Trainees

STAGE Trainees are the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are active in the program.

	Mentors	Affliliation(s)	Project Title	Term (Start and Expected Completion)
PhD Students
Gengming He	Lisa Strug (primary)	University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics	Investigating human nasal epithelia as a respiratory model for Cystic Fibrosis using RNA-Sequencing	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Sangook Kim	Lisa Strug (primary) Shelley Bull Johanna Rommens Anne Stephenson	University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health and The Hospital for Sick Children	Development of a phenotype for Lung Disease in Cystic Fibrosis: applications to genetic association across cohorts and countries	Nov 2017
Michael Lebenbaum	France Gagnon (primary) Laurent Briollais	University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation	Genetic endowments and social capital: An examination of the association between Polygenic scores for educational attainment and adult social capital	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Yu-Chung (Jerry) Lin	Lisa Strug (primary) Lei Sun Johanna Rommens	University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics	Incorporating Robust Statistical Procedures into Model Selection Using Genomic Features with Small Effect Sizes	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Victoria Marshe	James Kennedy (primary) Anna Goldenberg Andrew Paterson	University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Sciences, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health	Applying machine learning to genomic data to identify diagnostic subtypes in late-life depression	Sep 2016
Fan Wang	Lisa Strug (primary) Lei Sun Johanna Rommens	The Hospital for Sick Children	Co-localization Method with Application in Cystic Fibrosis	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Changchang Xu	Shelley Bull (primary) Irene Andrulis	University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics	Improving mixture cure modelling of multiple molecular factors in cancer prognosis	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Dongyang Yang	Wei Xu (primary) Andrew Paterson Geoffrey Liu	University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics	Partition of Human Microbiome Sequencing Data and Analysis of genome-wide Genetic Association through a Distance-based Unsupervised Learning Model	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Lin Zhang	Lei Sun (primary) Lisa Strug Johanna Rommens	University of Toronto Department of Statistical Sciences	A robust and unifying regression framework for allele-based association test	Dec 2017 - TBD
Yanyan Zhao	Lei Sun (primary) Lisa Strug Johanna Rommens	University of Toronto, Department of Statistical Sciences	A unified regression framework for polygenic risk score, PrediXcan, and TWAS tests	Dec 2017 - TBD
Postdoctoral Fellows
	Mentors	Affliliation(s)	Project Title	Term (Start and Expected Completion)
Myriam Brossard	Shelley Bull (primary) Radu Craiu Rayjean Hung	Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Development of novel statistical methods for genetic analysis of complex traits	Dec 2017 - Nov 2019
Kexin Luo	Shelley Bull (primary) Andrew Paterson Irene Andrulis	Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Statistical methods for region-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis of common and rarevariants	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Elham Khodayari Moez	Rayjean Hung (primary) Stephen Lye Lisa Strug	Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Investigating host genomics and epigenomics for early childhood cytomegalovirus sequelae based on birth cohort	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
Divya Sharma	Wei Xu (primary) Andrew Paterson Geoffrey Liu	University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics	Application of machine learning in longitudinal microbiome data analysis for disease prediction	Sep 2020 - Aug 2022
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Alumni

STAGE Alumni are the graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars who have participated in the program over the years.

Master's Student
	Mentors	STAGE Project Title and Affiliation	Training Dates	Current Position
Tabitha Kung	France Gagnon (primary) and Katherine Siminovitch (ad hoc)	Genetic Predictors of Response to Treatment in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology	May 2011 - Jun 2012	Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Queen's University and Clinician-scientist at KGH Research Institute (2021)
PhD Students
	Mentors	STAGE Project Title and Affiliation	Training Dates	Current Position
Darren Brenner	Shelley B. Bull Rayjean Hung (primary) Geoffrey Liu	A histology specific genome-wide investigation of lung cancer University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology	Jan 2011 - Jun 2012	Assistant Professor, University of Calgary (2021)
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Jessica Dennis	France Gagnon (primary) Zdenka Pausova Lisa Strug	Genetic and epigenetic factors in the regulation of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) plasma levels and role in venous thromboembolism University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology	Oct 2011 - Jan 2016	Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Genetics at UBC and Investigator at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute (2021)
Andriy Derkach	Andrew Paterson Johanna Rommens Lei Sun (primary) Jerry Lawless	Statistical methodologies for genetic association studies with rare variants University of Toronto, Department of Statistical Sciences	Jan 2011 - Jun 2014	Assistant Attending, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (2021)
Osvaldo Espin-Garcia	Shellley Bull (primary) Wei Xu Andrew Paterson Geoffrey Liu	Integrative methods for design and analysis of genetic association studies University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics, and Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital	Sep 2016 - Aug 2018	Assistant Professor, Biostatistics Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto (2021)
Karl Everett	France Gagnon (primary) Michael Wilson	Genetic and epigenetic determinants of apolipoproteins B and A1 plasma levels and their associations with hypercoagulability	Sep 2016 - Aug 2017
Laura Faye	Shelley B. Bull (primary) Lei Sun	Accurate and efficient estimation of genetic effect in genome-wide association and genetic sequencing studies. University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital	Jan 2011 - Jul 2013	Senior Researcher at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) (2021)
Sarah Gagliano	Jo Knight (primary) Andrew Paterson Cathy Barr	Identification of risk variants in genome-wide association studies using functional characteristics University of Toronto Institute of Medical Science, and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Neuroscience Research Department	Sep 2014 - Nov 2015	Assistant Professor, Université de Montréal, Department of Medicine and Department of Neurosciences, Montreal Heart Institute (from July 2020).
Linda Kachuri	Rayjean Hung (primary) Lei Sun Geoffrey LIu	Comprehensive investigation of telomere length and its genetic determinants in cancer risk and clinical outcomes.	Sep 2014 - Aug 2016	Post-doctoral fellow at University of California - San Francisco (2021)
Michael Lerro	France Gagnon (primary) Michael Wilson	Epistatic mechanisms dictating the thrombotic risk factor endogenous thrombin potential University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology	Sep 2016 - Aug 2020
Weili Li	Lisa Strug (primary) Johanna Rommens Rayjean Hung	Developing novel statistical methods under the evidential framework with a focus on analyzing sequence data University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics	Oct 2011 - Aug 2015	Manager of The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) statistical genetics facility (2021)
Dave Soave	Lei Sun (primary) Lisa Strug Johanna Rommens	Predicting cystic fibrosis-related diabetes using longitudinal measures of pancreatic damage from birth for better patient management	Feb 2013 - Aug 2016	Assistant Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University (2021)
Matthew Warkentin	Rayjean Hung (primary) Geoffrey Liu Laurent Briollais	University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Improving lung cancer risk prediction using an epidemiologic, genomic, and radiomic approach	PhD Candidate in Epidemiology at Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto (2021)
Jingxiong (Amelia) Xu	Laurent Briollais (primary) Wei Xu Stephen Lye Rayjean Hung	Analysis of genome-wide G by E interaction studies through Bayesian graphical modeling	Sept 2014 - Aug 2016	PhD in progress (2021)
Nora Zwingerman	France Gagnon (primary) Zdenka Pausova Matthieu Lemire	The association of DNA variants and DNA methylation levels with fibrinolytic protein levels	Jul 2013 - Aug 2015	PhD in progress
Postdoctoral Fellows
	Mentors	STAGE Project Title and Affiliation	Training Dates	Current Position
Christie Burton	Paul Arnold Andrew Paterson Lisa Strug (primary)	Examining the possible role of dopamine and glutamate gene networks in response to inhibition to understand the genetics of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder The Hospital for Sick Children	Feb 2013 - Jan 2015	Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children (2021)
Zhijian (Charlie) Chen	Shelley B. Bull (primary) Radu Craiu Andrew Paterson	Design and analysis of genome-wide studies of complex diseases and traits. Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital	Jan 2011 - Aug 2013	Manager, Model Validation and Approval, Bank of Nova Scotia (2013)
Elizabeth Corfield	Lisa Strug (primary) Andrew Paterson Anne Bassett	Characterizing the genetics of ADHD traits with cognitive deficits in a pediatric community-based sample The Hospital for Sick Children	Dec 2017 - Nov 2018	Researcher, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (2021)
Eileen Crowley	Andrew Paterson (primary) Lisa Strug	Whole exome sequencing of veo-IBD patients from the NEOPICS International Cohort Study The Hospital for Sick Children	Jul 2018 - Jun 2019	Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Clinician Researcher in Pediatric IBD at London Heath Sciences Centre (LHSC) and Assistant Professor, Western University. (2021)
Robbie (Robert) Davies	Stephen Scherer (primary) Andrew Paterson Lisa Strug	Using genetic variants across the allele frequency spectrum to study autism spectrum disorder The Hospital for Sick Children	Jun 2018 - Jul 2019	Associate Professor of Statistical and Population Genomics, University of Oxford (2021)
Gord Fehringer	Laurent Briollais Rayjean Hung (primary) Geoffrey Liu	Genome-wide and post genome-wide studies of lung cancer and head and neck cancer	Jan 2011 - Jan 2012	Linkage Analyst at Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) (2021)
Linda Hiraki	Shelley Bull Andrew Paterson (primary) Zdenka Pausova	Identification of genetic variants associated with renal function in type 1 diabetes. The Hospital for Sick Children	Jul 2013 - June 2015	Staff Physician, Division of Rheumatology, Scientist, Genetics & Genome Biology, SickKids and Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Heath at the University of Toronto (2021)
Yue (Cindy) Jiang	Jayne Danska (primary) Andrew Paterson Lisa Strug	A systems based analytical framework for metatranscriptomic studies of type 1 diabetes The Hospital for Sick Children	Sep 2012 - Aug 2015
Sareh Keshavarzi	Andrew Paterson (primary) France Gagnon Angelo Canty	Multivariate meta genome-wide association of cardiovascular disease risk factors in Type 1 diabetes The Hospital for Sick Children	Sep 2016 - Aug 2018	Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children
Agnieszka Krol	Laurent Briollais (primary)	Development of multistate models for rare variant analysis in familial cancer studies Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Jul 2017 - Nov 2017	Postdoctoral Fellow, AstraZeneca (2021)
Martin Ladouceur	France Gagnon (primary) Mathieu Lemire Arturas Petronis	Statistical models to characterize genome-wide DNA methylation from multigenerational families University of Toronto	Nov 2012 - Dec 2013	Director of Statistics, Senior Research Scientist, Real-World Evidence at Evidera and Adjunct Clinical Professor at Université de Montréal (2021)
Alejandra E. Medina Rivera	France Gagnon Jo Knight Michael Wilson (primary)	Leveraging functional genomics data to enhance GWAS analyses and causal variant identification The Hospital for Sick Children	Sep 2014 - Mar 2015	Research associate at the International Laboratory for Human Genomics, National University of Mexico (2021)
Melissa Miller	France Gagnon Lisa Strug (primary) Johanna Rommens	Identifying Genetic Modifiers of Immunoreactive Trypsinogen Levels in a NBS Population in Cystic Fibrosis The Hospital for Sick Children	Mar 2011-Feb 2014	Director of Human Genetics, Internal Medicine Research Unit, Pfizer (2021)
Saira Mirza	Joanne Knight (primary)	The association between genetic and imaging markers of neurodegeneration across dementias-A data-driven approach Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre	Sep 2016 - Aug 2018	Clinical Research Associate at Sunnybrook (2021)
Vanessa Oliveira	James L. Kennedy (primary) Andrew Paterson Lei Sun	Variability of the DRD4 gene in behavioural phenotypes Centre for Addiction and Mental Health	Sep 2011 - Aug 2013	Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto (2021)
Marie Pigeyre	Guillaume Paré (primary)	Identification of novel biomarkers to predict vascular complications of Type 2 diabetes: A Mendelian Randomization approach McMaster University, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine	Dec 2017 - Jun 2019	Assistant Professor of Medicine, McMaster University (2021)
Razvan Romanescu	Shelley Bull (primary) Irene Andrulis Julia Knight	Pathway-based detection of rare mutations in affected relatives Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Dec 2017 - Jan 2020	Biostatistical Consultant at George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba (2021)
Delnaz Roshandel	Andrew Paterson (primary) Shelley Bull Michael Wilson	Genetics of skin fluorescence: an indicator of long term diabetes complications	Sep 2014 - Aug 2016	Senior Bioinformatician, The Hospital for Sick Children (2021)
Fodé Tounkara	Laurent Briollais (primary) Julia Knight	Extending risk prediction models for hereditary breast ovarian cancer (HBOC) families Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Jul 2018 - Dec 2018	Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Toronto (2021)
Yan Yan Wu	Laurent Briollais (primary) Julia Knight Stephen J. Lye	Development of statistical methods for BMI growth curves estimation and analysis on longitudinal GWAS data in relation to metabolic traits in children Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital	Aug 2012 - Aug 2014	Associate Professor, Office of Public Health Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa (2021)
Lizhen Xu	Wei Xu (primary) Andrew Paterson	Latent variable modeling of longitudinal family microbiome data University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health	Jul 2013 - Oct 2014	Senior Biostatistician, People Health Research Institute, McMaster University (2021)
Yildiz Yilmaz	Irene L. Andrulis Shelley B. Bull (primary) Julia Knight	Statistical methods for molecular genetic analysis of breast cancer Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital	Jan 2011 - May 2013	Associate Professor of Statistics at Memorial University of Newfoundland (2021)
Visiting Faculty
	Mentors	STAGE Project Title and Affiliation	Training Dates	Current Position
Hance Clarke	Jo Knight (primary) Andrew Paterson Michael Wilson	Chronic post surgical pain - A pilot genome-wide association study. University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and University Health Network	Jul 2013 - July 2014	Director of Pain Services and the medical director of the Pain Research Unit at the Toronto General Hospital. Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine at University of Toronto (2021)
Sara Good	Andrew Paterson (primary) Angelo Canty Michael Wilson	Using imputed gene expression values to look for genetic risk factors associated with complications of Type 1 diabetes	Jan 2017 - Dec 2017	Associate Professor, University of Winnipeg (2021)
Marc Woodbury-Smith	Andrew Paterson (primary) Stephen Scherer Lei Sun	Identifying functional rare variants in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) families McMaster University	Jan 2012 - Dec 2013	Clinical Senior Lecturer/Hon Consultant in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University (2021)