Previous Education:

• BSc (Integrated Science with a concentration in Biochemistry) - McMaster University

Department: Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

Email: lminassian@qmed.ca

Supervisor: Charles Graham, PhD

There are many barriers to successful cancer treatment, including the ability of cancer cells to resist immune destruction and chemotherapy. Normally, immune cells can recognize cancer cells and destroy them. However, tumour cells can evade immune-mediated death by

displaying molecules on their surface that inactivate these immune cells. Lori’s research is aimed at characterizing the interactions between immune cells and cancer cells, specifically the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction, in the hopes of identifying novel targets to halt cancer progression. Lori’s work is supported by a Frederick Banting and Charles Best CGS Doctoral Award.

Previous Education:

• B.Sc (Biochemistry Co-op - Biotechnology Specialization) - McMaster University

Department: Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

Email: 9dwn@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Andrew Craig, PhD

Metastasis accounts for 90% of all cancer-related deaths. Despite significant improvements in the treatment of primary tumours, there are few tools that have demonstrated utility against metastatic cancers. Dan is engaged in a collaborative project aiming to develop synthetic inhibitory antibodies that disrupt autocrine and paracrine signaling networks in the tumour microenvironment. Specifically, he is working to block the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) signaling pathway in tumour cells and stromal cells by specific inhibition of TGF-beta receptor II. Working predominantly with ovarian cancer models, his research has revealed that blocking TGF-beta signaling shifts immune cell phenotypes, impairs the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in tumour cells and enhances the sensitivity of tumours to chemotherapy. The goal of his work is to characterize a novel immunotherapeutic agent that can be used in conjunction with standard therapies to ablate metastatic tumour cells and block tumour progression.

Previous Education:

• MSc (Medical Biophysics) - University of Toronto
• BSc (Hons) (Human Biology) - University of Toronto

Department: Pathology and Molecular Medicine

Email: elina.cook@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Michael Rauh, MD, PhD

Elina has a passion for discovery, and this led her to enter the MD/PhD program at Queen’s University. Her goals are to build on her grounding in biomedical research and to strive to advance medicine throughout her medical training. These are important to her future career aspirations as a physician-scientist. In her MSc, Elina researched a therapeutic to reduce the toxicities that arise during aggressive radiotherapy treatment in cancer. This interest led her to pursue a PhD project into the origins of leukemia, and also into reasons for poor treatment responses. In collaboration with several world-class research groups, she is looking into specific mutations and inflammatory cues that may underlie such pathogenesis. Elina’s research is supported by a CIHR Vanier Award.

Previous Education:

• MSc (Pharmacology and Toxicology) - University of Toronto
• BSc (Molecular Biology and Genetics) - McMaster University

Department: Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

Email: lmantella@qmed.ca

Supervisor: Amer Johri, MD, MSc

Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. It is the primary cause of heart attacks and strokes, costing Canadians $20.9 billion each year. Laura’s research at the Cardiovascular Imaging Network at Queen’s (CINQ) involves the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound to link carotid plaque neovascularization with the severity of coronary artery disease and future cardiovascular events. This novel approach to plaque assessment has the potential to become an important tool for the early detection and risk-stratification of patients with heart disease. Laura’s research is supported by a Frederick Banting and Charles Best CGS Doctoral Award.

Previous Education:

• BSc (Biology and Chemistry minor) & BA (Exercise and Sport Science) -The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Department: Neuroscience

Email: a.champagne@queensu.ca

Twitter/IG: @theFBscientist

Supervisor: Douglas J. Cook, MD, PhD

Allen is a former Tar Heel from UNC Chapel Hill where he played football as a full back and defensive lineman. His research focuses on studying the effects of sport-related concussion and repeated sub-concussive impacts on cerebrovascular physiology. Allen also has a special interest for the relationship between impact biomechanics and sport-specific mechanisms of injury in athletes. His project integrates neuroimaging, helmet accelerometers, film analysis and motion capture to characterize the effects of head trauma in football, with hopes to develop proper biomarkers for head injuries, and design evidence-based behavior modification interventions that will promote safer playing fields.

Previous Education:

• B.Sc. (Biology) - McGill University
• M.Sc. (Neuroscience) - McGill University

Department: Centre for Neuroscience Studies

Email: 1yc2@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Douglas J. Cook, MD, PhD

Stroke is a leading cause of death worldwide, and stroke survivors are frequently left with long-term disabilities that significantly diminish their autonomy and quality of life. Currently, there are an estimated 426,000 Canadians living with stroke disabilities, which costs the Canadian economy more than $3.6 billion a year. As such, there is an urgent need for therapies that improve stroke recovery to lessen both the staggering socioeconomic burden of stroke disability and the emotional and physical strain to patients and their families. Nancy’s research under Dr. DJ Cook involves studying the mechanisms of recovery following stroke in a non-human primate model of chronic stroke in hopes of improving recovery in humans. Using behavioural robotic assessment tools and immunohistochemistry, she is investigating the ways in which motor function of the upper limbs recover and engage in compensatory movements following an ischemic stroke and the morphological changes at the level of individual neurons. Nancy’s research is supported by a Frederick Banting and Charles Best CGS Doctoral Award.

Previous Education:

• A.B. Honors (Anthropology) -- Brown University
• M.Sc. (Medical Science) -- University of Toronto

Department: Sociocultural Studies of Health, Sport, and the Body, at the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies

Email: christine.moon@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Samantha King, PhD.

Death is not simply a biological fact, but a social phenomenon. Thus the very act of dying is not only physical but social; through the process of dying, individuals influence their social spheres through more than just the changing of their bodies. Medical assistance in dying (MAID) has recently been legalized in Canada. Christine’s dissertation research will explore experiences of racialized Canadians with MAID. Her proposed doctoral work will help us understand what assisted dying means to racialized Canadians, who are often left out of local and national discourses. It will provide a previously unexplored, qualitative and in-depth look at how assisted dying plays out in everyday lives of people who are thinking about, requesting, or receiving assisted dying. Christine’s research will comprise the first ethnographic analysis of assisted dying in Canada. By studying MAID she will not only study the direct phenomena of assisted dying, but also the social processes of death in general. It is her intent that my research will contribute both to Canadian public policy and everyday lived experiences of Canadians.

Previous Education:

• BSc (Biomedical Science) - University of Ottawa

Department: Neuroscience

Email: jasmine.khan@queensu.ca

Supervisor: J. Gordon Boyd, MD, PhD

Delirium is a severe disturbance in cognitive function that frequently affects the critically ill, with up to 80% of patients developing delirium in the ICU. Surprisingly, delirium commonly affects those without neurological trauma or impairments and is associated with long-term cognitive dysfunction. Jasmine will be leading a national multi-centre clinical trial using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to investigate the role of cerebral oxygenation in the development of delirium and cognitive dysfunction. Jasmine’s goal is to determine whether low cerebral oxygenation is a significant risk factor and whether cerebral perfusion can be clinically targeted to treat and prevent delirium and long-term cognitive impairment in ICU survivors.

Previous Education:

• HBSc (Honours with Specialization in Biochemistry) – University of Ottawa

Department: Pathology and Molecular Medicine

Email: Blaight@qmed.ca

Supervisor: Dr. Peter Greer, PhD

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada at ~30%. Approximately 90% of these deaths are due to the spread of cancer throughout the body, known as metastasis. Two drivers of metastases are the tyrosine kinases FES and FER. Brian will lead a project to elucidate and validate the metastasis-promoting mechanisms of these two tyrosine kinases using knockout in-vitro and in-vivo Triple Negative Breast Cancer models. In addition, Brian will conduct high throughput screening of large small-molecule-inhibitor libraries to not only find effective inhibitors of FES/FER and thus metastases, but also to find drugs that are synthetically lethal with FES/FER inhibition for pre-clinical testing and to hopefully set the stage for future clinical trials.

Previous Education:

• BSc (Biological Sciences) - Brock University

Department: Pathology and Molecular Medicine

Email: jina.nanayakkara@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Neil Renwick, MBChB, PhD

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that negatively regulate gene expression. Due to their abundance, stability and cell-type and disease-stage specificity, miRNAs are excellent biomarkers. However, the computational and statistical analysis of miRNAs and sequence annotation errors in public databases present challenges to the field. Jina’s research will contribute to the verification of all human miRNA sequences and the generation of an updated atlas of human miRNA expression. Tissue-specific miRNAs will be further investigated as biomarkers for clinical use and as functional molecules in disease pathogenesis. Jina is particularly interested in studying the contribution of miRNAs to rare genetic diseases and cancers through the application of bioinformatics techniques.

Previous Education:

• BScH (major in Life Sciences, minor in Psychology) - Queen's University
• Mini-MSc (Neuroscience) - Queen's University

Department: Centre for Neuroscience Studies

Email: ryan.kirkpatrick@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Douglas P. Munoz, PhD; Linda Booij, PhD; and Sarosh Khalid-Khan, MD

Of all psychiatric diagnoses, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate and while 2.7% of adolescents meet eating disorder diagnostic criteria, up to 30% of adolescents fully or partially relapse following treatment. However, accurate and reliable treatment response predictors remain to be determined. Saccadic eye movements are rapid eye movements that are under voluntary and automatic control and have been used to investigate various psychiatric groups including schizophrenia, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Ryan’s doctoral studies aim to increase knowledge of cognitive control of saccadic eye movements in adolescents with eating disorders by combining clinical information gained through medical charts and psychological questionnaires with measures from eye movement tasks. The end goal of Ryan’s projects is to identify objective, rather than subjective, measures of eating disorders and treatment response in adolescents.

Previous Education:

• B.Eng (Applied Science - Electrical Engineering) - Queen’s University
• M.Sc (Rehabilitation Science) - Queen’s University 
• Ph.D (Neuroscience) - Queen’s University 

Department: Translational Medicine

Email: jnashed@qmed.ca

Supervisor: Douglas J. Cook MD, PhD

Stroke carries the greatest socioeconomic burden of disease in North America. In Canada, approximately 70 000 people have a new stroke each year. Presently, 426,000 Canadians living stroke related disabilities, which costs about $3.6 billion dollars. Stroke survivors are often left with long-lasting problems that alters their societal role and diminishes their quality of life. This places a huge burden on the survivor, their family and society. Thus, therapies that offer even small improvements in outcomes and/or increased independence could have a massive impact. Unfortunately, we have a poor understanding of how individuals recover following a stroke. With this in mind, my research under the supervision of Dr. D.J. Cook has two objectives: The first objective is to identify how changes in the brain relate to recovery of function. I make use of state-of-the-art imaging techniques and cutting-edge robotics to understand how specific brain areas are associated with recovery in a monkey model of stroke. The second objective of my research is to try and improve recovery. Using various molecular techniques we hope to enhance recovery in key brain areas.

Previous Education:

• H.BSc (Life Sciences) - Queen's University
• B.Ed. (Secondary Education) - Queen's University

Department: Chemistry

Email: 11hsr2@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Kevin Stamplecoskie, PhD

Combining diagnostics and therapy (theranostics) in a single step approach is at the forefront of cancer research. Metal nanoclusters are an emerging class of optically active nanomaterials that are being investigated as promising theranostic candidates, due to their highly tunable optical and electronic properties. Hannah’s PhD work involvesinvestigating the properties of silver nanoclusters (AgNCs), which have become of interest due to their strong fluorescence, potent antibacterial activity and broad chemical diversity. Using photochemistry, she has successfully tuned a complex synthesis to specifically produce and isolate a pure eighteen-atom silver cluster capped by fourteen captopril ligands, Ag₁₈(Capt)₁₄. By identifying this and other atomically precise AgNCs through these studies and characterizing their exciting optical properties, new classes of silver clusters will be able to be purposefully explored for biological use with an idea of their structure-function relationship. Hannah’s research is supported by the Alexander Graham Bell CGS Doctoral Award.

Previous Education:

• BSc (Honours) – University of Toronto
• MSc - University of Toronto

Department: Centre for Neuroscience Studies

Email: tjawa@qmed.ca

Supervisor: Dr. J Gordon Boyd, MD PhD

Initiation of acute renal replacement therapy (RRT) is common in critically ill adults admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and presents important consequences for overall morbidity and mortality. RRT in the form of dialysis has been linked to poor neurocognitive outcomes, leading to a reduced quality of life, and increased utilization of healthcare resources. Adults initiated on dialysis in the ICU may be particularly at risk of neurocognitive impairment, as survivors of critical illness are already predisposed to developing cerebrovascular disease and cognitive dysfunction over the long-term relative to their healthy counterparts. Regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) may provide a critical early marker of long-term neurocognitive impairment in patients admitted to ICU initiated on RRT. Tasha’s doctoral research aims to understand cerebral tissue oxygenation in patients undergoing continuous RRT or intermittent hemodialysis in the ICU, and to correlate these findings with long-term cognitive outcomes.

Previous Education:

• BSc (Honours PMharmacology & Therapeutics) – McGill University
• MSc (Molecular Genetics) – University of Toronto

Department: Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

Email: e.leblanc@queensu.ca

Supervisor: Dr. Che Colpitts, PhD

The COVID-19 pandemic has now surpassed 24 million confirmed cases. One reason for the rapid global spread of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, is its efficient infection and replication in the upper respiratory tract, including the throat and nose, resulting in asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infections that enable easier transmission and community spread. Based on the hypothesis that, like other respiratory viruses, SARS-CoV-2 initiates attachment to the surface of human cells by interacting with complex carbohydrates called glycans, Emma’s research aims to identify which subtypes of glycans are used by SARS-CoV-2 for entry and infection of human airway cells. Through collaboration with an expert carbohydrate chemist in the department, Dr. Chantelle Capicciotti, Emma aims to identify and optimize glycan-mimicking antiviral molecules that block the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and these glycans to prevent viral infection. The goal is to rapidly identify prototype antiviral prophylactics to help limit the spread of COVID-19.