Early Career (EC) Member Profiles
Adrien Rihoux
As secretary for the NMD4C Basic Trainee Committee, Adrien is passionate about fostering collaboration within the neuromuscular research community and supporting initiatives that advance our understanding of these complex diseases.
Alasdair Rathbone
Dr. Rathbone has been interested in electrodiagnostics, neuromuscular medicine and pain management since early in his training. In residency, he has developed skills in interventional pain management and electrodiagnostics. His research interests have focused on myofascial pain syndrome and quantitative electromyography.
Alberto Aleman
Dr. Alberto Aleman is a neurologist at the The Ottawa Hospital. Within the NMD4C, Dr. Aleman is a member of the Curriculum Development working group.
Amanda Yaworski
Dr. Yaworski completed her undergraduate degree at Acadia University in Psychology and Neurosciences. Following this, she completed medical school at McMaster University and residency in Pediatric Neurology at the University of Alberta.
Bridget Mulvany-Robbins
Co-Chief Neuromuscular Fellow (2025-2026), NMD4C National Neuromuscular Lecture Series
Caroline Part
Caroline contributes to the development of the Workshop and Mentorship Program as a member of the NMD4C’s Basic Science Trainee Committee. She is currently a PhD student in the lab of Dr. Hanns Lochmüller at the CHEO Research Institute. She completed her MSc from the University of Ottawa with Dr. Maxime Rousseaux where she characterized a novel mouse model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). Before moving to Ottawa, she obtained a BSc with Honours in Neuroscience at the University of Alberta where she had diverse research experience in diabetic neuropathy, stroke, and breast cancer. Now, Caroline’s doctoral thesis focuses on studying the cardiac involvement of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1) using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with hopes to shine new light on this aspect of the disease. Outside of the lab, she serves as the VP Academic on the Graduate Student Association for Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Djurdja Djordjevic
Dr. Djordjevic is a member of the neuromuscular team at BC Children’s Hospital. Her academic and research interests include exploration of biopsychosocial factors and social determinants of health.
Emanuela Pannia
Dr. Emanuela Pannia is currently a first-year Post-doc in Dr. Jim Dowling’s lab in the Department of Genetics & Genomic Biology at SickKids.
Emilie Groulx-Boivin
Dr. Emilie Groulx-Boivin, pediatric neurology resident & MSc candidate at McGill, and NMD4C Collaborative Research Training Award Recipient (2025), is developing Quebec’s first pediatric Brain–Computer Interface program to empower children with neuromuscular disorders and enhance their participation and quality of life.
Emma Sutton
Dr. Emma Sutton is the 2025 BSTC Co-Chair. She earned her BSc in Neuroscience and her PhD in Medicine from Keele University in England, where her doctoral work focused on developing novel therapeutics for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
During her PhD, she served as a postgraduate representative and contributed to ethics and diversity committees. Emma is now based in Ottawa, pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship and leading research in SMA with the goal of advancing and improving therapies for neuromuscular disease..
Gordon Jewett
Dr. Gordon Jewett is an Assistant Professor, Neuromuscular Neurologist and early-career researcher at the University of Calgary, and Director, University of Calgary Neuromuscular and EMG Fellowship and Education Program.
Haley Geertsma
Dr. Haley Geertsma is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Hanns Lochmüller’s lab at the CHEO Research Institute. Haley completed her BSc in Cell and Molecular Biology at Memorial University of Newfoundland then PhD in Neuroscience and Genetics in Dr. Maxime Rousseaux’s lab at the University of Ottawa. Her PhD work centered around understanding the consequences of protein mislocalization in Parkinson’s disease through the genetic manipulation of cell and animal models. Haley’s postdoctoral research uses human induced pluripotent stem cells to study the brain-specific role and brain-heart connection in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1. Outside of the lab, Haley enjoys playing volleyball, knitting, and travelling. Haley is excited to be a part of the NMD4C Basic Science Training Committee contributing to Social Media and Communications and strives to make science accessible to all.
Hisham Aldhukair
Dr Hisham Aldhukair is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC), and a Fellow of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnsotic Medicine (FAANEM). He is currently enrolled in Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnsotic Medicine clinical fellowship in McGill University, Montréal, Canada.
Ian Smith
Dr. Ian Smith is a Clinical Research Associate at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada. He is currently leading multiple translational research projects in a wide variety of neuromuscular conditions at The Ottawa Hospital’s NeuroMuscular Centre.
Isabelle Demers
Dr. Isabelle Demers, is a physiotherapist (Université de Montréal, 2004) and holds a PhD in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences (Université Laval, 2023). She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Université de Sherbrooke, focusing on improving care and rehabilitation for children with myotonic dystrophy type 1. Her research aims to develop adapted outcome measures and document disease progression in the context of emerging therapies. Actively involved with the Quebec Network for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (RQAS) and NMD4C, Isabelle works to bridge research and clinical practice for the benefit of children and their families.
Jaryeon Lee
Jaryeon is a MSc student, under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Scimè in York University’s Stem cell research group and affiliated with the Muscle Health Research Center.
Jaskaran Singh
Dr. Jaskaran Singh is currently serving as a member of the NMD4C Basic Science Trainee Committee, contributing to podcast development and planning. He recently completed his PhD in Neuroscience at INRS, where he studied neuromuscular and neurodevelopmental disorders under the supervision of Professor Kessen Patten. His doctoral research used zebrafish to investigate the mechanisms behind Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), specifically examining chromatin organisation and DNA damage. He combines wet‑lab genetics with bioinformatics, using approaches such as ATAC‑seq and Hi‑C alongside Python and R for large‑scale data analysis.
Jean-Philippe Leduc-Gaudet
Dr. Leduc-Gaudet is an Assistant Professor in the Medical Biology Department at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). In his research, Dr. Leduc-Gaudet combines genetic, molecular, cellular and physiological approaches to investigate signalling pathways regulating skeletal muscle mass and function.
Jeremy Slayter
Dr. Slayter, the 2025 NMD4C Collaborative Research Training Award recipient, is a Resident Physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and an MSc candidate. He completed his MD at Dalhousie University in 2023 and is currently enrolled in the Clinician Investigator Program, where he is pursuing a Master’s of Medical Research at Dalhousie University.
His research focuses on clinical measurement of quality of life, function, and other lived domains in neuromuscular diseases, with the goal of integrating these measures into both research and clinical practice. His master’s research is supported by the Dr. Patrick Madore Clinical Investigator Traineeship, NMD4C, and the Ross Stewart Smith Memorial Fellowship.
Joaquín Machado
Co-Chief Neuromuscular Fellow (2025-2026), NMD4C National Neuromuscular Lecture Series. Training Institution: The Ottawa Hospital, ON.
Juan Francisco Idiaquez Rios
Dr. Idiaquez is a clinical and research neuromuscular fellow in the Neurology Department at the University of Toronto.
Kiran Polavarapu
Dr. Kiran Polavarapu completed his PhD in 2019 at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in India. He is an M.B.B.S (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) graduate who shifted his focus to research in neuromuscular disorders and neurogenetics. His research interest is in primary muscle disorders and neuromuscular genetics. He recently joined the Lochmüller Lab as a postdoctoral fellow and is looking forward to continuing research in neuromuscular genetics and Congenital Myathenic Syndrome.
Léa Lescouzères
Dr. Léa Lescouzères is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Patten lab at the INRS-Institut Armand Frappier.
Louise Moyle
Dr. Louise Moyle is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research investigates mechanisms of muscle stem cell dysfunction in neuromuscular disorders, with the aim of transferring this knowledge towards future cell and gene therapies.
Magda Lesinski
Dr. Magda Lesinski contributes to the development of Pre‑Clinical Science Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as a member of the NMD4C’s Basic Science Trainee Committee. She is a PhD candidate at McMaster University investigating the molecular and metabolic mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle wasting in cancer cachexia, with a focus on how energy‑sensing pathways and substrate methylation regulate muscle mass, mitochondrial function, and stress adaptation during disease.
Marianne Nury
Dr. Marianne Nury is one of three recipients of the NMD4C, MDC, and CSCN Clinical Fellowship funding competition, which awarded national clinical fellowships in neuromuscular medicine and electromyography.
Marine Theret
In 2016 Dr. Theret started her post-doctoral fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Fabio Rossi at the University of British Columbia. She now works on the cellular interactions between tissue resident mesenchymal stromal cells and the inflammatory milieu, which are primordial for skeletal muscle homeostasis, regeneration, and repair.
Mathias Bell
Dr. Mathias Bell contributes to the development of Pre‑Clinical Science Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as a member of the NMD4C’s Basic Science Trainee Committee. He is a PhD student in biochemistry at Queen’s University, where his research focuses on limb‑girdle muscular dystrophy type R1/D4 (LGMD), a disorder caused by mutations in the calpain‑3 gene. Using cryo‑electron microscopy, biochemistry, and cell‑based approaches, he investigates how calpain‑3 interacts with its protein partners in healthy muscle and how these interactions are disrupted in LGMD.
Matthew Triolo
Dr. Matthew Triolo is a Postdoctoral Fellow working within Dr. Mireille Khacho’s lab in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. As a Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Triolo is investigating mechanisms by which mitochondria regulate muscle stem cell homeostasis and function.
Mo Zhao
Dr. Mo Zhao completed her PhD in Molecular Genetics (2013-2017) in Dr. Robert Bryson-Richardson’s lab at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) before joining Dr. James Dowling’s lab as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Genetics & Genomic Biology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.
Mona Hnaini
In August 2020, Dr. Hnaini moved to Canada to sub-specialize in Pediatric Neuromuscular at Children’s Hospital London Health Science Centre under the supervision of Dr. Craig Campbell.
Ohanes Ashekyan
Ohanes Ashekyan contributes to workshop and mentorship program development as a member of the NMD4C’s Basic Science Trainee Committee. He is a PhD candidate in Cellular and Molecular Medicine with a specialization in bioinformatics at the Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Working under the supervision of Dr. Michael A. Rudnicki, he investigates the role of non‑coding RNAs in muscle stem cell quiescence, using advanced next‑generation sequencing library preparation methods to map the full transcriptome of muscle stem cells, including both protein‑coding and regulatory RNA species. He also holds an MSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics from the American University of Beirut.
Pauline Garcia
Dr. Pauline Garcia joined the NMD4C’s Basic Science Trainee Committee in 2026, contributing to social media and communications. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the Nicolas Dumont laboratory at CHU Sainte‑Justine, where she has been working since 2025. Her research focuses on mitochondrial defects in myotonic dystrophy type I, with particular interest in how muscle stem cell dysfunction contributes to disease progression.
Rachel Thompson
Rachel completed her PhD at Newcastle University in the UK, where she was involved in the coordination of the RD-Connect data sharing and analysis platform. She is a postdoctoral fellow in the Lochmüller Lab with a research interest in the use of data integration methods for medical genomics and precision medicine in neuromuscular diseases.
Rebecca Robertson
Rebecca Robertson is a NMD4C/MDC postdoctoral research fellowship funding recipient. With the support of the MDC & NMD4C Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Rebecca will do her post-doctoral training in the lab of Dr. Natasha Chang at the Biochemistry department of McGill. There, she will study the role of satellite cell dysfunction in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Rebecca Yaworski
Basic Science Trainee Committee, NMD4C Member. PhD Student, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Neuroscience Program at the University of Ottawa
Sean Ng
Basic Science Trainee Committee Member, NMD4C.
His recent findings have been published in several journals, including The Journal of Physiology and Molecular Metabolism.
His work has been recognized by several national organizations, including NSERC, NMD4C, and MDC, which have collectively supported his scientific training.
Shatha Atieh
Basic Science Trainee Committee Member, NMD4C. Ph.D. candidate in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa
Umme Sabrina Haqu
Umme Sabrina Haque is currently serving as a Basic Science Trainee Committee member within the NMD4C, contributing to SOP development. She is a neuromuscular researcher and PhD candidate in the Yokota lab at the University of Alberta, specializing in antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) and CRISPR/Cas‑based therapeutic approaches for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and giant axonal neuropathy, with a focus on developing safe, non‑invasive delivery strategies that enable central nervous system and multi‑organ therapeutic rescue.
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