Vanessa Allen
Vanessa Gray Allen is a microbiologist, and a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. She is interested in “the implementation and evaluation of the use of novel diagnostic methods such as genomics, artificial intelligence and point of care testing to advance infectious diseases and public health prevention and response.”1)
Education
Allen attended McGill University for her medical degree, graduating in 2002. She then attended the University of Toronto where she completed her internal medicine, infectious diseases and medical microbiology residencies (2005, 2007 and 2008). She received her Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in 2012.2)
Affiliations
Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion
Allen is employed by the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Her salary in 2019 was $344,066.00.3)
Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table
Allen has contributed to the following Science Table publications:
Ontario Health
Allen is the Medical Director of the Provincial COVID-19 Diagnostic Network for Ontario Health.7)
Public Health Ontario
Allen served as the Chief of Microbiology and Laboratory Science at Public Health Ontario from May 2013 to September 2021.
While in this role, Allen’s relevant publications included:
“The Impact of Infection on Population Health: Results of the Ontario Burden of Infectious Diseases Study”8)
Funded by Public Health Ontario and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), which were themselves both funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC).
“Diagnosis and Management of First Case of COVID-19 in Canada: Lessons Applied From SARS-CoV-1”9)
“Pandemic H1N1 influenza infection and vaccination in humans induces cross-protective antibodies that target the hemagglutinin stem”10)
Funded via grants to her colleagues by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the International Consortium on Anti-Virals (ICAV), and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.
“Lack of COVID-19 transmission on an international flight”11)
“SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence Survey Estimates Are Affected by AntiNucleocapsid Antibody Decline”12)
Funded by Public Health Ontario, Canada's COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
“Detection of the novel SARS-CoV-2 European lineage B.1.177 in Ontario, Canada”13)
Funded by Public Health Ontario, Genome Canada, and Canadian COVID Genomics Network (CanCOGeN).
“Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 testing for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 during the initial stages of a global pandemic”14)
“Real-time RT-PCR Allelic Discrimination Assay for Detection of N501Y Mutation in the Spike Protein of SARS-CoV-2 Associated with Variants of Concern”15)
Funded by Public Health Ontario.
“Impact of COVID-19 pre-test probability on positive predictive value of high cycle threshold SARS-CoV-2 real-time reverse transcription PCR test results”16)
Sinai Health Network
Allen is a Medical Microbiologist and Clinical Infectious Diseases Specialist at Sinai Health Network.17)
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Allen is registered to practice medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.18)
University Health Network
Allen is a Medical Microbiologist and Clinical Infectious Diseases Specialist at University Health Network.19)
University of Toronto
Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto.20)
1)
About Us. Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/about/#allen-vanessa
2)
Vanessa Gray Allen. LinkedIn. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://archive.ph/9YQ2N
3)
Ontario Public Sector Employee - Vanessa Allen. OpenGovCA. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://archive.ph/E09HA
4)
Tuite, A. R., Fisman, D. N., Odutayo, A., Bobos, P., Allen, V., Bogoch, I. I., Brown, A. D., Evans, G. A., Greenberg, A., Hopkins, J., Maltsev, A., Manuel, D. G., McGeer, A., Morris, A. M., Mubareka, S., Munshi, L., Murty, V. K., Patel, S. N., Razak, F., & Reid, R. J. (2021). COVID-19 Hospitalizations, ICU Admissions and Deaths Associated with the New Variants of Concern. Science Briefs of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, 1(18). https://doi.org/10.47326/ocsat.2021.02.18.1.0
5)
Stall NM, Brown KA, Maltsev A, et al. (2021). COVID-19 and Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes. Science Briefs of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, 2(7). https://doi.org/10.47326/ocsat.2021.02.07.1.0
6)
Kain, D., Stall, N. M., Allen, V., Evans, G. A., Hopkins, J., Kouyoumdjian, F. G., McGeer, A., Mubareka, S., Patel, S. N., Rochon, P. A., Schwartz, B., Juni, P., & Johnstone, J. (2021). Routine Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Screen Testing of Ontario Long-Term Care Staff After COVID-19 Vaccination. Science Briefs of the Ontario COVID -19 Science Advisory Table, 2(15). https://doi.org/10.47326/ocsat.2021.02.15.1.0
7)
COVID-19 Test Collection and Analysis. (2021, October 12). Ontario Health. https://www.ontariohealth.ca/COVID-19/testing-analysis
8)
Kwong, J. C., Ratnasingham, S., Campitelli, M. A., Daneman, N., Deeks, S. L., Manuel, D. G., Allen, V. G., Bayoumi, A. M., Fazil, A., Fisman, D. N., Gershon, A. S., Gournis, E., Heathcote, E. J., Jamieson, F. B., Jha, P., Khan, K. M., Majowicz, S. E., Mazzulli, T., McGeer, A. J., & Muller, M. P. (2012). The Impact of Infection on Population Health: Results of the Ontario Burden of Infectious Diseases Study. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e44103. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044103
9)
Marchand-Senécal, X., Kozak, R., Mubareka, S., Salt, N., Gubbay, J. B., Eshaghi, A., Allen, V., Li, Y., Bastien, N., Gilmour, M., Ozaldin, O., & Leis, J. A. (2020). Diagnosis and Management of First Case of COVID-19 in Canada: Lessons Applied From SARS-CoV-1. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 71(16). https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa227
10)
Thomson, C. A., Wang, Y., Jackson, L. M., Olson, M., Wang, W., Liavonchanka, A., Keleta, L., Silva, V., Diederich, S., Jones, R. B., Gubbay, J., Pasick, J., Petric, M., Jean, F., Allen, V. G., Brown, E. G., Rini, J. M., & Schrader, J. W. (2012). Pandemic H1N1 Influenza Infection and Vaccination in Humans Induces Cross-Protective Antibodies that Target the Hemagglutinin Stem. Frontiers in Immunology, 3(Article 87). https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2012.00087
11)
Schwartz, K. L., Murti, M., Finkelstein, M., Leis, J. A., Fitzgerald-Husek, A., Bourns, L., Meghani, H., Saunders, A., Allen, V., & Yaffe, B. (2020). Lack of COVID-19 transmission on an international flight. CMAJ, 192(15), E410–E410. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.75015
12)
Bolotin, S., Tran, V., Osman, S., Brown, K. A., Buchan, S. A., Joh, E., Deeks, S. L., & Allen, V. G. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence Survey Estimates Are Affected by Anti-Nucleocapsid Antibody Decline. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 223(8), 1334–1338. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaa796
13)
Guthrie, J. L., Teatero, S., Zittermann, S., Chen, Y., Sullivan, A., Rilkoff, H., Joshi, E., Sivaraman, K., de Borja, R., Sundaravadanam, Y., Laszloffy, M., Heisler, L., Allen, V. G., Simpson, J. T., & Fittipaldi, N. (2021). Detection of the novel SARS-CoV-2 European lineage B.1.177 in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Clinical Virology Plus, 1(1-2), 100010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcvp.2021.100010
14)
Guthrie, J. L., Chen, A. J., Budhram, D. R., Cronin, K., Peci, A., Nelson, P., Mallo, G. V., Broukhanski, G., Murti, M., Majury, A., Mazzulli, T., Allen, V. G., Patel, S. N., Kus, J. V., Tran, V., & Gubbay, J. B. (2021). Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 testing for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 during the initial stages of a global pandemic. PLOS ONE, 16(7), e0253941. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253941
15)
Abdulnoor, M., Eshaghi, A., Perusini, S. J., Corbeil, A., Cronin, K., Fittipaldi, N., Forbes, J. D., Guthrie, J. L., Kus, J. V., Majury, A., Mazzulli, T., Melano, R. G., Olsha, R., Sullivan, A., Tran, V., Patel, S. N., Allen, V. G., & Gubbay, J. B. (2021). Real-time RT-PCR Allelic Discrimination Assay for Detection of N501Y Mutation in the Spike Protein of SARS-CoV-2 Associated with Variants of Concern. medRxiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.23.21258782
16)
Gubbay, J. B., Rilkoff, H., Kristjanson, H. L., Forbes, J. D., Murti, M., Eshaghi, A., Broukhanski, G., Corbeil, A., Fittipaldi, N., Hopkins, J. P., Kristjanson, E., Kus, J. V., Macdonald, L., Majury, A., Mallo, G. V., Mazzulli, T., Melano, R. G., Olsha, R., Perusini, S. J., & Tran, V. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 pre-test probability on positive predictive value of high cycle threshold SARS-CoV-2 real-time reverse transcription PCR test results. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.369
17)
Leadership Changes at Public Health Ontario. (2021, August 17). Public Health Ontario. https://archive.ph/D0f9Z
18)
CPSO - Doctor Details. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://archive.ph/LJ56P
19)
Vanessa Allen. ResearchGate. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://archive.ph/NNEE7
20)
Vanessa G Allen. University of Toronto. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://lmp.utoronto.ca/faculty/vanessa-g-allen