Have you met鈥laire Kamaliddin
19 August 2025
On July 1, Claire Kamaliddin joined the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (FoPPS) as an assistant professor. Hailing from France, she has PharmD from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Paris Descartes University, and a master’s degree in molecular biology of the cell, with a specialty in parasitology and mycology, from the University Pierre et Marie Curie.
Kamaliddin brings considerable teaching and research experience to her role. She was a teaching assistant during her PhD studies in parasitology using the proteogenomics method at Paris Descartes, and following her move to Canada for her postdoctoral studies, she was a sessional lecturer teaching human biology at the University of Calgary.
Get to know Kamaliddin, who is looking forward to being part of students’ learning journey, building relationships with her college colleagues and running long-term research projects in her P.O.IN.T. lab.
What brought you to the 海角社区?
I was extremely encouraged to learn that the 海角社区 is committed to access, community and belonging, because the pathogens I study affect underserved populations, whether it's in low middle-income countries or within the Canadian population.
Knowing that 海角社区 has the and a strong institutional commitment to women’s and children’s health appealed to me as well, because the pathogen I study affects maternal and child health, and is linked to gender equality and the inclusion of women. During my master’s degree, my research focus was on a specific parasitic infection in pregnancy, and the way this parasite sticks to the placenta. My PhD was on the same infection, but in children between six months and five years of age. In those cases, it's more like a neurological disease, because the parasite affects brain vessels. I'm still studying those pathogens in humans, including how it relates to maternal-child health.
Starting an assistant professor position is a significant achievement, and I would not have been there without my previous supervisors and mentors. I am still reaching out to them for guidance, and thrive in providing the same care to my future students.
What do you enjoy the most about teaching?
I really enjoy seeing students learn and grow when I’m teaching in the lab and in the classroom, so I’m really excited to be teaching PHARM 697 A and B, Advanced Oral and Written Skills in Graduate Training. It's a class for graduate students in the Faculty, providing overall development of skills for critical thinking and research, from writing an abstract to presenting data to maintaining research integrity.
Starting in September, I’ll have the students with me over two semesters on a weekly basis, so there’s a lot of room for building connections and helping them throughout their journey. You can teach anything once you spend the time preparing it, but the connection with the students is so nice. When you do research, you are alone with your data on your computer for long periods of time, but in the classroom, you get to share your knowledge.
FoPPS seems like a strong community where people support each other as instructors. The previous instructor shared their outlines, and I’m really grateful for that. I'm still working on adding my own personal touch to the class, but I'm really excited and happy that I got this class.
What is your research interest?
My research is translational, and it focuses on fungi and parasites. These pathogens are very different from bacteria because their genome and cell structures are closer to us as humans than those of bacteria, so they behave a bit differently from other organisms. They're quite fascinating.
I'm trying to understand how people get sick from a pathogen and how it can be eliminated. Sometimes we think people are cured and healed of an infection, but it remains in the body at a low level and can reoccur in the future. I want to know how it lingers in the body, and how that contributes to antimicrobial resistance.
What does studying an organism like this involve?
We have a and fungi, and there is a lot of misinformation out there, A lot of what we know is based on research methods that are traditionally used, but some of those methods don't apply to fungi or parasites, because they require different environment to grow.
The pathogens I study continually change, altering their shape and form based on their environment and temperature. Therefore, there's no one-size-fits-all way to study them. So I want to look at these organisms from different angles using an approach called s, which provides a better picture of what's going on.
You will be starting your own lab. Tell us about that.
My lab is called the or P.O.IN.T. I’m very excited about being able to run a long-term project as a faculty member, with the opportunity to create a program with trainees and staff from different backgrounds. This will make it possible for me to have an ambitious, long-term outlook for my research, rather than completing smaller projects. Because it's brand new, I’m still getting things set up, but there is space for people to join and I'm really excited to have people to work with, , and to foster a culture of care and . I am looking for students and postdocs to join the lab, so if any are reading this and interested, please reach out!
Working within the College of Health Sciences, I am confident I'm going to meet like-minded research partners to collaborate with to achieve a shared goal. You're not just doing your own thing alone in your corner; it’s a community that makes research thrive.
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Claire Kamaliddin’s office is located in the Katz Building, and she can be reached at kamalidd@ualberta.ca.