Developing new disease treatments is a slow and expensive process, with high rates of failure. The lack of a unified framework for evaluating the potential for new therapies to translate from animal studies to human trials contributes to this problem. Through scoping reviews, interviews, and consensus discussions amongst academic, industry, and regulatory stakeholders, we will identify areas for improvement and harmonization in evidence generation, synthesis, and appraisal of preclinical studies. This will enable improved decision-making and efficiency, in both lab research and early clinical trials, for prioritization and selection of novel disease treatments for further development. 

My project centers on developing a new vaccine platform, utilizing the backbone of the vaccinia virus, known for its historic role in smallpox eradication. This platform will be designed to offer enhanced safety, efficiency, and adaptability compared to existing vaccine platforms. It will be put to the test in providing immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and Monkeypox. This innovation may present an alternative to current mRNA vaccine technology, with the goal of achieving long-term immunity from a single injection.

My research aims to define how inflammation generated by surgical procedures may lead to the worsening of atherosclerosis, a disease where fatty plaques build up in the wall of blood vessels. While inflammation is a normal response to surgery, it may adversely alter important metabolic functions that govern the balance between stable and worsening atherosclerosis plaques. Thus, my research will investigate the relationship between surgical inflammation, metabolic dysfunctions, and atherosclerosis disease. Our findings will further our understanding of the mechanisms behind acute worsening in atherosclerosis disease and postoperative cardiovascular complications and provide insight that may be leveraged into preventative interventions for patients with known atherosclerosis disease undergoing surgical procedures.

Our brain, the powerhouse that fuels our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, is composed of two main cell types: neurons, which send information all over our nervous system and are thought of as the movers and shakers of the brain, and glial cells, which “merely” support neuron function. Although support cells have historically been seen as having a secondary importance, they outnumber neurons in most regions of the brain, and are key for inflammation, repair, and proper signal transmission. My research focuses on the role of support cells in rescuing brain function after injury by using a rodent model of global cerebral ischemia. More specifically, I study how estrogens, the primary female sex hormones, act on glial cells to improve recovery and behavioural outcomes after the brain has lacked oxygen and cell survival is at stake. Furthermore, knowing that female subjects have historically been understudied in neuroscience research, it is key that we get a clear picture of the events that occur at a molecular level in the female brain.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to global public health, necessitating effective disease monitoring and control. In this context, wastewater surveillance has emerged as a crucial tool in tracking the spread of infectious diseases, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus, influenza virus (flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and monkeypox. The proposed doctoral project, supervised by Dr. Robert Delatolla, aims to further advance wastewater surveillance as a responsive, accurate and reliable diagnostic tool for infectious diseases and examine opportunities and challenges in the analysis of viral RNA in wastewater. Such surveillance is urgently needed to complement traditional clinical methods, allowing for early detection and proactive interventions for additional health benefits across Canada and the world. Our research will serve to enhance community health in Canada, address health disparities in the country, and generate adaptive diagnostic tools necessary for the country’s pandemic preparedness approaches. 

My research focuses on the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of memory and the cholinergic system across the lifespan and, by extension, contribute to the development of biomarkers in both healthy and diseased populations. A secondary focus of my research program is to examine the impact of biological sex/sex hormones on cholinergic brain activity and memory.

This research lies within the field of studies dealing with the effectiveness of the law, specifically, of Quebec workplace health and safety law. Our research goal is make a qualitative evaluation of the role of unions and to analyze the strategies they favour in return to work situations after a work-related injury. We seek to further reflection on the role unions are asked to play, including in the context of workplace change, but also on the means to encourage a sustainable return to work following a work-related injury.

Sleep disturbance is present in around 80% to 90% of cases of depression, and is associated with poorer clinical prognoses. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment recommended for chronic insomnia. One of the main CBT-I treatments relies on the ability of individuals to correctly estimate their sleep, yet this ability is seriously affected in those living with depression. Thus, my project seeks to compare the use of subjective and objective measurements of sleep to guide CBC-I treatment in situations of comorbid depression. Integration of new devices that measure sleep objectively is a unique opportunity to adapt CBT-I to those with depression, to improve treatment accuracy and effectiveness and to observe physiological changes occurring during treatment.

The premature deterioration of public infrastructure is a common engineering challenge that presents an exorbitant financial burden to the government (and their taxpayers) and poses a threat to human safety. Selecting remedial actions requires a comprehensive understanding of the causes and extent of the problems and the prediction of further deterioration. My research uses a holistic approach to correlate material behaviour and deterioration, visual inspection, NDT, and a wide range of traditional and novel test methods to evaluate the bond performance of CFRP-retrofitted concrete diaphragms from the Champlain Bridge. This will enable a deeper understanding of the damage progression in bond-critical applications to improve the design and service life of CFRP-strengthened concrete structures.

Oncolytic viruses are exciting therapeutic agents for cancer treatment as they specifically infect and kill cancer cells, ignite anti-tumor immunity, and in some cases, induce the tumor cell expression of multiple therapeutic payloads, including microRNAs. miRNAs can be used to revert the resistance to therapies that breast tumors develop as a result of their genomic instability and heterogeneity. In this project, I propose to generate a multi-modal oncolytic virus-based therapy capable of the direct induction of oncolysis, the induction of host anti-tumor immunity, the delivery of therapeutic microRNAs that can be disseminated within the tumor microenvironment by exosomal delivery, and the re-sensitization of target cells to drugs irrespective to their genomic signature. The result of this study will present a one-of-a-kind novel combinational therapy modality for breast cancer.

Many Black people report feeling mentally and physically drained from experiencing anti-Black racism across various life domains (e.g., in the workplace, education, interacting with police, within cross-racial friendship networks). This suffering has recently been referred to as "Black fatigue". More than simply a metaphor for frustration or exasperation, Black fatigue describes a chronic feeling of exhaustion that has the potential to add further burden to the Black experience. The objectives of the proposed research are to: (1) develop and validate a measure of Black fatigue in Black Canadian families, and (2) assess the impact of Black fatigue on family well-being outcomes (i.e., family functioning, family cohesion, parenting practices).

Historical and recent events concerning Indigenous people in Canada have highlighted the ubiquitous and forced integration of western settler knowledge and values into all spheres of Indigenous peoples’ lives and societies, and the knowledge produced and translated from health research is no exception. Considering this knowledge is typically developed through western “scientific” methods predicated on rational choice liberalism, responding to the Calls to Action set out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada necessitates a transformation in how we conceptualize knowledge and its translation with Indigenous peoples. Using a Foucauldian genealogical approach, my doctoral research will examine how the historical roots of “scientific” knowledge are incommensurable with Indigenous ways of knowing, suggesting a fundamental contradiction at the core of knowledge translation: that of knowledge creation. Findings from my research will invite current and future generations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and students to explore different conceptualizations of knowledge development and translation founded on Indigenous values, practices, and harmonious transactional ways of being and interacting with the land.

Current engineering practices and standards do not accurately reflect Canadian society’s increasing attention to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). The proposed doctoral project, supervised by engineering professor Beatriz Martin-Perez and law professor Jena McGill, addresses this gap by evaluating Canadian building standards and policies through an EDI lens and examining the opportunities and challenges facing the engineering profession’s urgent need for cultural change. This interdisciplinary research is expected to be ground-breaking in the Canadian engineering context, and its broad dissemination could spark an overhaul on how the profession views the inclusion of differently-identified individuals in the profession, the meaning of public interest, and the role that engineers can play in contributing to social justice.

Working with patient partners and decision-makers, my research program will include reviews of all available published literature on studies that assessed drug alternatives to opioids during surgery. These studies will provide us with an overview of which drugs are used during surgery and how they can benefit patients in their recovery, their satisfaction, their quality of life, their functional capacities after surgery as well as long-term use of opioids after surgery. This critical work will help inform a large clinical trial of opioid-minimizing interventions during surgery in adult patients. Our program will help address the burden from the opioid crisis across Canada by reducing potential unnecessary use of opioids during surgery and finding effective alternatives that benefit outcomes important to patients.