Blogs from early career neuromuscular clinicians and researchers
The NMD4C early career blogs provide a platform for early career neuromuscular clinicians and researchers to share their journey in the field of neuromuscular disease. These inspiring stories from the next generation of neuromuscular specialists cover everything from their first involvement in neuromuscular research or care, the people or experiences that have played important roles their career, and advice for others considering a career in the neuromuscular field.
Dr. Emilie Groulx-Boivin is a Collaborative Research Training Award Recipient (2025)
She is currently a third-year pediatric neurology resident at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and is concurrently pursuing a Master of Science in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience at McGill. Her research focuses on structural and functional brain imaging in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
Dr. Jeremy Slayter is a Collaborative Research Training Award Recipient (2025).
He is currently completing his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is enrolled in the clinician investigator program, completing a Master’s of Medical Research, at Dalhousie University. His research primarily focuses on clinical measurement of quality of life, function, and other domains of life in neuromuscular diseases to be integrated into research and clinics.
Dr. Neena Lala-Tabbert is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Robert Korneluk at the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa. She is investigating the utility of Smac Mimetic Compounds and TWEAK in reducing muscle pathology in mdx mice, the mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Dr. Lescouzères is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Kessen Patten’s lab at the INRS-Institut Armand Frappier in Canada. She is currently working on zebrafish models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with the aim of identifying new physiopathological mechanisms induced by mutations in the C9ORF72 gene, and new therapeutic targets.
Dr. Marianne Nury is a 2022 NMD4C and MDC clinical fellowship recipient and is currently completing a neuromuscular fellowship at University Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre.
Human bodies are complex, difficult to understand biological machines. I have been forever fascinated by the mechanics and processes that make us tick. In my previous career as a biomedical engineer, I sought to study and then design processes that could help make machines work. I was always overjoyed when an engineering team could bring together multiple different and seemingly unrelated parts to create a machine that accomplished something wonderous. And there is no greater machine, in my eyes, than the human body.
Dr. Rebecca Robertson is one of the recipients of the NMD4C and MDC postdoctoral research fellowships for 2022. Read her early-career neuromuscular blog!
Dr. Pannia is a recipient of the NMD4C and MDC postdoctoral research fellowship for 2022, where her research will involve determining the molecular mechanisms and environmental modifiers of progressive liver disease in X-linked myotubular myopathy.
Dr. Matthew Triolo is a Postdoctoral Fellow working within Dr. Mireille Khacho’s lab in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Matthew first completed his BSc in Kinesiology and Health Science with a Minor in Biology at York University.
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