Immunology
Building resistance
Our department's Division of Immunology is focused on helping children with immunological disorders through a combination of clinical work, teaching activities and a heavy emphasis on research.
Clinical activities
Drs. Beata Derfalvi, Alejandro Palma, Aniko Malik and Thomas Issekutz provide clinical immunology care to children throughout the Maritimes through an inpatient attending and consultation service, weekly immunology outpatient clinics and the Maritime Newborn SCID Screening Program. The services focus on patients with chronic immunological conditions involving primary and secondary immunodeficiencies, autoimmune and autoinflammatory processes.
We also care for numerous patients with disorders that require ongoing therapy and monitoring, and frequently require investigational drug therapy, including:
- hypogammaglobulinemia, common variable immune deficiency, other antibody deficiencies
- chronic granulomatous disease
- hereditary angioedema (HAE)
- rare and also unique inborn errors of immunity
- other immunohematological and rheumatological disorders
We follow between fifteen and twenty bone marrow or cord blood stem cell transplant recipients to assess their immunologic reconstitution and monitor for any post-transplant complications. We offer regular consultations for common problems such as recurrent infections, unusual, severe or complicated infections, hypersensitivity and extreme atopic conditions.
We provide specialized diagnostic immunology testing, which isn’t available anywhere else in the Maritimes. The patients we diagnose with severe immune deficiencies are stabilized and prepared for potentially curative therapy with haematopoetic stem stem cell transplantation in one of the major Canadian transplant centres.
Teaching activities
Members of our division provide lectures to Med 1 students in the Host-Defense Unit and teach Med2 students through case-based learning (CBL) units. We also contribute to medical education by:
- offering clinical clerkship teaching, pediatric resident and subspeciality resident seminars
- providing lectures at the national distributed academic half day for Allergy Clinical Immunology Residency
- performing case writing
- acting as resource persons
- supervising medical students at the Research in Medicine Unit
Our members also offer lectures and tutorials in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses, and we’re very active in the training of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral research and clinical fellows.
Division members mentor Graduate Students through their MSc and PhD training as well as mentoring Post-Doctoral research fellows. These trainees are active participants in regular academic sessions such as:
- Infection Inflammation Immunity Vaccinology (I3V) seminars
- research and clinical seminars in the Departments of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Immunology and Pathology
- Dalhousie Medical School's Research Days
- the Annual Research Day of the Departments of Pediatrics and Pathology
Subspecialty Training Programs
- Royal College Accredited Pediatric Allergy, Clinical Immunology Residency Program
- Pediatric Clinical Immunology Fellowship (Training for International Graduates Accredited by Dalhousie University)
International graduates trained in pediatric clinical immunology who have secured funding are eligible to apply for this Fellowship. Trainees will learn the practice of pediatric clinical immunology according to best practices and most up-to-date knowledge in the field. This will include a systematic approach to investigating patients and become familiar with and learn to interpret functional immunology laboratory tests, flow cytometry and results of the currently used newborn screening tests for Severe Combined Immune Deficiencies (SCID). Genetic analysis related to mutations which may cause serious immune dysfunctions are regularly utilized and interpretation of these results will be learned. There are two busy immunology clinics every week, in addition to an average of 3-4 new inpatient consultations and follow up on the wards and PICU/NICU. Trainees are directly supervised by Division of Immunology physicians, two full-time and two part-time, who share their teaching and clinical experience.
This curriculum combines fundamental immunology education with a major research component, as well as research training in clinical and translational immunology.
Research interests
We have a very productive research program focusing on mechanisms of inflammation in autoimmune and allergic diseases, and the immune and inflammatory response to infection and cancer. (For more description see link under Department of Pediatrics - Research and also individual Division member's summary and publications).
Our research has been awarded peer reviewed funding from national agencies continuously for over 40 years. The research program has been expanded through recruitment and thus the breadth of the research has increased. This growth has allowed us to provide graduate and postdoctoral research training, and employment for over 50 highly skilled and talented personnel.
Our people
- Beata Derfalvi, MD, PhD
- Alejandro Palma, MD
- Thomas B. Issekutz, MD
- Aniko Malik, MD, PhD
- Andrew C. Issekutz, MD (post-retired)
- Channakeshava Umeshappa, PhD (cross-appointed)
- Di Cara, Francesca, PhD (cross-appointed)
Contact info
Email: anne.woolaver@iwk.nshealth.ca
Phone: 902-470-8491
Fax: 902-470-7812
Address:
IWK Health Centre
5850/5980 University Avenue
PO Box 9700
Halifax, NS B3K 6R8