Diallo Lab

Jean-Simon Diallo profile picture

Contact Information

Jean-Simon Diallo
613-737-8899 x 75203
jsdiallo@ohri.ca

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Centre for Cancer Therapeutics
501 Smyth Road
Box 926
Ottawa, ON
K1H 8L6

ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4862-2795

What We Do


Our research team is dedicated to exploring and advancing the field of "viral sensitizer" drugs, which enhance cellular susceptibility to viral medicines. Our primary objective is to leverage these innovative drugs for a wide range of virus-based therapeutic applications, such as cancer and gene therapy, and to enhance vaccine biomanufacturing methods.

Selected Publications

Wong B, Bergeron A, Maznyi G, Ng K, Jirovec A, Birdi HK, Serrano D, Spinelli M, Thomson M, Taha Z, Alwithenani A, Chen A, Lorimer I, Vanderhyden B, Arulanandam R, Diallo JS. Pevonedistat, a first-in-class NEDD8-activating enzyme inhibitor, sensitizes cancer cells to VSVΔ51 oncolytic virotherapy, Mol Ther, 2023 Sep 27: S1525-0016(23)00504-X.

Alluqmani N, Jirovec A, Taha Z, Varette O, Chen A, Serrano D, Maznyi G, Khan S, Forbes NE, Arulanandam R, Auer RC, Diallo JS. Vanadyl sulfate-enhanced oncolytic virus immunotherapy mediates the antitumor immune response by upregulating the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, Front Immunol, 2022 Nov 28;13:1032356.

Taha Z, Arulanandam R, Maznyi G, Godbout E, Carter-Timofte ME, Kurmasheva N, Reinert LS, Chen A, Crupi MJF, Boulton S, Laroche G, Phan A, Rezaei R, Alluqmani N, Jirovec A, Acal A, Fekete EEF, Singaravelu R, Petryk J, Idorn M, Potts KG, Todesco H, John C, Mahoney DJ, Ilkow CS, Giguère P, Alain T, Côté M, Paludan SR, Olagnier D, Bell JC, Azad T, Diallo JS. Identification of FDA-approved bifonazole as a SARS-CoV-2 blocking agent following a bioreporter drug screen, Mol Ther, 2022 Sep 7;30(9):2998-3016.

Tzelepis F, Birdi HK, Jirovec A, Boscardin S, Tanese de Souza C, Hooshyar M, Chen A, Sutherland K, Parks RJ, Werier J, Diallo JS. Oncolytic Rhabdovirus Vaccine Boosts Chimeric Anti-DEC205 Priming for Effective Cancer Immunotherapy. Mol Ther Oncolytics. 2020 Oct 14;19:240-252.

Arulanandam R, Taha Z, Garcia V, Selman M, Chen A, Varette O, Jirovec A, Sutherland K, Macdonald E, Tzelepis F, Birdi H, Alluqmani N, Landry A, Bergeron A, Vanderhyden B, Diallo JS. The strategic combination of trastuzumab emtansine with oncolytic rhabdoviruses leads to therapeutic synergy. Commun Biol. 2020 May 22;3(1):254.

Meet the Diallo Lab

Our research team is dedicated to exploring and advancing the field of "viral sensitizer" drugs, which enhance cellular susceptibility to viruses. Our primary objective is to leverage these innovative drugs for a wide range of virus-based therapeutic applications, such as cancer and gene therapy, and to enhance vaccine production methods.