April 2026 Webinar

Kelly McNagny, PhD

Dr. Kelly McNagny obtained a BSc in Biology and Biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts and subsequently a PhD in Cellular Immunology at the U of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). At UAB he worked with Dr. Max D Cooper, a founding father of B cell immunology, and his research focused on cell surface proteins that regulate B cell maturation and homing. He then moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany where he performed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Thomas Graf and his work focused on transcriptional control of stem cell fate and the commitment to macrophage, eosinophil and thrombocyte development. He also identified a number of novel hematopoietic stem cell surface proteins (the CD34 family) and this then became the research focus of his own laboratory at The Biomedical Research Centre, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is currently a full professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Genetics where his work focuses on stem cell behavior, innate immune responses, inflammatory disease, cancer biology and immunotherapeutics. His research relies heavily on the use of transgenic mice and animal models of human inflammatory disease as well as high-throughput “omics” technologies to reveal the immune components that determine the outcome of human disease. Nationally, he has filled leadership roles in the Stem Cell Network Centre of Excellence, the Centre for Drug Research and Development and the AllerGen Network Centre of Excellence. He is currently Co-leader of the Immunotherapeutics Cluster at UBC and is UBCs Delegate to CIHR. 

Caspar Ohnmacht, PhD

Dr. Caspar Ohnmacht earned his PhD in Immunology from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, Germany, working on basophils and eosinophils in the context of allergy and helminth infection. He then did a postdoc at Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, working on tolerance mechanisms towards the intestinal microbiota. Since 2014, he is principal investigator of the Mucosal Immunology group at the Center of Allergy & Environment (ZAUM) at Helmholtz Munich & Technical University of Munich, Germany.

Dr. Ohnmacht current research interests cover the role of the intestinal microbiome in allergic and viral diseases and mechanisms of immune tolerance in the gastrointestinal tract and beyond. His lab is also interested in crosstalk of immune cells with epithelial and stromal cells in the context of type 2 inflammation and the identification of mechanisms of host-microbiota interaction ultimately shaping the outcome of immunity and tolerance.