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Dr. Marie Hudson Biography
12 July 2020 Par David Queen

Dr. Marie Hudson is a rheumatologist, epidemiologist, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University. She is a physician-scientist and member of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies at the Jewish General Hospital. She is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada and is funded as a New Investigator by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). 

Major Research Activities

Dr Hudson pursues research in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases. In particular, she is one of the founding members of the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group (CSRG), a CIHR-funded, multi-centre group of researchers that follows a cohort of over 1000 SSc patients across Canada. She has published landmark studies documenting the magnitude of impairment in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with scleroderma. She is particularly interested in scleroderma lung disease, its natural history, its optimal treatment, and its impact on HRQoL. Dr Hudson is also involved in a number of studies in other rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and inflammatory myositis. In particular, she is a co-investigator on a large Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) funded study to develop a new integrated database and biospecimen tracking system for systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases in order to support future cross-disease studies.

She is the recipient of the 2011 Canadian Rheumatology Association Young Investigator Award.

Recent Publications

Hudson M, Baron M, Lo E, Weinfeld J, Furst D, Khanna D. An international, web-based, prospective cohort study to determine if the use of ACE inhibitors prior to the onset of scleroderma renal crisis is associated with worse outcome – methodology and preliminary results. International J Rheumatol 2010; doi:10.1155/2010/347402.

Hudson M, Fritzler MJ, Baron M. Systemic sclerosis: Establishing diagnostic criteria. Medicine (Baltimore) 2010; 89(3): 159-65.

Hudson M, Thombs BD, Steele R, Panopalis P, Newton E, Baron M, Canadian Scleroderma Research Group. Health-related quality of life in Systemic Sclerosis: A systematic review. Arthritis Rheum 2009; 61(8): 1112-20.

 

 

Dr. Celia M.T. Greenwood Biography
11 July 2020 Par David Queen

Senior Investigator, Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Lady Davis Institute
Associate Professor, Department of Oncology, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, and Division of Cancer Epidemiology, McGill University

 

Dr. Greenwood joined the LDI from the Hospital for Sick Children and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Toronto. She is a statistician with an interest in methodology for the analysis of genetic and genomic data. Her methodological work spans family studies looking for patterns of inheritance of disease-causing genes, case-control studies looking for associations between anonymous markers and disease status, gene expression studies examining differences between patient groups or tissues, and estimation of copy number variation in the genome. Some of the theoretical work developed by her students includes: a haplotype estimation algorithm using hidden Markov models, a flexible method for estimating disease-gene relationships in sparse data using Dirichlet process mixtures, and tree-based models for estimating the evidence for linkage in the presence of heterogeneity.
 
She led the statistical analysis team in a genome-wide association study of colorectal cancer, where a new locus was identified conferring increased risk. In the context of that study, the team proposed, and used, a novel stratified method for assessing false discovery rates, and developed a computationally-efficient method for empirically estimating large numbers of p-values for haplotype-disease associations.
 
Major Research Activities
 
For many years, Dr. Greenwood has been working on issues of data quality and measurement in genomic data, and how measures of quality can be developed and used to improve the detection of important signals in high-throughput genomic data. In particular, one focus of this research has been in data integration, where information from different experiments is combined to improve prediction performance or signal detection. 
 
Recent Publications
 
Pingzhao Hu, Celia MT Greenwood, Joseph Beyene. Using the ratio of means as the effect size measure in combining results of microarray experiments. BMC Systems Biology 2009, 3:106. doi:10.1186/1752-0509-3-106.
 
Babak Shahbaba, Andrew J Gentles. Joseph Beyene, Sylvia K. Plevritis, Celia M.T. Greenwood (2009). A Bayesian nonparametric method for model evaluation. Journal of Nonparametric Statistics, 21(2): 379-396.

Celia MT Greenwood, Shuying Sun, Justin Veenstra, Nancy Hamel, Bethany Niell, Stephen Gruber, William D Foulkes (2010). How old is this mutation? A study of three Ashkenazi Jewish founder mutations. BMC Genetics 11:39.
 
Dr. Deborah Assayag Biography
10 July 2020 Par David Queen

Junior Scientist, RI-MUHC , Montreal General Hospital
Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program
Centre for Innovative Medicine
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University
Department of Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine, MUHC

My research focuses on interstitial lung diseases (ILD), a group of progressive, devastating lung diseases characterized by inflammation and scarring (fibrosis) of the lung tissue. The burden of disease is heavy: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the most devastating form of ILD, has a median survival of only three to five years. The incidence and societal burden of ILD are increasing over time. Unfortunately, the right diagnosis is often initially missed or delayed, which will affect long term prognosis. Certain medications have been shown to slow the decline in lung function, but differences in treatment initiation can occur for reasons that remain largely unknown. My research program aims to identify discrepancies and delays in the care of patients with ILD from diagnosis to management, identify the risk factors for those delays, predict disease progression and explore the use of certain medications in understudied populations.

Selected Publications


Click on Pubmed to see my current pub

 

Dr. Marika Sarfati Biography
15 June 2020 Par Carole Comtois

Biography

Dr. Marika Sarfati, MD, PhD, is Director of the Immunoregulation Laboratory at the CHUM Research Centre, and Full Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Montreal.

Laboratory staff

  • Marwa Bast, PhD student
  • Laurence Anne Chapuy, PhD student
  • Heena Mehta, Research Associate
  • Amélie Therrien, MSc student
  • Shunya Mashiko, Research Assistant
  • Manuel Rubio, Research Assistant

Themes

Chronic inflammatory skin diseases (psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, scleroderma).

Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis).

Allergic diseases.

Research topic

Characterization and function of innate immune cells and T lymphocytes in tissue of patients with chronic inflammatory diseases.

Dr. Heena Mehta Biography
11 June 2020 Par David Queen

Scientist seeking to employ my hands-on extensive research experience in infectious diseases, vaccines and autoimmunity in the healthcare industry.

  • Independent researcher with strong communication, writing and people managements skills
  • Multi-tasker-management of different research projects, training of graduate students along
    with paperwork required to maintain compliance with institutional research animal care
    regulations.
  • Clinically oriented research experience places me in a unique position to interact effectively
    with both clinicians and scientists from diverse backgrounds including immunology,
    dermatology, rheumatology, gastroenterology and allergy specialists.
  • Enthusiastic learner and ready to take on high risk projects.

Burlington, Ontario, May 27, 2019 – Results from a pivotal Phase III SENSCIS® trial met its primary endpoint: reduction in the annual rate of decline in forced vital capacity (FVC) in patients with systemic sclerosis associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a key driver of mortality in people living with systemic sclerosis (SSc) – also known as scleroderma – and the absence of treatment options constitutes a high unmet need.

Results show that nintedanib slows the loss of pulmonary function in patients with SSc-ILD compared to placebo. Patients taking nintedanib showed a 44% reduction in the rate of decline of their lung function, measured in FVC assessed over 52 weeks. These new data were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)  and presented simultaneously to the medical community at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference on May 20th in Dallas.

 

Dr. David Robinson Biography
27 September 2019 Par David Queen

2017 Teacher-Educator Award

Dr. David Robinson completed his BSc at the University of Winnipeg, and his MSc in Physiology at the University of Manitoba. He then completed medical school, internal medicine training and rheumatology training at the University of Manitoba.  Following that he started work as a Rheumatologist at the University of Manitoba.

As a clinician educator David has a large tertiary care practice. In addition to clinical teaching, he has held a number of education positions including Postgraduate Program Director for 10 years and Undergraduate Medical Director for Rheumatology at the University of Manitoba for more than 15 years. He has been active in CME activities as well as public education through the Arthritis Society. He has served as Vice-chair of the Royal College Specialty Committee for Rheumatology for 6 years and following that has been Chair of the Committee since 2012.

In addition to teaching, David is a member of both the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group and Canadian Network on Research in Vasculitides.   He also has a great interest in rheumatic diseases in First Nations. This involves outreach clinics in Northern Manitoba caring for First nations patients. In collaboration with his colleagues in Manitoba, David is also involved in research on the etiology and outcomes of rheumatic disease in First Nations.

Eighth Quarter Report – May 2019
6 August 2019 Par David Queen

Eighth Quarter Report – May 2019

 

This Project is a hypothesis-generating study for the control of lung damage in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and both lung and skin damage in systemic scleroderma (SSc) patients either with or without interstitial lung disease (ILD). Enrolment of SSc patients with and without ILD to provide blood and skin tissue samples was completed during the first quarter at the end of August 2017 with samples stored in The Scleroderma Biobank at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.  Enrolment of patients with IPF and normal controls was completed by mid-November 2017.   Skin-fibroblast extraction and growth from skin samples (from all but the IPF patients from whom no skin samples were taken due to ethical reasons as their skin is not affected) were completed and stored in the Biobank before the Christmas 2017 break.  With some extra efforts by laboratory staff, extraction of miRNA from all five tissue types was completed by mid-April 2018 but miRNA extraction was not sufficient in the fifth tissue for whole genome sequencing (WGS) without additional processing by the laboratory and so this was placed on indefinite hold due to cost. A sixth tissue remains stored in the Biobank because its miRNA can be amplified for miRNA WGS but at additional cost.

 

After receiving frozen tissue-samples from the laboratory at St. Paul’s Hospital on 16 May 2018, the British Columbia Genome Sciences Centre (BCGSC) provided miRNA sequencing data on 92 samples on 26 July 2018, another 92 samples on 7 Aug 2018, and the last 92 samples on 2 Jan 2019.  All 276 samples comprise 3 tissue-types, with some duplicates, from 11 limited SSc-ILD patients, 12 diffuse SSc-ILD patients, 9 patients with limited SSc only, 5 patients with diffuse SSc only, 19 patients with IPF, and 16 control participants. Quality control assessments on the last 92 samples were completed on 17 Feb 2019, at which point the Project was eight months behind schedule.  As of 21 May 2019, the list of novel miRNA’s in the 3 tissue-types has yet to be received from BCGSC so the Project is eleven months behind schedule and counting.  Nevertheless, March 2019 saw the start, in earnest, of comprehensive statistical analysis of the miRNA WGS data inclusive of seeking to generate hypotheses for the role of known miRNA’s in lung and skin damage (and in particular, calcium deposits in the skin). While the details of the results cannot be presented until completion of independent review by other scientists, the results have been judged so successful by the scientific research team that recruitment of a second cohort of patients and controls has already begun in order to verify the results that have been found thus far.  We look forward to seeing how the novel miRNA’s fit into the picture and are eager to receive this data.  Results will be made available the SABC membership and general public as soon as they emerge from the scientific-review process.

 

University researchers involved in this project are Drs. James Dunne, Chris Ryerson, and Pearce Wilcox of The University of British Columbia and Dr. Kevin Keen of both The University of British Columbia and The University of Northern British Columbia. Rounding out the Leadership Team are Ms. Rosanne Queen and Mr. Robert Buzza for the Scleroderma Association of BC.

Seventh Quarter Report – February 2019

This Project is a hypothesis-generating study for the control of lung damage in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and both lung and skin damage in systemic scleroderma (SSc) patients either with or without interstitial lung disease (ILD). Enrolment of SSc patients with and without ILD to provide blood and skin tissue samples was completed during the first quarter at the end of August 2017 with samples stored in The Scleroderma Biobank at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Enrolment of patients with IPF and normal controls was completed by mid-November 2017. Skin-fibroblast extraction and growth from skin samples (from all but the IPF patients from whom no skin samples were taken due to ethical reasons as their skin is not affected) were completed and stored in the Biobank before the Christmas 2017 break. With some extra efforts by laboratory staff, extraction of miRNA from all five tissue types was completed by mid-April 2018 but miRNA extraction was not sufficient in the fifth tissue for whole genome sequencing (WGS) without additional processing by the laboratory and so this was placed on indefinite hold due to cost. A sixth tissue remains stored in the Biobank because its miRNA can be amplified for miRNA WGS but at additional cost. 

After receiving frozen tissue-samples from the laboratory at St. Paul’s Hospital, on May 16 2018, the British Columbia Genome Sciences Centre (BCGSC) provided miRNA sequencing data on 92 samples on July 26 2018, another 92 samples on August 7 2018, and the last 92 samples on January 2 2019. Quality control assessments on the last 92 samples were completed on February 17 2019, at which point the Project was eight months behind schedule. All 276 samples comprise three tissue-types, with some duplicates, from 11 limited SSc-ILD patients, 12 diffuse SSc-ILD patients, 9 patients with limited SSc only, 5 patients with diffuse SSc only, 19 patients with IPF, and 16 control participants. A limited experiment with 4 samples and 2 different tissues to examine a new procedure for amplifying miRNA for WGS was initiated in December 2018 with promising results in late February 2019, inclusive of a cross-comparison with the expression of 750 miRNA’s as measured on the NanoString platform in October 2018 for 3 different tissue types. The third tissue type examined on the NanoString platform in October was blood serum for the purpose of verifying 3 different methods for preparing serum. The least expensive method for blood serum was deemed the best for NanoString.

March 2019 will see the start, in earnest by researchers, of comprehensive statistical analysis of the miRNA WGS data inclusive of seeking to understand the role of miRNA’s in skin damage and calcinosis.

University researchers involved in this project are Drs. James Dunne, Chris Ryerson, and Pearce Wilcox of The University of British Columbia and Dr. Kevin Keen of both The University of British Columbia and The University of Northern British Columbia. Rounding out the Leadership Team are Ms. Rosanne Queen and Mr. Robert Buzza for the Scleroderma Association of B.C.

Sixth Quarter Report – November 2018

This Project is a hypothesis-generating study for the control of lung damage in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and lung and skin damage in systemic scleroderma (SSc) patients with or without interstitial lung disease (ILD). Enrolment of SSc patients with and without ILD to provide blood and skin tissue samples was completed during the first quarter at the end of August 2017 with samples stored in The Scleroderma Biobank at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Enrolment of patients with IPF and normal controls was completed by mid-November 2017.  Skin-fibroblast extraction and growth from skin samples (from all but the IPF patients from whom no skin samples were taken due to ethical reasons as their skin is not affected) were completed and stored in the Biobank before the Christmas 2017 break. With some extra efforts by laboratory staff to harvest sufficient miRNA for two of the tissues, extraction of miRNA from all five tissue types was completed by mid-April 2018 but miRNA extraction was not sufficient in the fifth tissue for whole genome sequencing (WGS) without additional processing by the laboratory and so this was placed on indefinite hold due to cost. A sixth tissue remains stored in the Biobank because its miRNA cannot be amplified for miRNA WGS, also for cost reasons, but will be analyzed by NanoString miRNA expression chemistry.

After receiving frozen tissue-samples from the laboratory at St. Paul’s Hospital on May 16 2018, the British Columbia Genome Sciences Centre (BCGSC) provided miRNA sequencing data on 92 samples on July 26 2018 and another 92 samples on August 7 2018. After completing quality control checks for miRNA sequencing for these 184 samples in mid-November and combining a few samples, a further 13 tissue- samples were shipped on November 27 2018 to BCGSC to complete the third set. All 276 samples comprise 3 tissue-types, with some duplicates, from 11 limited SSc-ILD patients, 12 diffuse SSc-ILD patients, 9 patients with limited SSc only, 5 patients with diffuse SSc only, 19 patients with IPF, and 16 control participants. Progress has been affected by vacations understandably taken by laboratory staff during August and November. All will be taking vacations in December. It is expected to receive the miRNA sequences for the last 92 samples and to complete all quality control checks by the end of January 2019.

After training of laboratory staff, two cartridges were processed as a developmental test of the NanoString platform for miRNA expression analysis in October. The first cartridge failed due to a manufacturing defect and a second replacement cartridge plus reagents were provided by NanoString at no extra cost but the samples on the first cartridge were unfortunately lost. The NanoString technology was successfully validated on 3 tissue types in samples from 3 participants, inclusive of verifying 3 different methods for preparing samples of blood serum. Ironically, the least expensive method for blood serum was deemed the best for NanoString.

University researchers involved in this project are Drs. James Dunne, Chris Ryerson, and Pearce Wilcox of The University of British Columbia and Dr. Kevin Keen of both The University of British Columbia and The University of Northern British Columbia. Rounding out the Leadership Team are Ms. Rosanne Queen and Mr. Robert Buzza for the Scleroderma Association of B.C.

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