Mia J Biondi

Faculty & School/Dept.

Faculty of Health - School of Nursing

Degrees

BSc Honors Bio-Medical Sciences - 2007
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON

PhD Microbiology and Immunology - 2013
McGill University
Montreal, QC

BScN - 2014
Western University
London, ON

Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner - 2017
Western University
London, ON

Biography

Mia Biondi, PhD, NP-PHC, received her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University, with postdoctoral fellowships at Toronto General Research Institute and the National Microbiology Laboratory. During her postdoctoral fellowships Mia completed her clinical training at Western University to become a Registered Nurse and then Nurse Practitioner. 

Clinically, she is a practicing Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner; and oversees focused practices in urban street outreach and rural and remote communities, in HIV prevention, hepatitis B & C, and mental health across the province of Ontario, Canada. In her free time, she volunteers as a primary care NP to support persons who are at-risk of or are being trafficked.

Mia is an Assistant Professor at York University, and oversees the Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner program. 

Selected Publications

Clinical Guidance

HIV Prevention: Amanda Hempel, Mia J Biondi, Jean-Guy Baril, Darrell Tan. (2022). Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV: effective and underused. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 194(34): E1164-E1170.

HCV Care: 1. Mia J Biondi, Cheryl Dale (2022). Simplification in Hepatitis C Treatment. American Family Physician. 106(6):online. 2. Andrew Mendlowitz, Jordan J. Feld, Mia J. Biondi (2023). Hepatitis B and C in Pregnancy and Children: A Canadian Perspective​. Viruses.15(1), 91. 

 

 

Research 

Hepatitis B: 1. Mia J. Biondi, Chris Estes, Devin Razavi-Shearer, Kanwar Sahdra, Nechama Lipton, Hemant Shah, Camelia Capraru, Harry L.A. Janssen, Homie Razavi, Jordan J. Feld. (2022). Economic Impact of Alternative Hepatitis B Vaccination Strategies – Ontario, 2020-2050. Canadian Medical Association Journal Open. 11 (1) E24-E32. 2. Biondi, MJ, Marchand-Austin, A, Cronin, K, Nanwa, N, Ravirajan, V, Mandel, E, Goneau, LW, Mazzulli, T, Shah, H, Capraru, C, Janssen, HLA, Sander, B, Feld, JJ. (2020). Prenatal hepatitis B screening, and hepatitis B burden among children, in Ontario: A descriptive study. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 192(43): E1299-E1305.

Hepatitis C: 1. Erin Mandel, Kate Underwood, Chelsea Masterman, Robert A. Kozak, Cheryl H. Dale, Melinda Hassall, Camelia Capraru, Hemant Shah, Harry L.A. Janssen, Jordan J. Feld, Mia J. Biondi. (2022). Province to Province Variability in Hepatitis C Testing, Care, and Treatment Across Canada. Canadian Liver Journal. 6 (2) 234-248. 2. Mia J. Biondi, Grishma Hirode, Camelia Capraru, Aaron Vanderhoff, Joel Karkada, Brett Wolfson-Stofko, David Smookler, Steven M Friedman, Kathy Bates, Tony Mazzulli, Joshua V. Juan, Hemant Shah, Bettina E. Hansen, Jordan J. Feld, Harry L.A. Janssen. (2022). Birth cohort hepatitis C antibody prevalence in real-world screening settings in Ontario. Canadian Liver Journal. 5(3): E362-E371. 3. Cheryl H. Dale, Elizabeth Smith, Mia J. Biondi. (2021). Nurse Practitioners as Primary Care Site Champions for the Screening and Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus in Ontario, Canada. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. 34(4):688-695. 4. Erin Mandel, Adriana Peci, Kirby Cronin, Camelia I. Capraru, Hemant Shah, Harry L.A. Janssen, Vanessa Tran, Mia J. Biondi*, & Jordan J. Feld*. (2021). The Impact of the First Wave of COVID-19 on Hepatitis B and C Testing in Ontario. Journal of Viral Hepatitis. 00:1-4. 5. Smookler, D*, Vanderhoff, A*, Biondi, MJ*, Karkada, J, Hong, R, Sattar, I, Mandel, E, Casey, J, Fletcher, D, Shah, H, Valencia, J, Ryan, P, Hansen, BE, Capraru, C, Lazarus, JV, Janssen, HLA, Feld, JJ. (2020). Reducing Read Time of Point-of-Care Test Does Not Affect Detection of Hepatitis C Virus and Reduces Need for Reflex RNA. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. S1542-3565(20): 31068-5. 6. Biondi MJ & Feld JJ. (2019). Hepatitis C models of care: Approaches towards elimination. Canadian Liver Journal. 3(2):165-176. 7. Greenaway, E, Biondi MJ, Feld JJ, Ling SC. (2019). Hepatitis C virus infection in mothers and children. Canadian Liver Journal. 2(4): 210-224.

COVID-19: 1. Feld JJ*, Kandel C*, Biondi MJ*, Kozak RA, Zahoor MA..Janssen HLA, Hansen BE. (2021). Peginterferon lambda for the treatment of outpatients with COVID-19: A phase 2, placebo-controlled randomised trial. Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 9(5):498-510. 2. Davor Brinc*, Mia J. Biondi*, Daniel Li, Heng Sun, Camelia Capraru, David Smookler, Muhammad Atif Zahoor, Julia Casey, Vathany Kulasingam**, Jordan J. Feld**. (2021). Evaluation of Dried Blood Spot Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Serology Using a Quantitative Commercial Assay. Viruses. 13(6): 962. 3. Robert Kozak, Susan M. Armstrong, Elsa Salvant, Claudia Ritzker, Jordan Feld, Mia Biondi, Hubert Tsui. (2021). Recognition of long-COVID-19 patients in a Canadian tertiary 2 hospital setting: A retrospective analysis of their clinical and 3 laboratory characteristics. Pathogens. 10(10): 1246.

Ebola: 1. Biondi MJ, Garnett L...Strong JE. (2021). Characterization of Ebola Virus Risk to Bedside Providers in an Intensive Care Environment. Microorganisms. 9(3): 498. 2. Poliquin PG, Biondi M...Strong JE. (2017). Delivering Prolonged Intensive Care to a Non-human Primate: A High Fidelity Animal Model of Critical Illness. Scientific Reports. 7(1): 1204.

 

Other Research Outputs

Prenatal and Pediatric HBV and HCV: Room to Improve the Cascade of Care? Public Health Ontario Microbiology Rounds. Virtual. June 2022. 

HIV prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic: How it started, how it’s going. CATIE. April 2021.

Identification and Aftercare of Trafficked Persons in Ontario: What Health-care Providers Need to Know. Webinar. February 2017. 

What Nursing Means to Me. RNAO Journal. December 2014. 

Finding hope and help through focused care (pg 18) RNAO Journal. February 2018. 

 

Affiliations

Viral Hepatitis Care Network (VIRCAN), University Health Network (UHN)
NP-Researcher

The Canadian Network on Hepatitis C
Co-Investigator; Mentor

Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University
Adjunct Research Professor

School of Nursing, McMaster University
Part-Time Teaching Faculty

The International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU)
Member; Nursing Organizing Committee

Nurse Practitioners' Association of Ontario (NPAO)
Member; Past Annual General Conference Planning Committee

CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network
Investigator

Service/Community Activities

Canadian Network on Hepatitis C
Conference Co-Chair 2023

Consortium for Anti-human trafficking Research and Education (CARE)
Member; Presenter

Hepatitis C Elimination Roadmap Ontario
Core Member

The International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU)
Creation Team for the Intervention Toolkit

Awards

Innovation and Inspiration, Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses (CAHN) - 2021

Rising Star Award, Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses (CAHN) - 2019

Visiting Fellowships in Canadian Government Laboratories Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) - 2016

Toronto General Research Institute Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award - 2014

Arthur Labatt Family Scholarship in Pediatric Nursing - 2014

Excellence in Professional Nursing Practice at the Undergraduate Student Level Award, Council of Ontario University Programs in Nursing (COUPN) - 2014

Jennifer Award for Leadership in Child and Mental Health Nursing, Registered Nurses’ Foundation of Ontario (RNFOO) - 2014

Doctoral Research Award, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) - 2011

Supervision

Currently available to supervise graduate students: Yes

Currently taking on work-study students, Graduate Assistants or Volunteers: Yes

Available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects: Yes

Current Research

Although her research started in biochemical and molecular virology, since her PhD, Mia’s research has touched most aspects of clinical care including prevention, assay development, host genetic characterization through next generation sequencing, small and large animal models, treatments and drug resistance, and clinical models of care. At present her research focuses on increasing hepatitis B, C, and HIV screening and treatment through alternative diagnostic and systems approaches. She is especially interested in increasing screening uptake and linkage to care among prenatal, pediatric, gay and bisexual men, and women engaged in sex work or who use drugs.