Diala Abd Rabbo, PhD

Diala obtained her Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Université de Montréal in 2017. Her doctoral thesis focused on studying the properties and hierarchical structures of kinases-phospatases network in yeast. Subsequently, she pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in the Reimand group at OICR, Toronto. Her research was centered on understanding the impact of mutational processes on the gene-regulatory and chromatic architectural elements within the human cancer genome. Since 2019, Diala joined the Brooks lab as a senior bioinformatician. In this role, she specializes in analyzing and interpreting high-throughput single-cell data, including scRNA-Seq, scATAC-Seq, AB-Seq, and spatial transcriptomics. Her contributions extend to the integration of advanced bioinformatics tools, pipeline development, and fostering collaborative efforts with lab members to advance research projects.

Yiyan Wu

Yiyan is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto with the Gaiti lab.

Joan Kant, PhD

Joan obtained her BSc and MSc in Biomedical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. During her studies she became interested in using computational biology/bioinformatics to study cancer. In the Winter of 2022, she moved to Toronto for a 6-month internship in the Gaiti Lab studying cell-cell-communication in glioblastoma using scRNAseq. After her internship, she stayed on in the lab as a Bioinformatics Analyst. More recently, she started to dive into the world of spatial transcriptomics to further study cell-cell-communication.

Alyona Ivanova

I am a graduate student at the University of Toronto pursuing PhD in Medical Sciences under supervision of Dr. Sunit Das. My research focuses on identifying novel therapies for targeting chemo-resistance in glioblastoma - the most prevalent and aggressive primary malignant brain tumour in adults. My primary research site is at the Brain Tumour Research Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children. I work in close collaboration with bioinformaticians, clinicians, neuropathologists, and scientists, bridging the gap between clinical practice and fundamental lab research.

Area of expertise: Spatial Biology, Glioblastoma

Jawairia Atif

Jawairia is a PhD candidate with the MacParland lab who specializes in computational immunology in liver health, hepatocellualr carcinoma, and Hepatitis C virus infection.

Sarah Ebert

Sarah is a 4th year PhD Candidate supervised by Dr. Freda Miller and Dr. Brian MacVicar at the University of British Columbia. Her project focuses around the murine cortical meninges, and she uses a combination of microscopy and spatial transcriptomics/single cell RNAseq. In her down time she loves to head to the mountains around Vancouver for hiking and camping! 

Dina Karamboulas, PhD

Dina is a Research Associate in the Miller/Kaplan Lab at Sickkids. She completed her PhD at UBC in Anatomy and Cell Biology. Over the years she has developed her skills in computational analysis using scRNA-seq, scATAC-seq, scMultiome-seq, Xenium and Merscope analysis to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the developing brain and digit tip regeneration.