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Transplant ID

The Transplant Infectious Diseases program in BC delivers province wide expertise in the prevention, diagnosis, and management of infections in immunocompromised patients, with a focus on solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients and acute leukemia. Through close collaboration with BC Transplant, provincial transplant centres, and partners across Leukemia/BMT and immunology, the program advances standardized care pathways, evidence based guideline development, and equitable access to specialized expertise across BC. In parallel with its clinical mandate, the program drives collaboration, education, and system level innovation, strengthening the quality, integration, and impact of transplant infectious diseases care throughout the province.

Research program

Dr. Sara Belga the Transplant Infectious Diseases research program at the University of British Columbia, focusing on infections across the spectrum of immunocompromised hosts, including solid organ transplant recipients, hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients, and patients with acute leukemia. The program integrates clinical epidemiology, translational immunology, and outcomes research to advance understanding of the epidemiology, pathogenesis, prevention, and management of infections in these high-risk populations.

Research within the program spans bacterial, fungal, non-tuberculous mycobacterial, and viral pathogens, including herpesviruses such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), varicella–zoster virus (VZV), and human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8). Key thematic areas include immune monitoring and host–pathogen interactions, the development of risk-stratified prevention strategies, and the application of personalized medicine approaches within infectious diseases. This includes collaborative work on emerging fungal diagnostics and biomarkers to improve early detection and risk stratification in immunocompromised populations. Ongoing work incorporates advanced immunologic assays, clinical cohort studies, and data-driven modeling to inform clinical practice and policy.
The program maintains a strong commitment to mentorship and interdisciplinary collaboration, engaging trainees across all levels—from medical students and residents to clinical fellows and graduate trainees. Supported by extensive national and international collaborations, the program offers ongoing opportunities for participation in multicentre studies and clinical trials. Partnerships span microbiology/virology, solid organ transplant programs, transplant immunology groups, and leukemia and bone marrow transplant programs across British Columbia and beyond, fostering a highly integrated and impactful research environment.

  • Wright RC, Belga S. Donor-derived latent viral and parasitic infections in solid organ transplant recipients: old foes and emerging challenges. Curr Opin Infect Dis. 2026 Apr 10.
  • Bharaj DK, Dhanji S, Gurung E, Ladua G, Lowe C, Matic N, Gill J, Mah A, Wright AW, Ta Kim D, Pakzad-Vaezi K, Belga S. Diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for developing CMV retinitis in solid organ transplant recipients: A case-control study. Open Forum Infect Dis. In press.
  • Xu MT, Wright A, Mah A, Matic N, Lowe C, Hong C, Belga S, Tsai WP. Real-World Use of Letermovir and Maribavir for CMV Prophylaxis and Treatment in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: Clinical Outcomes and Resistance Patterns from a Dual-Center Cohort. Pharmacotherapy. 2025 Dec;45(12):815-824.
  • Schonhofer C, Lo CK, Owen DR, Aldhaheri K, Matic N, Lowe CF, Schaeffer DF, Belga S, Wright A. Utility of cytomegalovirus (CMV) qualitative polymerase chain reaction from gastrointestinal biopsies in diagnosis of CMV gastrointestinal disease: A 10-year retrospective study. J Clin Virol. 2025 Oct 9;181:105879
  • Belga S, Wright RC, Lee SB, Durand CM, Doucette K. Hepatitis B Virus Donor Positive to Recipient Negative (D+/R-) Heart and Lung Transplantation: Analysis from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Transpl Infect Dis. 2025 Jul 22:e70054.
  • Fung JST, Wright RC, Bharaj DK, Alghamdi A, Hesson D, Delisle JS, Schweitzer L, Avery RK, Belga S. Virus-specific T-cell therapy for prophylaxis and treatment of cytomegalovirus infections after transplantation: a scoping review. Clin Infect Dis. 2025 May 6:ciaf232.
  • Alghamdi A, Oravec T, Nishi C, Eckbo E, Marcon K, Wright A, Mah A, White J, Nevill T, Belga S. Severe Hypercalcemia as a Result of Disseminated Candida krusei Infection. Int J Infect Dis. 2024 Jan 22:S1201-9712(24)00013-4.
  • Halvorson T, Ivison S, Huang Q, Ladua G, Yotis DM, Mannar D, Subramaniam S, Ferreira VH, Kumar D, Belga S* Levings MK; PREVenT Study Group. SARS-CoV-2 Variants Omicron BA.4/5 and XBB.1.5 Significantly Escape T Cell Recognition in Solid-organ Transplant Recipients Vaccinated Against the Ancestral Strain. Transplantation. 2023 Nov 28.
  • Ferreira VH, Ierullo M, Mavandadnejad F, Kurtesi A, Hu Q, Hardy WR, Hall VG, Pinzon N, Yotis D, Gingras AC, Belga S, Shalhoub S, Hébert MJ, Humar A, Kabbani D, Kumar D; PREVenT Study Group. Omicron BA.4/5 neutralization and T-cell responses in organ transplant recipients after Booster mRNA vaccine: a Multicenter Cohort Study. Clin Infect Dis. 2023 Jul 26;77(2):229-236.
  • Dima Kabbani, Demitra M Yotis, Victor H Ferreira, Sarah Shalhoub, Sara Belga, Varalika Tyagi, Matthew Ierullo, Vathany Kulasingam, Marie-Josée Hébert, Lori West, Jean-Sébastien Delisle, Normand Racine, Sacha A De Serres, Héloïse Cardinal, Mélanie Dieudé, Atul Humar, Deepali Kumar. Immunogenicity, Safety, and Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections after COVID-19 Vaccination in Organ Transplant Recipients: A Prospective Multicenter Canadian Study. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2023 Apr 13;10(5): ofad200. PMID: 37213422.
  • Mejia-Chew C, Carver PL, Rutjanawech S, Camargo LFA, Fernandes R, Belga S, Daniels SA, Mueller NJ, Burkhard S, Theodoropoulos NM, Postma DF, van Duijn PJ, Fariñas MC, González-Rico C, Hand J, Lowe A, Bodro M, Vanino E, Cruz AF, Ramos A, Makek MJ, Mjahed RB, Manuel O, Kamar N, Calvo-Cano A, Carrasco LR, Muñoz P, Rodriguez S, Pérez-Recio S, Sabé N, Álvarez RR, Silva JT, Mularoni A, Vidal E, Alonso-Titos J, Del Rosal T, Classen AY, Goss CW, Agarwal M, López-Medrano F. Risk factors for Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Infections in Solid Organ Transplant recipients: a multinational case-control study. Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Jul 26:ciac608.
  • Sohani ZN, Butler-Laporte G, Aw A, Belga S, Benedetti A, Carignan A, Cheng MP, Coburn B, Costiniuk CT, Ezer N, Gregson D, Johnson A, Khwaja K, Lawandi A, Leung V, Lother S, MacFadden D, McGuinty M, Parkes L, Qureshi S, Roy V, Rush B, Schwartz I, So M, Somayaji R, Tan D, Trinh E, Lee TC, McDonald EG. Low-dose trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for the treatment of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (LOW-TMP): protocol for a phase III randomised, placebo-controlled, dose-comparison trial. BMJ Open. 2022 Jul 21;12(7):e053039. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053039.
  • Lee TC, Bortolussi-Courval É, Belga S, Daneman N, Chan AK, Hanula R, Ezer N, McDonald EG. Inhaled corticosteroids for outpatients with Covid-19: a meta-analysis. Eur Respir J. 2022 Feb 10:2102921.
  • Ezer N, Belga S, Daneman N, Chan A, Smith BM, Daniels SA, Moran K, Besson C, Smyth LY, Bartlett SJ, Benedetti A, Martin JG, Lee TC, McDonald EG. Inhaled and intranasal ciclesonide for the treatment of COVID-19 in adult outpatients: CONTAIN phase II randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2021 Nov 2;375:e068060.
  • Weiss MJ, Hornby L, Foroutan F, Belga S, Bernier S, Bhat M, Buchan CA, Gagnon M, Hardman G, Ibrahim M, Luo C, Luong ML, Mainra R, Manara AR, Sapir-Pichhadze R, Shalhoub S, Shaver T, Singh JM, Srinathan S, Thomas I, Wilson LC, Wilson TM, Wright A, Mah A. Clinical Practice Guideline for Solid Organ Donation and Transplantation During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Transplant Direct. 2021 Sep 7;7(10):e755.
  • Belga S. Chronic Diarrhea Secondary to Norovirus Infection in Kidney Transplant Recipients: Early Recognition is Key. Transplantation. 2021 Mar 2.
  • Lescure FX, Honda H, Fowler RA, Lazar JS, Shi G, Wung P, Patel N, Hagino O; Sarilumab COVID-19 Global Study Group. Sarilumab in patients admitted to hospital with severe or critical COVID-19: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet Respir Med. 2021 Mar 4:S2213-2600(21)00099-0.

Trainees

Our research program offers collaboration and mentorship to trainees at all levels. These include VCHRI SPARKS Award, UBC Faculty of Medicine (FoM) Summer Student Research Program (SSRP), UBC FoM Flexible and Enhanced Learning (FLEX), directed studies, resident and fellow research projects, and co-supervision of graduate trainees. 

Trainee Highlights

  • UBC FoM SSRP 2026 Recipient – Amy Paul 
  • VCHRI SPARKS 2025 Recipient – Raj Saini 
  • Best Trainee Abstract in Immunocompromised Hosts for ESCMID Global 2025 Recipient – Jollee Fung 
  • IDWeek Trainee Travel Award 2025 Recipient – Khuloud Aldhaheri
  • UBC FoM SSRP 2023 Recipient – Dilpreet Bharaj
  • UBC DoM Research Expo Best Poster PGY 4-6 2020 Recipient – Jollee Fung 

Current Projects

  • Low Dose Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole for the Treatment of Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia (LOW-TMP)
  • Addressing Critical Issues and Emerging TheRapEutics in TrAnsplanTation for COVID-19 – The TREAT-COVID Study
  • Early discontinuation of antibiotics for unexplained febrile neutropenia: a pilot randomized controlled trial – EASE ANTIBIOTICS pilot trial
  • A Novel CMV-Specific Cell-Mediated Immunity Assay to Predict CMV Infection in Renal Transplant Recipients – A Pilot Prospective Study
  • A Novel CMV-Specific Cell-Mediated Immunity Assay to Predict CMV Infection in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients – A Pilot Prospective Study

Past Projects

  • A PRospective case-control study Evaluating COVID-19 Vaccine immunogenicity in Adult Organ Transplant Recipients (the PREVenT-COVID study)
  • Mild – CONTAIN Ciclesonide Clinical Trial COVID-19 Treatment
  • Canadian Treatments for COVID19

Team

Dr. Sara Belga
Alissa Wright
Allison Mah
Anthony Lieu
Gale Ladua (Research coordinator)

Patient Care

Find Infectious Diseases clinics across British Columbia

Featured Publications

  • Wright RC, Belga S. Donor-derived latent viral and parasitic infections in solid organ transplant recipients: old foes and emerging challenges. Curr Opin Infect Dis. 2026 Apr 10.
  • Bharaj DK, Dhanji S, Gurung E, Ladua G, Lowe C, Matic N, Gill J, Mah A, Wright AW, Ta Kim D, Pakzad-Vaezi K, Belga S. Diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for developing CMV retinitis in solid organ transplant recipients: A case-control study. Open Forum Infect Dis. In press.
  • Xu MT, Wright A, Mah A, Matic N, Lowe C, Hong C, Belga S, Tsai WP. Real-World Use of Letermovir and Maribavir for CMV Prophylaxis and Treatment in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: Clinical Outcomes and Resistance Patterns from a Dual-Center Cohort. Pharmacotherapy. 2025 Dec;45(12):815-824.
  • Schonhofer C, Lo CK, Owen DR, Aldhaheri K, Matic N, Lowe CF, Schaeffer DF, Belga S, Wright A. Utility of cytomegalovirus (CMV) qualitative polymerase chain reaction from gastrointestinal biopsies in diagnosis of CMV gastrointestinal disease: A 10-year retrospective study. J Clin Virol. 2025 Oct 9;181:105879
  • Belga S, Wright RC, Lee SB, Durand CM, Doucette K. Hepatitis B Virus Donor Positive to Recipient Negative (D+/R-) Heart and Lung Transplantation: Analysis from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Transpl Infect Dis. 2025 Jul 22:e70054.
  • Fung JST, Wright RC, Bharaj DK, Alghamdi A, Hesson D, Delisle JS, Schweitzer L, Avery RK, Belga S. Virus-specific T-cell therapy for prophylaxis and treatment of cytomegalovirus infections after transplantation: a scoping review. Clin Infect Dis. 2025 May 6:ciaf232.
  • Alghamdi A, Oravec T, Nishi C, Eckbo E, Marcon K, Wright A, Mah A, White J, Nevill T, Belga S. Severe Hypercalcemia as a Result of Disseminated Candida krusei Infection. Int J Infect Dis. 2024 Jan 22:S1201-9712(24)00013-4.
  • Halvorson T, Ivison S, Huang Q, Ladua G, Yotis DM, Mannar D, Subramaniam S, Ferreira VH, Kumar D, Belga S* Levings MK; PREVenT Study Group. SARS-CoV-2 Variants Omicron BA.4/5 and XBB.1.5 Significantly Escape T Cell Recognition in Solid-organ Transplant Recipients Vaccinated Against the Ancestral Strain. Transplantation. 2023 Nov 28.
  • Ferreira VH, Ierullo M, Mavandadnejad F, Kurtesi A, Hu Q, Hardy WR, Hall VG, Pinzon N, Yotis D, Gingras AC, Belga S, Shalhoub S, Hébert MJ, Humar A, Kabbani D, Kumar D; PREVenT Study Group. Omicron BA.4/5 neutralization and T-cell responses in organ transplant recipients after Booster mRNA vaccine: a Multicenter Cohort Study. Clin Infect Dis. 2023 Jul 26;77(2):229-236.
  • Dima Kabbani, Demitra M Yotis, Victor H Ferreira, Sarah Shalhoub, Sara Belga, Varalika Tyagi, Matthew Ierullo, Vathany Kulasingam, Marie-Josée Hébert, Lori West, Jean-Sébastien Delisle, Normand Racine, Sacha A De Serres, Héloïse Cardinal, Mélanie Dieudé, Atul Humar, Deepali Kumar. Immunogenicity, Safety, and Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections after COVID-19 Vaccination in Organ Transplant Recipients: A Prospective Multicenter Canadian Study. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2023 Apr 13;10(5): ofad200. PMID: 37213422.
  • Mejia-Chew C, Carver PL, Rutjanawech S, Camargo LFA, Fernandes R, Belga S, Daniels SA, Mueller NJ, Burkhard S, Theodoropoulos NM, Postma DF, van Duijn PJ, Fariñas MC, González-Rico C, Hand J, Lowe A, Bodro M, Vanino E, Cruz AF, Ramos A, Makek MJ, Mjahed RB, Manuel O, Kamar N, Calvo-Cano A, Carrasco LR, Muñoz P, Rodriguez S, Pérez-Recio S, Sabé N, Álvarez RR, Silva JT, Mularoni A, Vidal E, Alonso-Titos J, Del Rosal T, Classen AY, Goss CW, Agarwal M, López-Medrano F. Risk factors for Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Infections in Solid Organ Transplant recipients: a multinational case-control study. Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Jul 26:ciac608.
  • Sohani ZN, Butler-Laporte G, Aw A, Belga S, Benedetti A, Carignan A, Cheng MP, Coburn B, Costiniuk CT, Ezer N, Gregson D, Johnson A, Khwaja K, Lawandi A, Leung V, Lother S, MacFadden D, McGuinty M, Parkes L, Qureshi S, Roy V, Rush B, Schwartz I, So M, Somayaji R, Tan D, Trinh E, Lee TC, McDonald EG. Low-dose trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for the treatment of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (LOW-TMP): protocol for a phase III randomised, placebo-controlled, dose-comparison trial. BMJ Open. 2022 Jul 21;12(7):e053039. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053039.
  • Weiss MJ, Hornby L, Foroutan F, Belga S, Bernier S, Bhat M, Buchan CA, Gagnon M, Hardman G, Ibrahim M, Luo C, Luong ML, Mainra R, Manara AR, Sapir-Pichhadze R, Shalhoub S, Shaver T, Singh JM, Srinathan S, Thomas I, Wilson LC, Wilson TM, Wright A, Mah A. Clinical Practice Guideline for Solid Organ Donation and Transplantation During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Transplant Direct. 2021 Sep 7;7(10):e755.
  • Belga S. Chronic Diarrhea Secondary to Norovirus Infection in Kidney Transplant Recipients: Early Recognition is Key. Transplantation. 2021 Mar 2.