Ms. Darlene Dai, Graduate Co-op Student
Ms. Dai graduated from the Central University of Finance and Economics with a Bachelor of Economics in Statistics. She is currently completing a Masters of Science in Statistics at the University of British Columbia. Ms. Dai joins the PROOF Centre team as a co-op student in May 2012.
Ms. Dai has varied experience in statistics, especially in the areas of economics and finance. From June to December in 2010, she served as an intern at the National Bureau of Statistics Training Institute, where she was in charge of dealing with first hand data and producing reports. Her main interests lie in the field of measurement error and survival analysis.
Biostatistics is a new area of work that Ms. Dai finds interesting and is hoping to develop a career in. She hopes to become familiar with the field and apply her knowledge into new applications and the broad field of biostatistics. Ms. Dai aspires to portray the world more clearly to mankind using her knowledge and the applications of statistics.
Mr. Nick Fishbane, Graduate Co-op Student
Mr. Fishbane holds a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University in Applied Mathematics, graduating with Honours in 2008. During this time, he obtained experience working as a research assistant in the mathematical modeling of ecological systems and patterns. Mr. Fishbane gained further work experience in China as an English teacher and a research assistant at Sun Yat-Sen University, where he revised manuscripts and helped write a review paper in theoretical ecology. He is currently in his first year of a Master’s program in Statistics at UBC, which he undertook with the realization that his true passion lies in data. Mr. Fishbane finds simulation studies and numerical inference particularly interesting.
Beginning in May 2012, Mr. Fishbane will be a co-op student at the PROOF Centre and will be helping with data exploration and analysis. This will be his first time working in the field of molecular biology. Trhough his time with the PROOF Centre, he hopes to gain a rich understanding of the methods involved in analyzing microarray and protein data. He also hopes his work here will be contributive as much as it will be an educational experience.
Ms. Zsuzsanna Hollander, Graduate Student
Zsuzsanna Hollander holds undergraduate degrees in Economical Informatics and Computer Science. She also obtained a Master’s of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Zsuzsa obtained a certificate in Project Management from UBC in 2009 and is now a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Zsuzsa started her PhD studies in September 2009 in the UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine focused on identifying biomarkers of cured heart failure using data collected in the Biomarkers in Transplantation project. Zsuzsa started working for the Biomarkers in Transplantation project in 2004, first as a Masters student than as a full time employee, until she began pursuing a PhD. She has expertise in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics data analyses as well as bioinformatics and data management.
She has co-authored publications in journals such as Experimental & Clinical Cardiology, Bioinformatics, Journal of Heart Lung Transplantation, and The Canadian Journal of Cardiology. She also serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Heart Lung Transplantation. She received several scholarships throughout her studies including the CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships, Faculty of Medicine Graduate Award, UBC Four Year Doctoral Fellowship and Graduate Entrance Scholarship, PRECARN Scholar and NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards.
Dr. Agnieszka Klimek-Abercrombie, Biomarker Assay Development Fellow
Dr. Agnieszka Klimek received her B.Sc. degree in biology from the University of Victoria (2001) and her Ph.D. from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia (2010). Her Ph.D. research focused on establishing novel markers of graft dysfunction in human islet transplantation, as well as development of novel bioassays for early prediction of pancreatic beta-cell failure in islet transplantation and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Klimek has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications in journals including the American Journal of Transplantation and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) with funding from the Canadian Diabetes Association and the CIHR/MSFHR Transplantation Training Program.
In her role with the PROOF Centre, Dr. Klimek will be responsible for the management of biomarker assay development projects including biomarker discovery and implementation activities in partnership with clinical research groups for effective translation into the clinical setting.
Dr. Karen Lam, Business Development Fellow
Dr. Karen Lam received her B.Sc. Honours degree in Genetics (2003) and her Ph.D. in Medical Genetics (2009) from the University of British Columbia. Her Ph.D. research focused on uncovering novel mechanisms that regulate protein quality control and transport at the endoplasmic reticulum, using genomic and cell biological approaches. Prior to joining the PROOF Centire she did two years of postdoctoral training at UBC, combining high-content screening and biochemical methods to characterize drugs that affect autophagy (cellular “self-eating”) to combat cancer and tuberculosis. Dr. Lam has published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Cell Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell, and PLoS ONE. She has received awards from UBC University Graduate Fellowships, NSERC, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.
Her role at the PROOF Centre is to evaluate prospective and existing biomarker projects from business and scientific perspectives and to create strategic plans to effectively translate the technology consistent with PROOF’s objectives.
Mr. David Lin, Graduate Student
Mr. David Lin is currently a trainee as part of the computational team for the PROOF Centre of Excellence. He has been working on the Biomarkers in Transplantation (BiT) initiative along with various members on the PROOF Centre team since late 2006. Since then, he has been involved in various aspects of the project, including but not limited to: performing statistical and bioinformatical analyses, interpretation of results, as well as design and execution of validation experiments. David received his undergraduate degree in the Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science from the University of British Columbia in May 2006.
He has previously conducted research on the role of VEGF in atherosclerosis at the iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research. Along with his role on the BiT initiative and the PROOF Centre computational team, he is currently pursuing a PhD degree in experimental pathology under the guidance of Dr. Bruce McManus.
Ms. Anna Meredith, Graduate Student
Ms. Anna Meredith graduated from Simon Fraser University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She has been working as a research technician at the iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research since 2004, and has been involved in studies on asthma, COPD and ischemic heart disease. Anna has worked on the Biomarkers in Transplantation initiative since 2008 and is currently working on biomarkers of acute and chronic heart failure with the PROOF Centre. Anna started her graduate studies in 2007 in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia, and is working toward a PhD degree under the supervision of Dr. Bruce McManus.
Mr. Casey Shannon, Undergraduate Trainee
Mr. Casey Shannon is completing a Bachelor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. He currently holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Cell Biology and Genetics, also from UBC. Casey joined the PROOF Centre team in May 2010 and set to work evaluating and adapting a means of measuring cell-specific gene expression from heterogeneous tissue micro-array experiment datasets.
He hopes to expand this study to include larger, more heterogeneous datasets and, eventually, adapt this method to completely eliminate the need for any experimentally-derived tissue composition information. Prior to joining PROOF, Casey’s research interests included the study of spinal cord injury in rodent models, particularly the use of adult skin-derived stem-cells in spinal cord injury repair. This work lead to publications in The Journal of Neurotrauma and The Journal of Neuroscience.
Dr. Karen Sherwood, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Karen Sherwood received her B.Sc with honours in biotechnology (2004) and on receiving a Postgraduate Scholarship, completed her Ph.D. (2008) from the Department of Medicine and Infectious Diseases centre at the University of Edinburgh. Her Ph.D. research focused on defining the parameters for transcriptional analysis of the variant Creutzfeldt Jakobs Disease (vCJD) human brain and identifying transcriptional changes involved in the pathogenic mechanisms of vCJD. With the support and funding from the Chief Scientists Office in Scotland, Dr. Sherwood was able to expand her Ph.D. research into her first post-doctoral postion, where the research focused on high-throughput sequencing of the vCJD diseased human brain, of both the transcriptome and the microRNAome. During this time, she was accepted onto the Wellcome Trust Advanced Courses for Functional Genomics and Systems Biology as well as participating in the Working with the Human Genome Sequence workshop. These opportunities have allowed Dr. Sherwood to develop her training in bioinformatics and data analysis, as well as work with experts in the newly emerging field of systems biology and integrative networks. She has published first-author publications in peer-reviewed journals including Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology. In her role with the PROOF Centre, Dr. Sherwood will be involved with the COPD biomarker discovery program, where she will employ both computational and bench experiment techniques to uncover biological mechanisms of exacerbations.
Dr. Heesun Shin, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Heesun Shin received her B.Sc. degree in molecular biology and biochemistry at Simon Fraser University (SFU). After completion of her undergraduate degree, she worked at the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre (GSC) for three years as a computational biologist/analyst. She then returned to school to pursue her Ph.D. degree in genomics and bioinformatics at SFU and the GSC where her work focused on using high-throughput sequencing for comparative transcriptome analysis. She completed her Ph.D. degree in 2010 and joined the PROOF Centre shortly after. With over 8 years of experience in the field of genomics and bioinformatics, Dr. Shin has participated as a co-author in various international and local collaborative genomics and transcriptomic publications as well as first author for her Ph.D. work. Her publications in peer-reviewed journals include those such as Science, Genome Research, and BMC Biology.
She received scholarships and awards including NSERC’s Postgraduate Scholarship (Doctoral) and Best Poster Award at BC Cancer Agency Annual Cancer Conference. Dr. Shin is looking forward to using her skills in transcriptome analysis and investigating cutting-edge technologies to take part in PROOF Centre biomarker programs.
Mr. Amrit Singh
Amrit graduated from McMaster University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Mathematics. After moving to Vancouver in August 2010, he worked in construction where he built portable fabricated buildings. He began his master’s degree in Experimental Medicine in January 2011 under the supervision of Dr. Scott J. Tebbutt. Amrit’s main focus is to integrate various omics datasets derived from peripheral blood of asthmatic individuals undergoing allergen inhalation challenge. He has also worked on PROOF projects such as the Biomarkers in Transplantation (BiT1) program and is currently involved in the COPD initiative. He will be transferring to the Ph.D. program in Experimental Medicine in May 2012.
