Alice Kostaki
Technician
Alice is a senior technician in the lab. She provides oversight of lab management and daily lab activities, as well as training of new laboratory personnel. She is involved in studies determining the influences of early environments on long-term health outcomes.
Phetcharawan (Tam) Lye
Technician
Phetcharawan is a research technician. She is investigating the mechanisms that regulate the expression and function of multidrug resistance proteins in human placentae. These proteins are important in protecting the fetus from exposure to drugs and toxins in the maternal circulation.
Hafsah Mughis
Research Coordinator
Hafsah is a research coordinator for HeLTI-India. HeLTI is an international research collaboration where 4 linked intervention cohorts (Canada, China, India, South Africa) implement & test approaches to prevent overweight & obesity in children & risk factors for non-communicable diseases, and improve early childhood development. Hafsah is involved in biospecimen-harmonization across the HeLTI consortium, and developing HeLTI-India protocols.
Derrick Ssewanyana
Postdoctoral Fellow
My areas of interest are in life-course epidemiology; DOHaD; Black Health; and child, adolescent and maternal health research. I am currently investigating the impact of inflammation on pregnancy outcomes in women enrolled in the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) studies in India and South Africa. I am also researching on antenatal corticosteroid use and related outcomes in low and middle income countries.
Bona Kim
PhD Student
My research interests are in the investigation of how exposure to prenatal glucocorticoids impact neurodevelopment and alter behaviour long-term. I am taking an epigenetic approach in my study to identify DNA methylation profiles in animal brains while concurrently examining for differential methylation patterns in the blood of both animals and humans to identify predictive biomarkers.
Chris Casciaro
PhD Student
Recent evidence suggests that paternal adversities experienced before conception may have a profound effect on offspring. The goal of my research is to demonstrate whether paternal pre-conception synthetic glucocorticoid exposure will influence the neuroendocrine and behavioral phenotypes of guinea pig offspring. In addition, I am working to elucidate the underlining molecular mechanisms involved in intergenerational epigenetic transmission.
Nikola Ivanovski
PhD Student
Prenatal treatment with synthetic glucocorticoids has been linked to altered neurodevelopment resulting in cognitive and behavioral consequences in adolescence and adulthood. The goal of my research is to understand how synthetic glucocorticoids alter neuroprotective properties in the fetal blood-brain barrier at the molecular level using an in-vitro approach, focusing on the regulatory and signaling mechanisms that confer these effects.