Clinician Scientist Profiles: General Stream
Ryma Bendel
Dr. Ryma Bendel is a senior psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto and a current trainee in the Clinician-Scientist Program, based at the Toronto General Hospital. Her primary academic and clinical focus lies in Consultation-Liaison (CL) Psychiatry.
Her research activities span several key subdomains within CL Psychiatry, including transplant psychiatry, psycho-oncology, neuropsychiatry, and cardiac psychiatry. She has published in highly regarded peer-reviewed journals, presented her work at prominent national and international academic conferences, and secured competitive funding to support her research.
Most notably, Dr. Bendel was recently awarded the prestigious Labatt Family Network Award, a $40,000 research grant supporting her investigation into the neurobiology of depression across the lifespan. This project bridges psychiatry and neuroscience by examining brain-based biomarkers of depression.
Dr. Bendel is committed to advancing integrated, evidence-based models of psychiatric care within the hospital setting. Her long-term career goals include contributing to academic teaching, clinical leadership, and research within CL Psychiatry.
Semir Bulle
Dr. Semir Bulle is currently a Psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto and is the former Co-President of the Black Medical Students’ Association. Born and raised in the Toronto area, he has spent the majority of his professional career working towards the improvement of the material conditions of others through advocacy & research. He is the official liaison for the Canadian Doctors for Protection Against Guns, and he has strong ties to the zero-gun violence movement. Additionally, he is the co-founder of Doctors for Defunding Police, and Doctors for Long-term Care (LTC) Justice and his research work is currently focused on the intersections of mental health crises, policing and resource allocation. His work has been featured in the Toronto Star, CBC and other news organizations in the city of Toronto and throughout Canada.
Jia Hong (David) Dai
I am passionate about improving psychiatric care for underserved communities through the exploration of patient narratives and by developing more effective psychotherapy interventions. My interests include psychotherapy and cultural psychiatry research using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. I will be starting a fellowship in child-adolescent psychiatry in July 2025.
My current CSP project with Dr. Tim Guimond focuses on how adverse childhood experiences and trauma impact sexualized methamphetamine use and psychosis among men who have sex with men; our group is currently creating a novel psychotherapy intervention for methamphetamine use. I am also in the process of developing a new qualitative research project that examines explanatory models of psychosis among newcomer youth.
Ayan Dey
Dr. Ayan Dey completed his undergraduate degree in neuroscience at McMaster University, and graduated from the University of Toronto's MD-PhD program. His current research interests center around assessment and evaluation of novel interventions for persistent cognitive impairment among adults with neuropsychiatric disorders. He is currently working with Dr. Giacobbe at Sunnybrook to study the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on cognition and sleep in adults with treatment-resistant depression. Prior to residency, he completed a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at the Rotman Research Institute (Baycrest) wherein he applied multimodal functional neuroimaging to study cognitive heterogeneity among older adults with vascular risk factors and studied the effects of cognitive rehabilitation among adults with traumatic brain injury. In addition to his current academic and clinical interests in sleep, cognition and brain injury, he is actively involved in quality improvement research related to measurement-based care in mental health.
Justin Graffi
Dr. Justin Graffi is a PGY4 resident. Improving access to psychiatric care is one reason that he decided to pursue a career in psychiatry. Specifically, he wants to improve access to psychiatric care in rural parts of Canada. One way that he wants to increase access to care is through research. There are unique challenges that rural communities face in order to access psychiatric care. These challenges remain under researched. It is well established that people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) benefit from earlier intervention and follow-up. Poor clinical and functional outcomes are associated with extended duration of untreated psychosis. However, there is limited data examining the psychiatric care and treatment of people experiencing first episode psychosis in rural settings. Additionally, there is limited research examining the differences between clinical and functional outcomes of people in rural communities. His PhD project aims to explore the treatment of people with first episode psychosis in rural parts of Ontario, specifically focusing on early psychosis intervention programs in rural parts of Ontario.
Helena Kim
Dr. Helena Kim completed her BSc in psychology and human biology and PhD in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto. Her past work examined downstream targets of mitochondrial complex I dysfunction in patients with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression using post-mortem brain samples and animal and cell models. She completed her post-doctoral work at Queen’s University identifying microRNA markers of bipolar disorder and drug response in patients with MDD using clinical trial samples. Currently, her research interest includes identifying demographic, clinical, and molecular predictors of drug response in patients with mood disorders.
Supervisor: Dr. Benoit Mulsant
Jennie Pouget
I am fascinated by the biology underlying psychiatric disorders, and my research uses genomic data as a window into that biology. Prior to residency, I completed MD/PhD training at the University of Toronto with a research specialization in statistical genetics and computational biology. I co-developed a method (BUHMBOX) to identify biologically relevant groups of patients in genetic samples with limited clinical data (e.g. immune-driven subgroups). I have collaborated with international genomic consortia to identify molecular pathways involved in schizophrenia and immune-mediated disorders. In my current CSP research, I am leveraging multi-omic brain data at single-cell resolution to better understand disease mechanisms in severe mental illness.
Hilary Pang
Dr. Hilary Pang is a Psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto. She is in the Clinician-Scientist Program under the supervision of Dr. Venkat Bhat. She is interested in the role of generative artificial intelligence in medicine and medical education. Dr. Pang was selected as one of two fellows for the American College of Psychiatrists - PRITE Fellowship in 2023-2024.
Laura Rivera
I am a PGY3 Psychiatry Resident at the University of Toronto. I completed graduate training at the University of Toronto (MPH in Epidemiology, 2013) and medical training at the University of Calgary (MD, 2021). Prior to medical school, I was a Research Associate at Public Health Ontario and at the University of Calgary in the Faculties of Medicine and Social Work. As an epidemiologist who is now a clinician, my interest is in the intersection of mental health care and data science, as well as knowledge translation and application of epidemiological research to psychiatric practice. I am additionally interested in equity promotion and aim to consider the impacts of the social determinants of health (SDOH), particularly gender and race, in my research. Within the Clinician Scientist Program, I will work with George Foussias, Martin Rotenberg, and Marta Maslej at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health to apply machine learning methods to healthcare administrative data to determine clinical and functional outcome trajectories for individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, and to clarify the role of the SDOH in shaping these outcomes.
Stanley Wong
Dr. Stanley Wong completed his BSc in biology at McMaster University. He then completed his MD at the University of Ottawa where he published in multiple peer-reviewed journals under the supervision and mentorship of Dr. Jess G. Fiedorowicz and Dr. Marco Solmi in medical education research and meta-analysis. Currently a psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto, Stanley's research interests are in exploring novel pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for the treatment of mental disorders including psychedelics research, pharmacological interventions for sleep disorders, and mindfulness based interventions. He is a member of the Mood Disorders Innovations and Treatment Lab under the supervision and mentorship of Dr. Ishrat Husain at CAMH. By exploring the safety and efficacy of novel interventions, Stanley hopes to improve the mental health and quality of life of the patients he serves. Outside of his professional life, Stanley enjoys weightlifting, cooking, and hosting D&D sessions with his friends.
Dr. Stanley Wong on Google Scholar