News
12/2020:
  • New funding from the US Department of Defense CDMRP Multiple Sclerosis Research Program 2020!
6/2020:
  • New study, published in Neurology, on the effects and rate of comorbidities in individuals participating in multiple sclerosis clinical trials.
5/2020:
  • Welcome to two new Lab Members for the summer: Gerald Trojillo and Sarah Lyle, both from the University of Manitoba Genetics Undergraduate Program.
3/2020:
  • See Kowalec Lab member, Heather Carney's recent publication featured in UM Info.
2/2020:
  • New paper! Heather Carney, a 2019 Pharmacy Summer Student, Dr. Kowalec and colleagues published a new study in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Ms. Carney investigated the prevalence and risk factors for substance use disorder in inflammatory bowel disease.
  • New funding! Dr. Kowalec has received a University Research Grants Program grant from the University of Manitoba to investigate psychiatric comorbidities in those with an immune-mediated inflammatory disease.
1/2020:
  • Dr. Kowalec will be co-supervising Ms. Thuy-Dung Nguyen, a new PhD student in the Department of Medical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institutet, along with Ms. Nguyen's primary supervisor, Dr. Yi Lu.
  • FUNDING! Congratulations to Dr. Kowalec and team for garnering funding from the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers 2019 Pilot Funding Competition to investigate genetic risk scores in those with multiple sclerosis and psychiatric disorders!
12/2019:
  • Welcome to the Kowalec Lab, Mitul Patel, who will be working with us as a Data Analyst.
11/2019: 10/2019:
  • FUNDING! Congratulations to the CAnadian Network for Advanced Interdisciplinary Methods for comparative effectiveness research (CAN-AIM) Team for successfully receiving a CIHR DSEN Team Grant for $2,550,000 CAD over 3 years (2019-2022). Dr. Kowalec is a Principal Applicant on this funding competition and will be working with Professor Helen Tremlett at UBC to investigate the pharmacogenetics of dimethyl fumarate-induced lymphopenia in multiple sclerosis.
  • Thank you to all applicants for the Data Analyst position. We are busy reviewing all applicants and will contact potential applicants soon for an interview.
  • The Kowalec Lab will be taking an Undergraduate Student for the Summer 2020 placement via the University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award Program. The application details will be live soon: http://umanitoba.ca/experienceresearch/
9/2019:
  • Thank you to all applicants. We are busy reviewing all applicants and will contact potential applicants soon for an interview.
    • We are looking for a Data Analyst (1 year term). Please apply here: http://tiny.cc/qwy7bz (posting 08776). 
      • ​The Kowalec Lab at the University of Manitoba is seeking a 1 year Data Analyst (Tech 3) to work on computing genetic risk scores and cleaning/manipulating health data in Canadian, USA, and UK cohorts, within individuals with autoimmune diseases (MS, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis) and psychiatric disorders. We are looking for individuals with a University degree (preferably an MSc) in computer science, statistics, mathematics, genetics, or epidemiology.
  • We are excited that both Heather Carney and Gabriel Luo will be staying on with the Kowalec Lab as undergraduate research assistants in the Fall 2019 / Winter 2020 term!

​7/2019: 6/2019:
  • New study published from the Kowalec Lab in Translational Psychiatry investigating the association between methylation age acceleration and mortality in schizophrenia! Please find the open access article here.

5/2019:
  • Welcome to the Kowalec Lab two undergraduate summer students:
    • Heather Carney! Heather was a recipient of this years College of Pharmacy Undergraduate Research Award. Congrats and welcome, Heather
    • Gabriel Luo! Welcome, Gabriel!
  • ​Check out our updated Projects tab for the latest projects in the Kowalec Lab.

4/2019: Dr. Kowalec has been invited to speak at the Visual and Automated Disease Analytics (VADA) graduate training program summer school on June 10th – 14th, 2019 and it will be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba at the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation.

3/2019:
  • Dr. Kowalec has been invited to speak during the Cutting Edge Research session at the 2019 MS Xchange Conference at McGill University (Montréal, QC) on November 8, 2019.
  • Dr. Kowalec will be giving the keynote presentation at the Let's Talk Science Girls in Science Day on May 1,  2019 at the University of Manitoba.

2/2019: Dr. Kowalec gave four presentations in February 2019 on the Kowalec Lab's various genomic and epidemiological studies of poor outcomes in MS and schizophrenia:
  • University of British Columbia Multiple Sclerosis Connect Research Program
  • University of Manitoba Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds
  • Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns (CAPSI) Manitoba Chapter
  • University of Manitoba Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics Seminar Series

1/2019: Dr. Kowalec has begun a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor position in Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacogenomics in the College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba.

VISION
The Kowalec lab is a multi-disciplinary research program at the University of Manitoba College of Pharmacy, which combines genomics, biostatistics, and epidemiology, to advance the outcomes of those affected by neurological and psychiatric disorders. The lab also aims to assist with implementing pharmacogenomic and pharmacoepidemiological research findings into clinical practice. Our work regularly involves an extensive network of Canadian, American, Swedish, and other International collaborators.

MISSION
We aim to improve patient outcomes in neurology or psychiatry via scientific discoveries using genomic, speciality clinic, and population-based data. We also want to implement pharmacogenomics and pharmacoepidemiological research findings into the clinical practice of neurology or psychiatry.

VALUES
  1. Excellence - Strive for research that is of the highest level of excellence
  2. Integrity - Be honest and have a moral compass
  3. Innovative - Be creative and open to new ideas and methods
  4. Equality - Treat others equally and irrespective of status, race, gender, sex, or sexual orientation
  5. Responsibility - Understand that social responsibilities of medical research exist and that they should be respected

Funding & Research Partners