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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Hannah Laquerre
Summer Student
hn264868@dal.ca
Background
Hannah is a student at Dalhousie University where she completed her first year in the Integrated Science program. She will be continuing her studies in the fall where she will be majoring in Microbiology and Immunology.
Projects
Hannah worked on the Making Patient Partnerships A Reality in Very Early Phase Clinical TriaLs (MARVEL) program, which involves incorporating patient engagement for upcoming clinical trials at different stages of the development process.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
