Current Members
Dr. Arun Ramani
Scientific Director
Arun’s curious nature to understand how and why things work has propelled him to a career in research. He holds a PhD in cellular and molecular biology, and joined the CCM team in 2014 to apply his skills in biology with computation and statistics. His main interests include gene regulation, and analysis of -omics data sets. He is currently involved in developing pipelines for the analysis of these data sets to understand rare diseases. He spends most of his spare time with his family and hanging out with his young son. One of his favourite pastimes is cycling, especially long bike rides exploring the country. His other pleasures include books, music, food and cooking.
Dr. Andrei Turinsky
Senior Research Associate
Andrei is a mathematician and computer scientist who is happy to apply his skills in medical research. His main interest is to search for patterns in genetic disease data by using various statistical and computational methods. He has many years of experience in data analysis and bioinformatics, and has managed several large-scale, multi-team research projects. His typical tasks involve developing computational software, writing research papers, collaborating with other biomedical teams, supervising students, and teaching. Andrei holds a PhD in mathematical computer science. His top pursuits outside SickKids are outdoor activities, working as a medical first responder, and watching too many indie movies.
Rob Naccarato
Senior Manager and Systems Architect
Rob is a Senior Manager of the hospital’s High Performance Computing Facility and the Technical Director of the HPC4Health at The Hospital for Sick Children. He is an experienced performance manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. Rob is skilled in high performance computing, networking and storage, Isilon, Ceph, OpenStack and Unix. He is an engineering professional with a diploma, high honours focused in computer systems analysis/analyst.
Lauren Erdman
Data Science Project Manager
Lauren Erdman is the Project Manager for the new Data Science group within the CCM and a PhD student in computer science at the University of Toronto (U of T) under the supervision of Anna Goldenberg. Previously, she completed a M.Sc. in computer science and a M.Sc. in biostatistics at U of T under the supervision of Anna Goldenberg and Lisa Strug, respectively. Her research is primarily focused on developing and applying machine learning methods for data integration and improved translational discovery in the areas of population genetics, genome biology, and complex disease. More recently, Lauren has become involved in the development of clinical decision support systems for Canadian hospitals. She is excited to see what opportunities the availability of larger data, increasingly digital medical records, and powerful predictive algorithms will open up for improving clinical care.
Dr. Sam Khalouei
Bioinformatician
Sam received his honours B.Sc. from the University of Toronto in computer science and human biology and his M.Sc. from the University of Ottawa in bioinformatics. He then moved back to the University of Toronto to complete his PhD studies. During his post-doctoral fellowship, Sam carried out next-generation sequencing library preparation and bioinformatics pipeline design and implementation. He joined the CCM in July of 2016 and has been involved in different projects from bioinformatics pipelines development to analysis of genetic variation data. In his spare time Sam enjoys reading, photography, and painting.
Dr. Alper Celik
Bioinformatician
Alper received his B.Sc. in molecular biology and economics from Brown University and his PhD in bioinformatics from University of Massachusetts Medical School. His thesis work focused on regulation and substrate selection of mRNA decay pathways and their interactions with the translation machinery. In addition to his thesis work, Alper has been involved in several projects in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital investigating the effects of mindfulness interventions in physician burnout by analyzing survey and smartwatch data. He joined the CCM in August of 2018 where his responsibilities include bioinformatics pipeline development, next-generation sequencing data analysis, statistical analysis and web application development. Alper's main research interest is applying machine learning methods to elucidate fundamental patterns in biological data and how these patterns relate to disease phenotypes.
Hajany Jeyakumar
Project Coordinator
Hajany graduated from Western University with an honours bachelor of health sciences and is a master of health informatics candidate at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the CCM, she worked within the Departments of Respiratory Medicine and Translational Medicine at SickKids. Using her experience in project management, she assists the facility in meeting its business needs and the strategic direction of the Research Institute. She is interested in exploring the use of new technologies to advance quality improvement and assurance projects. In her spare time Hajany enjoys hiking, travelling, and solving puzzles.
Michael Apostolides
Programmer & Analyst
Michael received his B.Sc. from the University of Toronto in biochemistry and molecular genetics, and subsequently completed two years of computer science courses at the University of Toronto. Currently he is working on bioinformatics workflows for fusion detection in RNA-seq data. In his spare time, he enjoys meditation, yoga, playing the piano, hiking and gardening.
Madeline Couse
Bioinformatician
Madeline Couse received a B.Sc. in honours biology from the University of Waterloo, after which she moved West to complete an M.Sc. in genome science and technology from the University of British Columbia. There, she developed an interest in rare Mendelian disorders in children and gained expertise in whole genome analysis, including structural variant analysis from paired-end sequenced data. After graduating, she had the opportunity to work as a genome analyst for clinical research sequencing studies at British Columbia Children's Hospital. She joined the CCM team in March 2020 after some time working at a company specializing in personalized medicine in cancer. She is a devoted cyclist, an avid reader, an often-unsuccessful gardener, and an occasional crafter.
Mia Husic
Clinical Research Project Assistant
Mia has a B.Sc. in biology and genes, genetics & biotechnology and an M.Sc. in cell & systems biology, both from the University of Toronto. She is a researcher with a penchant for the written word and has previous experience as a medical writer in both academic and industry settings. At the CCM she is involved in scientific writing for various projects, working with the team and collaborators to organize, compose and edit manuscripts, grants and more. In her free time, she enjoys reading, dabbling in various hobbies such as drawing, sewing and photography, and watching her favourite sports teams.
Steven Ufkes
Bioinformatician
Steven completed his master’s in physics at the University of Toronto. He joined the CCM in March of 2018. His interests include high performance computing, mathematics, and science of all kinds. He currently develops and runs magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis pipelines for the Neonatal Neuroscience Team at SickKids, with a focus on functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and machine learning methods. He has also been involved in the development of pipelines for analysis of genetic data, database management, and web design.
Delvin So
Bioinformatician
Delvin obtained his M.Sc. in bioinformatics from the University of Guelph, where his research focused on digitizing and validating historical datasets, next-gen sequencing, and machine learning methods. He joined the CCM in September of 2019 where he spends his time between the bioinformatics team and the machine learning core. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, and exploring different cuisines.
Aarthi Mohan
Bioinformatician
Aarthi joined CCM in June 2020, and works on pipeline development for next-generation sequencing data analysis. Prior to joining CCM, she worked as a bioinformatician for five years in Singapore on analysis and pipeline development for detection of anti-microbial resistance in mycobacterium tuberculosis and studying transcriptional regulation in plasmodium falciparum. She received her M.Sc. in bioinformatics from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2014 and B.Tech. in information technology from Anna University, India in 2009. Outside work, she enjoys yoga, hiking, and reading.
Meredith Gillespie
Genetic Counsellor
Meredith is a Genetic Counsellor with the Centre for Computational Medicine at SickKids and a Genetic Counsellor and Project Manager with Care4Rare-SOLVE at the CHEO Research Institute. Meredith also works directly with patients to facilitate understanding of genetic conditions and available options to assist them in making informed choices that benefit them emotionally and physically. She holds a master of science degree in genetic counselling from the University of Toronto.
Lauren Liang
Programmer/Analyst
Lauren joined the CCM in November 2020. She currently works on RNA-sequencing data analysis pipeline development. Lauren obtained both her bachelor of science degree in biochemistry and master's of health sciences degree in medical genomics from the University of Toronto. She is interested in developing bioinformatics tools to facilitate biological research and genomics data processing. In her spare time, she enjoys playing badminton and various forms of media.
Sam Osia
Programmer & Analyst
Fernando Silva
RIT Team Lead
Dong Hu
Senior Systems Analyst
Dong was hired as a Senior Systems Analyst, and his responsibilities include managing and supporting CCM High Performance Computing Facility. Previously, he worked for Radhat, Rogers, and IBM as a Unix systems administrator supporting computer and storage systems. He got his B.Sc. in computer science software from NanJing University in China.
Andrew Maksymowsky
Systems Administrator
Andrew graduated with a B.A.Sc. in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto. He got his start in high-performance computing systems while he was there building a small compute grid to run fluid dynamics simulations for the BlueSky Solar Racing Team. He is currently part of the CCM High Performance Computing Facility, responsible for managing and supporting the compute cluster. Outside of work he spends his time kayaking, building things and practicing violin.
Jyoti Adlakha Gupta
Project Coordinator & Scrum Master
Jyoti was hired in SickKids Research IT as a Project Coordinator and Scrum Master on the Projects & Application Support Team and the High Performance Computing Facility. She holds a master's in computer applications, is certificated in Scrum and ITIL, and has over eight years of progressive project management experience. Currently, she is supporting the High Performance Computing Facility, as well as several other projects within the SickKids Research IT portfolio.
Sebastian Burlacu
Systems Analyst
Sebastian builds and maintains hospital server systems, resolves hardware and software issues, troubleshoots system interruptions, creates and updates training documentation for critical applications, and researches new technologies. He loves to learn and use his new knowledge to better assist his team. He enjoys server administration and all the unique and interesting challenges that come with it.
Jixuan Wang
Graduate Student
Jixuan is a PhD student at the University of Toronto. He is interested in machine learning and human computer interaction, and especially their applications in medical and clinical practices. Now he is working on building mobile user interfaces to capture structured phenotypic data from clinical encounters. Before coming to Toronto in 2016, he completed a master's degree in China working on the annotation of long non-coding RNA and detection of copy number variation by analyzing high-throughput sequencing data. He is a big fan of basketball and works out regularly.
Marta Skreta
Graduate Student – PhD Candidate
Marta is a graduate student at the University of Toronto studying computer science with a focus in machine learning and computational healthcare under the Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence and the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s CIHR award. She holds a bachelor of science degree obtained from McMaster University in chemical biology with a minor in computer science under the Schulich Leader Scholarship.
Anna Guo
Systems Administrator
I am Anna Guo, a third-year student studying computer science at the University of Toronto. Currently, I am working at CCM as a software developer and exploring my passion for bioinformatics. Aside from work, I am also interested in digital art and skiing.
Nour Hanafi
Graduate Student
Nour received her bachelor of science in molecular biology from the University of Toronto, and is currently a master's of health science candidate in medical genomics, also at the University of Toronto. During her graduate studies, she developed a strong interest in bioinformatics, particularly in the use and development of -omics pipelines, which she is pursuing as part of her capstone practicum at the CCM. In her free time, she enjoys reading, going for long walks, and watching sports.
Kevin Lu
Bioinformatician (part-time student)
Kevin is studying bioinformatics and computer science at the University of Toronto for his undergraduate degree. He joined the CCM in May 2019 on a co-op year and continues part-time while completing his studies.
Mackenzie Frew
Systems Administrator
Mackenzie is a co-op student from the University of Toronto working as a Software Developer for CCM, and part-time Teaching Assistant. He currently works on front-end development on SampleTracker for Care4Rare. In school he is currently studying Information Security, while also exploring other computer science subjects such as User Experience Design, Machine Learning and Computer Forensics. He likes to spend his spare time practicing guitar and drums, or playing online indie games.
Alumni
| Name | Former Job Title |
| Dr. Michael Brudno | Scientific Director |
| Dr. Jonathan Dursi | Senior Research Associate |
| Veronika Koltunova | Senior Programmer & Analyst |
| Amanjeev Sethi | Senior Software Analyst |
| Daniel Snider | Computer Vision Engineer |
| Mike Gindin | Software Developer |
| Dorin Manase | Bioinformatician |
| Viswateja Nelakuditi | Bioinformatician |
| Dennis Kao | Programmer & Analyst |
| Krista Pace | Operations Lead |
| Dr. Parisa Shooshtari | Research Associate |
| Dr. Sergey Naumenko | Research Associate |
| Brittney Johnstone | Research Genetic Counsellor |
| Justin Foong | Senior Bioinformatician |
| Dr. Marta Girdea | Software Development Manager |
| Amanda Silva | Project Manager |
| Sian Brooks | Administrative Coordinator |
| Pouria Mashouri | Systems Administrator |
| Stephen Villagonzalo | Senior Systems Analyst |
| Sergiu Dumitriu | Senior Bioinformatician |
| Andrei Misyura | Senior Programmer & Analyst |
| Sasha Andjic | Project Coordinator |
| Julian Mazzitelli | Software Developer |
| Shaikh Rashid | Senior Programmer & Analyst |
| Martin Pham | Software Developer |
| Dr. Yue Jiang | Research Associate |
| Ian Stedman | Research Fellow |
| Hillary Elrick | Bioinformatician |
| Orion Buske | Graduate Student |
| Aryan Arbabi | Graduate Student |
| Nicole Sultanum | Graduate Student |
| Anusha Dey | Research Student |
| Kat Pavlova | Research Student |
| Micaela Consens | Research Student |