Dr. Stella Daskalopoulou

As a hypertension expert. Her research focuses on the identification of early markers of vascular impairment and maintenance of vascular health. Her objective is to integrate biomedical technology into an innovative cardiovascular research program aimed at unraveling the arteriosclerosis and atherosclerotic process and identifying early markers of severity and progression of vascular disease, as well as treatment efficacy. Her research program aims to improve upon the current paradigm of screening, investigating, monitoring, and assessing treatment of patients with vascular risk factors and/or established atherosclerotic disease through the assessment of: a) vascular function (e.g. arterial stiffness and hemodynamics), b) imaging (ultrasound and image analysis), c) blood markers (e.g. established and novel biomarkers, microRNAs), and d) the integration of cutting edge technology. Her view in research follows a mode "from microscope-through stethoscope-to telescope" allowing her to perform translational, patient-centered research.

Dr. Gabriel Altit

Dr. Altit has built a translational research program in neonatal hemodynamics. As a clinician-scientist (FRQS Junior 1) at the RI-MUHC, he founded NeoCardioLab (www.neocardiolab.com), an internationally recognized platform offering educational resources, a website, and a mobile app, used daily by the global TnECHO community. His research, supported by the American Thoracic Society, the Pediatric Research Foundation, CIHR, the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie, and the Fondation Pour Enfants Seulement, focuses on neonatal cardiovascular physiology, cardiac POCUS, and advanced imaging. In 2020, he launched and currently directs McGill’s fellowship program in neonatal hemodynamics, the only Royal College–accredited program of its kind in Quebec. Dr. Altit is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McGill University. He serves on the Fetus and Newborn Committee of the Canadian Paediatric Society, co-authors several national position statements, and acts as an expert advisor to INESSS on neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.

Dr. Susan Bartlett

Her research focuses on behavioural factors that affect health outcomes. Dr. Barlett studies how behaviour change (e.g., diet, exercise, smoking, taking medications regularly) and emotional wellbeing (stress, depression, anxiety) can help people with inflammatory arthritis and other chronic conditions feel and function better. She also evaluates ways to make medical care more patient-centred by collaborating with patient research partners, developing better patient reported outcome measures, and improving doctor-patient communication.

Dr. Mariane Bertagnolli​

Dr. Mariane Bertagnolli is an Assistant Professor in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University and a scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), where she co-leads the Cardiovascular Health Across the Lifespan (CHAL) Program. Her research focuses on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, particularly pre-eclampsia, and their impact on maternal and fetal vascular health. Using a translational approach that combines murine models and clinical samples, her lab investigates mechanisms of angiogenesis and explores therapeutic strategies such as exercise rehabilitation to improve outcomes for women and their children. 

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Dr. Jung Ding

His research focuses on studying cell dynamics in various biological processes in many diseases (e.g., developmental disorder, pulmonary diseases, cancers). Decoding cell dynamics is essential for understanding the pathogenesis of diseases and finding novel therapeutics. The existence of enormous heterogeneity in those diseases makes it challenging to decipher the unknown.

The advancing single-cell technologies that profile individual cell states provide unprecedented opportunities to tackle this problem, which could drive biological discoveries and medical innovations in various fields (such as developmental and cancer biology). However, the single-cell data presents numerous new challenges in developing computational models that bridge the biomedical data and potential discoveries.

Dr. Ding's primary research is to develop machine learning approaches (particularly probabilistic graphical models) to jointly analyze, model, and visualize single-cell (and/or bulk) omics data (preferably longitudinal or spatial). Such computational models will be used to help us obtain deeper understanding of the cell dynamics in different biological systems, which will eventually benefit the public health with machine-learning driven new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Gregory Fonseca 

​Inflammation is central to many diseases. It is a signalling process transmitted by dozens of signalling molecules in many combinations. Our lab focuses on understanding the types of inflammation that lead to disease. We use machine learning models on next-generation sequencing datasets to predict patterns associated with cytokine activation and use these to deconvolute the inflammatory response.

Dr. Isabelle Malhamé

The overarching aim of her research program is to improve maternal health by reducing pregnancy-related severe morbidity, including from cardiovascular and thromboembolic complications. Her program focuses on the following research themes: epidemiology and risk prediction; innovation in the diagnosis and management of high-risk conditions; and quality improvement and patient safety.

​​Dr. Augusto Montezano

Dr Montezano is an active member of the hypertension scientific community, not only as a researcher but also as an advocate for mentoring and training of all researchers. He is the Social Media Editor of Hypertension, from the American Heart Association and chair of the Early Career Researchers Network (EACARE) at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. He has been advocating for Early Career Researchers at the executive and mentoring committees of the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension and the International Society of Hypertension. During his time as chair of Mentorship and Training committees in international societies, Dr Montezano has helped to create a Capacity Building Network for ECRs and participated in a podcast discussing mentorship with his international peers. In this network, he will prepare our ECRs and help to create opportunities for mentorship programs and professional growth, both locally and internationally, to empower ECRs and their career progress.

Dr. Louise Pilote

Dr. Louise Pilote is a distinguished Professor of Medicine at McGill University, holding a James McGill Chair. She is the Deputy Director of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and co-founder of the Canadian Organization for Sex and Gender Sciences. Dr. Pilote is a sex and gender scientist who developed a gender measure to assess the impact of gender on cardiovascular outcomes. Dr. Pilote is internationally recognized for her expertise in sex and gender science, particularly in cardiovascular research. She has pioneered comparative effectiveness studies of cardiovascular drugs and devices, focusing on sex differences and women’s vascular health across the lifespan, and has developed methodologies to assess gender's impact on health outcomes.

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Dr. Vivian Ugochinyere Ukah

Dr. Ugochinyere Vivian Ukah is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Division of Experimental Medicine, in the Department of Medicine, McGill University. Her research focuses on the short- and long-term outcomes of pregnancy complications, and development, and validation of prediction models in maternal and perinatal health and examining racial disparities in perinatal outcomes. Dr Ukah holds a master’s degree in public health (Health services research) from the University of Sheffield, England and a PhD in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health at McGill University. Prior to joining McGill as a Professor, Dr Ukah worked as an Assistant Research Investigator in the Pregnancy & Child Research Centre, at Health Partners Institute, Minnesota, USA.