José Menezes, a Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Université de Montréal and a scientific leader in the field of Immunovirology, has pioneered research on virus-immune system interactions spanning such topics as modulation of cytokine gene expression and signaling by human herpesviruses, analysis of cytokine-induced anti-viral natural killer lymphocytes, and development of lymphoid cell clones expressing transfected viral glycoprotein genes for analysing anti-viral innate and antibody-mediated immune responses. His transdisciplinary research also led to the first biological characterization of Epstein-Barr virus strains (EBV is an oncogenic herpesvirus) which laid foundation for initiation of studies of EBV genetics, demonstration of EBV receptors on human T lymphocytes, host’s Interleukin-15 response to viruses, downregulation of TNF for immune evasion by EBV, and the role of gamma/delta T cells in HIV/AIDS pathogenesis. In the seventies, his work contributed to dispel some of the dogmas in the emerging field of EBV tumor biology. He is currently devoting his efforts to a translational research program he heads for investigating human umbilical cord blood transplantation and immunology. He also published collaborative work with some of the world’s leading biomedical scientists of our time.