Dr. Aleksandra Leligdowicz

Attending Physician, Toronto Western Hospital

Academic Rank
Clinical Associate

Position Title
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Medical/Professional Qualifications
MD, PhD, FRCPC

Affiliations
Toronto General Research Institute (TGRI)
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI)

Biography
Dr. Leligdowicz completed her medical degree at McGill University and a PhD at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in HIV immunology in West Africa. She completed an internal medicine residency at the University of British Columbia and a critical care medicine fellowship at the University of Toronto. She pursued her interest in immunology and severe infection as a postdoctoral research fellow at University of Toronto and University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on characterizing the relationship between immune activation and endothelial injury, with a goal of elucidating mechanisms of tissue injury resulting from severe infection in critically ill patients. Understanding these pathways may lead to novel therapeutic targets for life-threatening infections. Identifying prognostic biomarkers may lead to the development of point-of-care diagnostic tests that risk-stratify critical illness outcome, in both developed and resource-limited settings.

Area of Academic Focus
Translational medicine research, relationship between the immune system and endothelial injury in critical illness and their role in the pathobiology of life-threatening infection

Honours and Awards
CIHR Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015-18)
Clinician Scientist Training Program, Department of Medicine, U of T (2015-18)
G.B. John Mancini Resident Research Achievement Prize, UBC (2013)
Nuffield Department of Medicine Student of the Year, Oxford University (2009)
Rhodes Scholarship, Canadian recipient (2004-08)

Publications
Link to Pubmed

Most Significant Publications

1. Leligdowicz A, Fischer WA, 2nd, Uyeki TM, Fletcher TE, Adhikari NK, Portella G, Lamontagne F, Clement C, Jacob ST, Rubinson L et al: Ebola virus disease and critical illness. Crit Care 2016, 20(1):217.
2. Bartz RR, Gantner D, Gordon AC, Leligdowicz A, McNamee JJ, Murthy S, Nichol A, Webb S, International Forum for Acute Care T: Who Says There Is No “I” in Team? Achieving Individual Success in Collaborative Clinical Research in Critical Care. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2016, 194(7):911-912.
3. Leligdowicz A, Dodek PM, Norena M, Wong H, Kumar A, Kumar A: Association between source of infection and hospital mortality in patients who have septic shock. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2014, 189(10):1204-1213.
4. Goldenberg NM, Leligdowicz A, Slutsky AS, Friedrich JO, Lee WL: Is nosocomial infection really the major cause of death in sepsis? Crit Care 2014, 18(5):540.
5. Leligdowicz A, Onyango C, Yindom LM, Peng Y, Cotten M, Jaye A, McMichael A, Whittle H, Dong T, Rowland-Jones S: Highly avid, oligoclonal, early-differentiated antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in chronic HIV-2 infection. European journal of immunology 2010, 40(7):1963-1972.

Contact
aleksandra.leligdowicz@uhn.ca