Meet Your Faculty
William Hsiao
Associate Professor
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, BC, CAwwhsiao@sfu.ca
Website: https://cidgoh.ca/
William Hsiao is a public health infectious disease researcher with a background in microbial genomics and bioinformatics. He is an associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and an affiliated researcher at BCCDC Public Health Laboratory and at Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre. Will leads an interdisciplinary group of researchers interested in solving practical public health and animal health problems through a One Health lens at the Centre for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health.
Jared Simpson
Principal Investigator, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Assistant Prof. Department of Computer Science, University of TorontoWebsite: https://simpsonlab.github.io/
Dr. Simpson develops algorithms and software for the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data. He is interested in de novo assembly and the detection of sequence variation in individuals, cancers and populations, with a focus on long read sequencing technologies. Dr. Simpson developed the ABYSS, SGA and nanopolish software packages.
Fiona Brinkman
Distinguished Professor, FRSC, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Associate Member, School of Computing Science and Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser Univeristy
Burnaby, BC, Canada
Dr. Brinkman is developing bioinformatic resources to better track infectious diseases using genomic data, and improve prediction of new vaccine/drug targets. Her primary aim is to develop more sustainable, integrated approaches for infectious disease control, however she is also applying her methods to aid allergy, child health, and environmental research.
Rob Beiko
Professor
Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS, Canada
Rob Beiko is a professor in bioinformatics whose research encompasses microbial evolution and gene transfer, comparative genomics, and microbial community analysis. He is the lead of the ARETE project, which is developing a software pipeline for annotation of AMR and mobile genetic elements, phylogenomic analysis, and inference of recombination and transfer in large sets of pathogen genomes. He has also developed and contributed to software tools including STAMP for statistical analysis of metagenome profiles, rSPR for efficient inference of gene transmission, and PICRUSt for the prediction of metagenome composition based on marker-gene surveys.
Finlay Maguire
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Computer Science and Department of Community Health & Epidemiology, Dalhousie Univerisity
Halifax, NS, Canadafinlay.maguire@dal.ca
Website: finlaymagui.re
Finlay Maguire is a genomic epidemiologist whose work centers on leveraging data in innovative ways to answer questions related to applied health and social issues. This includes developing bioinformatics methods to more effectively use genomic data to mitigate infectious diseases and broad interdisciplinary collaborations in areas such as refugee healthcare provision and online radicalisation. They are an active contributor to the national and international public health responses to emerging viral zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance, co-chair of the PHA4GE data structures working group, and act as a Pathogenomics Bioinformatics Lead for Sunnybrook’s Shared Hospital Laboratory.
Gary Van Domselaar
Chief, Bioinformatics
National Microbiology Laboratory
Public Health Agency of Canada
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Dr. Gary Van Domselaar, PhD (University of Alberta, 2003) is the Chief of the Bioinformatics Section at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg Canada and Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Van Domselaar’s lab develops bioinformatics methods and pipelines to understand, track, and control circulating infectious diseases in Canada and globally. His research and development activities span metagenomics, infectious disease genomic epidemiology, genome annotation, population structure analysis, and microbial genome wide association studies.
Ed Taboada
Research Scientist
Genomic Epidemiology Research Unit
Division of Enteric Diseases
National Microbiology Laboratory
Public Health Agency of Canada
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Eduardo Taboada is a research scientist in the Division of Enteric Diseases at the NML. Since obtaining his PhD in molecular genetics at the Department of Biology, University of Ottawa in 1999, he has applied his expertise in molecular biology and population genetics towards the development of comparative genomics and bioinformatics-based tools for studying various aspects of the biology, ecology, and epidemiology of bacterial food- and waterborne pathogens, with a focus on Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli. Over these past two decades, Ed has led or participated in several projects funded by Genome Canada and the federal government’s Genomics Research and Development Initiative. His current research focus is on developing quantitative tools for integrated genomic and epidemiologic analysis and the application of analytical epidemiology approaches to genomic datasets.
Emma Griffiths
Research Associate
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Emma Griffiths is a research associate at the Centre for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health (CIDGOH) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Her work focuses on developing and implementing ontologies and data standards for public health and food safety genomics to help improve data harmonization and integration. She is a member of the Standards Council of Canada and leads the Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) Data Structures Working Group.
Andrew McArthur
Professor
Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research
Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dr. McArthur is a Professor and David Braley Chair in Computational Biology at McMaster University. Dr. McArthur has had a career in the United States and Canada, including NIH-funded positions at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Brown University, where he led the genome assembly of the diarrheal pathogen Giardia intestinalis, plus 10 years of experience in the private sector. Dr. McArthur’s research team focuses on building tools, databases, and algorithms for the genomic surveillance of infectious pathogens. He and his team developed the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (card.mcmaster.ca) and the SARS-CoV-2 Illumina GeNome Assembly Line software platform.
Darian Hole
Bioinformatician
Computational and Operational Genomics Unit
National Microbiology Laboratory
Public Health Agency of Canada
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Darian Hole is a bioinformatician at the Public Health Agency of Canada working under Dr. Andrea Tyler and Dr. Ana Duggan. He focuses on genomic analysis process development, validation, and automation along with assisting partner labs in bringing in genomics to their workflows. Darian has mostly focused on viral diseases the past 5 years working at implementing standards, automation, and guidelines for SARS-CoV-2, Mpox, Polio, and Influenza.
Karyn Mukiri
PhD Graduate Student Researcher
Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences
Hamilton, ON, Canada
Karyn is a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Andrew McArthur where her main research focus is on the development of predictive genomic annotation algorithms to increase antibiotic resistance surveillance by the Resistance Gene Identifier. She is also a McMaster alum, having completed her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology under the Faculty of Engineering. Although the bulk of her work focuses on more algorithmic problems, her current research efforts are in helping pinpoint instances of miscuration within the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database.
Miguel Prieto
PhD Graduate Student Researcher
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Miguel is a first year PhD student studying the impact of human infectious diseases and the role of the microbiome in humans. Particularly, he aims to use machine learning and metagenomic analysis to predict poor outcomes in chronic respiratory diseases. Miguel is a Medical Doctor from the Universidad del Valle in Colombia and has worked as a researcher and project coordinator on translational studies of neglected tropical diseases like leishmaniasis. Before coming to SFU, he completed a Master of Experimental Medicine at UBC exploring blood-based gene expression biomarkers of nontuberculous mycobacterial infections in patients with cystic fibrosis.
Madeline McCarthy
PhD Graduate Student Researcher
Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON, Canada
Madeline is a PhD Candidate in the McArthur Lab at McMaster University. Her work focuses on the development of targeted, cost-effective methods for culture-free outbreak detection and surveillance of bacterial pathogens. In addition to whole genome capture, she is testing the feasibility of targeted, culture-free plasmid recovery using bait capture and long-read sequencing. Prior to her PhD, she completed a MSc in microbiology at the University of Saskatchewan where she studied E. coli outbreaks in broiler chickens before hanging up her pipettes and switching to bioinformatics.
Charlie Barclay
MSc Graduate Student Researcher
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of British Columbia
Hamilton, ON, Canada
Charlie is an ontology curator at the Centre for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health (CIDGOH), focusing on data standards for contextual data of genomic epidemiology, including wastewater surveillance. With five years of experience in data management, specializing in biodiversity and genomics data, she also actively contributes to the Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) and the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH).
Michelle Brazas
Scientific Director
Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops (CBW)
Toronto, ON, CA
Dr. Michelle Brazas is the Associate Director for Adaptive Oncology at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), and acting Scientific Director at Bioinformatics.ca. Previously, Dr. Brazas was the Program Manager for Bioinformatics.ca and a faculty member in Biotechnology at BCIT. Michelle co-founded and runs the Toronto Bioinformatics User Group (TorBUG) now in its 11th season, and plays an active role in the International Society of Computational Biology where she sits on the Board of Directors and Executive Board.
Nia Hughes
Program Manager, Bioinformatics.ca
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Toronto, ON, Canada
Nia is the Program Manager for Bioinformatics.ca, where she coordinates the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshop Series. Prior to starting at OICR, she completed her M.Sc. in Bioinformatics from the University of Guelph in 2020 before working there as a bioinformatician studying epigenetic and transcriptomic patterns across maize varieties.
Zhibin Lu
Senior Manager, Digital Research
University Health Network
Toronto, ON, Canada
Zhibin Lu is a senior manager at University Health Network Digital. He is responsible for UHN HPC operations and scientific software. He manages two HPC clusters at UHN, including system administration, user management, and maintenance of bioinformatics tools for HPC4health. He is also skilled in Next-Gen sequence data analysis and has developed and maintained bioinformatics pipelines at the Bioinformatics and HPC Core. He is a member of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada Bioinformatics National Team and Scheduling National Team.