Instructors
Dr. Eduardo Taboada is an internationally recognized expert on the molecular epidemiology and genomics of Campylobacter jejuni. In 1999 he completed a Ph.D. in molecular genetics at the University of Ottawa and joined the National Research Council, to work on C. jejuni genomics. Since joining the Public Health Agency of Canada’s as a Research Scientist in 2006, he has developed a research programme focusing on bacterial comparative genomics, genome dynamics and the application of genomics approaches towards the study of the molecular surveillance and epidemiology of priority food- and water-borne bacterial pathogens. He leads the Campylobacter Genomics Laboratory at the National Microbiology Laboratory and is head of the Genomic Epidemiology Research Unit. In addition of being a co-principal investigator of a Genome Alberta-funded project on large-scale sequencing on Campylobacter in the Canadian poultry chain, he is a co-investigator on a Genome Canada-funded project on AMR emergence, transmission and ecology and a work package leader in the Government of Canada’s Genomics Research Development Initiative interdepartmental project on AMR.
My research aim is to develop and collaboratively apply data-driven methods to try and mitigate health and social crises. This is focused on two main areas: genomic epidemiology of infectious diseases and interdisciplinary health data science collaborations with experts in medicine and the social sciences. My genomic epidemiology work involves creating novel microbial bioinformatics and machine learning approaches to better understand the diagnosis, evolution, and dynamics of infectious diseases. This largely involves work with national and international public health consortia on problems related to antimicrobial resistance and, recently, the viral dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. The broader health data science area of my work is more varied and tries to identify and solve the data-related problems of socially/health-focused academics, non-governmental organisations, and public health groups. This includes working with local shelters to identify gaps in provision, physicians to improve healthcare access among refugees, and sociologists exploring online radicalisation. I also actively support and contribute towards the MicroResearch initiative, a multinational community-based program focused on building research capacity in the Global South and under-served Canadian communities.
I hold a jointly-appointed position in the Faculty of Computer Science and the Department of Community Health & Epidemiology (Faculty of Medicine), as well as an adjunct appointment in pathogenomics at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s Shared Hospital Laboratory.
Dr. Brinkman is developing bioinformatic resources to better track infectious diseases using genomic data, and improve prediction of new vaccine/drug targets. Her primary aim is to develop more sustainable, integrated approaches for infectious disease control, however she is also applying her methods to aid allergy and environmental research.
Gabriela is a MSc student in computer sciences at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Fanny Chevalier at the Dynamic Graphics Project, and Dr. Anna Goldenberg’s lab at SickKids Hospital. Her research is grounded in understanding human factors in the design of data- and data-visualization systems in healthcare. She has designed analytics interfaces in both industry and academic settings, and develops tooling in the form of R packages to increase understanding and ease of application of findings through interactive visualizations of the relationships between models and their clinical contexts.
Dr. Bader develops biological network analysis and pathway information resources. He created the Biomolecular Interation Network Database (BIND, http://bind.ca) while working on his PhD and currently helps lead development of the free Cytoscape network visualization and analysis software (http://cytoscape.org/).
Dr. Gary Van Domselaar, PhD (University of Alberta, 2003) is the Chief of the Bioinformatics Laboratory at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg Canada, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Van Domselaar’s lab combines novel analytical systems and advanced visualization systems to research and control disease. His work incorporates metagenomics, infectious disease genomic epidemiology, genome annotation, bacterial population structure analysis, and genome wide association studies to understand and respond to infectious disease threats. His lab leads or co-leads several large scale national and international genomics and bioinformatics collaborations, including the Bioinformatics Workgroup of the Canadian Genomics Research and Development Initiative Interdepartmental Project on Antimicrobial Resistance, and the Genome Canada Integrated Rapid Infectious Disease Analysis (IRIDA) project to develop an integrated computational platform for infectious disease outbreak investigations. Dr. Van Domselaar serves on a number of national and international scientific advisory groups including the Office of Infectious Diseases, US Centers for Disease Control, the Global Coalition for Science and Regulatory Research, the GenEpiO International Consortium, and the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network.
Gregory develops and implements clinical genomic tests focusing on molecular profiling of tumour specimens for Toronto General Hospital and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His PhD from the University of Guelph explored the maize developmental transcriptome, showing how patterns of co-regulation can help us to understand the function of unannotated genes.
My research interests are in next-generation sequencing technologies and pipelines and in better understanding genetic diseases such as cancer. I have a BSc in Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology from the University of Calgary and an MBinf (Bioinformatics) from the University of Guelph. I am currently completing my PhD at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and the University of Toronto.