StrepLabDr. Nahuel Fittipaldi’s research laboratory

The team

The people behind the research

Meet our current and former lab members, the people whose work and contributions shape StrepLab.

The laboratory

Veterinary microbiology meets public health

StrepLab is Dr. Nahuel Fittipaldi’s research laboratory in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Université de Montréal. We bring genome analysis and microbiology together to understand streptococcal diversity and its relationship with disease.

Trained in molecular biology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Dr. Fittipaldi earned his MSc and PhD in veterinary sciences at the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Dr. Marcelo Gottschalk. He then completed postdoctoral research in genomic epidemiology with Dr. James M. Musser at Houston Methodist. From 2012 to 2021, he worked as a scientist at Public Health Ontario, before joining the Université de Montréal in 2021. He also held concurrent academic appointments at the University of Toronto in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (2012–2023; Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor) and Cell and Systems Biology (2017–2022; Assistant Professor). His work connects human infectious-disease epidemiology with veterinary microbiology.

Portrait of Dr. Nahuel Fittipaldi
Nahuel Fittipaldi, MSc, PhD

Associate Professor · Laboratory lead

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine profile ↗

Research profiles

PubMed ↗Google Scholar ↗ORCID ↗

Research affiliations

CRIPA ↗GREMIP ↗Op+Lait ↗

Our team

People in the laboratory

Portrait of Natálie Králová

Natálie Králová, PhD

Postdoctoral researcher

Natálie earned her PhD in Animal Physiology, Immunology and Developmental Biology from Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. She conducted her doctoral research at the Veterinary Research Institute in Brno. Her research combines whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatics to investigate bacterial genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance. At StrepLab, her main project focuses on reduced susceptibility to β-lactam antibiotics in Streptococcus suis.

ORCID ↗

Portrait of Fengyang Hsu

Fengyang Hsu, DVM, MSc

PhD candidate

Fengyang earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and MSc degrees from the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. He joined StrepLab in 2023. His doctoral research combines bioinformatics, targeted mutagenesis, and transcriptomics to investigate genomic diversity, virulence determinants, and mobile genetic elements associated with antimicrobial resistance in Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis (SDSE). Fengyang received a graduate scholarship from the Fondation AGRIA in 2024, as well as a GREMIP scholarship (2024). He also received scientific outreach support from CRIPA (2024–2025) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (2025), allowing him to present his research at scientific conferences.

ORCID ↗LinkedIn ↗

Alumni

  • Daphné Cartier, MSc

    Master's graduate · 2026

    Daphné completed her master's degree at StrepLab in 2026. Her research focused on the genomic characterization of newly identified streptococcal species related to Streptococcus suis. She received scholarships from CRIPA in 2024 and GREMIP in 2025, and won third prize for an oral presentation at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine's 2025 Research Week.

  • Kevin Li, MSc

    Master's graduate · 2025

    Kevin completed his master's degree at StrepLab in 2025. His research focused on improving antimicrobial resistance prediction and bacterial typing in Streptococcus suis and related species. He received a GREMIP scholarship in 2023 and CRIPA support for research dissemination. He also won third prize for a poster presentation at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine's 2025 Research Week.

    Master’s thesis ↗

  • M’hensa Vincent de Paul Bakpatina-Batako, MD, MSc

    Research intern · 2024

    Vincent completed a research internship at StrepLab in 2024 during his MSc training in bioinformatics at the Université de Montréal. A physician with a background in software engineering, he contributed to research on human Streptococcus suis infections, particularly genomic investigations of cases in South America and France. He is first author of two publications arising from this work.

Research staff

  • Kayleigh Gauvin, BSc

    Research assistant · 2022–2025

    Kayleigh joined StrepLab during its early development and played an important role in establishing the laboratory and supporting its research activities. Her research focused on the genomic characterization of Streptococcus dysgalactiae, including lineages associated with invasive human infections. She contributed to two scientific publications, including one as first author, and presented her work at scientific meetings in Canada.