Welcome to the Maguire Lab

We are a research group jointly based in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Computer Science and the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Community Health & Epidemiology.

Our aim is to develop and collaboratively apply data-driven methods to help mitigate health and social crises. This is focused on two main areas: genomic epidemiology of infectious diseases and inter-disciplinary collaborations with domain experts.

The former involves developing and applying microbial bioinformatics and machine learning approaches to better understand the diagnosis, evolution, and dynamics of infectious diseases. We work mainly on the ecology and evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and on emerging viral zoonoses — currently highly pathogenic avian influenza, and the paramyxoviruses and coronaviruses circulating in Canadian wildlife — alongside national and international consortia of clinicians and public health experts. We actively put this work into practice through our clinical pathogen genomics role at Toronto’s Shared Hospital Laboratory, one of Canada’s largest hospital microbiology services, and through international initiatives such as PHA4GE, EUCAST/ESGEM AMRRules, the Pathoplexus database, the WHO’s International Pathogen Surveillance Network.

Our broader data science work includes collaborations on online radicalisation and gender-based violence with sociologists, patient preference at refugee clinics, and autism-related language use.

For more details about specific projects, collaborators, and funding sources see Research.

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We are based at Dalhousie University and the Shared Hospital Lab located at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. We also have strong collaborative ties with the CARD, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the Public Health Agency of Canada and play/have played an active role in several national and international public health consortia such as IRIDA, CanCOGeN, and PHA4GE.

Joining the Lab

We don’t currently have any open positions, but we are happy to discuss fellowship- or scholarship-contingent positions with prospective doctoral and postdoctoral applicants. See the jobs page for details.

Funding

We are grateful for funding from Dalhousie University, CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC, NFRF, DRDC, CANMOD, Genome Canada, NIH-CC, and (via PHA4GE) the BMGF.