CANSSI Ontario STAGE: Fall 2022 Cohort Announced

TORONTO, ON. — CANSSI Ontario STAGE (STAGE) is pleased to announce a new cohort of trainees selected to receive mentorship and to work in research projects that span phenotype and rare variants, the modelling of musician genome, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.

STAGE offers training and career development opportunities designed to cross-train individuals at the interface of genetics and population health sciences in genetic epidemiology and statistical genetics—two disciplines currently facing a shortage of qualified individuals in Canada and elsewhere.

We are delighted to welcome and congratulate four incoming PhD trainees:

1. Jianhui Gao, Department of Statistical Science, University of Toronto
   Mentors: Jesse Gronsbell (primary), Andrew D. Paterson, and Lei Sun
   Project: Novel statistical methods for conducting genome wide association test between erroneous phenotype and rare variants
2. Tara Henechowicz, Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory and Collaborative Program in Neuroscience, University of Toronto; Vanderbilt Music Cognition Laboratory, Vanderbilt University
   Mentors: Daniel Felsky (primary) and Jun Young Park 
   Project: Investigating the pleiotropy of motor training, and neuroendophenotypes through modelling the musician genome and transcriptome
3. Yuan Tian, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto
   Mentors: Jun Young Park (primary), Jesse Gronsbell , and Daniel Felsky
   Project: A novel mediation analysis pipeline to leverage high-dimensional and multimodal MRI as mediators in Alzheimer’s disease GWAS
4. Beiwen Wu, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
   Mentors: Rayjean Hung (primary), Geoffrey Liu, and Celia Greenwood
   Project: Comprehensive investigation of lipidomics in the risk and prognosis of aerodigestive tract (ADT) cancers by evidence triangulation

Jianhui, Tara, Yuan, and Beiwen, along with information about their background and research projects, are featured in these news releases about the awards:

Jianhui | Tara | Yuan | Beiwen