Staff and Fellows

Kiera Murison, MPH Epidemiology      

 

Yonathan Brhane, MS. Math

 

Renzo Phellan Aro, PhD, Biomedical Engineering 

Renzo received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Calgary in 2020. He worked at Queen’s University as a Postdoctoral fellow between 2021 and 2023. He joined the Prosserman Centre for Population Health Research, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Sinai Health System as an AI Data Scientist in 2023 to develop Artificial Intelligence algorithms for lung nodules classification, under the supervision of Dr. Rayjean Hung. Renzo has experience in the development and application of algorithms in the medical image processing field. His interest is to develop medical software tools that can improve the quality of life of the people.

Elham Khodayari Moez, Ph.D. Epidemiology

Postdoctoral Fellow 

Elham received her Master’s in Biostatistics from Tarbiat Modares University, Iran, and Ph. D. in Epidemiology from the University of Alberta, Canada in 2018. Her research interest is to understand complex genetic mechanisms of human diseases and traits via development and application of advanced bioinformatics tools for omics data. She is currently investigating the genetic modifications underlying the effect of maternal cytomegalovirus infection on the children’s cognitive functions.   She is also working on the pleiotropy of multiple embryonal tumors and predictive modeling based on proteomics data. 

Sanjeev Budhathoki, Ph.D. Epidemiology

Postdoctoral Fellow 

Sanjeev received his PhD in Medical Science from Kyusyu University. He worked at National Cancer Centre of Japan between 2013 and 2018. He joined the Prosserman Centre for Population Health Research, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Sinai Health System as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2019 to pursue advanced training in genomics and molecular epidemiology under the supervision of Dr. Rayjean Hung. Sanjeev has experiences in analyzing longitudinal population cohort data and is interested in understanding cancer etiology through the integration of biologic and environmental factors. In particular, he is currently working on epigenomics and genomics analysis for cancer early detection and developing absolute risk models for upper aero-digestive tract cancers.

Myriam Brossard, Ph.D. Statistical Genetics

Statistical Genomics Science Associate

Myriam holds a PhD in Statistical Genetics from the University Paris-Saclay, France. Her research interest focuses on the development and application of statistical methodologies to disentangle the genetic architecture of complex traits, towards a better understanding of disease etiology and progression. Her research contributions include the development of a joint model of multiple time-to-event traits and multiple longitudinal risk factors for signal mapping. She joined Dr. Rayjean Hung’s research group as a postdoctoral researcher to investigate the impact of germline variation on somatic mutation for head and neck cancers.

Beiwen received her Master of Science in Public Health in Human Nutrition from Johns Hopkins University. Beiwen is currently pursuing her PhD in Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto under Dr. Hung's supervision, and a Doctoral Fellow at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. Her research focuses on lipidomics in cancer risk and prognosis of aerodigestive tract cancers by evidence triangulation using longitudinal cohorts and genetic instruments.

Nina Adler, MHSc, Medical Genomics

Doctoral Fellow

Nina received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Genetics and Master of Health Science in Medical Genomics from the University of Toronto. She previously worked at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, where she explored the functional impact of mutational processes in cancer and has experience working with large genomic and clinical datasets. Her research interests include building risk scores that incorporate both genetic and risk factor information to aid in the prevention and early detection of complex diseases. In particular, Nina will be working on cross-ancestry polygenic risk scores to help bridge the gap in genomics equity using populaton-based biobanks and disease consortium data.

Isabel Kerrebijn, Ms, Bioinformatics

Doctoral Fellow

Isabel completed her Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology and Computer Science, as well as her Master’s degree in Bioinformatics, at the University of Toronto. After working as a data scientist in industry, she has now directed her research efforts towards studying human genetics in relation to brain diseases during the doctoral program, as a member in both Drs. Hung's and Wainberg's research group. Her specific interest lies in identifying potential drug targets within this domain. 

Matthew Warkentin, Ph.D., Epidemiology

Research Scientist

Matt received his MSc in Epidemiology from Brock University and PhD in Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is currently a Research Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. Briefly, his research focuses on the molecular epidemiology of cancers. In particular, his work includes integrating genomics into high-risk stratification models for lung cancer screening, and using deep learning to analyze biomedical images to aid in the clinical-management of screen-detected pulmonary lesions.

Sierra Cheng, MPH Epidemiology

Epidemiology Research Analyst

Sierra holds a Master's degree of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She is working on the case-control study on childhood brain tumor in Ontario and the North American Wilms Tumor Study. Her primary research projects are to investigate the relationship between children’s early life determinants as well as mother’s medical histories with the risk of pediatric tumours.

Catherine Brown, MSc. Epidemiology

Scientific Associate

Cathi received a M.Sc. degree in Epidemiology from McGill University and is a Scientific Associate at the Prosserman Centre for Health Research and UHN. She is coordinating the Childhood Brain Tumour Epidemiology Study of Ontario (CBREO), the clinical outcomes repository for the International Lung Cancer Consortium (COS-ILCCO), and the Collider Bias Mendelian Randomization (CMR) working group.

Samantha Lee, MPH, Epidemiology

Epidemiology Research Analyst

Samantha received her MPH in Epidemiology from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at University of Toronto in 2020, after a practicum placement in Dr. Rayjean Hung’s group. Samantha has experience managing and analyzing longitudinal population data and her primary research interests include pediatric and perinatal epidemiology, as well as communicable/non-communicable disease epidemiology.  In particular, Samantha’s current research involves project coordination and etiological analysis of childhood cancer and birth cohorts.

Jody Wong, HBSc.

Research Coordinator

Jody received her degree in Honours Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and Chemistry from University of Toronto. She has coordinated numerous projects in the past including Vitamin D study, Breast Cancer Study, the multi-centred WECARE Genome Wide Association Study of Radiation Exposure and Bilateral Breast Cancer. She is currently coordinating the Ontario Birth Study Kids for longitudinal follow-up of children's neurodeveopment.

Nadya Adel Khani, M.A, B.A.

OBS Senior Research Assistant

Nadya received her MA in Early Childhood Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University and Bachelor of Child Development at Seneca College. Since 2018 Nadya has worked as a Research Assistant with the Ontario Birth Study Kids team to investigate child health outcomes from pregnancy to birth. Previously, Nadya worked alongside families and children as an Early Childhood Specialist. 

Harmoni Watson, B.A., Clinical Child Psychology

OBS Research Assistant

Harmoni completed her Master’s degree in School and Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Toronto. She is currently working as a research assistant on the Ontario Birth Study Kids team. Harmoni is also using OBS Kids data for her thesis which is examining the mediating role of maternal sensitivity between maternal attachment and child developmental outcomes.  Harmoni is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. 

Tarandeep Malhi, BSc. Life Sciences

OBS Research Assistant

Tarandeep Malhi is a Research Assistant with Ontario Birth Study Kids, who brings over 15 years of experience and passion for working with children and families. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Life Science from Queen's University and is a certified Medical Laboratory Technician. In her spare time, Tarandeep enjoys volunteering within her community, reading, staying active, drinking coffee and growing her plant family.

Czarinah Pisec, HBSc. Psychology

PCPHR Coordinator

Czarinah is the PCPHR Coordinator for the Prosserman Centre for Population Health Research. She received her degree in Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Toronto in 2020. Czarinah has also completed Infection Prevention and Control Program from the Queen’s University. In her current role, she provides administrative and operational support including grant application, meeting coordination and financial assistance.