IG Institute Advisory Board Members – Biographies

Esther Verheyen (Chair)
Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Simon Fraser University

Esther Verheyen is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University. She received her BA degree from Cornell University in 1988. In 1993 she obtained her PhD from the Yale University School of Medicine in Genetics, studying profilin function in Drosophila with Dr. Lynn Cooley. She conducted postdoctoral research in the HHMI lab of Dr. Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, also at Yale, where she used genetics to elucidating the control of signal transduction during Drosophila development. In 1998 Dr. Verheyen started her lab at Simon Fraser. Her research focuses on kinase regulation of conserved signaling pathways. Using genetic and biochemical approaches, Dr. Verheyen's group has identified mechanisms controlling growth, patterning and tissue proliferation in Drosophila and human cell culture. In 2016 she received the Grant and Moens award for Excellence in Genetics from the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences. Dr. Verheyen received the SFU Faculty of Science Excellence in Teaching Award for her teaching of genetics. She has served as Associate Chair and Acting Chair of her department, and as the Canada Representative on the Drosophila Board of Directors (FlyBoard) for 2016-2018. Since 2017 she is co-Director of the Centre for Cell Biology, Development, and Disease (C2D2) at Simon Fraser. She has also organized numerous national and international research conferences. Dr. Verheyen is very interested in fostering outreach, and has given several public talks on genetics and stem cells, as well as written a book review for the Literary Review of Canada on personalized medicine.

Laura Arbour
Professor
Department of Medical Genetics
University of British Columbia

Dr. Laura Arbour is a Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia situated at the Island Medical Program in Victoria, BC and a Medical Geneticist at Island Health. Her clinical practice and research focuses on northern and Indigenous health issues as they pertain to genetics. Trained as both pediatrician and clinical geneticist (McGill University), her research integrates maternal child health issues and the understanding of the genetic component of Indigenous health of all ages. Notable research has included addressing a high rate of Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) in Northern BC, potential risk of CPT1A P479L for infant mortality in Nunavut, and the genetics of Primary Biliary Cholangitis in First Nations women of BC. Her LQTS work in Northern BC led to the establishment of a multidisciplinary province wide program to address inherited arrhythmias for all British Columbians (The BC Inherited Arrhythmia Program). She is also currently the project lead on a Genome Canada/CIHR Large Scale Applied Research Project grant, with co-leads Drs Nadine Caron and Wyeth Wasserman “Silent Genomes: Reducing health-care disparities and improving diagnostic success for Indigenous children with genetic disease” which aims to address the challenges of equitable access to genetic/genomic diagnosis for Canadian Indigenous populations.

Jehannine C. Austin PhD FCAHS CGC

Professor, UBC Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Genetics
Executive Director, BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute

Dr. Jehannine Austin is Executive Director of the BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, and is a Professor in Psychiatry & Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. Jehannine is a board certified genetic counsellor and their research work involves studying the impact of genetic counselling for people with psychiatric disorders and their families. They founded the world’s first specialist psychiatric genetic counselling service that has won an award for its impact on patient outcomes, and in addition to peer-reviewed publications, has written a book, and won awards for teaching, leadership, and research.

Jehannine is a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

As Vice-President of Research and Innovation (VPRI) at Genome Canada, Dr. Naveed Aziz leads the design and implementation of the organization's research programs, challenges, and initiatives. He plays a pivotal role in contributing to shaping and executing Genome Canada’s vision, mission, strategy, and objectives. With over 20 years of expertise in the field of genomics, Dr. Aziz drives genomic innovation at Genome Canada. He champions mission-driven challenges and strategic initiatives, fueled by a deep interest in leveraging genomics to address global issues and a passion for developing big data generation solutions.

Before his tenure at Genome Canada, Dr. Aziz served as the Chief Executive Officer of CGEn, Canada’s national platform for genome sequencing & analysis with nodes at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto), McGill University (Montréal) and Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre (Vancouver). In this role, he facilitated Canadian leadership in both fundamental and applied genomics research. His contributions were instrumental in advancing technological developments and providing solutions to global challenges in health, agriculture, and related sectors. Previously, Dr. Aziz served as the Director of Technology programs at Genome Canada. In this role, he led Genome Canada’s portfolio of technology programs with the primary goal to help create opportunities that promote innovation and develop new national capacity in genomics, big data, and related sciences. He has also served as the Head of Genomics at University of York, UK and as a Research Fellow at the Noble Research Institute, USA. He was awarded the Canadian Association of Research Administrators' 2022 Research Partnership Award, named one of Canada’s Emerging Executive Leaders by adMare BioInnovations and Pfizer in 2018, and profiled as one of Canada’s Top 20 Dynamic CEOs in 2021.

Yvonne Bombard, PhD
Associate Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto
Director, Genomics Health Services Research Program, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto
Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto

Dr. Bombard is a genomics health services researcher and Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation.  Her research focuses on evaluating the adoption of new genomic technologies in clinical practice. She develops patient-facing digital tools for genomic medicine and evaluates their comparative effectiveness to inform translation in clinical practice. She also conducts public and patient engagement research to advance health technology assessment and health service delivery. Dr. Bombard is active in numerous international policy advisory committees; her research informs policy development in this area.  In 2014, Dr. Bombard was the inaugural recipient of the Maurice McGregor Award for Demonstrated Excellence and Leadership Potential from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) and also received a ‘Rising Star’ award from CIHR’s Institute of Health Services and Policy Research in 2011. Recently, she has been awarded a CIHR Foundation grant as an Early Career Investigator, and she holds a CIHR New Investigator Award. Dr. Bombard holds a Fellowship from Yale University (Health Policy), a Fellowship from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (Cancer Genomics) and a Fellowship from the University of Toronto (Health Services Research).

Benjamin Haibe-Kains, PhD
Canada Research Chair in Computational Pharmacogenomics
Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network
Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Department of Medical Biophysics

Dr. Haibe-Kains is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM), University Health Network, Associate Professor in the Medical Biophysics department of the University of Toronto, and the Canada Research Chair in Computational Pharmacogenomics. He earned his PhD in Bioinformatics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Supported by a Fulbright Award, he did his postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health (USA). Dr. Haibe-Kains started his own laboratory at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (Canada) and moved to PM in November 2013. His research focuses on the integration of high-throughput data from various sources to simultaneously analyze multiple facets of carcinogenesis. In particular, his team is analyzing radiological and (pharmaco)genomic datasets to develop new prognostic and predictive models and to discover new therapeutic strategies with the aim to significantly improve disease management. Dr. Haibe-Kains main scientific contributions include several prognostic gene signatures in breast cancer, subtype classification models for ovarian and breast cancers, genomic predictors of drug response in cancer cell lines, and radiomic prognostic models in head-and-neck cancers. His team is also working towards developing new ways to improve transpârency and reproducibility of computational research. Dr. Haibe-Kains have co-authored 180 lifetime peer-reviewed publications, including 50 (co-)Senior Responsible Author publications (20,000 citations, h-index of 60; source: Google Scholar). His laboratory maintains 31 public genomic datasets and provides 15 open-source software packages that are freely available to the scientific community (BHKLAB).

Isabel Jordan
Founding Member and Chair, Rare Disease Foundation
Co-Chair, Patient and Caregiver Advisory Committee, SKIP
Strategic Lead in Patient Partnerships, Chambers Lab at Dalhousie University

Isabel Jordan was a founding member of the Rare Disease Foundation. Under her leadership, the organization built partnerships between families and researchers through their Microgrant Program. Isabel is the Strategic Lead in Patient Partnerships in the Chambers Lab at Dalhousie University, a knowledge mobilization network that seeks to bridge the gap between treatment practices and evidence-based solutions for children’s pain in Canadian health institutions. She is the mother of two disabled young adults living with pain and has drawn on her lived experience in rare disease and disability to become a strong advocate for patient partnership in research.

Hermann Nabi, PhD, HDR
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Scientist, Oncology division at CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center
Université Laval

Hermann Nabi is a researcher in the Oncology division at CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Université Laval. His research focuses on precision medicine's responsible integration into health care, particularly for cancer prevention and treatment. His research program uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining a variety of skills and methodological tools to answer questions that are at the interface of several scientific fields. This approach proposes a new way of approaching translational research through the use of concepts, models and methods in the human and social sciences, epidemiology, public health, health services research, and implementation science. Prior to joining the Center and Université Laval in 2016, Dr. Nabi headed the Research Department of Social and Human Sciences, Epidemiology, Public Health at the Institut National du Cancer (INCa) and was a regular researcher at l’Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in France.

David Rose
Professor, University of Waterloo

David Rose’s career has focused on Structural Glycobiology and Biochemistry. Following a BA from University of Pennsylvania, he completed his DPhil degree at University of Oxford, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. In Canada, Dr. Rose spent 7 years at the National Research Council in Ottawa, progressing from Research Associate to Senior Scientist and Group Leader. Recruited to the Ontario Cancer Institute (now Princess Margaret Cancer Centre), he spent 19 years in Toronto studying enzymes involved in glycosylation and glycan processing, particularly ones associated with human diseases such as cancer and nutritional disorders. During that period, he took on positions in academic administration, as Graduate Coordinator and Interim Chair of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto. Dr. Rose moved to Waterloo to Chair the Biology Department for 2 terms and has served for 12 years as CIHR University Delegate for Waterloo, including on the UD Advisory Committee. He has extensive peer-review experience in several organizations, including as a reviewer and Chair of the CIHR BMA Project committee, and of the SCORE Program-Project committee of the Terry Fox Research Institute. Dr. Rose recently completed a term as President of the American Crystallographic Association.

Nika Shakiba
Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering
University of British Columbia

Dr. Nika Shakiba is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME) at the University of British Columbia. Nika received her B.A.Sc. from the Engineering Science program and subsequently completed a Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Peter Zandstra, both at the University of Toronto. She conducted her postdoctoral training under the co-supervision of Dr. Ron Weiss and Dr. Domitilla Del Vecchio in the Synthetic Biology Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through these experiences, she has bridged experiment-to-theory by using genetic technologies to track single cell behaviors, using mathematical models to deconvolve complex datasets, and generating novel predictions. Her training trajectory has instilled in her a scientific philosophy that is rooted in interdisciplinary thinking and collaborations.

Nika’s independent research program is interested in the “social lives” of stem cells: how these cells interact to influence one another’s survival and cell fate decisions, both in culture and embryonic development. Her lab uses systems and synthetic biology to understand the genetic rules that encode cooperative and competitive interactions between stem cells. Leveraging genetic engineering, her lab seeks to program these interactions to drive predictable growth and differentiation outcomes and enable robust bioprocesses for manufacturing stem cell-derived cell therapies.

Nika is committed to training the next generation of biomedical researchers with core expertise that span life sciences and engineering. These scientific leaders will have the know-how to develop cutting-edge technologies, serve as nodes for interdisciplinary collaboration, and tackle fundamental scientific questions. She has co-developed a national workshop brining synthetic biology to stem cell trainees in the Stem Cell Network. Beyond her research and teaching, Nika has been actively involved in outreach, bringing the science and ethics of stem cell research to the general public and youth. As a former national leader for the StemCellTalks symposium for high school students, she co-led a committee that saw the expansion of the event to eight cities across Canada. Nika is also passionate about providing equity in mentorship and multi-directional advice-sharing through her latest project, Advice to a Scientist.

Ian Stedman
Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, York University

Ian is an Assistant Professor of Canadian Public Law and Governance at York University. He has obtained an BA (Western), MA in Philosophy (York), LLB (Alberta), LLM (Toronto) and his PhD in Law (Osgoode). Ian completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare at the Opportunities to Understanding Childhood Hurt (OUCH) lab under Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell (York). He was also the inaugural Fellow in Artificial Intelligence Law & Ethics at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children’s Centre for Computational Medicine, under Dr. Michael Brudno (Toronto). In 2020, Ian was awarded the David Vaver Medal for Excellence in Intellectual Property from IP Osgoode at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Ian is a member of the Ontario Bar (2009) and practiced law in both the private and public sectors before returning to graduate school to obtain his PhD. He has published and presented extensively in the area of public sector governance, particularly in relation to ethics and accountability. Ian’s current research focuses on both the law of public sector governance and accountability, as well as the regulation of innovative and emerging technologies. His research examines the legal, ethical and social impacts of technologies and policies that are driving toward greater personalization in healthcare. This includes examining the implications of using technologies like artificial intelligence, genome editing and bioprinting.

A former member of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders (CORD), Ian is also a person with a rare genetic disease and is an active advocate for the rare disease community.

Peter Stirling
Scientist, BC Cancer
Assistant Professor
Department of Medical Genetics
University of British Columbia

Peter Stirling is a Scientist within the Terry Fox Laboratory at BC Cancer and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. He obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Victoria, PhD from Simon Fraser University, and post-doctoral training at the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of British Columbia before starting his independent group in 2014. His current research interests are in mechanisms of faithful genome maintenance. This interest spans CIHR, NSERC, and Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI)-funded projects in his group focussed on DNA replication, DNA repair, faithful mitosis and cellular stress responses as the major determinants of genome stability. His group is particularly interested in how genome maintenance pathways prevent mutations associated with cancer development, and how their disruption can both enable carcinogenesis and create opportunities for treatment of cancer. Professor Stirling is a CIHR New Investigator (2015-2020), a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar (2017-2022), and a TFRI New Investigator (2017-2020).

Raymund J. Wellinger
Canada Research Chair in Telomere Biology
Full Professor, Université de Sherbrooke
Deputy Scientific Director, Center for Research on Aging

Raymund Wellinger is a molecular geneticist interested in the mechanisms ensuring genome integrity. His lab studies the details of how the ends of chromosomes, the telomeres, are maintained. By using molecular genetic, biochemical and live cell microscopy tools, his work produced important insights into the interplay between conventional DNA replication and telomere replication as well as uncovered new proteins on the telomerase RNP. He has published over 70 manuscripts in top tier scientific journals and currently has an H-factor of 43. After post-doctoral work with Virginia Zakian at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, USA), he joined the department of microbiology in the faculty of medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke, where he currently is a Full Professor. Raymund Wellinger holds the Canada Research Chair in Telomere Biology and is also the Deputy Scientific Director of the Centre for Research in Aging (CdRV) in Sherbrooke. In the past, he acted as Vice-President Research of a small start-up biotech company Telogene, of which he was a co-founder. Finally, for ten years, Raymund Wellinger served as a member of the Board of Directors as well as member of the executive committee of the Fonds de Recherche Québec - Santé.

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