CSP Alumni Profiles

AHMADZADASL, Masoud

I completed my MD and previous psychiatry training back in Iran before pursuing a new life in Canada, which includes redoing my residency. Nothing fills me more with joy than pursuing the unknown. I am interested in learning about the most obvious, yet less known, part of any therapeutic intervention, the placebo.  Along with my supervisors/advisor, Drs. Mark Sinyor, Matthew Burke, and Krista Lanctot, in my CSP project I plan to study the mechanisms of placebo effects and their correlates across major psychiatric conditions, which could eventually promote patient care quality. I will start with a systematic review of published RCTs and then may plan to expand my research as an add-on part to RCTs with the placebo arm(s).  During my previous life as a psychiatrist in Iran, I also participated in research projects and published in several peer-reviewed journals, including papers on placebo effects in panic disorder and OCD. Outside of professional life, I enjoy poetry, literature, calligraphy, and spending time with my wife and daughter. 

DEY, Ayan

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 the assessment and evaluation of novel interventions for persistent cognitive impairment among adults with neuropsychiatric disorders. During residency, Dr. Dey worked 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. 

KIM, Helena

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

POUGET, Jennie

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.

DePENCIER, North

Dr. North de Pencier has a BA (Hons) from the University of Chicago in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and an MD from Western University. Her research centers around the history of psychiatry.
Supervisors: Dr. Allison Crawford, MD PhD and Dr. Omair Husain, MBBS, MRCPsych

FREEDMAN, David

David Freedman is a Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychiatry Fellow who conducts research to better understand and address the neuropsychiatric sequelae of multiple sclerosis (MS). His past work has focused on differences in the neuropsychiatric sequelae across disease duration, the links between depression, anxiety, and cognitive dysfunction, and intimate partner violence among people with MS. His current research explores predictors of neuropsychiatric treatment usage, and age and sex differences in depression, anxiety, and cognitive dysfunction in MS. 

NG, Enoch

During my MD-PhD studies under the supervision of Dr. J. Roder and Dr. A. Wong, I found a role for Neuronal calcium sensor-1 in motivated behaviour and dopamine signaling in mice. In my residency, I hope to apply my background in preclinical research on brain circuitry and behaviours to inform therapies for patients. Advances in brain stimulation provide many opportunities to translate knowledge about brain circuitry from human neuroimaging and preclinical rodent models into circuit-based treatments for psychiatric disorders. As a CSP resident, I plan to investigate the effectiveness of targeted brain stimulation (e.g. deep brain stimulation, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) for treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder. 

STERGIOPOULOUS, Erene

Erene Stergiopoulos completed her BSc in psychology and MA in history and philosophy of science at the University of Toronto. Her past research includes qualitative work on the experiences of medical students with disabilities, and uses a socio-cultural lens to study the effects of the hidden curriculum on their professional identity formation. Her current research uses mixed methods approaches to study barriers to physician health disclosure. She is completing her PhD at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (University of Toronto) where her work studies regulation and licensure for physicians with medical conditions.

JONES, Brett

Dr. Brett Jones has an MSc from the Institute of Medical Science looking at novel biomarkers predicting treatment response in MDD. He worked with Dr. Jeff Daskalakis on studying novel treatments and better understanding the placebo response for MDD and Treatment Refractory Depression.

 KUDLOW, Paul

Degree(s): MD, PhD

Program (Year): Clinician Scientist Program (2019)

Paul is currently completing his residency in psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Paul recently returned to residency from a 4-year leave of absence. In his leave, Paul launched and sold a technology business, TrendMD, as well as earned his PhD for research in the fields of bibliometrics, knowledge dissemination, and scholarly communication from the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto. 

Project Title: Increasing the Reach, Usage, and Impact of Scholarly Content

Supervisor(s): Dr. Reinhart Reithmeier; Dr. Aviv Shachak 

ROTENBERG, Martin

Martin Rotenberg's research focus is on the role of social and environmental factors on the incidence of psychotic disorders and pathways to care. He is also interested in rehabilitation with ethnic minority individuals with severe and persistent mental illness.  He will be starting a MSc. in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in July 2019.

VAN, Lily

I completed my Bachelors of Health Sciences at McMaster University with a minor in psychology. Following this, I completed medical school at the University of Toronto. My research area of interest is in the genetics of schizophrenia in particular 22q11.2 deletion syndrome which confers a ~25% lifetime risk for schizophrenia. I currently work at the Clinical Genetics Research Program at CAMH and am studying predisposing factors and treatment of schizophrenia in individuals with this condition.

HUI, Katrina

Before completing medical school at McMaster University, Dr. Hui received a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Philosophy from Stanford University and an M.S. in Bioethics at Columbia University. She has published work in ethics, advocacy, and addictions, including in The Lancet and Psychopharmacology. She is currently a Clinician-Scientist-in-Training pursuing mixed methods mental health services research with a main research focus on implicit bias in medicine.

Supervisor: Dr. Juveria Zaheer

SMITH, Sarah

Sarah Smith is a fellow with a research interest in eating disorders. Her clinical research to date has focused on outcomes of inpatient eating disorder treatment, disease progression and eating disorder education. Additional areas of interest include emotional dysregulation in eating disorder treatment and eating disorder psychopharmacology. She also has research and policy interests in physician health that she has pursued locally and nationally with multiple physician organizations.

TANG, Victor

Dr. Victor M. Tang is a Canadian resident physician in the clinician scientist program at the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry. He received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Master of Science in Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, and completed his medical training at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. During his research and clinical training, he has published work on topics of oxidative stress in mood disorders, neuroimaging in stimulant addiction, history and clinical treatment of catatonia, and on Electroconvulsive Therapy and Magnetic Seizure Therapy. Currently his academic interests are in brain stimulation for treatment-resistant mental illness and addiction psychiatry. 

ROTENBERG, Martin

Martin Rotenberg's research focus is on the role of social and environmental factors on the incidence of psychotic disorders and pathways to care. He is also interested in rehabilitation with ethnic minority individuals with severe and persistent mental illness.  He will be starting a MSc. in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in July 2019.

YU, Simon

KASTER, Tyler

I’ve been passionate about research since my undergraduate degree in Medical Biophysics. Because of my background, I initially wanted to be a radiologist and therefore completed research in cardiac PET imaging. However, because of my clinical experiences I was drawn to psychiatry. Since starting my psychiatry residency I have been involved in brain stimulation research which allows me to leverage my biophysics training. In the future I hope to develop a career as a clinician scientist using brain stimulation as a technique to better understand and treat psychiatric illness.

KRAKOWSKI, Aneta

I completed my undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto. For my Master’s degree, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Paul Frankland at the Hospital for Sick Children researching adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus using mouse models. I completed medical school at the University of Toronto and developed an interest in child and adolescent psychiatry. I am particularly interested in working with children with autism and hope to intertwine my future clinical practice with research in order to learn how to best understand and treat children with autism and co-morbid mental health disorders.

LAM, Sing Hong June

June Lam is a youth psychiatry fellow and a PhD student in Clinical Epidemiology & Health Care Research at the University of
Toronto. He has a clinical and research interest in working with underserved and marginalized populations, including with transgender and gender diverse, homeless, and new immigrant populations. He is part of the Clinician Scientist Program (CSP), working on a CIHR-funded qualitative study understanding the suicidal behaviour of Chinese and Chinese-Canadian women. His PhD thesis uses mixed methods to study access to acute and post-discharge mental health care for transgender and gender diverse individuals.

ROSENBLAT, Joshua

Degree(s): MD

Program (Year): CSP Graduate Stream

Ever since elementary school, I have been extremely interested in science and ‘doing experiments.’  This interest has grown greatly over the years as I have had the opportunity to work in several labs throughout my undergraduate degree as well as during medical school.

My main field of interest currently is the interaction between mood disorders and medical comorbidities (more specifically, inflammatory and metabolic disorders).  Understanding the biological underpinnings of these interactions may lead to an improved understanding of the pathophysiology of mood disorders. This improved understanding may also allow for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets that may simultaneously treat mood disorders and medical comorbidities.

Project Title: Interactions between Mood Disorders and Medical Comorbidities

Supervisor: Dr. Roger S. McIntyre

BARKER, Lucy

Degree(s): MD

Program (Year): CSP Graduate Stream, (Fellow)

My research interests include women’s mental health, reproductive psychiatry, psychiatric services, and the social determinants of mental health. I am in the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research program through the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. My PhD thesis uses Ontario population-level data to explore the outcomes of postpartum women who visit the emergency department for mental health care, and takes an intersectional feminist approach to understand gaps in care and disparities for women experiencing multiple forms of marginalization. My goal is establish a research program that improves the design and delivery of mental health services for marginalized women.

Project Title: Maternal postpartum psychiatric emergencies: applying an intersectional feminist framework to understand outcomes and
better identify groups of women whose care needs are not being met

Supervisor(s): Dr. Simone Vigod

HAUCK, Tanya

Dr. Tanya Hauck MD PhD FRCPC is completing the Bellwood Fellowship in addictions psychiatry and also currently completing a MSc degree in clinical epidemiology through the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.  Her research interests include the clinical epidemiology of substance use disorders and their treatment, and the treatment of comorbid PTSD and substance use disorders.

TOMA, Simina

Degree(s): MD

Program (Year): CSP Pregraduate Stream

My research interest stemmed from longstanding intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm about finding new ways to approach problems.

With its clinical complexity, treatment challenges, and strong biological basis with undeniable psychological impact, Bipolar Disorder is one the most fascinating psychiatric illness, and the cause of intractable suffering. I intent to contribute to the understanding of its development and progression, which can lead to treatment targets for early intervention.

My current project is aiming to investigate the biological underpinnings of the different bipolar subtypes, with the goal to assess whether neuroanatomical factors support the clinical distinctions between BD-I, II and NOS, as well as the inclusion of BD-NOS in the bipolar spectrum.

Project Title: Neuroimaging in youth Bipolar subtypes

Supervisor(s): Dr. Ben Goldstein

BARIBEAU, Danielle

Degree(s): M.D., M.Sc. (candidate)

I attended the University of Toronto for medical school and subsequently residency training in general psychiatry, and then child and adolescent psychiatry. After residency, I began a clinical research fellowship at SickKids in medical psychiatry, with a focus on neuropsychiatric and developmental assessment of children with genetic variants. For my PhD in clinical epidemiology, I have been examining longitudinal predictors of anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder. My current research goals involve applying data science methods to identify biological predictors of treatment outcomes in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Supervisor(s): Drs. Simone Vigod, Peter Szatmari, Evdokia Anagnostou

LEE, Jonathan

Degree(s): HBSc, MD

Program (Year): CSP Graduate Stream

At the beginning of my psychiatric training I was lucky enough to be connected with Dr. Daskalakis who was an ideal supervisor and mentor and was instrumental in fostering my interest in research. I am interested in becoming a clinician-scientist to find ways to integrate brain stimulation methods to better understand and treat psychiatric disorders affecting children and adolescents. For the past two years I have explored brain plasticity in healthy adolescents using a paradigm known as paired-associative stimulation. I hope to create new brain stimulation-based treatments to advance the field of child and adolescent psychiatry.

Project Title: Repetitive transcranial magnetic (rTMS) in youth depression: Efficacy and targets of response

Supervisor(s): Dr. Jeff Daskalaki