CIHR STAGE Trainees are the graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and visiting faculty enrolled in the program.

Trainees

	Mentors	Affliliation(s)	Project Title	Admitted Date
PhD Students
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
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	Dec 2017
Sangook Kim	Lisa Strug (primary) Shelley Bull Johanna Rommens Anne Stephenson	University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health 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
Osvaldo Espin-Garcia	Shellley Bull (primary) Wei Xu Andrew Paterson Geoffrey Liu	University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Biostatistics, and Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital	Integrative methods for design and analysis of genetic association studies	Sept 2016
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	Sept 2016
Michael Lerro	France Gagnon (primary) Michael Wilson	University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology	Epistatic mechanisms dictating the thrombotic risk factor endogenous thrombin potential	Sept 2016
Postdoctoral Fellows
	Mentors	Affliliation(s)	Project Title	Admitted Date
Robert Davies	Stephen Scherer (primary) Andrew Paterson Lisa Strug	The Hospital for Sick Children	Using genetic variants across the allele frequency spectrum to study autism spectrum disorder	July 2018
Eileen Crowley	Andrew Paterson (primary) Lisa Strug	The Hospital for Sick Children	Whole exome sequencing of veo-IBD patients from the NEOPICS International Cohort Study	July 2018
Fode Tounkara	Laurent Briollais (primary) Julia Knight	Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Extending risk prediction models for hereditary breast ovarian cancer (HBOC) families	July 2018
Elizabeth Corfield	Lisa Strug (primary) Andrew Paterson Anne Bassett	The Hospital for Sick Children	Characterizing the genetics of ADHD traits with cognitive deficits in a pediatric community-based sample	Dec 2017
Marie Pigeyre	Guillaume Pare (primary)	McMaster University, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine	Identification of novel biomarkers to predict vascular complications of Type 2 diabetes: A Mendelian Randomization approach	Dec 2017
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
Razvan Romanescu	Shelley Bull (primary) Irene Andrulis Julia Knight	Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute	Pathway-based detection of rare mutations in affected relatives	Dec 2017
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
Saira Mirza	Joanne Knight (primary)	Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre	The association between genetic and imaging markers of neurodegeneration across dementias-A data-driven approach	Sept 2016
Sareh Keshavarzi	Andrew Paterson (primary) France Gagnon Angelo Canty	The Hospital for Sick Children	Multivariate meta genome-wide association of cardiovascular disease risk factors in Type 1 diabetes	Sept 2016
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Alumni

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	Rheumatology fellow at Mount Sinai Hospital
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
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	Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI, NIH
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	Acting Manager, Joint Replacement and Multiple Sclerosis Studies, Canadian Institute for Health Information
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	Postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University
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	Sept 2014 - Nov 2015	Postdoctoral fellow at University of Michigan School of Public Health
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
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
Linda Kachuri	Rayjean Hung (primary) Lei Sun Geoffrey LIu	Comprehensive investigation of telomere length and its genetic determinants in cancer risk and clinical outcomes.	Sept 2014 - Aug 2016	Post-doctoral fellow at University of California - San Francisco
Nora Zwingerman	France Gagnon (primary) Zdenka Pausova Matthieu Lemire	The association of DNA variants and DNA methylation levels with fibrinolytic protein levels	July 2013 - Aug 2015	PhD in progress
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
Karl Everett	France Gagnon (primary) Michael Wilson	Genetic and epigenetic determinants of apolipoproteins B and A1 plasma levels and their associations with hypercoagulability	Sept 2016 - Aug 2017
Postdoctoral Fellows
	Mentors	STAGE Project Title and Affiliation	Training Dates	Current Position
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
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	Scientific Associate, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
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	Lead biostatistician, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal
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	Manager, Applied Human Genetics, Pfizer
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	Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
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	Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences University of Hawaii at Manoa
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	Biostatistician, The Center for Applied Genomics The Hospital for Sick Children
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	Assistant Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland
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	Clinician scientist in the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Pediatrics, Sick Kids
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	Sept 2014 - Mar 2015	Research associate at the International Laboraroty for Human Genomics, National University of Mexico
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	Sept 2012 - Aug 2015
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
Delnaz Roshandel	Andrew Paterson (primary) Shelley Bull Michael Wilson	Genetics of skin fluorescence: an indicator of long term diabetes complications	Sept 2014 - Aug 2016
Agnieszka Krol	Laurent Briollais (primary)	Development of multistate models for rare variant analysis in familial cancer studies	July 2017 - Nov 2017
Visiting Faculty
	Mentors	STAGE Project Title and Affiliation	Training Dates	Current Position
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	Assistant Professor, McMaster University
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	Staff anesthesiologist and the Medical Director of the Pain Research Unit at the Toronto General Hospital
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 Manitoba
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