Research Axis
Infectious Diseases and Acute Care Axis
Research Theme
Infection, immunity and inflammation
Address
CHUSJ - Centre de Recherche
Phone
514 345-4931 #6232
I have been involved in HIV/AIDS and microbicide research efforts since 1995. I have significantly contributed to the design of several HIV prevention research trials, including preparedness studies, safety studies (Phase I and II), and efficacy trials (Phase IIB and III). I am currently the lead biostatistician in the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN). Recognizing the development of microbicides as an important priority in HIV/AIDS research, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), established the MTN in 2006 as its newest of six NIAID-funded HIV/AIDS clinical trials networks.
MTN’s research portfolio is designed to face the global urgency of the HIV/AIDS epidemic head-on. It includes studies considered among the most critically important for advancing the field of HIV prevention. Many of these trials are focused on assessing antiretroviral (ARV)-based microbicides and include studies designed to evaluate microbicides along with other promising HIV prevention approaches, such as the daily use of ARVs as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). MTN is the first research group that is evaluating in parallel a vaginal microbicide gel and PrEP in the same trial. Notably, the MTN is leading the first microbicide studies involving pregnant women and also conducting studies to evaluate the rectal safety of vaginal microbicides, an important step toward eventually developing a microbicide specifically formulated for rectal use. MTN comprises 13 clinical trial units with 20 clinical research sites located in 7 countries. The overall goal is to conduct scientifically rigorous and ethically sound safety and effectiveness clinical trials, which will support licensure of these products.
My research interests are: between-host mathematical models of infectious disease transmission, statistical methodology for clinical trials data, analysis of data from clinical trials, statistical methods for HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases, and design and analysis of HIV prevention trials.
Career Summary
After 11 years in the USA at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as a Faculty Associate Member in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Dr. Mâsse moved back to Canada in 2010 and took a faculty appointment at U of Montreal as well as joining the Research Center at CHU-Ste-Justine. Dr. Mâsse has experience in conducting multi-country large international trials in USA, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Russia, and in many countries of Africa. He is an author of over 175+ peer-reviewed articles. Noteworthy, in 2006, Dr. Mâsse received a grant of over $US 25 million from the NIH as the Principal Investigator responsible for the Statistical Data Management Center for providing support to all international clinical studies conducted within the NIH Microbicide Trials Network. As well, he was the lead senior statistician for the landmark HPTN 052 trial and contributed significantly to the unique design of this trial. The study was designed to evaluate whether immediate versus delayed use of ART by HIV-infected individuals would reduce transmission of HIV to their HIV-uninfected partners. The study shows that initiation of ART by HIV-infected individuals substantially protected their HIV-uninfected sexual partners from acquiring HIV infection. HPTN 052 is the first RCT to show that treating an HIV-infected individual with ART can reduce the risk of sexual transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner. Based on these results, the HPTN 052 study was named Scientific Breakthrough of the Year in 2011 by Science journal.
In 2014, Dr. Mâsse was chairing the International Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Ebola vaccine trial in Guinea (Ebola: Ça Suffit). This was the first trial that showed the efficacy of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine. Subsequently, he was chairing the International DSMB for the vaccine expanded access study for the ongoing Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In December 2019, the National Geographic selected the HPTN 052 and the Ebola: Ça Suffit trials as the top 20 discoveries of the last decade (all research field combined).
Dr. Mâsse has a strong expertise in the design of clinical trials and statistical methodology as well as having a very strong expertise in implementing data management system for large international multi-country clinical trials/cohort studies and in establishing coordinating centers for these.