Biography:

I obtained a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Physiology at the University of Saskatchewan working in the area of adrenergic receptor signaling in cardiomyocytes. I obtained my Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology at McMaster University where I worked on aspects of brain dopaminergic receptor signaling and neuroleptic drugs. My post-doctoral training was in Dr. H. Robertson’s laboratory at Dalhousie University where I worked on high throughput gene expression studies, using ddPCR and microarray, of mouse models of Fragile X syndrome and Stroke. Currently, I am a research officer at the Institute of Biological Sciences (NRC) within the Glycosyltransferase and Neuroglycomics group where I continue to use high throughput methods to examine neurodegenerative disease.

Short summary of research interests:

My research interests focus on the effects of experimental stroke on synaptic structure and function. Specifically, I have used microarray methodologies to examine the genomic responses of the brain to cerebral ischemia as well as proteomic methods to characterize ischemic synaptosomes. Recently, I have been studying post-translational modification of synaptosomal proteins in an effort to identify ischemia-induced alterations in protein glycosylation. To date, we have identified a number of ischemia-induced alterations that have proven to be highly informative about synaptic pathology during stroke. These studies are enabling us to gain an appreciation of the adaptation of the synaptic microdomain to cerebral ischemia on a systems level.