Dr. Lichty is an Associate Professor at McMaster University. His research has focused on molecular virology, the virus:host interaction and the use of viral vectors as immunotherapies in oncology and infectious disease. He is currently the Director of the Robert E. Fitzhenry vector lab, the first academic GMP vaccine manufacturing site in Canada. In 2014 he co-founded Turnstone Biologics Inc. to translate novel viral vaccine immunotherapies in oncology and served as CTO and Senior Vice President, Basic Research until 2020. In these capacities he has overseen the pre-clinical tox/efficacy testing, manufacture and clinical testing of multiple viral vectored vaccines. His latest research interests focus on 2nd generation COVID vaccines as well as immunoncology strategies including the use of engineered exosomes as immunotherapies and/or vaccines. As a result, he has recently co-founded AeroImmune Inc., a McMaster spinout devoted to the development of inhaled vaccines and antivirals as well as Esphera SynBio Inc. a joint venture between McMaster and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute to develop the application of engineered exosome technologies to human disease.