TEAM
Edward S. Ruthazer, PhD
Principal InvestigatorEdward Ruthazer was born in New York. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Princeton in Biology and East Asian Studies, and his PhD in Neurobiology from the University of California at San Francisco under the supervision of Dr. Michael Stryker. He received his postdoctoral training as an NSF-JSPS International Research Fellow at Osaka University in Toyonaka Japan, working with Dr. Nobuhiko Yamamoto, and subsequently worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Holly Cline.
He has held a Tier II Canada Research Chair (2005–2015) and a Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQS) chaire de recherche (2015–2019), among other prestigious awards. He was the inaugural Canadian Association for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award recipient in 2011. In addition to his primary appointment as James McGill Professor in the Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Dr. Ruthazer is also the Director of the Integrated Program in Neuroscience and runs the 电子科技大学-McGill Dual Masters Degree Program. He also has associated appointments in Physiology, Psychology, Anatomy & Cell Biology, in the Centre for Research in Neuroscience and the Azrieli Centre for Autism Research.
Anne Schohl
Research Technician / Lab ManagerAnne Schohl received her formal training in Germany as a Biologische-technische Assistentin. After working for six years at the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, she came to McGill University where she now works as a Research Technician in the Ruthazer lab. She is the lab manager, but also an expert in multiple molecular, cellular and embryological techniques. She spearheaded the development of many of the most important technical innovations in the lab.
Anne is fluent in German, English, and French and conversant in Spanish. She is the master operator of the single most important piece of equipment in the lab (the espresso machine), and likes spending time outdoors with her family.
Research Associates & Post-doctoral Fellows
Cynthia M. Solek, PhD
Research AssociateCynthia Solek was born and raised on Montreal’s South Shore. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at McGill University, followed by a MSc in Molecular Biology at McMaster University and a PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. Her first post-doctoral project brought her to the University of Ottawa, where she began her work with the zebrafish model system. She joined the Ruthazer lab in 2015 as a post-doctoral fellow and is now a research associate.
Her research uses zebrafish larvae as a model for neurodevelopmental disorders. Cynthia characterizes the effect of inflammatory stimuli on the arborization of retinal ganglion cells in the developing zebrafish, using in vivo two-photon imaging alongside molecular and behavioural assays. (She was featured in the NeuroXXceptional series.) She is also generating CRISPR mutant lines to gain further insight into the role of microglia in mediating the circuit formation changes caused by inflammation, as well as the compounding effects of genetic mutations associated with autism spectrum disorder.
Nicholas Benfey
Postdoctoral fellow (on Leave)Nicholas (Nick) Benfey is researching how radial astrocytes, the resident glial cells in the Xenopus laevis optic tectum, are recruited by, and actively modulate, sensory driven neuronal activity in vivo during early development. He is particularly interested in the role that arousal state plays in modulating both glial and neuronal signalling in the visual system, and how targeted activation of glial cells alters sensory processing at both the cellular and circuit levels.
Before joining the IPN's rotation program and the Ruthazer lab, Nick obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of New Brunswick. It was here that he really fell in love with research, having had the unique opportunity to do two honour's research projects concurrently: one in Biology using meningeal worms in white-tailed deer to study host-parasite interactions at the molecular level, and one in Organic Chemistry involving the multistep synthesis and purification of natural products first isolated from marine bacteria. Ultimately both his personal and professional interests converge in the study of how information is communicated between complex systems, whether that be communication between neurons and glia, the gut and/or the immune system and the brain, parasites and their hosts, or fungal mycelium and plant roots. And he would be remiss if he did not highlight his central passion for the psychedelics in all contexts of their uses.
Graduate Students
Vanessa J. Li
PhD CandidateVanessa Li uses calcium imaging to investigate the development of functional retinotopy in the tadpole tectum.
Before joining the Ruthazer lab, Vanessa completed her BSc in Neuroscience with a minor in Computer Science at McGill University. She enjoys coding and graphic design, and you can see more of her work in this realm as part of the Convergence Initiative (artwork here; talk here). She has also serendipitously found out that tadpole food is delicious.
David Foubert
PhD CandidateDavid Foubert graduated from the University of Ottawa with a BaSc in Biology. He is interested in the interactions between glia and neurons. He finds the idea of a long-underestimated brain cell playing a large role in brain development, memory and immune response to be really cool.
He has participated in science education / outreach programs. He believes that science-savvy people, especially young people, are extremely important for our future. When not working and studying, David is an avid home cook - even if he is tired at the end of the day, he always finds energy for cooking! He also loves traveling and being outdoors, downhill skiing, hiking, cycling, kayaking, and camping. Winter is his preferred season, the colder the better!
Finnley Cookson
MSc StudentFinnley graduated from U Victoria in 2022. Since joining the lab in Fall 2022, he has mastered in vivo tectal electrophysiology and in vivo 2P imaging. His project is to use functional imaging of synaptic properties, combined with structural dynamics to directly test the synaptotropic hypothesis.
Anna Kim
MSc StudentAnna graduated with a BSc in Biology and Psychology from the University of Alberta. She has always been interested in the nervous system and in the immune system, especially as they are involved in the diseased state of the brain and mind. Her fascination with it has led to efforts in developing optogenetic sensors for different neurotransmitters and neurotransmitter candidates . She is currently studying the functions of the immune cells in how they modify the synapse. Outside of the lab, she can be found dancing, learning how to boulder, and convincing cats to be her friends!
Weihang Wu
Dual MSc StudentWeihang is a dual Masters degree program student concurrently working on image processing in the lab of Prof. Yongjie Li at UESTC in Chengdu, China. His project is to optimize the extraction of single cell calcium signal from extended depth-of-field 2P Bessel beam scans where multiple cells overlap extensively within a single high speed scan.
UnderGrads
Catherine Chen
U2 - PsychologyMia Ginsberg
U1 - NeuroscienceAlumni
*indicates co-supervisionPost-Doctoral Fellows & Research Associates
Research Associate at Harvard University, USA
Research Associate at McGill University
Assistant Professor at Brock University
Medical Resident at Université Laval
Research Associate at McGill University
Associate Professor at University of La Verne, Los Angeles, USA
Science Communicator and Educator
Graduate trainees
Research Coordinator at McGill University Health Centre
Nour Chahine
Rotation student (Peyrache Lab)Postdoctoral candidate
PhD Student in Neuroscience, Sorbonne
Erica Cianfarano
Rotation student (Trenholm Lab)Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, McGill University Health Centre
Medical Advisor at Novartis
Research Associate at McGill University
Post-doctoral Fellow at Max Planck Institute, Frankfurt, Germany
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Applied Biological Laboratories
Research Associate at IOB and Friedrich Miescher Institute
Ryan McPhedrain, PhD
Recent lab graduateFaisal Naqib*, PhD
Cardiac surgeon at St. Michael's Hospital, TorontoNeurology Resident at McGill University
Regulatory Affairs Manager at Groupe Product Life France
PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Head of In Vivo Pharmacology at Epiodyne
Project Manager at ICON
Physician at Fraser Health Authority
Marc Tremblay, MSc
Professor CEGEP de Levis-LauzonCurriculum developer at deeplearning.ai
UNDERGraduate & Visiting trainees
Hikari Abe
Sung An
Calem Bendell
Olesia Bilash
Niklas Brake
Sabrina Chan
Frank Yupeng Chen
Thomas Christinck
Gavin Cui
John Di Liello
Charbel El Kefraoui
Alexandra Fletcher
Vince Fugère*
Jen Fung
Sang Myung Han
Alireza Hashemi
Jade Ho
Constance Holman
Amy Huang
Inchan Hwang
Gazel Javed
Ewalina Jeyanesan
Dantong Jia
Sarah Konefal PhD Rotation Student
Annie Kwan*
Darius Lambiri
Carmelia Lee
Sharon Long
George Lungoci
Fan Ma
Adriana Nigro
Peter O'Connor
Neel Patel
Jessie Poquérusse
Alexandra Quimby
Ryan Quinn*
Hammad Rafay
Haider Riaz
Olivia Ruge
Kirill Satanovsky
Aryan Shah
Sofia Skromne Carrasco PhD Rotation Student
Perry Spratt
Arielle Strasser
Logan Timmins
Myriam Verly
Elodie Warren
Alex Wang
Andrew Zeng
Yuan Yuan Zhang
Eisha Zhu