Team

Dr. Santer completed her B.Sc (Honours) in Immunology and Infection at the University of Alberta and her Ph.D in Immunology at the University of Washington under the supervision of Dr. Keith Elkon (NSERC scholarship). Her thesis focused on investigating how type I interferons (IFNs) contribute to pathology in the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). For her postdoctoral work (Alberta Innovates and CIHR fellowships), she came back to Canada to work in Nobel Laureate Dr. Michael Houghton's lab at the University of Alberta where her projects included working with various viruses, before developing her own research program studying the newest family of IFNs, IFN-lambdas. Dr. Santer joined the Department of Immunology at the University of Manitoba on November 1, 2020 as an Assistant Professor and GSK Research Chair in Immunology of Infectious Diseases. Outside of doing experiments and analyzing data, Dr. Santer has been actively involved in promoting women in STEM having volunteered for over 8 years with WISEST as a mentor for high school and elementary girls (at UAlberta), participates in workshops at UManitoba through WISDOM of which she is now an executive team member and mentor. She also engages Canadian youth interested in science as a career through outreach events and presentations.

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Testimony completed B.Sc (Major Biochemistry) and M.Sc (Molecular Biology and Genomics) degrees from Redeemer's University, Nigeria in 2014 and 2018, respectively. He then worked as a Research Fellow at the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases for 4 years where his research centered on genomics of viral infectious diseases. He moved to Winnipeg January 2023 to start his Immunology M.Sc degree. He transferred to the Immunology Ph.D program in spring 2024.

Research interests - Testimony is studying fundamental aspects of IFN-lambda biology and cross-talk with various microbes. He has been awarded multiple graduate studentships (CIHR CGS-D, Research Manitoba, TRIANGLE, University of Manitoba) and conference presentation/travel awards.

Gunjan completed her B.Sc (Major Biochemistry, co-op) degree from the University of Manitoba in 2024. She completed co-op work terms at the National Microbiology Lab, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and ALS Environmental. She started her M.Sc Immunology degree September 2025.

Research interests - Gunjan is interested in the role of type III IFNs in gut immunity, especially during ulcerative colitis.

Maggie has completed her training in immunology and virus/host interactions through a B.Sc in Molecular Biology, M.Sc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Ph.D in Immunology when still living in China. She came to Canada in 2017 to join the University of Manitoba as a research associate working on interesting projects on long non-coding RNAs and more recently, COVID-19 vaccine development/testing. She joined the Santer lab in November 2022.

Research interests - Maggie leads efforts in studying immunoregulation pathways modulated by IFN-lambdas related to adaptive immunity.

Yuliia completed her B.Sc (Honours) in Genetics at the end of 2023 from the University of Manitoba. During her undergraduate degree, she completed 3 summer research projects related to lipids or ovarian cancer. After an additional 6 months of work experience at the University of Manitoba, she joined the Santer lab as a technician in July 2024.

Research interests - Yuliia is studying immunoregulatory pathways of IFN-lambdas and supports the lab with ordering/inventory tasks too.

Vi has completed a B.Sc in Medical Laboratory Sciences from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, HCMC, Vietnam, M.Sc (Molecular Biology) from Coventry University, UK, and recently finished an Advanced Diploma of Technology Management from Red River College, Manitoba. She was a Medical Laboratory Technician in a Molecular Biology clinical lab and spent one year serving on the frontline team for COVID-19 detection during the pandemic. In her M.Sc, she studied how defective interfering particles affect influenza A and Rotavirus yields. She joined the Santer lab Nov 2022 as a technician. 

Research interests - Vi supports multiple projects related to IFN-lambda biology and supports clinical IBD work including screening and consenting patients.

Monireh began her academic journey with a B.Sc. in Microbiology at Shahid Beheshti University followed by an M.Sc. in Microbial Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, both these completed at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. She spent four years as a junior researcher at the Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research, where she contributed to several projects focused on immunomodulation of cells for pre-clinical trials. 

In September 2024, Monireh relocated to Winnipeg and joined the Santer Lab in the spring of 2025. In addition to her research experience, she has worked as a writer and editor for various scientific content platforms. Her research interests are focused on the immunomodulatory roles of interferons and investigating their potential implications in inflammatory diseases.

Olamide completed her last co-op work term Jan-Apr 2021 in the Santer lab and graduated with a B.Sc (Major Genetics (co-op)) from the University of Manitoba. She enjoyed learning about IFNs so much she was the lab's main technician for 1.5 years before completing her Immunology M.Sc in August 2025. She is now a technician working in a government lab.

Xinyun (Leo) graduated with a B.Sc (Major in Microbiology) degree from the University of Manitoba in 2021. He worked as a technician in the lab during summer 2021 and then started his Immunology M.Sc in Sept 2021. He defended July 2024 and is now an Immunology PhD student at the University of Toronto.