Team

Dr. Laurence Pelletier
Principal Investigator

Interests: Centrosome, Cilia, Mitosis and Hockey.

Education: Ph.D. in Cell Biology, Yale university, USA

Born In: Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada

Inspired by: Fine wines and fancy microscopes (yes I'm a geek!).

Publications
Dr. Marie-Ming Aynaud
Postdoctoral Fellow

Interests: Molecular and Celular Biology

Education: Ph.D. in virology at Pasteur Institute, Paris, France

Born In: Paris, France

Inspired by: Friends, family, traveling, food

Publications
Ella Guo
Ph.D. Student

Interests: Cancer metastasis, intravasation, climbing, reading

Education: HBSc in Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Born In: Jinan, China

Inspired by: My mother, friends and the ever growing universe of knowledge

Maria Espinosa
Lab Manager

Interests: Cell and Molecular Biology, genetics, cancer and neuroscience

Education: MSc Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Guelph, Canada. BSc Honours Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Guelph, Canada

Born in: Barranquilla, Colombia

Inspired by: family, science, travelling, food and wine

Dr. Anna Christina Erpf
Post-doctoral Fellow

Interests: Pericentriolar material assembly, early embryonic development and microscopy

Education: Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

Born In: Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Inspired by: Nature, science, meditation, singing, painting, family and friends

Thaisa Luup
Ph.D. Student

Interests: Electromagnetism, Microscopy

Education: Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil

Born In: Laguna, Brazil

Inspired by: Puzzles, nature, swimming, classical music

Tiger Jian
Ph.D. Student

Interests: organ-on-a-chip systems, organoids, vascular biology

Education: B.Sc., University of Toronto

Born In: Xi'an, China

Inspired by: Sleep, good food and friends

Reuben Philip
Ph.D. Student

Interests: Advanced Imaging, Genome Engineering, Centrosome-Cancer Axis

Education: M.Sc. in Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Canada

Born in: Surrey, British Columbia

Inspired by: movies, music, games, friends

Twitter    LinkedIn

Elena Peng
Ph.D. Student

Interests: Mitosis, Centrosome, Protein-Protein Interaction

Education: BSc. in biology, Beijing Normal University

Born In: China

Inspired by: cooking, family, sharing foods and hanging out with friends
Dr. Laura Matellán Fernández
Post-doctoral Fellow

Interests: Chromosomal instability, centrosome clustering

Education: B.Sc. in Biology (University of Salamanca, Spain), Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine (University of Sevilla, Spain)

Born In: Zamora, Spain

Inspired by: Traveling, dancing, playing sports, live music and dogs

Dr. Johnny Tkach
Scientific Research Associate

Interests: Microscopy, Cell Biology

Education: Ph.D. Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada | B.Sc. Biochemistry, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Born In: Steeltown, Ontario

Inspired by: People who get things done. Joe Strummer. Johnny Cash. Pavel Datsyuk. My kids (who get nothing done…)

Publications
Dr. Amit Sharma
Post-doctoral Fellow

Interests: Cell Biology, Microscopy, Mitosis and Cancer

Education: Ph.D in Cell Biology, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, India

Born In: Himachal, India

Inspired by: Friends, Family, Traveling and Yoga

Dr. Chieh-Ting (Jerry) Fang
Post-doctoral Fellow

Interests: Mitosis, Centrosomes, Microtubules, Cancer, Super-resolution Imaging

Education: Ph.D. in Cell Biology.

Born In: Taiwan

Inspired by: Fancy images, new image analysis tools, good talks, music and coffee.

Dr. Jaeyoun Kim
Post-doctoral Fellow

Interests: Centriole disengagement, Protein-Protein Interaction, and deep learning

Education: Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea

Born In: Seoul, Republic of Korea

Inspired by: Playing badminton, watching movies and shows

Jason Lequyer
Ph.D. Student

Interests: Computer Vision, Dynamical Systems, Game Theory

Education: M.Sc. in Mathematics, University of Guelph

Born in: Burlington, Ontario

Inspired by: Picture of dogs playing poker

Google Scholar

Dr. Wen-Hsin (Cindy) Hsu
Post-doctoral Fellow

Interests: Mitosis, Centrosomes, Cytoskeleton, and Cancer

Education: Ph.D. Program in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan

Born In: Taiwan

Inspired by: Centrosome conferences, Traveling, Nature, and Good food

Callum Stirton
Ph.D. Student

Interests: Organoids, Regenerative Medicine, Cancer

Education: B.Sc in Biology with a minor in Economics, McGill

Born In: Toronto

Inspired by: Cooking, Visiting Family and Friends, Chess, Good Books

Lab Alumni


Qianzhu Wu

Ph.D. Student
Where she is now: GSK


Vaishali Sridhar

Ph.D. Student
Where she is now: Data Operations Manager at Benchsci


Ladan Gheiratmand

Post-doctoral Fellow
Where she is now: Product Development Scientist at Fluidigm Corporation


Monica Hasegan

Research Associate (2015–2019)
Where she is now: HBCC High-Content Screening Facility Manager at LTRI


Yi Luo

Post-doctoral Fellow (2013–2018)
Where he is now: China


Joao Goncalves

Post-doctoral Fellow (2011–2018)
Where he is now: Scientist, Deep Genomics, Canada


Anastasia Minenkova

4th year Undergraduate Project Student (2018)
Where she is now: Ph.D. Student at University of Toronto, Canada


Gwen Miller

Summer Student (2018)
Where she is now: Reed College, Portland, USA


Clare Wang

Summer Student (2018)


Bahareh Adhami

Ph.D. Student (2012–2018)
Where she is now: Research Fellow, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada


Maria Abou Chakra

Post-doctoral Researcher (2016–2018)
Where she is now: Research Associate, Computational Biology Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada


Gagan D. Gupta

Scientific Research Associate (2009–2017)
Where he is now: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemistry and Biology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada


Charlotte Michelle Nguyen

Summer student (2016)


Fikret Gurkan Agircan

Post-doctoral Fellow (2016–2017)
Where he is now: Lab Manager, Dr. Gaia Tavosanis lab, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany


Nicole St-Denis

Post-doctoral Fellow (2010–2016)


Daniel Sanwalka

Summer Student (2015)
Where he is now: Undergraduate Student at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada


Christina Yeh

Ph.D. Student (2008–2015)
Where she is now: Head of Research and Development at Ranomics, Canada


David Comartin

Ph.D. Student (2008–2015)
Where he is now: Program Lead, Research Programs, Ontario Brain Institute


Vanessa Yeung

Post-doctoral Fellow (2014–2015)


Frank Wang

4th year Undergraduate Project Student (2013–2014)
Where he is now: Ph.D. Student at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada


Jen Nyman

Lab Technician (2013–2014)


Deborah Pinchev

Lab Manager (2007–2013)
Where she is now: Regulatory Affairs/Quality Assurance at Kangaroo Group, Canada


Steffen Lawo

Ph.D. Student (2007–2013)
Where he is now: Senior Scientist at Horizon Discovery, UK


Jae Kang

Summer Student (2013)


Rachel Ford

Lab Technician (2011–2012)
Where she is now: Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Canada


Mikhail Bashkurov

Post-doctoral Fellow (2008–2012)
Where he is now: S.M.A.R.T. High-Content Screening Facility Manager at LTRI


Christine Holley

Lab Technician (2010–2012)
Where she is now: Applications Scientist at Mandel Scientific, Canada


Mariana Gomez

Post-doctoral Fellow (2008–2012)
Where she is now: Director, Biology Research at Ability Pharmaceuticals, Spain


Alyssa De Luca

Summer Student (2011)
Where she is now: Undergraduate Student at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada


Ryan O’Reilly

Summer Student (2011)
Where he is now: Undergraduate Student at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada


Yilong Li

Summer Student (2011)
Where he is now: Ph.D. student at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK


Florence Elie

Summer Student (2010)


Andrea Tagliaferro

Lab Technician (2007–2009)
Where she is now: Lab Technician at Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Canada


Matthew Sorbara

Summer Student (2009)
Where he is now: Ph.D. Student at Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, Canada


Kate Fairbrother

Summer Student (2007)
Where she is now: Law school, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada


David Douda

Summer Student (2007)
Where he is now: Ph.D. Student at Department of Physiology & Experimental Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada


Fei Zhu

Master Student
Where she is now: Ph.D. student at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK