Current Members
Jonathan Brassard
PhD candidate, co-supervised by Prof. Steven Paraskevas
Jonathan completed his undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering at Laval University, Quebec City. He worked as a summer student on various projects including blood vessel fabrication (Prof. Diego Mantovani), induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) differentiation (Prof. Alain Garnier) and vascular aging (Prof. Corinne Hoesli). He then completed a Master in Bioengineering under the supervision of Prof. Matthias Lütolf at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Project description
Jonathan is working on the conception of a bioartificial pancreas for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.
Marc-Antoine Campeau
Research assistant, PhD candidate supervised by Prof. Richard Leask
Marc-Antoine completed his undergraduate studies in Biotechnological Engineering at Université de Sherbrooke. In 2015, he joined the Leask lab as a Master’s student before fast-tracking to the PhD degree in 2016. His PhD work focused on the effect of Empagliflozin, a type 2 diabetes drug, on endothelial dysfunction. In 2022, he transitioned to the Hoesli lab to pursue different projects involving endothelial cell functions.
Project description
Marc-Antoine’s project focuses on the functionalization of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) surfaces to enhance the capture of endothelial colony forming cells and to improve the endothelization of medical devices.
Kurtis Champion
M. Eng. (thesis) candidate, co-supervised by Prof. Richard Leask
Kurtis completed a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering in 2020 at McGill University. During the years of 2017 to 2020 he worked at Caprion Biosciences where he helped in performing clinical research. In the summer of 2019, he worked in the Hoesli lab on a project focused on regenerative biomaterials for vascular implants under the supervision of Mohamed Elkhodiry and Prof. Corinne Hoesli. Discovering his passion for biomaterials and stem cell therapies, Kurtis decided to pursue graduate studies in the Hoesli Lab.
Project description
Kurtis’s project involves studying and modelling the oxygen consumption of the insulin-secreting beta cells of the pancreas found in cell clusters called islets. The main goal of his project is to improve oxygen delivery to these beta cells in the hopes of improving islet transplantation therapies for type 1 diabetes.
Anita Kriz
Undergraduate intern, supervised by Hugo Level
Anita is a U4 student in Bioengineering and is expected to graduate in Spring 2023. Her previous experiences include fluorescently labeling iPSCs with antibodies to determine neuron populations as well as functionalizing silica nanoparticles for enzyme immobilization.
Project description
Anita’s project focuses on bi-functionalizing polystyrene beads and optimizing this protocol in order to capture and proliferate endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs).
Robert Chen
Undergraduate intern, supervised by Florent Lemaire and Dongjin Shin
Robert is completing his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at McGill University and is expected to graduate in Fall 2022. His previous experiences involve evaluating the expression of extracellular fusion proteins. In his free time, he enjoys eating at restaurants and taking long walks.
Project description
Robert’s project focuses on reducing the size of alginate cell capsules using microchannel emulsification.
Lisa Danielczak
Laboratory technician
Lisa Danielczak completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of Waterloo. She has worked as a technician in labs in Ontario, England and Quebec City before coming to McGill, where she has worked since 2008.
Project description
Lisa works on a variety of projects, including the engineering of a vascularized bioartificial pancreas.
Maya De Cruz
Undergraduate intern, supervised by Julia Manalil
Maya is a U4 student in Bioengineering and is expected to graduate in Spring 2023. During the summer of 2021, she worked at the IRCM in the Stem Cells and Cell Reprogramming Research Unit. This sparked in her interest in using stem cells for therapeutic applications.
Project description
Maya’s project involves optimizing the protocol to differentiate stem cells into endothelial cells. The goals of the project are to increase the proportion of endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) and develop techniques to characterize the various populations in culture.
Hamid Ebrahimi Orimi
Postdoctoral fellow
Hamid obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and completed his Master’s degree at K. N. Toosi University of Technology. He pursued his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Concordia University and Maisonneuve Rosemont hospital research center. During his PhD, Hamid focused on the development of a novel laser-based bioprinting approach, which could be used to print viscous biomaterials. Hamid has years of teaching and R&D experience in dynamic system modeling, optics, computational fluid dynamics, bioinformatics, and tissue engineering.
Project description
Currently, Hamid is part of an academic/industrial project which establishes a supply chain for organoids from stem cells.
Laurier Gauvin
Undergraduate intern, supervised by Kurtis Champion
Laurier is a U2 student in Bioengineering and is expected to graduate in May 2025. His research interests focus on metabolic diseases, particularly type 1 diabetes. During his free time, he enjoys all outdoor activities, such as running or hiking.
Project description
Laurier’s project focuses on studying the use of ruthenium-based dyes as a technique in the study of cell oxygenation profiles.
Florent Lemaire
Postdoctoral fellow
Florent completed his undergraduate studies in molecular and cellular biology in France. He obtained his PhD at the Centre Européen d’Etude du Diabète in Strasbourg in 2019. During his PhD, he worked on the improvement of pancreas and islet oxygenation during cold ischemia. Indeed, this period without oxygen and nutrients supply, observed between pancreas removal from a donor and transplantation in patient, is critical for cell function.
Project description
In our lab, Florent is working on the functional aspect of a 3D bio-printed pancreas that will host insulin-secreting cells for type 1 diabetes patient. The main purpose of this project is to define optimal properties of the device in order to guarantee functionality and viability of pancreatic islets in a long-term goal.
Brenden Moeun
PhD candidate
Brenden completed his undergraduate degree in Winter 2017, majoring in Chemical Engineering and minoring in Biotechnology. In Summer 2015, he worked as an undergraduate researcher under the supervision of Prof. Milan Maric, synthesizing and developing a reactively-blended polymer to be used as a barrier material for an industrial oil storage application. In 2016, Brenden worked in the Stem Cell Bioprocessing Lab under the supervision of Prof. C. Hoesli and Stephanie Fernandez. His project involved the characterization and optimization of a carbohydrate glass ink used in 3D printing dissolvable structures as a means of achieving artificial vascularization in cellular transplants.
Project description
Brenden's project involves developing methods for bioprinting cell-laden hydrogels, such as alginate, for applications in diabetes cell therapy.
Hugo Level
PhD candidate, co-supervised by Prof. Diego Mantovani, Université Laval
After completing an Engineering degree focused on biotechnologies in France (ESPCI Paris), Hugo joined the lab as a Master's student before fast-tracking to the PhD in 2021. His Master's thesis was about modelling cell-surface interactions in the context of vascular healing after percutaneous coronary interventions
Project description
His PhD project, co-supervised by Prof. Diego Mantovani (Laval University, Québec City), aims at developping the next generation of vascular implants by applying a bi-functionnal, pro-healing surface modification strategy on biodegradable metals substrates.
Julia Manalil
PhD candidate, co-supervised by Prof. Bruno Gaillet, Université Laval
Julia completed a Bachelor of Science, Honours Biochemistry degree in 2014 at the University of Waterloo. During her undergraduate degree, she held co-op positions at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and was involved in the Waterloo iGEM team. In 2018, she completed a Master of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Her thesis was titled Investigation of excipients for the stabilization of HSV-2 vaccine candidate ACAM529.
Project description
Julia's research focuses on studying endothelial progenitor cell differentiation, through the development of novel genetic tools, for applications in vascular disease treatments.
Susie O'Brien
M. Eng. (thesis) candidate, co-supervised by Prof. Christopher Moraes
After completing a B.A.Sc in Chemical Engineering at uOttawa, Susie is thrilled to be pursuing a Masters under the co-supervision of Dr. Moraes and Dr.Hoesli. Outside the lab, she can be found hiking, knitting, baking, reading, or consuming excessive amounts of espresso!
Project description
Her research will investigate the effect of mechanical cues on stem cell differentiation into pancreatic lineages.
Balaji Ramachandran
Postdoctoral fellow
Balaji is from Madurai City in Tamil Nadu, India. In 2009, he completed his B.Tech in Biotechnology at Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, affiliated with Anna University. In 2011, he completed his M.Tech in Biotechnology at West Bengal University of Technology. He completed his Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2019. During his Ph.D., he worked on the project entitled “Surface modification of poly (ethylene terephthalate) to enhance haemocompatibility and endothelialization” under the guidance of Dr. Vignesh Muthuvijayan.
Project description
Currently, Balaji is part of an industrial project which explores the surface modification of polymers for promoting the biological response in cell-based cancer immunotherapy.
Saleth Sidharthan
M. Eng. (thesis) candidate
Saleth completed his bachelors degree in Biotechnology at SRM University, India. During his undergrad, Saleth worked on developing an Alginate based biocomposite for bone tissue engineering. In his free time, Saleth enjoys watching movies, hitting the gym or to ponder about astronomy.
Project description
Saleth’s project focuses on developing a perfusable implantation device to treat type-1 diabetes.