Surgeon Scientist Training Program Profiles 2022-2023

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Vascular Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Drs. Prabhat Jha and Ahmed Kayssi
Research Focus:  Evaluation of surgically-avertable vascular mortality in low- and middle- income countries.

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisors: Dr. Julie Hallet
Research Focus:  Examining social disparities in surgical outcomes for gastrointestinal malignancies.

Degree working towards: PhD(IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisors: Drs. Nancy Baxter and Adena Scheer
Research Focus: Delays to diagnosis and treatment in young adults with colorectal cancer

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisors: Drs. Bettina Hansen, Gonzalo Sapisochin and Steven Gallinger
Research Focus: The rising incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and their surgical outcomes

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisors: Drs. Christopher Forrest and Beate Sander
Research Focus: Economic Evaluation of Cleft Lip and/or Palate in Ethiopia

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery
Mount Sinai Hospital
Supervisor: Dr. Carol Swallow
Research Focus: Colorectal cancer, histopathology, molecular markers, recurrence, survival 

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisor: Drs. Duminda Wijeysundera and Nancy Baxter
Research Focus: Preoperative assessment and risk prediction in older patients undergoing major surgery

Degree working towards: PhD (Physiol)
Division: Cardiac Surgery
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Drs. Anthony Gramolini and Maral Ouzounian
Research Focus: Multiomic and biomechanic characterization of thoracic aortic aneurysm: Towards personalized prognostication and surgical thresholds

Degree working towards:PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Drs. Michael G. Fehlings and Charles H. Tator 
Research Interests: Spinal cord injury, glutamate signaling, neural stem cells, regeneration 

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Drs. Avery Nathens and Barbara Haas
Research Focus: Understanding preventable errors in trauma and surgical care and developing strategies for safer healthcare systems

Degree working towards: PhD (LMP)
Division: Neurosurgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. Michael D. Taylor
Research Focus: Identifying genetic events that drive medulloblastoma metastasis in preclinical models using in vivo CRISPR screens and single cell RNA-sequencing technologies

Degree working towards: MSc (IMS)
Division: Urology
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisor: Dr. Monica Farcas
Research Focus: Novel ultrasound technologies for urologic applications

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: Urology
PMH - UHN
Supervisor: Drs. Girish Kulkarni and Alistair Johnson
Research Focus: Machine learning operations in urologic oncology

Degree working towards: PhD(IMS)
Division: Vascular Surgery
TGH-UHN
Supervisor(s): Dr. Thomas Lindsay & Dr. Maral Ouzounian
Research Focus: Spinal cord ischemia

Degree working towards: MASc(BME)
Division: Orthopaedic Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Drs. Cari Whyne and Bheeshma Ravi
Research Focus: Machine Learning to Predict and Optimize Resource Allocation for Orthopaedic Patients

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Vascular Surgery
SMH, Unity Health
Supervisors: Drs. Mohammed Al-Omran and Charles de Mestral
Research Focus: Using machine learning to predict outcomes following major vascular surgery

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: Neurosurgery
SMH, Unity Health
Supervisor: Drs. Jefferson Wilson and Avery Nathens 
Research Focus: An integrated approach to improved neurotrauma prognostication using machine learning methods applied to clinical and radiographic data

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Ivan Radovanovic 
Research Focus: Understanding the safety and efficacy of targeted MEK inhibitors on the angioarchitecture, molecular biology and clinical progression of arteriovenous malformations through clinical trials. This is within a larger focus of exploring molecular and genetic alterations in neurovascular conditions.

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery
Princess Margaret Cancer Care, University Health Network
Supervisor(s): Drs. Michael Reedijk and Carol Swallow
Research Focus: The role of hedgehog signaling in basal-like breast cancer and the tumor microenvironment

Degree working towards: PhD (BME)
Division: Cardiovascular Surgery
TMDT, University Health Network
Supervisors: Drs. Gordon Keller and Michael Laflamme
Research Focus: 1) Generation of the cardiac valve lineage from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs); 2) Cardiac cell therapy using hPSC-derived cells

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS) 
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital - University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Michael G. Fehlings  
Research Focus: To study the epidemiology of spinal cord injury and identify influential factors present in improved clinical outcomes. Findings could be used  to create quality improvement strategies that would standardize care and allow for improved delivery of time sensitive therapies.

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. Joel Fish 
Research Focus: Outcomes of multimodal therapy for keloids and hypertrophic scarring

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Vascular Surgery
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor(s): Drs. Jason Fish and Kathryn Howe
Research Focus: Determining the role of endothelial activation on microRNA communication within atherosclerotic plaque: Towards the identification of a novel therapeutic target in carotid disease

Degree working towards: MSc (IMS)
Division: Orthopaedics
SMH, Unity Health
Supervisor(s): Dr. Aaron Nauth
Research Focus: The role of endothelial stem cells in bone healing

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Julie Hallet
Research Focus: Developing a predictive model for patient centred outcomes in GI cancers

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisors: Drs. Brian Feldman and Dimitri Anastakis
Research Focus: Peripheral nerve surgery, hand surgery, clinical outcome research, clinical epidemiology, cold sensitivity, craniofacial surgery

Degree working towards: Postdoctoral Fellow (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
TWH, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Andres Lozano
Research Focus: Investigation of the impact of low grade glioma on neural networks and the neuroplastic response to glioma invasion

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: Neurosurgery
SMH, Unity Health
Supervisor: Dr. Jefferson Wilson
Research Focus: Impact of clinical frailty on outcomes in neurosurgery

Degree working towards: PhD (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
Unity Health, SMH
Supervisor: Dr. Nancy Baxter
Research Focus: Fall-Related and Thermal Injuries in Patients with Colorectal Cancer Treated with Oxaliplatin

Degree working towards: PhD (BME)
Division & Institution: Neurosurgery 
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisors: Drs. George Ibrahim and James Drake
Research Focus: The application of focused ultrasound for the treatment of epilepsy

Degree working towards: PhD (LMP)
Division: Neurosurgery 
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisors: Drs. James T. Rutka and Howard Lesiuk, UO
Research Focus: Reprogramming glioblastoma metabolism as a novel therapeutic strategy

Degree working towards: Postdoctoral Fellow (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery 
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Victor Yang
Research Focus: Development of navigation based human and robotic drilling for skull-base approaches

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division: General Surgery
SMH, Unity Health
Supervisor: Drs. Charles de Mestral and David Gomez
Research Focus: Characterizing the elective surgical backlog in Ontario generated by the COVID pandemic and providing evidence-based recommendations to guide clearance of the backlog

Degree working towards: MSc (IMS)
Division: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
SMH, Unity Health
Supervisor: Dr. Teodor Grantcharov
Research Focus: Morbidity and Mortality Rounds: Impact on patient outcomes and barriers to improvement

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME) 
Division: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Supervisors: Drs. Daniel Grace and Mitchell Brown
Research Focus: Improving equitable access for gender affirming surgical care

Degree working towards:  PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Gelareh Zadeh
Research Focus:  Proteogenomics of matched primary to recurrent GBMs to facilitate molecular classification and identify novel therapeutic targets

Degree working towards: MSc (IHPME)
Division & Institution: General Surgery 
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Paul Karanicolas
Research Focus: Defining optimal data sources for pragmatic clinical trials

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: Neurosurgery
TMDT, University Health Network
Supervisor: Dr. Gelareh Zadeh
Research Focus: Genomics of clinically aggressive meningiomas.  We will be using novel molecular biology techniques to predict the clinical behaviour of meningiomas and developing non-invasive methods of diagnosing brain tumours

Degree working towards: PhD (BME)
Division: Neurosurgery
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. George Ibrahim
Research Focus:  Adaptive intracranial neurostimulation to rescue attention deficits in children with epilepsy

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS)
Division: General Surgery 
TMDT, University Health Network
Supervisor: Drs. Tom Waddell and Siba Haykal
Research Focus: Composite Allografts, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells, Organ Regeneration 

Degree working towards: PhD (Molecular Genetics)
Division & Institution: Neurosurgery 
The Hospital for Sick Children
Supervisor: Dr. Peter Dirks
Research Focus: Glioma stem cells and glioma genesis

Degree working towards: PhD (IMS) 
Division: Neurosurgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre 
Supervisor: Dr. Victor Yang
Research Focus: Intraoperative imaging and surgical navigation in skull base. Engineering of a high-speed drill with frameless stereotactic navigation, and integration of the drill to the current state-of-the-art navigation system. Further integration will be conducted with systems which allow for mapping of the brain function and vasculature to add an element of safety to drill operations in skull base.