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MD, FRCP, FACP, AAHIVMed, Chair of Infectious Diseases, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University, Chief of Infectious Diseases for SJHC and LHSC, Associate Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute.

Dr. Silverman received his medical degree and Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. He carried out his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and an HIV post-doctoral fellowship (1991-2) at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. He established the Positive Care Clinic in Whitby, Ontario (the regional HIV/Hepatitis clinic) and the Durham Regional Tuberculosis Clinic in Ajax. He was a consultant in Infectious Diseases at Rouge Valley Hospital in Ajax and Lakeridge Health in Oshawa. He was Director of Infection Control in Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan (2004-2005). He has extensive experience conducting research and doing Humanitarian medical relief in developing countries including Guyana, South America; Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and Thailand. He is currently Chair of Infectious Diseases Division, Western University; Chief of Infectious Diseases for LHSC and SJHC, Medical Director of the HIV Clinic, St Joseph’s Hospital, London; Co-Director of Infection Control, London Health Sciences Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital; POEM Scientist in the Department of Medicine; Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Western University, Assistant Professor of Global Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and Associate Member, School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto.

He is an Associate Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute, London, and his research interests include Fecal Microbial transplantation for C.difficile and for metabolic syndrome; Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV in developing countries and Prevention of Inappropriate Antibiotic use in community outpatient practice.

Dr. Silverman is a pioneer in the field of Fecal Microbial Transplantation for treatment of Clostridium difficile. He was one of the first to perform the procedure in North America. He was recently (2015) awarded a grant ($116,000) by AMOSO for Fecal Microbial Transplantation in the Metabolic Syndrome. He holds ICES Grant (2015) on Prevention of Antibiotic overprescribing in community practice. He is a site PI on several multinational RCT’s including in HIV care and community acquired influenza. He is a substudy PI on a 2014 the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) sponsored a study of progesterone supplementation in pregnant HIV infected mothers ($200,000) and a CIHR Grant in 2013 for the study of Sex hormone drug levels induced by Antiretroviral Drugs and the Impact on Low Birth weight Birth and another CHIR grant in 2012 for HIV co-morbidities ($2,500,000).

He is a member of several Professional Organizations including the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (AMMI), Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR), American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

After completing medical school at the University of Alberta in 2001, Dr. Zahra Kassam finished her residency training in 2006 here at Western University.  She then traveled to California where she completed a fellowship in Body Imaging at Stanford University in 2007.

Prior to medical school, Dr. Kassam studied Medical Sciences at the University of Calgary as part of the Cellular, Molecular, and Microbial Biology Honours Program.

Dr. Kassam was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Imaging in 2008, and currently serves as the Imaging Lead for the Southwest Regional Cancer Program.

Dr. Kassam’s clinical and research interests are in Abdominal and Pelvic MRI, Oncologic imaging with special interest in Rectal and Prostate Cancer MRI, Hybrid Imaging, Hepatic Fibrosis and MR Elastography.

Dr. Savita Dhanvantari received a B.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Guelph, an M.Sc. in Zoology from Western University, and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Toronto. She carried out her post-doctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD under the supervision of Dr. Y. Peng Loh.

In 2002, she joined the Lawson Health Research Institute where she is a scientist in both the Metabolism and Diabetes Program and the Imaging Program. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Western Ontario, and cross-appointed to the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Emma Duerden, PhD is a Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders. She is an Assistant Professor in Applied Psychology in the Faculty of Education and a member of the Brain & Mind Institute at Western University, Canada. She is also a Scientist in the Maternal, Fetal and Newborn Health Division at the Children's Health Research Institute. Her research examines early life stress (e.g., pain, brain injury) and the association with brain development and cognitive outcomes in infants and children.