October 2025

October 13-16th: Trinity and Che attended the 31st International Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus, Flaviviruses and Related Viruses, which was held in Singapore! They presented some recent work on HCV and dengue virus-host interactions, enjoyed some sight-seeing and local cuisine, and caught up with old friends and new acquaintances.

September 2025

September 2nd: We are excited to welcome new PhD students Callum Magill and Debanjana Mondal, as well as undergraduate project students Abbey McMurray, Veronica Branici, Eden Alalouf and Lindsay Yu. Lots of exciting new projects getting underway!

July 2025

July 22nd: Congratulations to Dr. Emma LeBlanc on the successful defence of her PhD thesis! Emma was our first PhD student and did some exciting work on coronavirus entry, as well as the spike protein and its roles in pathogenesis. We are sad to see Emma go, but excited to see what she does next as she pursues a career as an MD/PhD clinician-scientist!

July 14-18th: Emma, Isabella, Trinity and Che attended the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology in Montreal. Lots of exciting virology and great to catch up with old and new friends!

July 1st: Big news day! Che received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, and Trinity was awarded a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship to support her PhD studies.

June 2025

June 19th: Congratulations to Elana, who successfully defended her MSc thesis on the role of cyclophilin A in hepatitis C virus immune evasion!

May 2025

May 14th: Emma presented her PhD exit seminar, showcasing some exciting research findings (and a lot of hard work!) from her PhD! Next up, thesis defence!

May 5th: Welcome to our new summer student, Abbey McMurray, who is helping us get started on some influenza virus work this summer!

April 2025

April 4th: Our St. Lawrence College biotechnology placement student, Natalia, gave a poster presentation summarizing her work in our lab over the past 3 months. Well done, Natalia!

April 2nd: Congratulations to Keya, Dom and Rebeca, who all gave excellent poster presentations today wrapping up their fourth year undergraduate projects! We will miss them in the lab but wish them all the best in their next steps!

September 2024

September 25-28th: Che, Trinity and Carla attended the 30th International Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus, Flaviviruses, and Related Viruses in Oxford, UK. We enjoyed catching up with friends and colleagues, all the exciting science at the conference…and some sightseeing in Oxford!

September 3rd: A new academic year begins! Welcome to our new (and returning) undergraduate project students: Rebeca Barkin, Dominic Doiran and Keya Jani. We are excited to have them working with us this year!

July 2024

July 17: Congratulations to our newest Master of Science, Ujjwal, for successfully defending her MSc thesis! During her MSc, Ujjwal did some exciting work looking at the antiviral mechanism of cyclosporine A against dengue virus – stay tuned!

June 2024

June 2-5: The lab attended the Canadian Society for Virology symposium in Saskatoon. We had a fantastic time sharing our research, catching up with old friends, and making new ones!

May 2024

Welcome to new MSc student Elana Kertzman, who has joined us for her combined MSc!

April 2024

April 3, 2024: Undergraduate poster day! Elana, Alice, Keya and Emily presented their findings from their research projects over past year. Congratulations to all!

February/March 2024

February 29-March 2: Che, Carla, Trinity and Ujjwal attended the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C annual meeting and the 13th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C virus in Toronto, where Che had a talk and the students presented posters. Congratulations to Trinity for winning a poster award!

August 2023

August 23rd: To wrap up another summer, we went on retreat in beautiful Prince Edward County, with lunch at County Cider and an afternoon spent at the beach at Sandbanks Provincial Park! We are recharged for lots of exciting science in the year ahead!

August 16th: Congratulations to Emily, who successfully defended her MSc thesis! Emily will be starting her PhD at U of T with Dr. Samira Mubareka. We sent her off in style with a joint Colpitts-Gee lab lunch. All the best, Emily!

August 1st: We had our summer lab picnic, and welcomed new lab members at the same time! Welcome to Trinity, who is joining us for her MSc, and to Alice and Keya, who will be completing 4th year projects in our lab this year.

June 2023

June 27th: We participated in the 25th annual Queen’s University Faculty of Health Sciences Research Trainees Day. Carla gave an oral presentation, while Emma, Isabella, Emily, Ujjwal and Heidi all presented posters. A great day of science – and congratulations to Emma and Ujjwal for winning poster awards!

June 22nd: Che visited VIDO in Saskatoon and had a good time sharing science, and catching up with old (and new) friends.

June 16th: Congratulations to Kim, who successfully defended her MSc thesis. She did us proud! We wish her all the best in her next adventure: Medical school at U of A.

May 2023

May 17th: Our incoming MSc student, Trinity Tooley, has received a prestigious scholarship from the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C to support her upcoming MSc research project. Congratulations, Trinity!

May 16th: Congratulations to Carla, who passed her PhD comprehensive exam and is officially our second PhD candidate!

April 2023

April 29th: Good news! Heidi has received an Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellowship from Queen’s University to support her summer research project looking at activation of TLR4 by viral glycoproteins. Congratulations, Heidi!

April 4th: Undergraduate poster day at Queen’s! Jihyun, Heidi, Payton and Nicole presented posters on their research projects; congratulations to all four for excellent posters showcasing their hard work over the past year!

March 2023

March 2-4th: Che and Carla attended the Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus in Halifax, where Carla presented a poster on her project. Despite the snow, they enjoyed Halifax, and catching up with old friends and making new ones!

December 2022

December 15th: We had a winter holiday brunch at the exceptional Pan Chancho bakery. Happy Holidays!!

November 2022

November 2-6th: Che and Carla attended the 52^nd Mexican National Congress of Clinical Pathology (Mérida, Mexico), where they presented seminars in the Virus-Host Interactions symposium. They also enjoyed some sight-seeing and tacos!

October 2022

October 27th: We attended a virology retreat with several other Ontario virology groups, held at McMichael art collection in Toronto. A fantastic day of virology, networking and catching up with colleagues!

September 2022

Welcome to our new undergraduate student researchers! Jihyun has joined us for her MICR 499 project, while Heidi and Payton will be doing LISC 595 projects. Nicole is continuing on with her HSCI research project.

July 2022

July 28th: Emma’s paper has been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports – congrats to Emma! In this manuscript, we describe the antiviral mechanisms of EGCG, a natural product found in green tea, against coronaviruses. We celebrated with matching manuscript mugs and EGCG jewelry!

July 27th-28th: John and Maddie both successfully defended their MSc theses! Congratulations to both of them! We had several gatherings to celebrate their achievements and wish them all the best in their next steps.

July 7th: We had our (somewhat annual) lab potluck summer picnic! Lots of great food!

June 2022

June 28th: We attended the Queen’s Faculty of Health Sciences Research Trainees Day, where Isabella started things off with the first talk of the day and everyone else had poster presentations. Great to share our work with the FHS community!

June 5th-7th: We attended the 4th Canadian Symposium for Virology in Edmonton, Alberta. A fun few days packed full of virology, catching up with old friends & meeting new friends, and exploring Edmonton’s running trails (and carnival grounds…). Congrats to Emma for giving an excellent talk, and to John, Isabella, Carla, Kim and Maddie for presenting great posters!

May 2022

May 29th: Some of the more intrepid members of our lab (John, Kim, Isabella, Emma and honorary lab member Gerard) competed in the challenging Ottawa Spartan race. Way to go! Good preparation for the trials and tribulations of thesis research…?

May 24th: Emma has passed her PhD comprehensive exams and is officially our first PhD candidate!

April 2022

We have successfully wrapped up another academic year! Congrats to our undergraduate students Kim and Taylor for completing their MICR 499 projects, Nicole for completing her HSCI 592/593 project, and Celine for wrapping up her volunteer project. We will be sad to say goodbye but wish our undergraduate researchers all the best in their future endeavours!

February 2022

February 15th: We are excited that our mini-review on the roles of cyclophilin A in viral immune evasion has just been published in Frontiers in Microbiology! Check it out here! Congrats to John, Isabella and Carla – a nice team effort!

February 10th: Emma has been awarded a Trainee Progress Award from the Canadian Society for Virology. The award recognizes outstanding work by a Canadian virology trainee. Congrats Emma!

December 2021

December 15th: We are thrilled that Isabella successfully defended her Mini-Masters and has transferred to the PhD program. Congratulations, Isabella! Looking forward to more exciting science to come!

September 2021

September 23rd: We attended the Queen’s University Health Sciences Research Trainee Day, where John, Isabella and Emma presented their projects. We enjoyed our first in-person conference in a long time, and had a great time discussing science with our colleagues in the department.

September 7th: Our new undergraduate students, Taylor and Nicole, have joined us for their MICR 499 and HSCI 592 research projects. Welcome Taylor and Nicole!

September 1st: We had our first annual Colpitts Lab Retreat: A morning of science, followed by an afternoon hike at Rock Dunder to burn off a delicious curry lunch at Namaste!

July 2021

July 17th: Our review on the roles of cyclophilins in hepatitis C virus and flavivirus infections has been published! Congrats to lead author Carla! Check it out here.

July 15th: We are thrilled that Emma has received a very prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship to support her PhD studies in the lab! This is fantastic news – huge congrats to Emma! Read more here.

June 2021

June 1st: Our review on hepatitis C virus and glycans has been published! A nice team effort with the Capicciotti lab! We discuss the roles of glycans in HCV infection, and the potential for novel preventative strategies targeting glycans. Check it out here!

May 2021

We are excited to welcome two new lab members! Carla has officially started her PhD with us, and Kim has joined us for an NSERC USRA summer project. Welcome Carla and Kim!

April 2021

Good news! Carla, our incoming PhD student, has been awarded a Mitacs Globalink graduate fellowship supporting the first year of her PhD. Congratulations, Carla!

March 2021

March 22-26th: Emma and John present posters on their research at the (virtual) 34th International Conference on Antiviral Research. Well done both! Congrats to Emma for winning the 2nd place prize in the PechaKucha contest, and a runner-up poster prize!

February 2021

February 1: We are excited to finally welcome our MICR 499 project students, Caleb and Lauren, into the lab!

December 2020

December 16: We celebrated the end of 2020 with a Zoom holiday celebration/trivia night. It was a great way to wrap up the year – looking forward to more exciting and fun science in 2021!

September 2020

September 23: Dr. Colpitts was interviewed by IEEE Spectrum about antivirals and COVID-19. Check out the article.

September 21: New MSc student Isabella Delano has started in the lab. Welcome, Isabella!

September 8: The fall semester has started and our first PhD student, Emma LeBlanc, has started in the lab. Welcome, Emma!

August 2020

August 27: Our collaborative SARS-CoV-2 research with the Capicciotti lab was featured on Global News Kingston! Check out the interview:

August 18: We are grateful to have been awarded a grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund to support the purchase of fancy new equipment for our research. We are excited to get started!

August 10: Our first Masters student, John Mamatis, has started in the lab! Welcome, John!

June 2020

June 16: Our paper on the role of cyclophilin A in HCV replication (which describes a new, potentially broad-spectrum, antiviral mechanism of action of cyclophilin inhibitors) has been published in eLife! Check it out here!

May 2020

May 25: Dr. Colpitts was interviewed by CBC News about antiviral strategies for COVID-19. Check out the article here.

April 2020

April 24: We have been awarded a Banting Discovery Award to evaluate membrane remodelling as an antiviral target for coronaviruses. Thank you, Banting Research Foundation, for funding this timely research.

April 23: We are happy to have been awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant to support our research for 5 years. Thank you, NSERC!

March 2020

March 18: Our review on HCV entry has been published! A collaborative effort with our colleague Mirjam Zeisel in France, and input from our very own Celine Tsai! Check it out here.

March 10: Caleb has earned an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award to support his summer research project evaluating host-targeting agents as coronavirus antivirals. Congratulations, Caleb!

November 2019