New leader coming to infectious disease lab in Winnipeg

A new leader is coming to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, after its head stepped down just months after taking over leadership of the embattled laboratory that was previously at the centre of a security scandal involving a Chinese scientist.

Microbiologist Jean Longtin will leave his position as vice-president of the laboratory on July 25, less than six months after taking on the role, and has accepted a position with Santé Québec that will begin in August, a spokesperson for Health Canada confirmed in an email Thursday.

Health Canada also confirmed that Jason Kindrachuk, Canada Research Chair in the Molecular Pathogenesis of Emerging Viruses and an associate professor at the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine, will join the agency as the new vice-president of the lab beginning later this month.  

When Longtin took the reins of the federally run laboratory in January, he was tasked with implementing recommendations of the special committee on the Canada-China relationship.

Those recommendations stemmed from concerns about Chinese espionage. In 2019, two Canadian researchers of Chinese origin, Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of the lab before later being fired.

Declassified Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents tabled in the House of Commons in February 2024 said the couple provided confidential scientific information to China and posed a credible security threat to the country.

The federal government said Longtin decided to take a role in Quebec to be closer to his family. 

Kindrachuk, who will begin his new role as head of the lab on July 28, has "significant experience in the areas of biochemistry and infectious diseases, and an extensive track record of scientific research," Health Canada said.

His research has focused on the circulation, transmission and pathogenesis of emerging viruses that pose the greatest threat to global human and animal health, including Ebola viruses, coronaviruses and influenza viruses, the University of Manitoba website says. 

The lab in Winnipeg is a biosafety Level 4 infectious disease laboratory, the only one of its kind in Canada, and with maximum containment, scientists at the lab are able to work with pathogens including Ebola, Marburg virus and Lassa fever, the federal government says.