Dr. Vanessa G. Allen

Dr. Vanessa Allen is the Interim Microbiologist-in-Chief for Sinai Health. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, and Program Director for the Medical and Clinical Microbiology Residency Training Programs at the University of Toronto. Previously, she served as Chief of Microbiology and Laboratory Science at Public Health Ontario from 2013-2021; as Medical Director of Ontario's COVID-19 Provincial Diagnostic Network at Ontario Health from 2020-2023; and as the founding director of the Ontario COVID-19 Genomics Network from 2020 to 2021.

Education

Dr. Allen earned her medical degree at McGill University and completed her residency and fellowship training in internal medicine, medical microbiology and infectious diseases at the University of Toronto. She went on to earn a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins University.

Research

Dr. Allen’s research has advanced global understanding of antimicrobial resistance in sexually transmitted infections, leading surveillance efforts and developing widely used genomic tools. In this role she has served as co-chair of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute Neisseria gonorrhoeae working group and is an elected member of the International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections. Dr. Allen also sits on the international advisory board for The Lancet Microbe and Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Currently, she is expanding her work to study infections during pregnancy, using new genomic methods to improve diagnosis and management of emerging and re-emerging infections.