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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Joaquín Machado
Co-Chief Neuromuscular Fellow (2025-2026), NMD4C National Neuromuscular Lecture Series. Training Institution: The Ottawa Hospital, ON.
Dr. Joaquín Machado graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina. He completed a residency in adult neurology at the Hospital Privado de Comunidad and a fellowship in neurophysiology and neuromuscular diseases at the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. He then became part of the permanent staff of the FLENI Institute. Joaquín is currently completing a fellowship in neuromuscular diseases under the supervision of Dr. Ariel Breiner, at The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Blogs from EC Members
Most Recent Blog
Dr. Neena Lala-Tabbert Early Career Blog
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.