Dr. Marc Horwitz is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Sauder Chair of Pediatric Virology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. He is Academic Director working under the VP Research to enhance and maintain biomedical research models at UBC. His current research is focused on identifying, characterizing and determining the mechanisms of viral-induced immune disease in a variety of complex chronic disorders. These include, but are not limited to, autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes (T1D), and autoimmune myocarditis, as well as autism, immunosuppression induced by viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Coxsackie B virus (CBV), and HIV. The primary goal of his research is to interconnect the changes affecting the ability of the immune system to respond to infection. For his Ph.D. research in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Minnesota, he studied endogenous retroviruses related to HIV. During his postdoctoral research, he modeled the mechanistic role of virus infection in autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis in mice, earning awards from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Diabetes Association.