People
Mai obtained Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from McMaster University in 2019. Her Ph.D. research focused on metabolomics of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. Later, she worked as a postdoc under Dr. Jeff Xia at McGill University and became more familiar with R programming and computational work in the field of metabolomics. Currently, she works under Dr. David Wishart to make metabolomics-based personalized health assessment more accessible in partnership with an industrial partner.
Dr. Griffith’s research is focused on the development of genomics and bioinformatics methods as they apply to the study of cancer biology and medicine. A particular focus of his work is in the translation of genomics data from whole genome, exome and transcriptome sequencing into clinically actionable observations and personalized cancer therapies. He has led the development of key online informatics resources for cancer precision medicine such DGIdb, DoCM, CIViC and more.
Marcel Turcotte is a Computer Science Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His group applies machine learning, algorithm design, and efficient data structures to solve complex bioinformatics problems such as identifying cell type-specific DNA signatures of transcription factor binding, classifying non-coding RNA sequences, and determining RNA virus-host susceptibility.
Dr. Marra has demonstrated the pivotal role that genomics can play in human health and disease research, including through contributions to the Human Genome Project, leading the sequencing of the SARS coronavirus genome and first proof-of-concept study demonstrating the effective use of whole genome analyses in personalized cancer medicine. His research has uncovered new cancer mutations, candidate biomarkers and therapeutic targets, and has been instrumental in demonstrating the functional interplay between the cancer genome and epigenome.
Pr. Brunet qualified as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and later completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge under a prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship. She did her postdoc in Biochemistry and Functional Genomics at the University of Sherbrooke, before establishing her own research group at the University of Sherbrooke in 2021. With collaborator Pr Roucou, she develops and manages the OpenProt resource, the first proteogenomics resource endorsing a polycistronic annotation of eukaryotic genomes. Beyond OpenProt, her research focuses on non-annotated coding sequences in our genomes, notably within pseudogenes. She is part of the international Ribo-seq ORF consortium. She uses both fundamental and computational research methods to better explore biological data and understand human diseases. She holds a research chair in Multi-omics and Deep Learning, and a FRQS Junior 1 career grant recognizing her leadership at the intersection of health sciences and artificial intelligence.
Marie-Pierre Dubé has been the director of the Beaulieu-Saucier Pharmacogenomics Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute since 2011 and a full professor at the University of Montreal since 2005. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Data Analysis for Precision Medicine and has received multiple awards and career grants. Over the years, she has led several large-scale research projects funded by governmental agencies. As the author of over 200 scientific articles, her research in pharmacogenomics has notably led to the creation of the pharmaceutical company DalCor. Her research interests include studying the impact of sex, gender, and temperature extremes on health and drug response, particularly in the context of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
He received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, in 2002, where he studied the structure and dynamics of oncoviral proteins with high-resolution NMR methods. Mark conducted his post-doctoral research of protein structural biology in University of Michigan, USA, and then joined Dr. Wishart’s group at University of Alberta, Canada, to work on data analysis and software development in the fields of metabolomics, NMR, and protein structure and dynamics.
Mark Phillips works in comparative privacy and data protection law, particularly where it intersects with health data sharing. His academic background is in law and computer science, and he is a practicing member of the Quebec Bar Association. He works at the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University as an Academic Associate, and is the co-chair of the Data Protection Task Team of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health’s Research and Ethics Work Stream. His comparative legal research focuses on topics including cloud computing, the identifiability of personal data, bioinformatics, and open data.
Dr. Hirst’s research aims to further our understanding of the role of epigenetic dysfunction in cancer initiation and progression and to translate this knowledge into improved health outcomes for Canadians.
International efforts to characterize genetic lesions in cancer genomes have revealed recurrent mutations in epigenetic modifiers and in some cases these can represent the sole driver. Understanding the functional implications of these mutations, their contribution to abnormal cellular differentiation and how emerging epigenetic therapeutics may counteract their effects represent the next critical steps towards translating this knowledge. In this context, Dr. Hirst is studying cancers that harbor highly recurrent gain and loss of function mutations to epigenetic modifiers, such as acute myeloid leukemia, synovial sarcoma, malignant rhabdoid tumor. His research involves the development and application of molecular and computational tools to measure epigenetic features and drive new insights into normal and pathogenic epigenetic regulatory control.
Dr. Strömvik leads a bioinformatics research group focusing on complex polyploid genomes of plants (e.g. arctic and temperate Oxytropis sp., and potato wild relatives). She completed a Ph.D. in Crop Sciences (plant molecular genetics of soybean) at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), and a B.A. in Theoretical Philosophy as well as a M.Sc. in Biology (tissue culture and transformation in Picea abies) at Stockholm University (Sweden). She carried out postdoctoral studies in Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (USA) working on genomics projects in soybean, Medicago truncatula and loblolly pine. In 2003 she joined McGill’s Department of Plant Science where she pioneered the development of university-wide graduate bioinformatics programs and courses. She serves on national and international grant panels, as Associate Editor for several journals, and as Chair of the Department of Plant Science since 2015.