Maria Baca Estrada

Dr. Maria Baca-Estrada received her PhD in immunology from the University of Glasgow, UK. She worked at McMaster University (Canada) as a post-doctoral fellow and later as a Research Scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (Canada). Her research included approaches to develop new vaccine formulations and alternative routes of vaccine administration (e.g. oral, skin). She joined Health Canada in 2002 as a regulatory Scientific Evaluator and was later appointed Manager of the Bacterial and Combination Vaccines Division. Dr. Baca-Estrada left Health Canada for 2 years to work at the World Health Organization as a Scientist with the Quality, Safety and Standards team and participated in the development of WHO guidelines and recommendations to support regulatory evaluation of vaccines. Dr. Baca-Estrada returned to Health Canada and continues to be actively involved in international collaborations with many organizations in this area. She has been recently appointed Manager of the COVID-19 Vaccines Quality Division.