Canadian Gene Cure Foundation
Foundation Canadienne Géne Cure 

Piya started her academic career at the University of Waterloo with an honours degree in Biology. This was followed by a Master's degree in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) under Dr. Miguel Valvano. She is in the fifth year of the MD/PhD program at UWO and recently finished her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Robert A. Hegele. Her PhD research included the discovery of a multi-organ lethal disorder, endocrine-cerebro-osteodysplasia, and finding its genetic cause. Ultimately, she plans to pursue a career in both clinical and research medicine, specializing in medical genetics.

Currently, she is in 2nd year medical school and she continues to work in the Hegele laboratory. Piya has six first-author publications, including a paper in Nature Review Genetics and in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

As of August 2010, Victoria is entering her 3rd year of graduate studies as an MD/PhD student at the University of Alberta working with Dr. Gary Lopaschuk and Dr. Ivan Rebeyka after completing 2 years of medical school. She graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc honours in Physiology and was "blessed with diverse undergraduate summer research opportunities" Her education has been further enriched with a research background in molecular genetics (2002-2003), haematology/cryobiology (2004), and heart metabolism (2005-2006).

Victoria is continuing her work on neonatal hypertrophy heart metabolism for her graduate studies. Through this research, she hopes to add to the understanding of neonatal heart metabolism as well as improve surgical outcomes for children with congenital heart defects.

In 2003 Alysa earned her B.Sc (Honours) in Genetics from the University of Manitoba. Following that she began working with Dr. Rachel Wevrick in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Alberta. The Wevrick laboratory studies Prader-Willi syndrome, the most common genetic obesity syndrome. Her research focused on the role of two candidate genes, necdin and Magel2, in the development of the nervous system and in multiple euroendocrine pathways. Alysa expects to graduate with her MD/PhD in 2012 plans on pursuing a career in pathology or neurology.

In 1997, Jodi received an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Biochemistry from Dalhousie University. In 1999, she received a Masters degree in Neuroscience from the University of Arizona. Currently, she is an MD/PhD (Biochemistry) student at the University of Alberta. Her doctoral thesis examines the source of phosphatidylcholine, the predominant membrane lipid, in nerve growth and branching. Jodi's medical career plans include a residency in Neurosurgery. Specifically, she would like to train in Functional Neurosurgery and investigate the molecular neurobiology of movement disorders.

Speranza holds a B.Sc. in Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology, BA in Philosophy and an MA in Philosophy. She is currently enrolled in the MD/PhD Leaders in Medicine program at the University of Calgary. Pursuing her PhD in Philosophy, her current research involves an examination of Canada's policy on genetic engineering for both therapeutic and enhancement procedures, and the ethical issues, which must be taken into account when developing such policy. Speranza is also part of a research group conducting a qualitative study that examines physician perspectives on professionalism.

Angela graduated with a BSc (honours) in 2000 from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a major in biochemistry. She then started graduate work in human genetics. In 2002, she entered the newly created MD/PhD program at Memorial University, with a research focus in cancer genetics. Her PhD is specifically studying various aspects of hereditary colorectal cancer in Newfoundland. She expects to graduate with her MD/PhD in 2009, and go on to pursue a career in both clinical and research medicine, specializing in genetic oncology.

Martin was born in Kolobrzeg, in northwest Poland, in a mixed Polish-Ukrainian family. He spent his youth there, until his family immigrated to Canada in 1991. After completing high school, he spent some time in India, with Canada World Youth, before attending the University of Toronto. Martin completed a molecular biology undergraduate program, where he had the chance to work in a research laboratory. Martin worked in the lab alongside Dr. Westood, a molecular biologist, to study Drosophila. He stayed in his lab to obtain his Masters degree for work on transcriptional regulation of heat-shock response in human T-cells.

Sebastien's interest in DNA technologies began during his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Laval University. He soon became more interested in clinically oriented research consequently becoming more involved in a study of large scale screening of X-fragile premutation carriers and the clinical implication of grey zone alleles within the families. This clinical interest intensified further and led to his admittance to the MD/PhD program at Laval University. Sebastien is now pursuing a career as a clinician -researcher.

Jason started his academic training at the University of Calgary by studying biochemistry and electrical engineering and obtained a first class honours degree in biochemistry in 1998. He then began his PhD at the University of Alberta in the lab of Dr. M.N.G. James, Canada Research Chair in Protein Structure and Function. The research that he conducted included the design of new immunosuppressants by solving the three-dimensional crystal structure of protein phosphatases bound to various natural product inhibitors.

Currently in the third year of the MD/PhD program, Shaheed Merani is working towards a PhD in Experimental Surgery. In the Islet Transplantation Group, under the supervision of Dr. James Shapiro and Dr. Colin Anderson, Shaheed conducts research in the Basic Tolerance Laboratory. Shaheed's research involves identifying new strategies looking at inducing tolerance of the recipient to donor tissue holds promise of sustained insulin-free normoglycemia following islet transplantation, without the need for lifelong immunosuppression.

Julie St-Pierre received her PhD in Physiology and Endocrinology from Laval University, Québec, Canada in 2004 . Dr. St-Pierre's expertise covers the contribution of genetics to the risk assessment and clinical management of type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome, two clinical conditions predisposing individuals and their families to many cardiovascular complications. Dr. St-Pierre has a particular interest in fetal programming genetic complex traits regulated by environmental factors, such as sedentarity and poor nutritional habits.

Currently in his third year at the University of Toronto Michael is working on developing a novel cell-based gene therapy technique for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction under the supervision of Dr. Duncan Stewart at St. Michael's Hospital. In particular, he is interested in endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and the reported EPC dysfunction associated with various genetic risk factors and physiological deficiencies. Michael would like to use gene therapy to improve EPCs' neovascularization properties and rescue the dysfunction associated with various cardiovascular risk factors.