Assistant professor
Max Rady College of Medicine
Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
University of Manitoba
Room 655A — 715 McDermot Avenue
Winnipeg, MB, R3E 3P4
Office: 204-480-1303
Lab: 204-789-3451
alicia.berard@umanitoba.ca
The University of Manitoba campuses are located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anisininew, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. More
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, R3T 2N2
Max Rady College of Medicine
Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
University of Manitoba
Room 655A — 715 McDermot Avenue
Winnipeg, MB, R3E 3P4
Office: 204-480-1303
Lab: 204-789-3451
alicia.berard@umanitoba.ca
Does not hold any cross-appointments.
Dr. Berard’s research program is related to female reproductive health, mucosal biology, immunology, and the microbiome, where she works with international human cohorts to study infection and diseases in the female genital tract, utilizing multi-omic tools of systems biology and in vitro co-culture model systems.
As part of her work, she is one of the founding members of the THRIVE study umbrella, which focuses on investigating “The role of Host-bacterial Relationships and Immune function in different Vaginal Environments”. She is currently co-investigator on several CHIR and NIH funded team studies to investigate the role of the microbiome and mucosal immunology in bacterial vaginosis, HPV infections and cervical cancer progression, infertility, HIV infection and recurrent yeast infections. She leads local clinical observational cohorts that recruit participants for the different THRIVE studies, working with clinical partners within Shared Health, HSC, and Heartland fertility clinics.
By combining complex high throughput tools such as metaprototeomics, sequencing, fluorescent imaging analysis and metabolomics, the Berard lab is able to comprehensively characterize the microbiome composition and function and associate these factors with host epithelial barrier and immune functions in the context of different reproductive health conditions.
While completing her PhD in Medical Microbiology Dr. Berard studied the differences in proteomic expression in viral infections (reovirus and herpes simplex viruses), performing a systems biology approach to study host-pathogenic interactions.
During her post-doctoral work, Dr. Berard studied mucosal biology in the context of HIV infection to determine mechanisms of pathogenesis and increased acquisition using similar systems biology approaches, SIV macaque models, co-culture, and vaginal epithelial barrier models.
As a research associate, she expanded her previous work to understand how the microbiome affects female reproductive health using multi-omic approaches including metaproteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and flow cytometry, as well as multiple experimental bacterial co-culture assays to test mechanisms of barrier dysfunction, building the foundation for her work in the THRIVE studies, and building her own research program.
She trained in organizing clinical cohort studies during this period and lead logistical planning and execution of current local and international cohorts that are established and ongoing.
Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
260 Brodie Centre - 727 McDermot Avenue
University of Manitoba, Bannatyne Campus
Winnipeg, MB R3E 3P5 Canada