Blueprint Team

The Blueprint Translational Research Group was established in 2016 at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, in collaboration with the Ottawa Methods Centre.


Alumni

Joshua Montroy

Joshua Montroy

Research Associate
jmontroy@ohri.ca

Background

Josh completed his MSc in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa, working with the Centre for Transfusion Research to investigate the use of lysine analogues during surgery. He also has a BScH in Biochemistry. He was a member of the Blueprint team from 2017-2021.

Projects

Josh was the project manager for the group, as well as the primary grant writer and data analyst. He helped with a number of systematic reviews and meta-research projects.


Mohamad Sobh

Mohamad Sobh

Clinical Research Associate
msobh@ohri.ca

Background

Mohamad completed his university studies in Claude Bernard University, Lyon, France. He holds a Master’s degree in Biological Modeling, a Master’s degree in Drug Development, and a European Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine. Coming with extensive experience in Clinical Trials development, he worked with the BLEUEPRINT Team from 2020-2021.

Projects

Mohamad worked under a collaborative project between The University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine, and the Blueprint Team, namely the EXCELERATOR program. He led the operational part of the program together with Josh Montroy, with an objective to enhance and enable efficient translation of therapies from bench to early-phase clinical trials.


Gisell Castillo

Gisell Castillo

Clinical Research Coordinator
gicastillo@ohri.ca

Background

Gisell holds a BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto and an MA in Social Psychology from Carleton University. She was a member of the Blueprint team (supervised by Dr. Presseau) from 2018 - 2021.

Projects

Gisell primarily conducted qualitative research studies to identify barriers and enablers associated with various health behaviours. She has contributed to the implementation diagnostics component of the EXCELERATOR program for multiple research projects.


Victoria Hunniford

Victoria Hunniford

Research Assistant
vhunniford@ohri.ca

Background

Victoria completed her BSc (Honours) in Biology and her MSc in Health Systems at the University of Ottawa. She worked with the Blueprint Translational Research Group from November 2019 to October 2021.

Projects

As part of her MSc thesis, she completed a systematic review of preclinical multicenter studies. Victoria worked on and helped lead an extension to PRISMA for in vivo preclinical experiments. The program for this extension involves the conduct of a systematic review and reporting assessment of preclinical systematic reviews; and a Delphi exercise to determine consensus on items that should be included in the extension. In another project (nicknamed VAMPIRE) funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Victoria looked at the success rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation; as well as identifying potential factors associated with translational success.

Funding

Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology


Emily Rose Thompson

Emily Rose Thompson

Research Assistant
emithompson@ohri.ca

Background

Emily completed her BSc (Honours) in Mathematics and MSc Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa. She was a member of the Blueprint team in 2021.

Projects

Emily was primarily involved in the team’s patient engagement projects. She worked on the Making Patient Partnerships A Reality in Very Early Phase Clinical TriaLs (MARVEL) program, looking at how to incorporate patient engagement across four clinical trials at different stages of the development process. Likewise, she worked on the Patient Engagement in Basic Science (PEBS) interview study, which aims to develop a framework for patient engagement in early pre-clinical studies.


Kevin Hu

Kevin Hu

Student Volunteer
huk29@mcmaster.ca

Background

Kevin joined the Blueprint team at the end of Summer 2020. He was a 2nd year undergraduate in the BHSc program at McMaster.

Projects

Kevin focused on systematic reviews on the effects of mesenchymal stromal cell derived extracellular vesicles on animal models of lung injury and myocardial infarction.


Ciel Khoo

Ciel Khoo

Co-op Research Assistant
ckhoo@ohri.ca

Background

Ciel was in her third undergraduate year, pursuing an Honours BSc in biomedical science at the University of Ottawa. She worked with Blueprint in the winter 2021 term, supervised by Dr.Lalu.

Projects

Ciel assisted with the biological sex/sepsis preclinical systematic review, that looked at sex-dependent differences in sepsis interventions. She also aided in the CAR-T Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis.


Damian Chwastek

Damian Chwastek

Research Technician
dchwastek@ohri.ca

Background

Damian completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Ottawa. He holds a BSc in Translational and Molecular Medicine, alongside an MSc in Neuroscience. He worked at the Blueprint group from February 2021 to August 2022

Projects

Damian worked as a coordinator for the group’s national preclinical multicenter studies. He was involved in the lab in working to assess the biodistribution of exosomes in models of acute lung injury, alongside helping develop a new mouse model of COVID-19 induced acute lung injury.


Mackenzie Lafreniere

Mackenzie Lafreniere

Co-op Research Associate
mackenzie.lafreniere@gmail.com

Background

Mackenzie worked with the Blueprint team for 7 months, from January to August 2020. She was in the last year of her undergraduate degree at Carleton University for Cognitive Science with a specialization in psychology.

Projects

Mackenzie was mainly focused on the VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation.


Stephanie Sibbald

Stephanie Sibbald

Co-op Research Associate
ssibb030@uottawa.ca

Background

Stephanie worked with the Blueprint group during the Summer 2020 semester. She was in her fourth year of her undergrad at The University of Ottawa pursuing an Honours BSc in Biochemistry and a BASc in Chemical Engineering (both expected 2023).

Projects

With the Blueprint Team, Stephanie worked on VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation, and a systematic review that evaluated dietary resistant starch therapies in a wide spectrum of diseases.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Javad Niazmand

Javad Niazmand

Summer Student
jniaz094@uottawa.ca

Background

Javad completed his Bachelor of Health Sciences degree at McMaster university. He worked with the Blueprint team as a summer student during June 2019 and 2020 following his first and second year of medical school.

Projects

During his time at Blueprint, Javad worked on the VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Evelyn Poole

Evelyn Poole

Summer Student
16esp1@queensu.ca

Background

Evelyn worked with the Blueprint team during the Summer 2020; she was in her fourth year of undergraduate studies in Life Science at Queen's University.

Projects

During her time with the Blueprint team, Evelyn primarily worked on the Patient Engagement in Basic Science project, which aims to build a framework providing guidance on patient engagement in laboratory research through conduct of a scoping review, interview study and focus groups.


Karolina Godwinska

Karolina Godwinska

Co-op Research Assistant

Background

Karolina worked with the Blueprint group during the Winter 2019 semester and was pursuing her undergrad at The University of Waterloo studying Honours Kinesiology (Co-Op).

Projects

With the Blueprint Team Karolina helped with the VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation, a network meta-analysis of preclinical stroke therapies, as well as a cross-sectional study of preclinical systematic reviews. . Karolina also aided in transcribing interviews aiming to identify barriers and enablers to a perioperative cell therapy clinical trial( and use of reporting guidelines in preclinical research (APPRAISE).


Avonae Gentles

Avonae Gentles

Co-op Research Assistant

Background

Avonae worked with the Blueprint group during the Winter 2019 semester and was pursuing her undergrad at The University of Waterloo studying Honours Health Science (Co-Op).

Projects

With the Blueprint Team Avonae helped with VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation, a network meta-analysis of preclinical stroke therapies, as well as a cross-sectional study of preclinical systematic reviews. . Karolina also aided in transcribing interviews aiming to identify barriers and enablers to a perioperative cell therapy clinical trial( and use of reporting guidelines in preclinical research (APPRAISE).


Emma Grigor

Emma Grigor

Master's Student

Background

Emma worked with the Blueprint group from 2017 to 2018 as a part-time research assistant during her MSc was a co-investigator on a prospective cohort study and led the creation of a new decision-making tool for screening Obstructive Sleep Apnea as the focus of her thesis research. Emma was supervised by Drs. Sylvain Boet and Tim Ramsay. Emma began her medical studies at the University of Ottawa in the Fall of 2018.

Projects

Emma led a clinical systematic review and meta-analysis on CAR-T cell therapy within the GO-CART program.


Sasha Mazzarello

Sasha Mazzarello

Master's Student

Background

Sasha worked with the Blueprint group from 2017 to 2018 and holds a BSc (Honours) in Biomedical Science and was an MSc Candidate in Epidemiology at uOttawa. She conducted a study to identify risk factors of failure-to-rescue in patients with PeriopMI, supervised by Drs Dean Fergusson, Danial McIsaac and Manoj Lalu. Sasha started her nursing studies at UofT in September 2018.

Projects

Sasha contributed to the SafeCell-Heart systematic review. She conducted a systematic review on shared-care models and another on the use of LMWH for cancer metastasis.


Neil Wesch

Neil Wesch

Research Assistant

Background

Neil completed his undergraduate degree in engineering physics and a master's in systems biology at Queen's University.

Projects

Neil worked on various systematic reviews and meta-analysis (SRMA): a SR to assess the reporting in preclinical anesthesiology literature, a SR to assess the reporting within preclinical studies of oncolytic virus therapy, a preclinical SRMA on low molecular weight-heparins for treatment of solid tumours, and a SRMA of preclinical studies evaluating MSC treatment on peri-operative myocardial infarction.


Analyssa Cardenas

Analyssa Cardenas

Summer Student

Background

Analyssa worked with the Blueprint team during the Winter 2017 semester. She finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo in Honours Kinesiology (co-op) and started her Masters of Science in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Toronto.

Projects

Analyssa worked on the STOP-MI interviews, stroke MSC preclinical systematic reviews, and finishing up the Stroke iKT manuscript.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


David Ripsman

David Ripsman

Summer Student

Background

David worked with the Blueprint team during summer 2017 and was a UROP student from 2018-2019. David obtained a Bachelor's of Science degree at the University of Toronto specializing in Chemistry in 2017. He is now studying Medicine at the University of Ottawa where he is expected to graduate in 2021.

Projects

David worked on the Tinzaparin preclinical review.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Mitchell Slobodian

Mitchell Slobodian

Summer Student

Background

Mitch worked with the Blueprint group during summer 2018.Mitch was completing a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry at Laurentian University.

Projects

Mitch worked on the Exosome Systematic Review with Dr. David Allan (a Hematologist in the Ottawa Blood Disease Center), and Dr. Lalu.


Andrew Schembri

Andrew Schembri

Co-op Research Assistant

Background

Andrew was completing his undergraduate degree at The University of Waterloo studying Honours Kinesiology (Co-Op).

Projects

With the Blueprint Team Andrew helped with the VAMPIRE project and the TOHAMO project.


Aditi Dobrial

Aditi Dobrial

Summer Student

Background

Aditi worked with the Blueprint group during summers 2017 and 2018, she completed her BSc (Honours) in Biotechnology/Economics at the University of Waterloo, and was completing her MD degree at the University of Ottawa.

Projects

Aditi worked on the Stroke Network Meta Analysis Project, and on the VAMPIRE project.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Rania Berjawi

Rania Berjawi

Master's Student
rberjawi@toh.ca

Background

Rania completed her BHSc (Honours) in Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and is currently a MSc candidate in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa.

Projects

Rania is currently working on her thesis project conducting both a scoping and systematic review on construct validity in preclinical research. Rania has also worked with the group on the Genome Canada funded project on resistant starches.


Ahmed Al Khalil

Ahmed Al Khalil

Summer Student
aalkh022@uottawa.ca

Background

Ahmed completed his Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Guelph in 2019. He is currently a second year medical student in the University of Ottawa. He has been working with the Blueprint Translational Research Group since this summer of 2020 and will continue with the group as a volunteer research assistant during his studies.

Projects

Ahmed is working primarily on the Predatory Journals project with the goal of characterizing and assessing the impact of Randomized Controlled Trials published in Predatory Anesthesia journals.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Amanda Huynh

Amanda Huynh

Co-Op Research Assistant
ahuyn041@uottawa.ca

Background

Amanda is a third-year undergraduate at the University of Ottawa working towards her Honours BSc in Biology with an option in cellular and molecular biology. She joined the Blueprint team in May 2022.

Projects

She is helping to plan a national multicenter preclinical collaborative that will address acute lung injury (ALI) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) research. She is also assisting in the development of a learning module in a massive open online course (MOOC) on the ARRIVE reporting guidelines for animal preclinical studies headed by the EQUATOR network.

Funding

BioTalent


Mackenzie Wilson

Mackenzie Wilson

Clinical Research Coordinator
macwilson@ohri.ca

Background

Mackenzie completed her BSc (Honours) in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Nutrition and Nutraceutical Sciences and her Master of Public Health at the University of Guelph. Mackenzie joined the Blueprint team in 2020.

Projects

Mackenzie's work focuses on the intersection of behavioural and implementation science and public health, involving key stakeholders to improve health interventions and outcomes. Mackenzie is involved in the team's patient engagement projects, using qualitative methods and working closely with patients and caregivers to inform health economic and program evaluations.


Maryam Ghiasi

Maryam Ghiasi

Research Assistant III
mghiasi@ohri.ca

Background

Maryam holds a Doctorate in Dentistry from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and also completed her MSc in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa. She worked with the Blueprint team from Spring 2022 to Summer 2023.

Projects

Maryam primarily coordinated Systematic Reviews within the team. She also helped with the Patient Engagement in Basic Science (PEBS) research program, aiming to develop a framework providing guidance on patient engagement in laboratory research.


Bashaer Hussein

Bashaer Hussein

Clinical Research Assistant I
bhussein@ohri.ca

Background

Bashaer completed her Honours BSc in Psychology at the University of Ottawa. She worked with the Blueprint team from the fall of 2022 to the spring of 2023.

Projects

Bashaer worked on multiple projects, particularly in the field of Patient Engagement in Basic Sciences (PEBS) aiming to establish a framework for guiding patient engagement.


Ahmed Sadeknury

Ahmed Sadeknury

Honours Student
asade066@uottawa.ca

Background

Ahmed worked with the Blueprint team from January 2022 to Spring 2023 while pursuing a honours BSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ottawa.

Projects

Ahmed worked on his honours project: Using AI for the histological analysis of respiratory diseases. This included a scoping review and development of an AI tool to classify lung histology images.

Funding

BioTalent


MengQi Zhang

MengQi Zhang

Summer Student
mzhan178@uottawa.ca

Background

MengQi worked with the Blueprint team from fall of 2019 to the summer of 2023. He completed his MD at the University of Ottawa in 2023 and is now an anesthesiology resident at Dalhousie University.

Projects

MengQi worked on the biological sex/sepsis preclinical systematic review where he looked at sex-dependent differences in animal models of sepsis.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Nikesh Chander

Nikesh Chander

Summer Student
nchan105@uottawa.ca

Background

Nik completed his Honours BSc in Translational and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He worked with the Blueprint group from summer of 2020 to summer of 2023 as a volunteer research assistant during his studies.

Projects

Nik worked in the wet lab with Dr. Lalu and Dr. Stewart on a project to develop and characterize a more accesible mouse model of COVID-19 in mice. He also worked on an individual data meta-analysis looking at effect modifiers of CAR-T cell therapy, as well as a systematic review investigating randomized controlled trials publiushed in predatory anesthesia journals.

Funding

NSERC Summer Studentship (2022); Canadian Standards Association Summer Studentship (2021)


Claudine Henoud

Claudine Henoud

Summer Student
Claudine Henoud

Background

Claudine worked with the Blueprint team from 2021 to 2022. She is a member of the MD class of 2023 at the University of Ottawa where she also previously completed an HBSc and was involved with translational stem cell research.

Projects

Claudine worked on both a preclinical and clinical systematic review. Her projects respectively explored the preclinical and clinical safety of mesenchymal stromal cells for improving outcomes in patients with myocardial infarction or ischemic heart disease.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Malvika Argawal

Malvika Argawal

Summer Student
magar025@uottawa.ca

Background

Malvika completed a BSc in Life Sciences from McMaster University and is currently a medical student at the University of Ottawa (class of 2024).

Projects

Malvika assisted with the Virtual Recovery After Surgery (VRAS) program studies. Specifically, she helped with a qualitative focus group study and a systematic review centered around VRAS optimization.

Funding

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship


Sabryna Dumont

Sabryna Dumont

Junior Research Technician
sdumont@ohri.ca

Background

Sabryna completed her BSc (Honours) in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ottawa. Sabryna worked with the Blueprint team from January 2023 to March 2024.

Projects

Sabryna worked with preclinical models of Acute Lung Injury (ALI) with a focus on biological sex differences and in models of sepsis for the National Preclinical Sepsis Platform (NPSP) multi-laboratory project.


Marc Antonino Albert

Marc Antonino Albert

Master's Student
malbe074@uottawa.ca

Background

Marc worked with the Blueprint team from January 2022 to August 2023. He pursued his MSc Health Systems from the Telfer School of Management at UOttawa. He completed his BSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ottawa in 2021, where he was involved in ovarian cancer research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Projects

Marc worked on a cross-sectional, observational study to characterize policy documents with citations to Predatory Journal articles across multiple disciplines. His thesis research focused on Predatory Journals – specifically on investigating how the trustworthiness of research is considered by individuals and organizations who prepare public health policy documents.

Funding

SSHRC Canadian Graduate Scholarship


Ayni Sharif

Ayni Sharif

Master's Student
aysharif@ohri.ca

Background

Ayni completed her honours BSc in Biomedical Sciences and MSc in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa.

Projects

Ayni’s research interests included bridging the gap among preclinical research, clinical research, and medical treatment. She worked on integrating patient engagement and network meta-analyses as novel approaches to preclinical systematic reviews to potentially improve knowledge translation.

Funding

CIHR Canadian Graduate Scholarship


Lobna Al-Qaysi

Lobna Al-Qaysi

Co-op Student
loal@ohri.ca

Background

Lobna was in her third year of undergraduate studies at the University of Ottawa, pursuing an Honours BSc in Biopharmaceutical Sciences, with an option in genomics. She joined the Blueprint team from January 2023 to August 2023.

Projects

Lobna worked on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses for Preclinical studies (PRISMA-Pre) project to help create reporting guidelines for preclinical systematic reviews. She also helped with projects related to patient engagement in research, where patients join as active collaborators or partners in the research process.

Funding


Brittany French

Brittany French

Summer Student
brfrench@ohri.ca

Background

Brittany completed a BSc in Biology at Concordia University, MA in Philosophy at Simon Fraser University, and a BA in Classics at St. John’s College. She joined the Blueprint team in summer 2023 through the OHRI summer student program.

Projects

Brittany worked on the Patient Engagement in Basic Sciences (PEBS) project in order to bridge the gap between patient partners and preclinical researchers.

Funding


Amira Brehaut

Amira Brehaut

Summer Student
abrehaut@ohri.ca

Background

Amira was a second-year student at the University of Ottawa studying psychology. She joined the team as a summer student in May of 2023.

Projects

Amira worked on several reviews related to patient engagement in preclinical research which aim to promote patients’ knowledge and priorities throughout the research process.

Funding