Experts
Our research traverses from genomes to small molecules integrating systems, structural and computational pharmacology as well as chemo- and bioinformatics. Our work is divided into four interconnected but independent axes within which we combine the development and use of innovative computational methods with experimentally validation. Namely: 1. The reconstruction and simulation of metabolic networks; 2. The detection of binding-site structural similarities; 3. Simulation of dynamic aspects of protein function; and 4. The development of docking algorithms.
Rob (or “Dr. Robert Beiko”, if you want to be all formal about it) is an Associate Professor in Bioinformatics in the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University. Before coming to Dal in 2006, he was a postdoc in the lab of Mark Ragan at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. And before that, he completed a PhD in Biology at the University of Ottawa (1998-2003). Although all of his formal training was in biology, an interest in machine-learning approaches, algorithms for identifying important evolutionary events, and visualization of biological data have ultimately led him to put down stakes in Computer Science and collaborate with some of the best in the business here.
Roger C. Levesque is professor of Microbiology at Université Laval. He obtained a B.Sc. in Biology at the Univ. of Moncton, M.Sc. in microbiology at the Univ. de Montréal and PhD in microbiology at Univ. Laval. His postdoctoral was at Harvard with George Jacoby in bacterial genetics, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in genetics, genomics and mutagenesis with Michael Smith (Nobel 1993) at UBC. He is the founder of the Institut de biologie intégrative et des systèmes (IBIS) at Univ. Laval, and was director 2009-2016. He is the scientific director of the FRQS Respiratory Health Network. He was awarded several FRSQ scholarships and Scholar of Exceptional Merit. He received the Robbie Award from CF Canada, the Univ. of Moncton Senior Science Award, an investigator award from the ASM, and was president of the Canadian Society for Microbiologists. He was co-founding member with 6 scientists of the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network CBDN. His research is systems biology of virulence, antibiotic resistance and genome evolution.
Russ Greiner worked in both academic and industrial research before settling at the University of Alberta, where he is now a Professor in Computing Science (Adjunct in Psychiatry) and the founding Scientific Director of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. He was elected a Fellow of the AAAI, was awarded a McCalla Professorship and a Killam Annual Professorship; received a 2020 FGSR Great Supervisor Award and in 2021, received the CAIAC Lifetime Achievement Award and became a CIFAR AI Chair. In 2022, he received the (UofA) Precision Health Innovator Award, then in 2023, he received the CS-Can | Info-Can Lifetime Achievement Award. For his mentoring, he received a 2020 FGSR Great Supervisor Award, then in 2023, the Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring. He has published over 350 refereed papers, most in the areas of machine learning and recently medical informatics, including 6 that have been awarded Best Paper prizes.
Sébastien Lemieux, an associate professor at the biochemistry and molecular medicine department of U. de Montréal and an associate academic member at Mila, has a robust background in both biology and computer science. As a principal investigator at IRIC, his work focuses on the development of deep learning models and bayesian frameworks for drug discovery, cancer prognostic, -omics data integration with applications in acute myeloid leukemia and targeted immunotherapy. His interdisciplinary approach showcases his dedication to advancing the field of bioinformatics through a variety of data sources, technical methodologies, and applications.
Professor Abou Elela obtained his Ph.D. from University of Guelph in 1994 where he generated a system for studying ribosomal RNA processing in vivo and demonstrated the role of rRNA in translation. During his postdoctoral study at the University of California Santa Cruz he revealed the function of the first orthologue of eukaryotic RNase III and demonstrated its role in pre-rRNA processing. Prof. Abou Elela joined the Université de Sherbrooke in 1997 and became a member of the oncology group of the Centre de recherche clinique and the RNA group. Few years later he became the director of Sherbrooke laboratory of functional genomics, the scientific director of Genome Quebec RNomics platform, and the coordinator of the RiboClub. In 2013 Prof. Abou Elela became Canada Research Chair in RNA Biology and Cancer Genomics.
Recent work in Abou Elela lab demonstrated that RNA is a major source of cancer biomarkers and may predict tumour behaviour and drug resistance. His research has also indicated that messenger RNA is programmed to respond to cellular signals and degrades rapidly under exposure to drugs and other cellular stresses. Abou Elela aims to develop a model to explain how RNA production and degradation can influence cellular functions.
The Pai Lab at OICR analyzes high-throughput multi-omic data in the healthy developing and adult brain, and in pediatric and adult brain cancer, to identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for eventual clinical implementation. We work with data from genome sequencing technologies at single-cell resolution (e.g., scRNAseq) and bulk tissue (e.g., RNAseq, WGBS, EMseq, ChIPseq), with sample sizes ranging to cohort-scale. We specialize in understanding the role of the non-coding genome in disease progression.
Dr. Sorana Morrissy completed her PhD in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, under the supervision of Dr. Marco Marra. She pursued post-doctoral research in translational genomics in Dr. Michael Taylor’s lab at the Hospital of Sick Children in Toronto, ON. Throughout her training she gained extensive experience with cutting-edge high-throughput sequencing technologies and computational analyses in the field of cancer research, with a particular focus on understanding tumor heterogeneity and recurrent disease.
Dr. Steven Hallam is a molecular biologist, microbial ecologist, entrepreneur, and innovator with over two decades of experience conducting field and laboratory research at disciplinary interfaces. He is a former Canada Research Chair in Environmental Genomics and current Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and program faculty member in the Bioinformatics and Genome Sciences and Technology training programs at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Hallam is the founding director of the ECOSCOPE innovation ecosystem, founding co-director of the Biofactorial automation core facility in the Life Sciences Institute and co-director of the Bradshaw Research Institute for Minerals and Mining (BRIMM) Microbiome Theme. His research intersects microbial ecology, biological engineering, and bioinformatics with specific emphasis on the creation of functional screens and computational tools that reveal hidden metabolic powers of microorganisms at the individual, population, and community levels of biological organization.
Dr Jones is Head of Bioinformatics and Co-Director of the Genome Sciences Centre in Vancouver. He is a Professor of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, and a Distinguished Scientist at the BC Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Jones was identified as one of Canada’s top 40 professionals under 40 by Caldwell Partners International and by Business in Vancouver. He is founding director of the UBC Bioinformatics Graduate Program. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a recipient of the prestigious UBC Killam teaching prize in recognition of his contributions to graduate bioinformatic education. In 2014 Dr. Jones was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award by the Faculty of Medicine at UBC and became a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He was recognized by Clarivate Analytics in 2016 and 2018 as among the world’s most highly cited researchers in his field.
Dr. Steven Pelech is a full Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Neurology) at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he has been on faculty since 1988, and currently serves on the UBC Vancouver Senate. He holds B.Sc. Honours (1979) and Ph.D. (1982) degrees in Biochemistry from UBC. His post-doctoral training was at the University of Dundee with Sir Philip Cohen, and at the University of Washington in Seattle with Nobel laureate Dr. Edwin Krebs. He was the founder and president of Kinetek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (1992 to 1998), and the founder, president and chief scientific officer of Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation (1999 to present). He has authored over 260 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and books about cell signalling system important in the pathology of cancer, diabetes, neurological and immunology-related diseases. Since the beginning of 2021, Dr. Pelech was one of the founders of the Canadian Citizens Care Alliance, and serves as its vice-president and the co-chair of its Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee.