dalhousie University). His central research programs include Ancient Pathogens, Cancer and Infectious Disease, and Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases. He has published in several high impact journals including Nature, Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, New England Journal of Medicine as well as several open access journals. Dr. Kelvin and several international colleagues established the Journal of Infection in Developing Countries (JIDC), an open access journal devoted to infectious diseases in resource limited countries. Dr. Kelvin also has research projects focused on ancient pathogens, pandemics and host immunity. To facilitate global collaborations Dr. Kelvin has appointments at Shantou University Medical College in Shantou PRC, and an Visiting Professor position at the University of Sassari in Sassari, Italy.