Our Team

A McGill graduate in molecular genetics, Nancy joined the lab as a research technician based at the RIMUHC in 1997. Now a research associate, she manages activities at both research sites, handles lab finances, assists with grant applications, and oversees graduate research projects and various other research-related activities such as ethics and biobank management. She also still occasionally dons a lab coat to perform the odd experiment at the RIMUHC site.

Zoulikha is a former Quality Control auditor who joined the group in 2017. She manages projects on diagnosis of breast cancer with liquid biopsy, prostate cancer in carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations and on the creation of a cancer predisposition genetics biobank. She currently coordinates an important pilot study to offer systematic genetic screening to all women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at our hospitals.

José earned a BSc in Biotechnology Engineering in Mexico and joined our research team as a doctoral trainee in the winter of 2020 after obtaining his master’s degree in Genomic Medicine in Manchester, England. His research project focuses on using mutational signatures to classify the pathogenic potential of genetic variants in breast cancer patients with the aim to improve their clinical management.

Hye Rim is a former research assistant from our group who left in 2019 to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Barcelona in Spain under the supervision of our collaborator Barbara Rivera. She has returned to our lab of a 12-month international stage towards completing her PhD in Spain. Her work focuses on deciphering the mechanisms for susceptibility and tumorigenesis in pediatric brain tumors.

Dylan joined our team as an undergraduate while doing his BSc at McGill. He completed multiple research projects with our team and other groups before deciding to pursue medical studies. He is currently enrolled in the Medicine program at University of Montreal while completing a research graduate degree with us with the goal to become a clinician-scientist. He works on elucidating the molecular mechanisms through which inherited mutations in the gene DICER1 lead to DICER1 syndrome.

Fiona came to us with a BSc in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences from McGill University with a specialization in microbiology and molecular biotechnology, and a strong interest in pursuing human genetics research. Her graduate research project aims to identify the genetic lesions involved in the development of multiple primary tumors in several severely affected individuals and their relatives.

Anne-Laure first joined our team as an undergraduate student while completing her BSc at McGill. She completed a research course with our lab and also worked as a summer student. She is now performing functional studies on DICER1 mutations as part of her graduate thesis.

Céline holds graduate degrees in Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Biology and software engineering from France and from Université de Montréal. With over 10 years of experience working in academic research, she is skilled in multiple molecular biology techniques and is also responsible for day-to-day management and technical support of lab activities, fellows and students at the RIMUHC site. She also manages routine activities of our SCCOHT Registry Biobank.

Victoria is a Molecular Biology graduate from Concordia University with research experience from undergraduate projects across multiple specialties. As part of our research team, she currently leads the RIMUHC arm of the CHARM project (cfDNA in Hereditary And High-Risk Malignancies), a Canada-wide study looking at the feasibility of using liquid (blood) biopsies for early cancer diagnosis. She also assists with participant contact and data management for other clinical research studies in our lab.

Melissa recently joined our team to manage our new RIMUHC-based SCCOHT Registry. She holds a BA in Psychology from McGill University and plans to pursue graduate studies in the future. Her specific tasks include optimizing a participant friendly online questionnaire to facilitate study recruitment worldwide, overseeing participant recruitment and coordinating biological sample acquisition into the Registry Biobank with our Research Assistant Céline.

Sophie graduated from Concordia University with a BSc in Cellular and Molecular Biology who aspires to become a Genetic Counsellor. As part of our team, she works in close collaboration with our lead Research Genetic Counsellor to recruit research study participants, acquire patient samples and maintain participant records for our genetic research studies.