POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

Dr. Urmi Das, University of Manitoba
Dr. Das joined the Kowalec Lab at the college of Pharmacy in April 2022. She holds
a PhD in Cancer Genetics from the University of Manitoba where she identified
aberrant RNA-transcript regions expressed in particular cancer patients carrying
specific genetic variants as her research project. Her current research focuses on
investigating the genetic architecture of schizophrenia in Sweden. Outside of
research, Dr. Das enjoys travelling, hiking and reading

Graduate Students

Dr. Mina Shirinbakhsh Masoleh, MSc student, University of Manitoba
Mina received her PharmD from the Tehran University of Medical Science (Iran) and her PharmD research included an assessment of psychiatric conditions and cognition in patients hospitalized for bone marrow transplantation, which was subsequently published in the Iran J of Psychiatry. Mina's plans are to include a focus on pharmacoepidemology of antipsychotics in Manitoba for her thesis.
Thuy-Dung Nguyen, PhD student, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Thuy-Dung has a BSc in Public Health from Hanoi University of Public Health (Vietnam) and a MSc in Public Health Epidemiology from Karolinska Institutet (Sweden). She is currently a PhD student at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet under the co-supervision of Dr. Kowalec and primary supervision of Dr. Yi Lu. Her research focuses on using machine learning to subtyping major depressive disorder (MDD) cases to reduce genetic heterogeneity and predicting long term outcomes of MDD. She will also investigate the effect of immune biomarkers on schizophrenia (SCZ) using Mendelian Randomisation. (Photo: Quang Bui)
Dr. Laila Aboulatta, PhD student, University of Manitoba
Dr. Aboulatta has a Bachelor's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Postgraduate PharmD degree, Alexandria University, Egypt. Currently, Dr. Aboulatta is a PhD student at the College of Pharmacy, University of Manitoba under the co-supervision of Dr. Kowalec and primary supervision of Dr. Sherif Eltonsy. Dr. Aboulatta's current research focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women and neonates.

Research students and volunteers

Francisca Jacobo, Undergraduate Summer Student, University of Manitoba
​Francisca is an undergraduate summer student in the Kowalec Lab Group. She recently completed her third year of study at the University of Manitoba, majoring in Accounting. She will be assisting to investigate psychiatric comorbidity in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases using genetics and statistical analysis. Francisca recently won a University of Manitoba URA award, congrats!
Brianne Desrochers is a 2nd year PharmD student with the College of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba. Brianne is working in Dr. Kaarina Kowalec’s lab summarizing the current literature on the predictors of dimethyl fumarate-induced lymphopenia in multiple sclerosis. Brianne’s research interests include pharmacogenetics, oncology, drug safety in mothers and neonates, and pharmacoepidemiology. Upon graduation, Brianne plans to obtain her extended practice certification in oncology. Brianne recently won a College of Pharmacy Summer Research award, congrats!

Alumnae

Dr. Jing Han, Biostatistician 
Dr. Jing Han received her Ph.D. in Health Economics from the University of Manitoba. Her research focuses on studying issues like health inequality, socioeconomic determinants of health, health behavior, and utilization of health care across population groups using large complex datasets. She joined a research team at the Community Health Science, the University of Manitoba as a post-doctoral research fellow on multiple data-driven and policy-oriented research projects in community health and public health. Dr. Han also worked as a research and evaluation specialist at the Addiction Foundation of Manitoba to support decision-making and quality improvement in areas of addictions and mental health. 
Mitul Patel, Data Analyst
Mitul has a BSc in Physics (Applied) from St. Mary’s University, UK and a MSc in Theoretical Physics from the University of Manitoba. During his BSc, Mitul worked as an intern at the UK’s National Physical laboratory (NPL) investigating the resistivity of certain materials, NPL is responsible for developing and maintaining the national primary measurement standards. During his MSc, Mitul worked on understanding the physics of the very early universe using string theory.  He has also worked as a short term intern at the University of Winnipeg as a machine learning engineer in the neutrino physics group.  
Heather Carney, Undergraduate Summer Student
Heather began in the Kowalec Lab as a recipient of a 2019 and 2020 College of Pharmacy Undergraduate Research Award. Heather was in her third year of the BSc Pharmacy program at the University of Manitoba. Heather previously completed a BSc in Environmental Science with a focus in Chemistry at the University of Winnipeg where she received an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award to study the quantification of organic contaminants in environmental waters. Heather studied the rate of substance use disorder in those with inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
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Gabriel Luo, Undergraduate Summer Student
Gabriel began in the Kowalec Lab as an undergraduate summer student in Summer 2019. Gabriel was a 4th year pharmacy student at the University of Manitoba. In the past, he's worked with nanoparticles used as drug delivery systems for combating HIV/AIDS.  He assisted with a project investigating pharmacogenomic approaches to therapies used in multiple sclerosis to prevent adverse drug reactions.
Gerald Trojillo, Undergraduate Summer Student
Gerald was in his final year of completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Genetics at the University of Manitoba during his tenure with the Kowalec lab. He was the recipient of the University of Manitoba’s Undergraduate Research Award for Summer 2020. Gerald investigated psychiatric genetic risk scores and its connection to disease activity in different types of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, through data analysis using various R packages.
Sarah Lyle, Undergraduate Summer Student
Sarah was in her 4th year of a Genetics Honours Co-op degree at the University of Manitoba. She is pursued her third co-op work term under the supervision of Dr. Kowalec. Sarah’s pervious Co-op work terms have involved the study of infectious disease including Influenza and Ebola. Sarah studied the connection between psychiatric genetic risk scores and immune-mediated inflammatory disease outcomes.