Alex MacKenzie

Senior Scientist, CHEO Research Institute

Alex MacKenzie is an attending pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario(CHEO) in Ottawa, Canada and has served as the CEO and Science Director of the CHEOResearch Institute as well as Vice President of Research for both CHEO and Canada’s federalgenomic research funding agency, Genome Canada. In addition to being a founding scientist ofthe AeGera biotech company, Dr. MacKenzie’s laboratory has conducted translational researchon the rare pediatric disorder spinal muscular atrophy over the past 25 years; in recent years ithas broadened its focus through the enhanced Care for Rare project to search for therapies for alarger number of rare genetic diseases.

Email Researcher Other Publications

Research Areas

COVID- 19 Infectious Disease Health Data Apoptosis Diabetes Genetics Neuromuscular Disease

Related News

  1. Newborn Screening for rare neuromuscular disorder a cost-effective public health strategy

    22/10/2025

    Newborn Screening for rare neuromuscular disorder a cost-effective public health strategy

  2. CHEO Research Institute sole Canadian site to receive funding as part of European consortium to accelerate drug therapies for neuromuscular disease patients

    20/04/2023

    CHEO Research Institute sole Canadian site to receive funding as part of European consortium to accelerate drug therapies for neuromuscular disease patients

  3. 2021 CHEO Research Institute Annual Report

    14/06/2022

    2021 CHEO Research Institute Annual Report

Read More News

Research Projects

  1. Urban wastewater contains a functional human antibody repertoire of mucosal origin

    01/12/2024

    This study aimed to identify and characterize human antibodies present in wastewater as a novel approach to monitoring population‑level immunity. The authors found a stable repertoire of predominantly secretory IgA antibodies in wastewater solids that retained binding to SARS‑CoV‑2 and Influenza A antigens. These findings suggest that wastewater‑derived antibodies could enable real‑time surveillance of community immunity and support evaluation of vaccination and infection trends.

  2. The role of wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance

    26/08/2021

    These characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection, along with the observation that SARSCoV-2 is excreted in stools during all phases of infection, has led to the uptake of wastewater testing to complement SARS-CoV-2 surveillance based on clinical tests and case identification.

  3. Core Outcome Sets for Medium-Chain Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Phenylketonuria

    14/08/2021

    Adoption in future studies will help to ensure best use of limited research resources to ultimately improve care for children with these rare diseases.

  4. Catching a resurgence: Increase in SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA identified in wastewater 48 hours before COVID-19 clinical tests and 96 hours before hospitalizations

    22/01/2021

    Wastewater-based COVID-19 epidemiology programs have been initiated in many countries to provide public health agencies with a complementary disease tracking metric and non-discriminating surveillance tool.

  5. Newborn Screening for Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Ontario Testing and Follow-up Recommendations

    16/10/2020

    The goal is to provide timely access to those SMA infants in need of therapy to optimize motor function and prolong survival.