Dr. Federico Gaiti (PhD)
Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network
Assistant Professor at University of Toronto
Faculty Affiliate, Vector Institute
Early-Career Investigator, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
He/Him
Dr. Gaiti earned his PhD in evolutionary biology and genomics from the University of Queensland (Australia), where he focused on understanding the evolutionary origin of two major players in human gene regulation: long non-coding RNAs and chromatin marks. Through these studies, he developed a deep interest in understanding how a single normal cell becomes malignant by the accumulation of genetic and non-genetic alterations. This motivated him to pursue a career in biomedical research, to understand the underpinnings of evolutionary plasticity of cancer. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Dan Landau’s laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Genome Center, he made contributions to the cancer genomics and computational oncology fields by examining the epigenetic dimension of cancer evolution, using chronic lymphocytic leukemia and human gliomas as models. Dr. Gaiti is now developing and applying computational and experimental single-cell genomics and epigenomics methodologies to answer the fundamental question of how malignant cellular states in cancer are jointly determined by genetic and epigenetic alterations. Dr. Gaiti is committed to a career in basic cancer research with translational impact, making discoveries that would offer improved therapeutic options to directly address cancer evolution.
Dr. Arghavan Ashouri (PhD)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
She/Her
Dr. Arghavan (Ari) Ashouri has obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Molecular biology. She then decided to enhance her programming skills and took a new path towards becoming a computational biologist. As a PhD student at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), she has gained experience in programming in MATLAB, R/Bioconductor and Unix/Linux (shell scripting), as well as several experimental methods. Her PhD work focused on linking key driver events in human cancer to specific transcriptional effects. She has also been trying to understand the role of long non-coding RNAs in key cancer driver pathways, as well as defining the oxidative stress targetome in cancer.
Ari joined the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Spring 2022.
Ari’s main interest lies within the field of translational/precision medicine in cancer. Her future aim is to be a leading researcher exploring novel treatment strategies by applying her computational and experimental knowledge, to be able to provide the best possible treatment for cancer patients.
Outside of the lab, Ari is very fond of reading/writing poems. She has travelled to more than 20 countries and she loves to experience new food and cultures together with her family.
Dr. Jiaoyi Chen (PhD)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
She/Her
Dr. Jiaoyi Chen received her PhD in Medical Sciences from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Throughout her PhD program, she focused on the intricate immune mechanism of the myeloid lineage in crescentic glomerulonephritis. Her research involved a fusion of dry-lab programming in R/Bioconductor-based single-cell bioinformatics and wet-lab experimental techniques in transgenic murine modelling, cellular gene editing, and molecular biology. With a growing interest in computational biology and cancer immunology, Jiaoyi conducted postdoctoral research on the immune microenvironment of renal cell carcinoma at the University of Hong Kong after graduation.
Driven by a strong commitment to unravelling the complexities of cancer evolution, Jiaoyi joined the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in September 2023, aiming to uncover novel genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying cancer development and translate benchside discoveries into innovative therapeutic strategies for cancer patients.
Outside of the lab, Jiaoyi enjoys cooking and scuba diving. She holds an advanced open-water diver license and has enjoyed diving in many different oceans around the world.
Xuyao Li (M.Sc.)
Research Technician/Lab Manager
He/Him
Xuyao received his Honours of Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Science degree both in Biochemistry at University of Toronto. Since then, he has been working in biotechnology industry for more than 5 years with an interest in development of biologics to treat medical diseases and conditions. Inspired by epigenetics in cancer research, Xuyao joined the lab in Fall 2021. As a research technician and lab manager, Xuyao enjoys managing different aspects of research activities and makes sure all day-to-day operations run smoothly and efficiently. Outside of work, Xuyao likes reading literature and learning history.
Loïc Caloren (M.Sc.)
Research Technician
Loïc received his B.Sc. in Biology and M.Sc. in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine degrees from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. During his Masters, his research focussed on characterizing rare mitochondrial DNA mutations in immune cell subsets of people living with HIV. Loïc joined the lab in summer 2024, driven by strong interests in the application of cutting-edge genomic and epigenetic techniques in cancer research and translational precision medicine. Outside of the lab, Loïc enjoys riding his bike and playing and watching soccer and hockey.
Pathum Kossinna (M.Sc.)
Bioinformatics/Data Science Analyst
He/Him
Pathum obtained his bachelor’s in applied sciences (Statistics Special) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka and worked as a Data Analyst/Scientist for 2 years deploying interactive visualizations and building forecast models for various industries. His interest in big data carried him over to a Masters in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Bioinformatics Specialization) at the University of Calgary where he worked on tool and method development in stabilized machine learning models. Applications of his methods to cancer as well as an interest in the single-cell bioinformatics space led him to join the lab in Fall 2022. He looks forward to contributing both in maintaining efficient and well-documented code and pipelines and in eventual method/tool development in the single-cell space. He loves reading (science-fiction and fantasy in particular), puzzles, animals and exploring
Joan Kant (M.Sc.)
Bioinformatics/Data Science Analyst
Yiyan Wu (B.Sc.)
PhD student
She/Her
Dapo Onabote (M.Sc. Biochemistry)
PhD student
Pengcheng Yu
Pengcheng is a visiting PhD student from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center. He mainly focused on exploring the mechanism of tumor progression with both wet-lab experiments and dry-lab data analysis. Pengcheng is interested in uncovering tumor heterogeneity with single-cell multi-omics techniques. Outside of the lab, Pengcheng is a photographer.
Maryam Sataripoor (B.Sc.)
Biology Undergraduate Research Student
She/Her
Benson Wu
Honors Bachelor of Science (HBSc) in Molecular
Genetics
Lucy Fuccillo
Research Administrative Assistant
Lucy Fuccillo is the research administrative assistant of the lab. Lucy was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Subsequently, she moved to Toronto in 1999 to attend George Brown College to study Business Management. She has 30+ years of experience working as a research administrative assistant for various research and clinical organizations. Away from work, Lucy enjoys cycling, working out, and taking long walks with her buddy Watson!
Alumni.
Matt Watson (Current position: Hartland Jackson & Kieran Campbell groups at LTRI)
Deisha Paliwal (Current position: Bioengineering Undergraduate Student at McGill University)
Nayeon Hyun (Current position: Bioinformatics Undergraduate Student at UofT)
Veronica Chang (Current position: Graduate Student at UofT in the Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology department)
Ilham Abbasi (Current position: MHSc Medical Genomics Candidate at University of Toronto)
Artem Kushnirenko (Current position: Graduate Student at UofT in the Medical Biophysics department)
Jahin Kabir (Current position: Bioinformatics Undergraduate Student at UofT)
Yunhua Ren (Current position: Graduate Student at UofT)
Jianfan Ivy Nie (Current position: Graduate Student at University of Ottawa)
Join our team.
Our goal is to build a diverse, collaborative community of scientists of all levels.