معرفی
Christine McCusker, MD, M.Sc., is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) Glen site. She leads the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program within the Centre for Translational Biology and maintains clinical practice in the MUHC's Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy/Immunology/Dermatology.
Dr. McCusker holds an MD and M.Sc. degree, establishing her foundation in clinical medicine and research methodology. Her expertise bridges pediatric clinical care with advanced immunological research.
Her research centers on developmental immunology, investigating how antigen exposure from newborns to adults shapes immune responses and disease susceptibility. She pioneers strategies for preventing allergic diseases through early immune modulation, demonstrating that appropriate stimulation prevents airway allergies and extending this work to gastrointestinal immunity for food allergy management. Concurrently, she developed Canada's national immunodeficiency registry to standardize diagnosis and treatment protocols for rare immune disorders, significantly impacting clinical practice.
Analysis of her publication record reveals a cohesive trajectory in translational immunology: early work established STAT-6 inhibition as a therapeutic target for asthma (2007-2011), later evolving to explore TGF-β-mediated tolerance mechanisms (2015) and T helper 17 dysregulation in food allergy (2013). Her immunodeficiency registry research (2014) demonstrates clinical epidemiology rigor, creating a national framework for rare disease management. Collectively, these studies form an integrated approach targeting immune pathways across allergic and immunodeficiency disorders.
Dr. McCusker directs the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program at RI-MUHC, leveraging the Centre for Translational Biology infrastructure. Her national immunodeficiency registry coordinates clinicians across Canada, creating a collaborative network for rare disease research while advancing her lab's focus on mucosal immunology and immune tolerance mechanisms.
