Lyle R. McKinnon

Lyle did his Bachelor of Science in Biology at University of Winnipeg and his PhD in Medical Microbiology at the University of Manitoba, supervised by Frank Plummer. His PhD research was conducted largely in Kenya in collaboration with the University of Nairobi, and focused on the role of CD8+ T cells and viral genetics in HIV disease. This thesis was awarded the E.L. Drewry Memorial Award for best thesis in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba (2009). Lyle returned to Nairobi as a post-doctoral fellow with University of Toronto under the supervision of Rupert Kaul and Joshua Kimani, where his work focuses on HIV transmission, mucosal immunology, and epidemiology of HIV/STI in sex worker cohorts in Nairobi. Lyle has been an honorary lecturer in Immunology at the University of Nairobi for five years. He serves on the editorial board of AIDS Research Human Retroviruses, and has acted as a peer reviewer for several journals. Lyle has co-authored 27 peer-reviewed papers on HIV epidemiology and immunology, and co-supervises several graduate students. He has received funding and salary support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the International Infectious Diseases and Global Health Training Program. He is currently a co-investigator on an HIV vaccine team grant, and on several more that are under consideration. He is interested in all areas of immunology, effective delivery and monitoring of HIV prevention programs, and in translating science to the wider public. (From tcc-africa.org)