Dr. Shelly Bolotin

Areas of Expertise

• vaccine-preventable diseases
• population immunity
• sero-epidemiology
• microbiology

Appointments

Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Academic Degrees and Accreditations

• Doctor of Philosophy (Microbiology), University of Toronto
• Master of Science (Public Health), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Master of Science (Virology), University of Toronto

PHO Research Interests

• Epidemiological and microbiological methods to answer questions related to population immunity, in order to identify high-risk groups and predict the future risk for outbreaks or epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases.
• Population immunity studies that inform questions related to vaccine effectiveness, waning immunity in certain populations, correlates of population protection of vaccine-preventable diseases and evaluating our current vaccination schedules.

PHO Research Activities

• A sero-epidemiology program to estimate population immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases, including:
  • A study to determine whether Canada meets the level of population immunity required for measles elimination, identify groups at higher risk of measles outbreaks and predict risk of future outbreaks or epidemics.
  • A study to determine whether Canada’s level of population immunity to varicella (chickenpox) is sufficient to prevent large outbreaks.
  • A study to determine the level of population immunity to mumps, and to assess whether Canada is at risk of future outbreaks due to waning vaccine-mediated immunity
  • A study to investigate the duration of maternal protection from measles in infants in measles elimination settings such as Canada in order to characterize the susceptibility gap between the time at which infants lose maternal antibody protection and vaccination.
  • A study of pertussis immunity to determine immunological differences between infected and uninfected members in the same household.
  • A study to investigate the prevalence in Ontario of Bordetella pertussis strains that are pertactin deficient.

Selected Publications

1. Science M, Savage R, Severini A, McLachlan E, Hughes SL, Arnold C, Richardson S, Crowcroft N, Deeks S, Halperin S, Brown K, Hatchette T, Gubbay J, Mazzulli T, Bolotin S. Measles antibody levels in young infants. Pediatrics. 2019;144(6):e20190630. 
2. Bolotin S, Hughes SL, Gul N, Khan S, Rota PA, Severini A, et al. What is the evidence to support a correlate of protection for measles? A systematic review. J Infect Dis. 2020;221(10):1576-83. 
3. Craig R, Kunkel E, Crowcroft NS, Fitzpatrick MC, de Melker H, Althouse BM, Merkel T, Scarpino SV, Koelle K, Friedman L, Arnold C, Bolotin S. Asymptomatic infection and transmission of pertussis in households: a systematic review. Clin Infect Dis. 2020;70(1):152-61.
4. Bolotin S, Severini A, Hatchette T, McLachlan E, Savage R, Hughes SL, et al. Assessment of population immunity to measles in Ontario, Canada: a Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN) study. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2019;15(12):2856-64.
5. Guerra FM, Bolotin S, Lim G, Heffernan J, Deeks SL, Li Y, et al. The basic reproduction number (R₀) of measles: a systematic review. Lancet Infect Dis. 2017;17(12):e420-8.
   
    

View more publications by Dr. Shelly Bolotin on PubMed.gov