Lab Photos
Amelia, Anjie, Lilit, Carl, Peter, and Shaima at ISSCR 2023 - Boston
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Lilit, Anjie, and Amelia with posters at ISSCR 2023 - Boston
Lab winter dinner (2022), back row: Shaima, Carl, Huashan, Ying; front: Amelia, Anjie, Cynthia, Lilit, Peter, Xin
Lab picnic (Summer 2021). (Malvin, Vincent, Huashan, Xin, Ying, Nuwan. Bottom: Shaima, Lilit, Anjie)
Lab restart after COVID lockdowns (2020; Malvin J, Huashan P, Lilit A, Anjie N, Xin Z, Ying Z, Nuwan H)
Lab Winter celebration (2020; L to R; Shaima, Lilit, Vince, Nuwan, Malvin)
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Q1K Coutu Foundation听award announcement , at St Justine Hospital (2019)
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Ernst Lab 2017 (L to R): Huashan Peng, Hanrong Wu, Scott Bell, Jessie Poquerusse, Nuwan Hettige, Carl Ernst, Malvin Jefri, JF Theroux (Missing: Karla Manzano Vargas, Heika Silveira, Pen Hu, Ying Zhang)
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Principle investigator
Carl Ernst, PhD, is an Associate Professor at 涩里番 in the Departments of Human Genetics, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry. Dr Ernst was a Canada Research Chair (2012-2022) and is currently an FRQS Senior Scholar (2022-2026) 听 He is the winner of the 2017 Teaching award for graduate supervision in Human Genetics, underlining his commitment to students and training.听 His professional career began as a one-on-one worker with children with disabilities in the Victoria BC school system, a job he held for several years. He continues to be inspired by children and their families living with neurodevelopmental disorders. Outside of neuroscience and genetics, he is a singer-songwriter of original children's songs and enjoys being outdoors with his family.
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Trainees
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(PhD Student - IPN) Julia Macintosh, MSc, is investigating the role of EHMT1 in human neurons
(PhD Student - IPN)听听Amelia Semenak, HBSc,听is studying the role of neural stem cell genes in cell proliferation and differentiation.
(Masters Student - IPN) Peter Fleming, BSc, is studying the roles of the FOXG1 transcription factor in neurodevelopment.
(PhD Student - Human Genetics) Anjie Ni, BSc, is studying the development of dopaminergic neurons
( PhD Student - IPN)听 Shaima Alsuwaidi, BSc, is studying the genetics of rare neurodevelopmental disorders
(PhD student - Human Genetics) Lilit Antonyan, MSc, Therapeutics for ASD/ID
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Research associates/Lab Staff
Huashan Peng, MD (Stem cells/Gene editing)
Ying Zhang, MD (Stem Cells/gene editing)
Xin Zhang, PhD (Stem Cells/gene editing)
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Lab Alumni
PhD graduates:
Lilit Antonyan (PhD 2024 - Human Genetics)
Nuwan Hettige, (PhD 2022 - Human Genetics); Went to:听 Genentech
Malvin Jefri, (PhD 2022 - Neuroscience); Went to: McKinsey Global Consulting
Scott Bell, (PhD 2019 - Neuroscience) Went to: U Calgary Medicine
Liam Crapper, (PhD 2017 - Neuroscience) Went to: Government of Canada
MSc graduates:
Vincent McCarty, Bsc (MSc - Human Genetics)听 NDD modeling of nucleotide disorders
Karla Manzano Vargas, BSc,听 (MSc - Human Genetics) - Modeling NDDs
Jessie Poqu茅russe, BSc (MSc - Neuroscience) used bioinformatics to search for and prioritize pathogenic mutations from whole genome sequences
Post-doctoral alum:
Pen Hu, MD (Visting Scholar) Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University,China
Heika Silveira, PhD (Electrophysiology/Stem cells)
(Post-doctoral fellow) Gilles Maussion, PhD, worked on models of NDDs in human stem cells.听 Now: Research associate at the Montreal Neurological Institute
(Post-doctoral fellow) Betty Chen, PhD, worked on understanding how genotype relates to phenotype in neurodevelopmental disorders. Now: Assistant professor at Universidade Federal de S茫o Paulo
(Post-doctoral fellow) Carolina Gigek, PhD, investigated how epigenetic factors influence gene transcription in neurodevelopment.听 She used stem cells to model neuro-development, particularly in relation to psychiatric disease.听 Now: post-doctoral fellow at Universidade Federal de S茫o Paulo
(Research Associate) Cristina Vasuta, PhD, coordinated the stem cell electrophysiology experiments in the lab. Now: staff scientist at IRCM
(Research Associate) Alpha Diallo, PhD, coordinated computational analyses for all Next-Generation Sequencing projects. Now: Staff at DNANexus
Staff alum:
(Bioinformatics specialist) Rapha毛l Poujol, MSc, worked in the Bioinformatics group, building microRNA processing and DNA methylation analysis pipelines.听 Now: Montreal Heart Institute
(Visiting graduate student) Vanessa Ota, BSc, studied epignetic factors in neurodevelopment. Now: completing PhD in Genetics at Universidade Federal de S茫o Paulo
Undergraduate students:
Marcy Maracle (Summer 2012) - LincRNAs in human brain
Camille Boudreau-Pinsonneault (NSCI420; 2012-2013 academic year) - Morphological assessment of stem cells.听 Now: PhD Student in neuroscience at 涩里番
Kelsey Adams (Summer 2013) - Investigation of reduced gene expression.听 Now: PhD student in neuroscience at Harvard
Cassandra Rogers (BIOL466; Winter 2014) - Quality control for RNAseq data.听 Now:听 Medical student at Tufts University
Jolene Drake (NSCI420; 2014) - Protein confirmation of RNAseq data in human neural stem cells.听 Now: Medical student at U Manitoba
Ilaria Kolobova (NSCI420; 2015-2016) - Analysis of functional mutations in neurodevelopmental disorder cases
Hannah Burr (2017; HGEN396): Analysis of ExomeSeq data in co-sanguinous families
Audrey Mense: (Sept-April 2024/2025) - Metabolomics and HPRT
Seungyeon Lee (Sept - April 2024/2025) -scRNAseq and midbrain dopaminergic cells