People
Daniel Durocher
Primus Inter ParesBorn and raised: Varennes, Quebec
Education: B.Sc. Université de Montréal
Ph.D. McGill University
Postdoc University of Cambridge, UK
Scientific Interest: Genome stability
Tidbit: I tend to miss my plane coming back from meetings. I love Occam’s razor….
Meet Our Team
Rachel Szilard
Scientific Associate
Born and raised: London, Ontario
Education: B.Sc. (McMaster University), Ph.D. (University of Alberta), Postdoc (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto).
Scientific Interests: Genome stability, especially in yeast, and teaching people old-school cloning tricks.
Outside interests: Soccer (sadly only as a fan now), American Sign Language, reading all sorts of books.
Meagan Munro
Lab Manager/Technician
Born and raised: Peterborough
Education: B.Sc. (Trent University).
Scientific Interests: DNA damage signaling and repair and conditional knockout mice.
Outside interests: Live music, my cat Citrine, reading, traveling, running.
Tiffany Cho
Graduate Student
Born and raised: Born in Gwang-Ju, South Korea, raised in Seoul, South Korea, PEI and Burlington, ON (yes, I moved around…)
Education: B.Sc. in Biochemistry (McGill University, Montreal)
Scientific Interests: p53 regulation and tumor suppression, CRISPR screens.
Outside interests: Good food & drink, my cat and dog, good music, watching (not playing!) sports.
Nathalie Moatti
Research Technician
Born and raised: Montreal and Toronto, Canada
Education: B.ScH. and MSc (University of Toronto).
Scientific Interests: DNA damage repair and pathway choice.
Outside interests:I enjoy baking and cooking, traveling, live music, and cats!
Graziana Pastore
Graduate Student
Born and raised: South of Italy (Puglia)
Education: B.Sc. in Biology (University of Parma) and M.Sc. in Biology and Biomedical Applications (University of Parma).
Scientific Interests: Biochemical investigation of DNA replication and repair pathways.
Outside interests: Definitely swimming and reading.
Dave Gallo
Senior Scientist (seconded from Repare Therapeutics)
Born and raised: Castlegar, West Kootenays BC
Education: B.Sc (University of British Columbia), M.Sc. (McGill) Ph.D. (University of Toronto)
Scientific Interests: Using genetics and molecular biology to understand how the DNA replication stress response is orchestrated and how to leverage it to treat cancer.
Outside interests: Any combination of things involving physical activity, sporting equipment, adrenaline, mountains, water, snow, culture and food – I only go home to sleep.
Sumin Feng
Post-doctoral Fellow
Born and raised: Hebei, China
Education: Bachelor: Southwest University, China and Phd: Peking University, China
Scientific Interests: DNA damage repair and genome stability.
Outside interests: Hiking, movies, music, eating.
Born and raised: Mie, Japan
Yusuke Okamoto
Post-doctoral Fellow
Education: M.D. (Kyoto University), Ph.D. (Kyoto University)
Scientific Interests: Inherited bone marrow failure caused by DNA repair deficiency. DNA;RNA hybrids (R-loops) induced by replication and transcription stress.
Outside interests: Soccer, basketball and any other sport (playing and watching).
Yibo Xue
Post-doctoral Fellow
Born and raised: Xi’an, Shaanxi, China
Education: Ph.D. in Biochemistry (McGill University)
Scientific Interests: Uncovering synthetic lethality in cancers with DNA damage repair deficiency.
Outside interests: Movie, basketball and great food.
Lisa Hoeg
Bioinformatics Specialist
Born and raised: Grew up in Stratford, ON
Education: BSc in Biomedical Science (TMU), Masters in Bioinformatics (University of Guelph)
Scientific interests: Machine learning, designing elegant figures, RNA-Seq analysis and associated pipelines
Outside interests: reading, knitting & crochet, coffee, the occasional video game
Faisal bin Rashed
Post-doctoral Fellow
Born and raised: Bangladesh
Education: Ph.D. (Oncology) from University of Alberta
Scientific interests: Translational cancer research
Outside interests: Reading books, long walks
Linjiang Lao
Post-doctoral Fellow
Born and raised: Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
Education: M.D. (Nanjing Medical University), M.Sc. (Zhejiang University), Ph.D. (University of Montreal)
Scientific interests: DNA damage responding, ubiquitin signalling, replication and transcription stress
Outside interests: Reading, listening to podcasts, watching soccer games, and rating local coffee roasters
Ashwini Premashankar
Graduate Student
Born and raised: Born in Puttalam and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Education: HBSc in Molecular Genetics at the University of Alberta
Scientific interests: Protein interactions and Cancer therapeutics research
Outside interests: Reading and Painting. I am also a Pop culture aficionado
Kamilia Talipova
Graduate Student
Born and raised: Kazan, Russia (Tatarstan)
Education: B.Sc. Biology (York University)
Scientific interests: Genome stability throughout the cell cycle and cytosolic DNA
Outside interests: baking bread, working out, pottery and everything about dogs
Josh Miller
Research Associate
Born and raised: Toronto
Education: BSc (University of Guelph), MSc (University of Toronto)
Scientific Interests: Synthetic lethality, gene editing, senescence
Outside Interests: Live music, the outdoors and Larry David
Alice Feng
Graduate Student
Born and raised: Tianjin, China
Education: BHSc and MSc (McMaster University)
Scientific interests: Using genetic approaches to study endogenous DNA damage and the corresponding repair pathway
Outside interests: Swimming and outdoor activities like hiking and running
Jiayue (Wendy) Wu
Research Student
Born and raised: Hangzhou, China
Education: B.Sc candidate in Biochemistry and Pathobiology, University of Toronto
Scientific interests: Using cellular and genetic approach to study cancer mechanisms and genome instability.
Outside interests: Running, reading, visiting museums, coffee, and Cats!! (Totally a cat-person)
Lab Alumni
Yichao Zhao
Graduate Student (2017-2023)
Where now: Postdoc at Nussenzweig lab, NIH. LinkedIn
Dheva Setiaputra
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2023)
Where now: Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University. LinkedIn
Chérine Sifri
Student Intern (2021-2023)
Where now: Intern at Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research LinkedIn
Anjali Patel
Research Technician (2022-2023)
Where now: STEMCELL Technologies : Sales Development Representative. LinkedIn
Guillermo Sastre-Moreno
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2023)
Where now: Senior Scientist, Novartis. LinkedIn
Tim Ng
PhD student (2016-2022)
Where now: Available for new opportunities. LinkedIn
Michele Olivieri
PhD student (2017-2022)
Where now: Research Scientist, Ridgeline, Switzerland. LinkedIn
Anne Margriet Heijink
Postdoctoral Fellow (2019-2022)
Where now: Medical Genetics, Netherlands. LinkedIn
Alana Sherker
PhD student (2013-2022)
Where now: Postdoctoral Fellow, Stracker lab, NCI. LinkedIn
Salomé Adam
Postdoctoral Fellow (2015-2021)
Where now: Senior Research Scientist, AstraZeneca, UK. LinkedIn
Natasha Chaudhary
Research Associate (2018-2022)
Where now: Senior Scientist, Elarex. LinkedIn
Henrique Melo
Data Scientist (2019-2022)
Where now: Data Scientist and Lead Developer for Project Kinesis. LinkedIn
Alejandro Álvarez-Quilón
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2021)
Where now: Senior Scientist, Repare Therapeutics, Montréal.
Silvia Emma Rossi
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017- June 3, 2021 †)
In Memoriam
Théo Goullet de Rugy
Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2020)
Where now: Senior Scientist, Repare Therapeutics, Montréal. LinkedIn
Jane Yuan
Research Technician (2018-2019)
Inés Paniagua
Visiting Graduate Student (2018-2019)
Where now: PhD student at Jacqueline Jacobs lab.
Nicole Hustedt
Postdoctoral Fellow (2014-2019)
Where now: Senior Project Leader at Lonza, Visp, Valais, Switzerland. LinkedIn
Yota Ohashi
Undergraduate Student (2018)
Where now: PhD candidate, UofT/UHN, Hirano Lab. LinkedIn
Andrea McEwan
Research Technician (2015-2018)
Where now: Verification Specialist, Fluidigm Corporation, Markham, ON. LinkedIn
Jan Tkac
Postdoctoral Fellow (2010-2017)
Where now: Intellectual Property Consultant at Torys LLP. LinkedIn
Jordan Young
Postdoctoral Fellow (2009-2017)
Where now: Director, Oncology Discovery & Head of the SNIPRx® Platform at Repare Therapeutics. LinkedIn
Michal Zimmermann
Postdoctoral Fellow (2014-2018)
Where now: Senior Scientist at Repare Therapeutics, Montréal
Sylvie Noordermeer
Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2016)
Where now: Assistant Professor, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands. LinkedIn
Karine Jacquet
Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2017)
Where now: Research Engineer, IRCAN-Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging, Nice, France. LinkedIn
Leah Kesselman
Research Technician (2016-2017)
Where now: Research And Development Associate at Edesa Biotech, Inc., Guelph, Ontario. LinkedIn
Jonathan Strecker
PhD student (2010-2016)
Where now: Doing a postdoc at MIT/Broad with Feng Zhang. LinkedIn
Marcus Wilson
Postdoctoral Fellow (2013-2016)
Where now: Sir Henry Dale Fellow (Group Leader) at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Cristina Escribano-Diaz
Postdoctoral Fellow (2010-2016)
Where now: MSL, Vifor Pharma, Madrid, Spain. LinkedIn
Julia Kentsine
Research Technician (2014-2016)
Where now: Julia is currently taking care of her children and will soon look for new opportunities.
Alexandre Orthwein
Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2015)
Where now: Principal Investigator, Lady Davis Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC. LinkedIn
Amélie Fradet-Turcotte
Postdoctoral Fellow (2011-2015)
Where now: Amélie started her own lab at Université Laval Cancer, Québec, QC. Check out her lab website here.
Catherine Brun
Postdoctoral Fellow (2013-2015)
Where now: Catherine has made a successful return to Switzerland where she is now a Scientific Advisor to the ETH board. LinkedIn
Sébastien Landry
Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2015)
Where now: Sébastien is now Pharmacist at Centre universitaire de santé McGill | McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec. LinkedIn
Marella Canny
Research Associate (2008-2014)
Where now: Senior Research Associate, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. LinkedIn
Marie-Claude Landry
Postdoctoral Fellow (2010-2014)
Where now: Global Medical Information at Eli Lilly and Company Canada. LinkedIn
Charles Leung
Postdoctoral Fellow (2011-2012)
Where now: Scientist, Pharmacology at adMare BioInnovations Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. LinkedIn
Stephanie Panier
Ph.D. Student (2007-2013)
Where now: Group Leader at Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Germany. LinkedIn
Wei Zhang
Ph.D. Student (2005-2011), Short-term Post-doctoral Fellow (2012)
Where now: Assistant Professor, University of Guelph
ManTek Yeung
Ph.D. Student (2004-2011)
Where now: Senior Medical Science Liaison at Amgen, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. LinkedIn
Abdallah Al-Hakim
Post-doctoral Fellow (2007-2011)
Where now: Director of Revenue Operation and Demand Generation Strategy at Armorblox, San Francisco, CA. LinkedIn
Rebecca Gladdy
Clinician Scientist (2008-2010)
Where now: Rebecca is now Surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Leah Kabaroff
Research Technician (2008-2010)
Where now: Safety Specialist, Occupational Health and Safety, Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Health System. Toronto, ON. LinkedIn
Lara O’Donnell
Post-doctoral Fellow (2008-2011)
Where now: Executive Director at Weston Family Foundation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. LinkedIn
Megan Mendez
Research Associate (2007-2009)
Where now: Megan is now experimenting with kids (n=2)
Yosuke Ichijima
Post-doctoral Fellow (2008-2009)
Where now: Back in Japan
Nadine Katherina Kolas
Post-doctoral Fellow (2005-2009)
Where now: Research Scientist/Policy Analyst at Health Canada
LinkedIn
Marta Kovatcheva
Undergraduate Thesis Student (2009-2010)
Where now: Postdoctoral Fellow in Manuel Serrano’s lab, IRB, Barcelona, Spain
Hossein Akbari-Salekdeh
Undergraduate Assistant (2008-2011)
Where now: After years of good service, Hossein is making his fortune in real estate. Broker, Royal LePage: www.joesale.ca
Enrico Tenaglia
Graduate Student (2009)
Where now: Ph.D. student at the CNIO in Madrid, Spain
Sarah Galicia
Lab Manager (2003-2008)
Where now: Program Manager at Lakeridge Health. LinkedIn
Shinichiro Nakada
Post-doctoral Fellow (2006-2009)
Where now: Associate Professor, Osaka University, Japan
Julia Li
Undergraduate Student (2007-2009)
Where now: Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, School of Medicine, San Diego. LinkedIn
Devin Trudeau
Undergraduate Student (2008-2009)
Where now: Head of Protein Engineering, TargetGene Biotechnologies LTD, Reẖovot, Central, Israel. LinkedIn
Marta Guerra-Rebollo
Visiting Ph.D. Student (2008)
Where now: Post-doctoral researcher at IQAC, Spain
LinkedIn
Scott Dixon
Short-term Post-doctoral Fellow (2008)
Where now: Assistant Professor, Stanford
Signe Olivarius
Visiting Student (2007)
Where now: Manufacturing engineer, Agilent Technologies, Copenhagen, Denmark. LinkedIn
Mike Downey
Ph.D. Student (2003-2008)
Where now: Associate Professor at University of Ottawa.
Visit downeylab.org for more information.
Sherene Chin-Fatt
Undergraduate Student (2007-2008)
Where now: Project Manager at Volta Capital London, England, United Kingdom. LinkedIn
Pamela Kanellis
Ph.D. Student (2001-2007)
Where now: Assistant Vice-President, Research, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Toronto, ON. LinkedIn
Frédéric D. Sweeney
Ph.D. Student (2003-2008)
Where now: Chief Business Development Officer, MeMed Dx, Toronto, ON. LinkedIn
Jarkko Ylanko
M.Sc. Student (2004-2008)
Where now: Research Assistant, Sunnybrook Research Institute.
LinkedIn
Mark Gagliardi
Postdoctoral Fellow (2003-2007)
Where now: Facility Operator, McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine. LinkedIn
Lisa D’Ambrosio
4th Year Project Student (2006-2007)
Where now: Replacement Assistant Professor U of Ottawa. LinkedIn
Jennifer Yen
4th Year Project Student (2006-2007)
Where now: Bioinformatics Manager at Guardant Health Menlo Park, California, USA. LinkedIn
Benjamin Cheng (Ben Elzinga Cheng)
Research Associate (2005-2006)
Where now: Associate, CSSB (Cooper, Sandler, Shime and Bergman LLP), Criminal Defence Lawyers, Toronto, ON
Robert Rose
Undergraduate Student (2006)
Where now: Practicing law
Rob Woolstencroft
Ph.D. Student (2001-2006)
Where now: Head, Patient Access and Government Affairs at EMD Serono, Inc, Oakville, ON. LinkedIn
Rob Gryfe
Post-doctoral Fellow (2002-2005)
Where now: Surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital
Eris Duro
Summer Student (2005)
Where now: Senior Consultant at Sagentia Innovation, Cambridge, UK. LinkedIn
Martin Burkhalter
Visiting Post-doctoral Fellow (2005)
Where now: PD Dr. Martin D. Burkhalter, Scientific Assistant. Venia Legendi ‘Molecular Medicine’, Medical Faculty, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
Adrienne Rollie
Summer Student (2003 and 2004)
Where now: Sr. Field Application Scientist at Illumina, Los Angeles, California, United States. LinkedIn
Ethan Kaufman
Summer Student (2003 and 2004)
Where now: Just finished a Ph.D. In Cambridge UK
Anne Koch
Post-doctoral Fellow (2002-2004)
Where now: Anne now heads her own group at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, Clinician Scientist, OCI, PMCC
Larissa Liontos
Summer Student (2002)
Where now: Larissa is now a Staff Hematopathologist at Sunnybrook Hospital. She holds MD and PhD degree. LinkedIn