Hafid Soualhine

Chief, National Reference Centre for Mycobacteriology

Conducts and manages research projects on the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance, new bioMarkers and vaccine for tuberculosis

Public Health Agency of Canada

Current research and/or projects

Dr. Soualhine conducts and manages research projects on molecular mechanisms of TB drug resistance; in the lab, his team applies next-generation sequencing methods to mycobacterium tuberculosis strains for public health surveillance purpose.

Research and/or project statements

Conducts and manages clinical research projects on the molecular mechanism of drug resistance in order to design and develop "point of care" test for rapid diagnosis and drug resistance detection
Develops whole genome sequencing (WGS) technologies and bioinformatics pipelines to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, 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
Special interest focus on Mycobacterium avium drug resistance and genetic material transfer, and M. abscessus molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis in cystic fibrosis patients

Education and awards

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Infectious Diseases. University of British Columbia - Vancouver, BC – Canada (2006-2007)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre de recherche du pavillon CHUL (Centre Hospitalier de l’Université Laval), Infectious Disease Centre, Québec – Canada (2002-2005)

PhD Molecular biology, Institut Pasteur du Maroc and University Mohamed Ben Abdallah. Fes-Morocco, 2001

Awards

Current grants:

GRDI grant, New omics approaches to tackling drug resistant tuberculosis. PI, 3 years, GRDI – Public Health Agency of Canada, Budget allowed 409,000. {2019-2022}

Research Grant Whole genome sequencing-based genotyping for molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium bovis infection in animals and humans in Canada. Co-PI, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Budget 25,000. {2019-2021}

Key publications

Wuzinski, M., Bak, A.K., Petkau, A., (...), Soualhine, H., Sharma, M.K. A multilocus sequence typing scheme for Mycobacterium abscessus complex (MAB-multilocus sequence typing) using whole-genome sequencing data, 2019 International Journal of Mycobacteriology, 8(3), pp. 273-280.

http://doi.org/10.4103/ijmy.ijmy_106_19

Chakravarti, A., Soualhine, H., Sharma, M., (...), Poirier, L., Lavallée, C. Indigenous Transmission of Mycobacterium africanum in Canada: A Case Series and Cluster Analysis. 2019 Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 6(4).

http://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz088

Lau, A., Singh, V., Soualhine, H., Hmama, Z. Expression of Cathepsin S in BCG converts it into a pro-apoptotic and highly immunogenic strain. 2017 Vaccine, 35(16), pp. 2060-2068.

http://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.02.065

Spinato, J., Boivin, É., Bélanger-Trudelle, É., (...), Tremblay, C., Soualhine, H. Genotypic characterization of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Quebec, 2002-2012. 2016 BMC Microbiology, 16(1),164.

http://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-016-0786-4

Robyn S. Lee · Nicolas Radomski · Jean-Francois Proulx · Ines Levade · B. Jesse Shapiro · Fiona McIntosh · Hafid Soualhine · Dick Menzies · Marcel A. Behr ·Population genomics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Inuit. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10/2015; 112(44).

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1507071112

Lee RS, Radomski N, Proulx JF, Manry J, McIntosh F, Desjardins F, Soualhine H, Domenech P, Reed MB, Menzies D, Behr MA.Re-emergence and Amplification of Tuberculosis in the Canadian Arctic. J Infect Dis. 2015 Jan 9. pii: jiv011. PMID: 25576599

https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiv011

Lévesque, S., Dufresne, P.J., Soualhine, H., (...), Lefebvre, B., Tremblay, C. A Side by Side Comparison of Bruker Biotyper and VITEK MS: Utility of MALDI-TOF MS Technology for Microorganism Identification in a Public Health Reference Laboratory, 2015 PLoS ONE, 10(12), e0144878.

http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144878

Sharma, M., Thibert, L., Chedore, P., (...), Soualhine, H., Wolfe, J. 2011, Journal of Clinical Microbiology Canadian multicenter laboratory study for standardized second-line antimicrobial susceptibility testing of mycobacterium tuberculosis., 49(12), pp. 4112-4116.

http://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.05195-11

Soualhine H., Deghmane A.E., Sun J., Mak K., Talal A., Av-Gay Y., Hmama Z. - Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin secreting active cathepsin S stimulates expression of mature MHC class II molecules and antigen presentation in human macrophages. J Immunol. 2007 Oct 15;179(8):5137-45. PMID: 17911599

https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.179.8.5137