Tara Moriarty
BA, BSc, PhD
Dr. Tara Moriarty is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Dentistry with cross appointment to the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology in the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Moriarty received her PhD in Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill University and completed her Post-doctoral training in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary. In 2012 she was awarded the CIHR Bhagirath Singh Early Career Award in Infection and Immunity. Dr. Moriarty is a co-founder of COVID-19 Resources Canada, CanCOVID and #ScienceUpFirst, and is active in health misinformation responses and research.
Dr. Moriarty is the Principal Investigator in the Moriarty Lab. The Moriarty Lab is an infectious diseases research laboratory which studies several fundamental mechanisms underlying blood borne dissemination of bacterial pathogens. The major model organism under study is Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. The lab has also recently begun investigating the effects of diabetes and obesity on host susceptibility to Lyme disease.
Dr. Moriarty is a Principal Applicant on the grant. She will also co-lead research activities on diagnostics and detection (Pillar 1).