Tobias R.  Kollmann

Research topics

1. Born Strong: Applying systems biology and AI to reduce maternal child suffering and dying.

My research focus centers around immune ontogeny as well as maternal and early life host responses employing cutting edge technology and analytics to extract the most information out of the small biological samples obtainable. As a clinician-scientist (Pediatric Infectious Diseases) I am fully cognizant of the increased risk to suffer and die from early-life infection. I am also keenly aware of the problems associated with applying systems vaccinology when assessing early life, as this period not only represents a rapidly moving target but is also limited by the size of the biological samples obtainable. However, our past and ongoing projects (detailed below) have proven this is feasible and that systems biology can be applied to small biological samples and with that early life host responses. Given the bulk of infectious disease falls on the children living in low and middle income countries (LMIC), I have over the last two decades established working (and personal) relationships with colleagues around the world. This allows me to assess early life development across continents, reaching far beyond the comfortable confines of modern laboratories deep into the poorest areas of the world where children daily face their biggest threat in life. Specifically, my work has focused on the molecular mechanisms responsible for the age-dependent changes and has identified key drivers of immune development in early life (Science 2020 May 8;368(6491):612-615; Science Translational Medicine 12(542), 2020; Nature Com. 2019 10(1): 1092; Immunity 2017; 46(3):350; Trends Immunol. 2017; 37(8):523-34). To accomplish this, we platforms that allow us to extract the most out of the small samples obtainable from our very young human subjects (e.g. JACI 133(3):818-26; 2014). These platforms have a technological backbone of several larger cohort studies around the world including studies with the NIAID (e.g. Nature Com. 2019 10(1): 1092; J. Immunol., 193(6):3003-12; 2014) and the Human Vaccines Project (Frontiers in Immunology, 11:578801, 2020).

2. Paradigm Shift: Pathogen-Agnostic Effects of Vaccines.

Vaccines are undoubtedly one of the most successful medical interventions in human history. Furthermore, by broadening the pathogen-focused notion of vaccines to include the overall impact on host survival and wellbeing, we may even have underestimated the impact of vaccines. The concept of heterologous and non-specific effects of vaccines focuses on this broader definition. I have worked on this topic for years (Science 2020 May 8;368(6491):612-615; Science Translational Medicine 12(542), 2020) and was a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Group on Non-specific Immunological Effects of Vaccination committee (Nat Rev Immunol. 20(8):464-470, 2020; Nat Rev Immunol. 16(6):392-400, 2016).

Education

MD and PhD at the Albert of Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx NY, followed by a residency in pediatrics and fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA with Prof. Chris Wilson. I then served as Division Head for Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of British Columbia, BC Children’s Hospital before taking on the Director’s position of Systems Vaccinology at Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Australia. I currently am Prof. of Microbiology & Immunology as well as Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS, Canada. I also am the founder and current CEO of the Born Strong Initiative (https://www.born-strong.org/), a global network of experts working to reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Selected publications

Full bibliography on PubMed

- Fidanza M, Hibbert J, Acton E, Harbeson D, Schoeman E, Skut P, Woodman T, Eynaud A, Hartnell L, Brook B, Cai B, Lo M, Falsafi R, Hancock REW, Chiume-Kayuni M, Lufesi N, Popescu CR, Lavoie PM, Strunk T, Currie AJ, Amenyogbe N, Lee AH, Kollmann TR. Angiogenesis-associated pathways play critical roles in neonatal sepsis outcomes. Sci Rep. 2024 May 20;14(1):11444. PMID: 38769383.

- Lee W, Ben-Othman R, Skut P, Lee AH, Barbosa AD, Beaman M, Currie A, Harvey NT, Kumarasinghe P, Hall RA, Potter J, Graves S, West NP, Cox AJ, Irwin PJ, Oskam CL, Kollmann TR. Molecular analysis of human tick-bitten skin yields signatures associated with distinct spatial and temporal trajectories - A proof-of-concept study. Heliyon. 2024 Jun 29;10(13):e33600. PMID: 39071681.

- Montante S, Ben-Othman R, Amenyogbe N, Angelidou A, van den Biggelaar A, Cai B, Chen Y, Darboe A, Diray-Arce J, Ford R, Idoko O, Lee A, Lo M, McEnaney K, Malek M, Martino D, Masiria G, Odumade OA, Pomat W, Shannon C, Smolen K, EPIC Consortium, Ozonoff A, Richmond P, Tebbutt S, Levy O, Kampmann B, Brinkman R, Kollmann T. Breastfeeding and Neonatal Age Influence Neutrophil-Driven Ontogeny of Blood Cell Populations in the First Week of Human Life. J Immunol Res. 2024 Jul 23;2024:1117796. PMID: 39081632.

- Martino D, Kresoje N, Amenyogbe N, Ben-Othman R, Cai B, Lo M, Idoko O, Odumade OA, Falsafi R, Blimkie TM, An A, Shannon CP, Montante S, Dhillon BK, Diray-Arce J, Ozonoff A, Smolen KK, Brinkman RR, McEnaney K, Angelidou A, Richmond P, Tebbutt SJ; EPIC-HIPC consortium; Kampmann B, Levy O, Hancock REW, Lee AHY, Kollmann TR. DNA Methylation signatures underpinning blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio during first week of human life. Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 17;15(1):8167. PMID: 39289350.

- Andy Y. An PhD1, Erica Acton MSc2 , Olubukola T. Idoko MD PhD3,4,5, Casey P. Shannon BSc6, Travis M. Blimkie MBinf1, Reza Falsafi BASc1, Oghenebrume Wariri MD3,5, Abdulazeez Imam MD3, Tida Dibbasey MD3, Tue Bjerg Bennike PhD7, Kinga K. Smolen PhD4,8, Joann Diray-Arce4,8 PhD, Rym Ben-Othman PhD9, Sebastiano Montante PhD10, Asimenia Angelidou MD PhD4,8,11, Oludare A. Odumade MD PhD4,8,  David Martino PhD12, Scott J. Tebbutt PhD6,13,14, Ofer Levy MD PhD4,8,15, Hanno Steen PhD4,8,16, Beate Kampmann MD PhD3,20*,  Robert E.W. Hancock PhD1*, and Amy H. Lee PhD2*, Tobias R. Kollmann MD PhD17,18,19*. Predictive gene expression signature diagnoses neonatal sepsis before clinical presentation. EBioMedicine. 2024 Oct 24:105411. PMID: 39472236.

- Vaccination Strategies to Enhance Immunity in Newborn Infants. Tobias R. Kollmann, Arnaud Marchant, Sing Sing Way. Science 2020 May 8;368(6491):612-615. PMID: 32381718

- BCG-vaccination induced emergency granulopoiesis provides rapid protection from neonatal sepsis. Byron Brook, Danny J. Harbeson, Casey P. Shannon, Bing Cai, Daniel He, Rym Ben-Othman, Freddy Francis, Joe Huang, Natalia Varankovich, Aaron Liu, Winnie Bao, Morten Bjerregaard-Andersen, Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer, Lilica Sanca, Christian N. Golding, Kristina Lindberg Larsen, Ofer Levy, Beate Kampmann, The EPIC Consoritum, Rusung Tan, Adrian Charles, James L. Wynn, Frank Shann, Peter Aaby, Christine S. Benn, Scott J. Tebbutt, Nelly Amenyogbe and Tobias R. Kollmann. Science Translational Medicine 2020 May 6;12(542). PMID: 32376769.

- Improving vaccine-induced immunity: Can Baseline Predict Outcome? John S. Tsang, Carlota Dobaño, Pierre VanDamme, Gemma Moncunill, Arnaud Marchant, Rym Ben Othman, Manish Sadarangani, Wayne Koff, Tobias R. Kollmann. Trends in Immunology; 2020 Apr 8; PMID: 32340868.

- Nelly Amenyogbe, Amy H. Lee, Casey P. Shannon, Tue B. Bennike, Joann Diray-Arce Olubukola Idoko, Erin E. Gill, Rym Ben-Othman, William S. Pomat, Simon van Haren, Kim-Anh Lê Cao, Momoudou Cox, Alansana Darboe, Reza Falsafi, Davide Ferrari, Daniel J. Harbeson, Daniel He, Cai Bing, Samuel J. Hinshaw, Jorjoh Ndure, Jainaba Njie-Jobe, Matthew A. Pettengill, Peter C. Richmond, Rebecca Ford, Gerard Saleu, Geraldine Masiria, John Paul Matlam, Wendy Kirarock, Elishia Roberts, Mehrnoush Malek, Guzmán Sanchez-Schmitz, Amrit Singh, Asimenia Angelidou, Kinga K. Smolen, the EPIC Consortium, Ryan R. Brinkman, Al Ozonoff, Robert E.W. Hancock, Anita H.J. van den Biggelaar, Hanno Steen, Scott J. Tebbutt, Beate Kampmann, Ofer Levy, Tobias R. Kollmann ^. Dynamic molecular changes during the first week of human life follow a robust developmental trajectory. Nature Communications 12;10(1):1092. PMID: 30862783

Highlighted externally funded projects:

- “Fuel For Survival”. Open Philanthropy/Good Ventures Foundation. PI: Tobias R. Kollmann. 2024-2029.

- “Empowering the disempowered – remote pregnancy monitoring to reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes in rural and Indigenous populations of Atlantic Canada”. River Philip Foundation’s Transformational Medicine Grant Program. PI: Tobias R. Kollmann. 2024-2027. 

- “Molly Appeal”. Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine and Medical Research Development Office. PI: Tobias R. Kollmann. 2024-2026.

- U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Kollmann Project PI. 2022—2027. “Immune development in early life’ (IDEAL). PI: Ofer Levy, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, USA.

- Human Vaccines Project. Kollmann PI. 2017—2024. Identification of age-dependent mechanism of vaccine-induced immunity to a single dose of hepatitis B vaccine using a systems biology approach.