Background

Dr. Alexandra Merkx-Jacques resides in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. Her past work focused on immunotherapy at IMV. Previously, Dr. Merkx-Jacques was a Senior Research Scientist at Mara Renewables Corporation (part of Clearwater Fine Foods Inc., Technology Development Inc) in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Funded in part by an NSERC R&D Industrial Fellowship, she worked on micro-algal biofuels.

She obtained a M.Sc. (2001) and a Ph.D. (2008) in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. She completed a Canadian Government Laboratory Visiting Fellowship at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2011 in environmental microbiology studying the impact of agricultural practices on the distribution of virulence genes and antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli. Using a Caenorhabditis elegans infection model, Alexandra investigated whether these traits correlate with increased pathogenic potential.

As a postdoctoral scholar, Alexandra has advocated for postdocs as webmaster (2009-2011) and Vice-President (2010-July 2011) of the Postdoctoral Association of Western (PAW). She has also been very involved with Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS) since 2009 and was Vice-Chair of Communications from 2009- June 2013.

Alexandra enjoys travelling, scuba diving, reading and painting.