Dr. Barry is associate professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta in Canada. She received her Ph.D. in 1991 from the University of Saskatchewan. She has received the Senior Scholar Award from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and the Young Investigator Award from Boehringer Ingelheim Canada. In 2004, she was named a State of the Art Lecturer by the American Society of Virology and received the Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award.

Michele Barry is studying the proteins that interfere with cell death, focusing on the mechanisms human cells use to expel viruses and the ways that viruses fight back in the vaccinia virus. Her research could provide clues for the development of new therapeutic approaches for human diseases.