CANSSI Ontario STAGE Welcomes PhD Trainee Eric Sanders

Eric Sanders, recipient of CANSSI Ontario STAGE Trainee Program.

CANSSI Ontario STAGE is pleased to announce Eric Sanders as one of two selected CANSSI Ontario STAGE Trainees.

Eric is a PhD student in the Division of Biostatistics at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, currently working under the supervision of Lisa Strug, Linbo Wang and Deb Pal. His work is centered on the statistical genetics of sex-dependent phenotypes.

With publications on juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, breast cancer risk in Canada, and avian influenza virus surveillance, Eric brings a robust research portfolio to his studies. Before embarking on his doctoral journey, he earned a Master’s of Science from the University of British Columbia and was honoured with the Nellie & Ralph Jeffery Award in Mathematics at Queen’s University.

Eric’s CANSSI Ontario STAGE project aims to improve modern tools for post-GWAS analysis of sex-dependent traits, with applications investigating the genetics of Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy (JME). Eric’s research is motivated by the established variation in sub-phenotypes between sexes, and the realization that many contemporary methods for post-GWAS analysis for fine mapping and data integration are not optimized for analysis of sex-dependent traits.