Trainees

Catrina Loucks, MSc, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Catrina is a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Translational Therapeutics, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of British Columbia. She is working with Dr. Bruce Carleton, the DSEN SEARCH & PREVENT team, and the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety (CPNDS) to understand how genetic variation contributes to variable responses to medication. Catrina has experience uncovering genetic causes for rare disorders from her MSc work at the University of Calgary, under the supervision of Drs. Micheil Innes and Jillian Parboosingh. She then sought to explore functional impacts of uncovered genetic mutations by pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Michel Leroux at Simon Fraser University, using the simple roundworm, C. elegans, as a model. Ultimately, Catrina’s work aims to improve the clinical care of patients by incorporating genetic predictors of both drug safety and effectiveness into predictive genetic tests that can be used by clinicians and families to assess the risks and benefits associated with specific drug treatments.

Erika Scott, BMSc

Ph.D. Student, Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Erika Scott is a PhD candidate in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. She previously completed a BMSc at Western University with an Honours Specialization in Biochemistry of Infection and Immunity. Her PhD thesis focuses on identifying and understanding the genetics associated with anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in both pediatric and adult cancer patient populations through the application of genome-wide association study methodologies and bioinformatic analysis tools.

Eduardo Juárez, MD, MSc

Ph.D. Student, Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine

Eduardo Juárez is a Ph.D. student in experimental medicine. He obtained his undergraduate degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and his Master’s in Science in the specialty of Pharmacology at the Centre for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV). He is interested in the use of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacogenomics to improve drug safety and efficacy in a clinical environment.

Jafar Hasbullah, BSc (Hons)

PhD Student, Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Jafar is a PhD candidate at the Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia. Jafar is interested in population genetics and understanding why some populations or individuals are more at risk of developing serious adverse drug reactions. His doctoral research explores the functional pharmacogenomics of anthracycline treatments- a highly potent chemotherapy which is also known to cause severe cardiotoxicity and heart failure in some patients. The long-term goal of Jafar’s research is to utilize pharmacogenomics to effectively reduce cardiotoxicity by identifying valid genetic predictors of anthracycline cardiotoxicity and provide cancer patients a safe and effective means of cardioprotection during anthracycline treatments.

Kevin Yan, BScPharm

Ph.D. Student, Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine

Kevin is currently a PhD student at the University of British Columbia. Prior to starting his doctoral studies, he completed his degree in pharmacy at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on valuing the potential impact of pharmacogenomic testing on quality of life in children with cancer. Moreover, he is conducting economic evaluations to assess the cost-effectiveness of implementing pharmacogenomic testing in pediatric cancer.

Spencer Anderson, MSc

Ph.D. Student, Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Spencer is currently a PhD student in the UBC Medical Genetics program. Prior to arriving in BC, Spencer has worked on projects examining population wide screening programs at the University of Ottawa, and projects relating to the genomic architecture of sexually selected traits through his MSc thesis at Trent University. With his background in genomics, bioinformatics and big data analysis, Spencer will be examining the clinical implementation of pharmacogenomic testing using next generation sequencing techniques in the Canadian health care system.

Kheireddin Mufti, MSc

Ph.D. Student, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Khair is a PhD student in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. He completed his undergraduate in Pharmacy at Aleppo University and his MSc in Human Genetics at McGill University. Khair is interested in Pharmacogenomics and precision medicine and has recently started his doctoral studies in Fall 2020 as part of Carleton and Ross labs.

Jennifer Lin, BSc

M.Sc. Student, Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Jennifer Lin is a MSc student of Medical Genetics. She completed her undergraduate studies in Honours Biology and a Minor in French from the University of Waterloo. Her thesis work focuses on the genetic predictors of drug safety and effectiveness in the treatment of chronic Hepatitis C.

Angela Siemens, BSc

M.Sc. Student, Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Angela Siemens holds a BSc in Biochemistry and has worked in various research positions, including Orthopedics research at St. Paul’s Hospital, the Cancer Science Institute in Singapore, and the Department of Medical Genetics at BC Children’s hospital. Currently, Angela is a UBC Masters student in Medical Genetics working with POPi and the CPNDS research team.

Sandy Morrison, BSc (Hons)

M.Sc. Student, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Sandy graduated with a BSc from Queen's University in Life Science and Psychology in 2019. He then went on to work at a biotechnology company as a laboratory technician before deciding to further his education. Currently, he is a Master's student in Pharmaceutical Science at UBC under the supervision of Dr. Colin Ross. He is a member of the BCCHR team investigating genetic factors that underlie severe adverse drug reactions (ADRs).

Angela Wu, BSc

Incoming M.Sc. Student, Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine

Angela Wu is a recent UBC Pharmacology graduate, and will be starting her MSc in 2020. She has worked with animal models to screen for novel therapeutics, as well as antibody microarrays to analyze drug interactions. Currently, she is part of POPi and the CPNDS team as a Graduate Academic Assistant. 

Many of our trainees have subsequently obtained demanding yet rewarding positions locally, nationally, or abroad within academia, the health care system, or private industry. Trainees at POPi are provided with a myriad of opportunities for professional growth and skill enhancement. This rich learning environment enhances their understanding of pharmaceutical outcomes research and we acknowledge that it results in invaluable work experience and knowledge.

Britt Drogemoller, MSc, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow, now Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba

Galen Wright, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow, now Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba

Reo Tanoshima, MD, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow, now Pediatric Oncologist, Yokohama Japan

Amit Bhavsar, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow, Canada Research Chair in Functional Genomic Medicine, University of Alberta

Leah Mwai, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow 

Benji Heran, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow

Folefac Aminkeng, MSc, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow  

Ursula Amstutz, MSc, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow, now Research Group Leader, Inselspital University Hospital of Bern

Ricardo Jimenez-Mendez, MD, PhD
Past Postdoctoral Fellow 

Patricia Camp, PhD 
Past Postdoctoral Fellow, now Associate Professor, University of British Columbia

Lucila Castro-Pastrana, PhD
Past Postdoctoral fellow, now Professor, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, México

Tingting Zhang, MD, PhD
Past Ph.D. Student, now Assistant Professor, Brown University

Kaarina Kowalec, MSc, PhD 
Past Ph.D. student, now Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba

Kristi McIntosh, PhD
Past Ph.D. Student 

Tessa Bendyshe-Walton, MSc
Past M.Sc. Student

Kaitlyn Shaw, MSc
Past M.Sc. Student 

Tenneille Loo, MSc
Past M.Sc. Student 

John Lee, MD, MSc
Past M.Sc. Student