Hafid Soualhine, PhD

Research achievements

Research summary

Dr. Soualhine is leading a dynamic group at the National Microbiology Laboratory, which provides diagnosis, reference and surveillance services for tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria.

His research activities include molecular epidemiology, and new tools of rapid detection and characterization.

The team is deploying in the northern communities in collaboration with the territorial/provincial governments and communities for active and latent tuberculosis wide-community screening.

His research group exploits cutting-edge omics technologies such as next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry-based proteomics and transcriptomic, combined with computational approaches, to advance our understanding of tuberculosis transmission, pathogenesis, drug resistance and host-pathogen interactions.

Research themes

Molecular mechanism of drug resistance in order to design and develop "point of care" test for rapid diagnosis and drug resistance detection.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) technologies and bioinformatics pipelines to identify, rapidly predict drug resistance, and decipher new mechanism of drug resistance.

Uses genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics to identify virulence factors in M. tuberculosis and other mycobacteria.

Host-Pathogen interaction in order to develop biomarkers and vaccine.

Special interest focus on mycobacterium avium complex drug resistance and genetic material transfer, and m. abscessus molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis in cystic fibrosis patients.

Research interests

• Active and latent tuberculosis in remote population
• Biomarkers and recombinant vaccine
• Drug resistance
• Innovative diagnostic for microbial infections

Keywords

• Cystic fibrosis and mycobacteria
• Drug resistance                             
• Genomics and proteomics
• Molecular epidemiology and surveillance
• Outbreak investigation
• Tuberculosis              

Research groups

Investigator, McGill International Tuberculosis Centre