Current Positions

Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, University of Manitoba.
Adjunct Instructor, Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University.
Investigator, DOHAD, Children's Hospital Research Institute.

Education

Bachelor of Science Honours, (Biochemistry), University of Winnipeg, Canada.
Ph.D. Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Canada.

Research Focus

Dr. Berard’s research program is related to female reproductive health, mucosal biology, immunology, and the microbiome, where she works with international human cohorts to study infection and diseases in the female genital tract, utilizing tools of systems biology (metaproteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics). As part of her work, she is one of the founding members of the THRIVE study umbrella, which focuses on investigating “The role of Host-bacterial Relationships and Immune function in different Vaginal Environments”.

Berard has a translational component to her program using 3D in vitro co-culture model systems to study bacterial-vaginal epithelial barrier interactions and inflammatory mechanisms. Recently she has identified a central signaling network within the female genital tract that interacts with the microbiome as a hostbacterial axis using multi-omics systems biology analysis, which may help to identify strategies of microbiome-based therapies or bacterial drivers of disease pathogenesis.

Research Interests

- Molecular drivers of recurrent bacterial vaginosis
- The role of the microbiome in HPV infections and cervical cancer progression
- The role of the urogenital microenvironment (microbiome, mucosal immunology) in female and male infertility