Jane Heffernan, York University

Research

Drug Therapy Programs Epidemiology Immunology Individual And Population Health Mathematical Modelling Pathogen Dynamics And Evolution Public Health Screening

Latest papers

The case for model-informed vaccine development.
Vaccine · 2026
Lack of harmonisation in immunological data: challenges in synthesising data during the COVID-19 pandemic
EBioMedicine · 2026
Linking Spontaneous Behavioral Changes to Disease Transmission Dynamics: Behavior Change Includes Periodic Oscillation.
Bulletin of mathematical biology · 2024 · senior author

All 25 publications

Latest funding

Towards an immuno-epidemiological framework: Tradeoffs between biological detail and mathematical complexity
NSERC · 2024 · Principal investigator
$38,000
Advanced Mathematical Technologies for Respiratory Infection Risk Assessment and Pharmaceutical Intervention Scenario Analysis
NSERC · 2022 · Co-investigator
$422,433
Mathematical mobilization of vaccine development
SSHRC · 2021 · Principal investigator
$250,000

All 16 grants and awards

25 publications.

01

The case for model-informed vaccine development.

Bai JPF, Beigmohammadi F, Craig M, Dalton M, Desikan R, Easlick T, Gazeau S, Heffernan J, Kirpichnikova A, Padmanabhan P, Sachs JR, Sher A, Skibinski D, Smith AM

Vaccine2026

DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2026.128780 PMID: 42767025

02

Lack of harmonisation in immunological data: challenges in synthesising data during the COVID-19 pandemic

Shaver N, Colijn C, Heffernan J, Asamoah GD, Piggott T, Cooper C, Bagheri S, Crawley AM, Kagina BM, Bowdish DME

EBioMedicine20262 citations

DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2026.106204

03

Linking Spontaneous Behavioral Changes to Disease Transmission Dynamics: Behavior Change Includes Periodic Oscillation.

Li T, Xiao Y, Heffernan J

Bulletin of mathematical biology2024Senior author

DOI: 10.1007/s11538-024-01298-w PMID: 38739351

04

Estimating the population effectiveness of interventions against COVID-19 in France: A modelling study.

Ganser I, Buckeridge DL, Heffernan J, Prague M, Thiébaut R

Epidemics2024

DOI: 10.1016/j.epidem.2024.100744 PMID: 38324970

05

The race to understand immunopathology in COVID-19: Perspectives on the impact of quantitative approaches to understand within-host interactions.

Gazeau S, Deng X, Ooi HK, Mostefai F, Hussin J, Heffernan J, Jenner AL, Craig M

Immunoinformatics (Amsterdam, Netherlands)2023

DOI: 10.1016/j.immuno.2023.100021 PMID: 36643886

06

A pair formation model with recovery: Application to mpox.

Betti MI, Farrell L, Heffernan J

Epidemics2023Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.epidem.2023.100693 PMID: 37348377

07

COVID-19 in Ontario Long-term Care Facilities Project, a manually curated and validated database.

Kaur M, Bragazzi NL, Heffernan J, Tsasis P, Wu J, Kong JD

Frontiers in public health2023

DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1133419 PMID: 36844842

08

Assessing transmission risks and control strategy for monkeypox as an emerging zoonosis in a metropolitan area.

Yuan P, Tan Y, Yang L, Aruffo E, Ogden NH, Bélair J, Heffernan J, Arino J, Watmough J, Carabin H, Zhu H

Journal of medical virology2023

DOI: 10.1002/jmv.28137 PMID: 36089815

09

Protocol for a living evidence synthesis on variants of concern and COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness

Shaver N, Katz M, Darko Asamoah G, Linkins L-A, Abdelkader W, Beck A, Bennett A, Hughes SE, Smith M, Begin M

Vaccine20233 citations

DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.09.012

10

Mitigating co-circulation of seasonal influenza and COVID-19 pandemic in the presence of vaccination: A mathematical modeling approach.

Majeed B, David JF, Bragazzi NL, McCarthy Z, Grunnill MD, Heffernan J, Wu J, Woldegerima WA

Frontiers in public health2022

DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1086849 PMID: 36684896

Towards an immuno-epidemiological framework: Tradeoffs between biological detail and mathematical complexity

Principal investigatorNSERC2024Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Principal investigators: Heffernan, Jane

Keywords: mathematical biology; sensitivity analysis; model structure; disease model; dynamical systems; bifurcation analysis; stability; computer simulation; stochastic models; covariance

$38,000

Advanced Mathematical Technologies for Respiratory Infection Risk Assessment and Pharmaceutical Intervention Scenario Analysis

Co-investigatorNSERC2022Alliance Grants

Principal investigators: Wu, Jianhong J

$422,433

Mathematical mobilization of vaccine development

Principal investigatorSSHRC2021New Frontiers in Research Fund - Exploration

Principal investigators: Heffernan, Jane

Keywords: mathematical immunology mathematical biology vaccine development adaptive immunity immune response vaccine adjuvants sensitivity analysis in-vitro and in-vivo machine learning

$250,000

One Health Modelling Network for Emerging Infections (OMNI)

Co-investigatorNSERC2020Emerging Infectious Diseases Modelling Initiative (EIDM)

Principal investigators: Zhu, Huaiping

$2,500,000

Towards an immuno-epidemiological framework: The trade-off between biological detail and mathematical complexity

Principal investigatorNSERC2018Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Principal investigators: Heffernan, Jane

$210,000

New and enhanced models in disease modelling: The trade-off between biological detail and mathematical complexity

Principal investigatorNSERC2018Discovery Grants Program - Accelerator Supplements

Principal investigators: Heffernan, Jane

$120,000

Technology enhanced biopharmaceuticals development and manufacturing (TEnBioDev)

Co-investigatorNSERC2018Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Principal investigators: Wilson, Derek

$1,020,000

Analytical framework for identifying health benefits in web-application users

Principal investigatorNSERC2017Engage Plus Grants Program

Principal investigators: Heffernan, Jane

$12,500

Analytical framework for identifying health benefits in web-application users

Principal investigatorNSERC2016Engage Grants Program

Principal investigators: Heffernan, Jane

$24,994

A computational modelling framework for identifying smart vaccination strategies

Principal investigatorNSERC2015Engage Grants Program

Principal investigators: Heffernan, Jane

$24,994

From CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions: CIHR since 2008, NSERC since 1991 and SSHRC since 1998, including their latest published competition results.

Frequent collaborators

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact
Department of Medicine
Mathematics and Statistics
Pediatrics
School of Epidemiology and Public Health
Medicine
Family Medicine
Other

Co-authors at York University, colored by department. Thicker lines mean more shared papers; select anyone to open their profile and their own map.

Jianhong Wu

Mathematics and Statistics

5 shared papers, latest 2023

Julian Little

School of Epidemiology and Public Health

2 shared papers, latest 2026

Curtis Cooper

Department of Medicine

2 shared papers, latest 2026

Thomas Piggott

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

2 shared papers, latest 2026

Melissa Brouwers

School of Epidemiology and Public Health

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Amy Hsu

Family Medicine

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Margaret Haworth-Brockman

Internal Medicine

1 shared papers, latest 2016

Morgan Craig

Pharmacologie - Physiologie

1 shared papers, latest 2026

Shelly Bolotin

Epidemiology Division

1 shared papers, latest 2017

Doug Coyle

School of Epidemiology and Public Health

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Tanya Horsley

Family Medicine

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Kumanan Wilson

Department of Medicine

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Maureen Smith

Epidemiology and Public Health

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Parminder Raina

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Alfonso Iorio

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

1 shared papers, latest 2023

David Earn

Mathematics and Statistics

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Jeremy Grimshaw

Department of Medicine

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Janet Curran

School of Nursing

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Vivian Welch

School of Epidemiology and Public Health

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Joseph Beyene

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Andrew Costa

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Lehana Thabane

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Lauren Griffith

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

1 shared papers, latest 2023

John Lavis

Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Write to this professor

A short, specific email works best. This draft uses one of their recent papers; replace the parts in brackets with your own details before sending.

Applying for

Paper to mentionMention their NSERC grant from 2024

Subject: Prospective PhD student: Drug Therapy Programs Dear Professor Heffernan, My name is [your name], and I am a [your current degree or role] at [your institution]. I am applying for a PhD position starting in [term and year]. I read your paper "The case for model-informed vaccine development." (2026), and it connects closely to my own work on [your research topic]. [One or two sentences on what you did and what you learned.] I also saw your NSERC-funded project "Towards an immuno-epidemiological framework: Tradeoffs between biological detail and mathematical complexity" (2024), and I would be glad to contribute to work in that direction. Are you accepting new PhD students for [term and year]? I have attached my CV and transcripts, and I would be glad to talk at a time that suits you. Thank you for your time. Kind regards, [your name]

Jane Heffernan

Research

Latest papers

Latest funding

The case for model-informed vaccine development.

Lack of harmonisation in immunological data: challenges in synthesising data during the COVID-19 pandemic

Linking Spontaneous Behavioral Changes to Disease Transmission Dynamics: Behavior Change Includes Periodic Oscillation.

Estimating the population effectiveness of interventions against COVID-19 in France: A modelling study.

The race to understand immunopathology in COVID-19: Perspectives on the impact of quantitative approaches to understand within-host interactions.

A pair formation model with recovery: Application to mpox.

COVID-19 in Ontario Long-term Care Facilities Project, a manually curated and validated database.

Assessing transmission risks and control strategy for monkeypox as an emerging zoonosis in a metropolitan area.

Protocol for a living evidence synthesis on variants of concern and COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness

Mitigating co-circulation of seasonal influenza and COVID-19 pandemic in the presence of vaccination: A mathematical modeling approach.

Towards an immuno-epidemiological framework: Tradeoffs between biological detail and mathematical complexity

Advanced Mathematical Technologies for Respiratory Infection Risk Assessment and Pharmaceutical Intervention Scenario Analysis

Mathematical mobilization of vaccine development

One Health Modelling Network for Emerging Infections (OMNI)

Towards an immuno-epidemiological framework: The trade-off between biological detail and mathematical complexity

New and enhanced models in disease modelling: The trade-off between biological detail and mathematical complexity

Technology enhanced biopharmaceuticals development and manufacturing (TEnBioDev)

Analytical framework for identifying health benefits in web-application users

Analytical framework for identifying health benefits in web-application users

A computational modelling framework for identifying smart vaccination strategies

Frequent collaborators

Jianhong Wu

Jianhong Wu

Beate Sander

Julien Arino

Caroline Colijn

Julian Little

Curtis Cooper

Thomas Piggott

Dawn Bowdish

Melissa Brouwers

Amy Hsu

Khaled El Emam

Amy Hsu

Margaret Haworth-Brockman

Morgan Craig

Morgan Craig

Shelly Bolotin

Doug Coyle

Tanya Horsley

Kumanan Wilson

Maureen Smith

Parminder Raina

Alfonso Iorio

David Earn

Tamara Navarro-Ruan

Jeremy Grimshaw

Janet Curran

Vivian Welch

Joseph Beyene

Margaret Haworth-Brockman

Andrew Costa

Lehana Thabane

Lauren Griffith

John Lavis