Surgeon Scientist Training Program Profiles 2021-2022

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Michael G. Fehlings
Research Focus:  Investigate diagnostic and prognostic value of diffusion tensor imaging among other MRI techniques in traumatic/non-traumatic cervical spine myelopathy

Degree working towards: PhD(IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisors: Drs. Nancy Baxter and Adena Scheer
Research Focus: Delays to diagnosis and treatment in young adults with colorectal cancer

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Urology
Princess Margaret Cancer Care, University Health Network 
Supervisors: Drs. Antonio Finelli and Murray Krahn 
Research Focus:  Decreasing the burden of prostate cancer management through novel methods of early detection

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisors: Drs. Bettina Hansen, Gonzalo Sapisochin and Steven Gallinger
Research Focus: The rising incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and their surgical outcomes

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisors: Drs. Christopher Forrest and Beate Sander
Research Focus: Economic Evaluation of Cleft Lip and/or Palate in Ethiopia

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery
Mount Sinai Hospital
Supervisor: Dr. Carol Swallow
Research Focus: Colorectal cancer, histopathology, molecular markers, recurrence, survival 

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisor: Drs. Duminda Wijeysundera and Nancy Baxter
Research Focus: Preoperative assessment and risk prediction in older patients undergoing major surgery

Degree working towards: PhD (Physiol)
Division: Cardiac Surgery
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Drs. Anthony Gramolini and Maral Ouzounian
Research Focus: Proteomic characterization of hereditary thoracic aortopathy: Towards personalized prognostication and surgical thresholds

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery
Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Lab - MaRS TMDT
Supervisor: Dr. Kazuhiro Yasufuku
Research Focus: Lung cancer; sentinel node mapping; nanoparticles; surgical technology

Degree working towards: PhD (BME)
Division: General Surgery
Princess Margaret Cancer Care, University Health Network 
Supervisor: Drs. Gang Zheng and Fayez Quereshy 
Research Focus: Developing nanomedicines for applications in colorectal cancer, including image-guided surgery and photodynamic therapy.

Degree working towards:PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Drs. Michael G. Fehlings and Charles H. Tator 
Research Interests: Spinal cord injury, glutamate signaling, neural stem cells, regeneration 

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Drs. Avery Nathens and Barbara Haas
Research Focus: Understanding preventable errors in trauma and surgical care and developing strategies for safer healthcare systems

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Orthopaedics
Women's College Hospital
Supervisors: Drs. Jas Chahal and Aileen Davis
Research Focus: Improving treatment options and patient selection in those with young adult hip disorders

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Vascular Surgery
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisor(s): Drs. Mohammed Al-Omran and Charles de Mestral
Research Focus: Contemporary management of peripheral arterial disease in the Province of Ontario

Degree working towards: PhD (LMP)
Division: Neurosurgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. Michael D. Taylor
Research Focus: Identifying genetic events that drive medulloblastoma metastasis in preclinical models using in vivo CRISPR screens and single cell RNA-sequencing technologies

Degree working towards: MSc (IMS)
Division: Urology
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisor: Dr. Monica Farcas
Research Focus: Novel ultrasound technologies for urologic applications

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Victor Yang
Research Focus: Cerebral aneurysms, endovascular treatment, novel treatment techniques

Degree working towards: PhD(IMS)
Division: Vascular Surgery
TGH-UHN
Supervisor(s): Dr. Thomas Lindsay & Dr. Maral Ouzounian
Research Focus: Spinal cord ischemia

Degree working towards: MASc(BME)
Division: Orthopaedic Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Cari Whyne
Research Focus: Machine Learning to Predict and Optimize Resource Allocation for Orthopaedic Patients

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery
Mount Sinai Hospital
Supervisor: Dr. Carol Swallow
Research Focus: Gastric cancer, cancer recurrence and metastasis

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Ivan Radovanovic 
Research Focus: Understanding the safety and efficacy of targeted MEK inhibitors on the angioarchitecture, molecular biology and clinical progression of arteriovenous malformations through clinical trials. This is within a larger focus of exploring molecular and genetic alterations in neurovascular conditions.

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery
Princess Margaret Cancer Care, University Health Network
Supervisor(s): Drs. Michael Reedijk and Carol Swallow
Research Focus: The role of hedgehog signaling in basal-like breast cancer and the tumor microenvironment

Degree working towards: PhD (BME)
Division: Cardiovascular Surgery
TMDT, University Health Network
Supervisors: Drs. Gordon Keller and Michael Laflamme
Research Focus: 1) Generation of the cardiac valve lineage from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs); 2) Cardiac cell therapy using hPSC-derived cells

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS) 
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital - University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Michael G. Fehlings  
Research Focus: To study the epidemiology of spinal cord injury and identify influential factors present in improved clinical outcomes. Findings could be used  to create quality improvement strategies that would standardize care and allow for improved delivery of time sensitive therapies.

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: Cardiovascular Surgery
Princess Margaret Cancer Care, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Bo Wang
Research Focus: Using artificial intelligence for the automated measurement and interpretation of cardiac structure and function parameters from echocardiograms for patients with aortic valvular disease to increase speed and accuracy in measurement

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Otolaryngology
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Drs. Natalie Coburn and Antoine Eskander
Research Focus: Symptom Burden as a Predictor of Emergency Room Visits and Unplanned Hospitalizations in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. Joel Fish 
Research Focus: Outcomes of multimodal therapy for keloids and hypertrophic scarring

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Vascular Surgery
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor(s): Drs. Jason Fish and Kathryn Howe
Research Focus: Determining the role of endothelial activation on microRNA communication within atherosclerotic plaque: Towards the identification of a novel therapeutic target in carotid disease

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisors: Drs. Brian Feldman and Dimitri Anastakis
Research Focus: Peripheral nerve surgery, hand surgery, clinical outcome research, clinical epidemiology, cold sensitivity, craniofacial surgery

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisor: Dr. Nancy Baxter
Research Focus: Fall-Related and Thermal Injuries in Patients with Colorectal Cancer Treated with Oxaliplatin

Degree working towards: PhD (BME)
Division & Institution: Neurosurgery 
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisors: Drs. George Ibrahim and James Drake
Research Focus: The application of focused ultrasound for the treatment of epilepsy

Degree working towards: PhD (LMP)
Division: Neurosurgery 
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisors: Drs. James T. Rutka and Howard Lesiuk, UO
Research Focus: Reprogramming glioblastoma metabolism as a novel therapeutic strategy

Degree working towards: Postdoctoral Fellow (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery 
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Victor Yang
Research Focus:

Degree working towards:  PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Gelareh Zadeh
Research Focus:  Proteogenomics of matched primary to recurrent GBMs to facilitate molecular classification and identify novel therapeutic targets

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division & Institution: General Surgery 
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Paul Karanicolas
Research Focus: Defining optimal data sources for pragmatic clinical trials

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
TMDT, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Gelareh Zadeh
Research Focus: Genomics of clinically aggressive meningiomas.  We will be using novel molecular biology techniques to predict the clinical behaviour of meningiomas and developing non-invasive methods of diagnosing brain tumours

Degree working towards: PhD (BME)
Division: Neurosurgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. George Ibrahim
Research Focus:  Adaptive intracranial neurostimulation to rescue attention deficits in children with epilepsy

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor(s): Drs. Barbara Haas and Andrew Beckett
Research Focus: Long-term functional outcomes of geriatric trauma patients; Pre-hospital use of freeze-dried plasma in hemorrhagic shock

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery 
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Drs. Tom Waddell and Siba Haykal
Research Focus: Composite Allografts, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells, Organ Regeneration 

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME) 
Division: Neurosurgery 
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisors: Drs. George Ibrahim and Abhaya Kulkarni
Research Focus: Pediatric functional neurosurgery, medical education, clinical design

Degree working towards: PhD (Molecular Genetics)
Division & Institution: Neurosurgery 
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. Peter Dirks
Research Focus: Glioma stem cells and glioma genesis

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS) 
Division: Neurosurgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre 
Supervisor: Dr. Victor Yang
Research Focus: Intraoperative imaging and surgical navigation in skull base. Engineering of a high-speed drill with frameless stereotactic navigation, and integration of the drill to the current state-of-the-art navigation system. Further integration will be conducted with systems which allow for mapping of the brain function and vasculature to add an element of safety to drill operations in skull base.

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Princes Margaret Cancer Care, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Gelareh Zadeh
Research Focus: Neuro-oncology, cancer epigenomics, DNA methylation, brain metastases