Fish is a Professor in the Department of Immunology & Associate Chair, International Initiatives & Collaborations, at the University of Toronto. She is a Senior Scientist in the Toronto General Research Institute, University Health Network and Adjunct Scientist in the Women's College Research Institute, Toronto. Fish is the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Women’s Health & Immunobiology, a McLaughlin Scholar and was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Microbiologists. Professor Fish is the recipient of the 2015 Canadian Society of Immunology Cinader Award for outstanding research contributions and the depth and breadth of contributions to the community through training, leadership, collaboration and international activities. In 2010 Professor Fish was awarded the prestigious Vivian & Seymour Milstein Award, recognizing her exceptional contributions to interferon and cytokine research that have led to advancements in human health. In 2012 Professor Fish received the Canadian Society for Immunology Investigator Award. She received her undergraduate B.Sc. degree in Biological Chemistry from the University of Manchester, England, and her Master of Philosophy in Virology from King’s College, University of London, England. She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, Canada. Professor Fish is on the editorial boards for the Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research, Viruses, and Arthritis & Rheumatology. Her work has been published in >150 scientific journals and she is internationally recognized for her scholarly research. A focus of her research is the investigation of host-pathogen interactions at the cellular and molecular level, specifically in the context of viruses and interferons. During the 2003 outbreak of SARS, she initiated studies to investigate the therapeutic potential of interferon in SARS patients. Encouraging results have directed her group’s efforts toward examining interferon activity against a number of emerging infectious diseases, such as avian H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses. Recently, her studies have focused on investigating the therapeutic effectiveness of interferon treatment for Ebola virus disease, with a clinical trial in Guinea. Another focus of her work relates to understanding the immune mechanisms that drive autoimmunity, related to rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Most recently, Dr. Fish has initiated research studies in breast cancer, within the context of understanding how alterations to metabolism influence the growth and metastasis of breast tumors.
