Team | Bench to Communities

Principal Investigator

Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, PhD

Assistant Professor in Environmental Health

Department of Health and Society

Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences

University of Toronto Scarborough

Graduate cross-appointment - Dalla Lana School of Public Health

University of Toronto

CIHR Postdoctoral fellow, Université de Montréal School of Public Health (2018-2020)

FRQS Postdoctoral fellow, Université de Montréal School of Public Health (2017-2018)

PhD in biology, INRS - Institut Armand-Frappier (2012-2017)

Collaborators

Amira Aker, PhD

Postdoctoral fellow

Dr Aker is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), and she will be joining Prof Mélanie Lemire's team at Université Laval in 2021. Dr Aker’s broader research interests include the intersection between environmental chemical exposure and social factors on women’s health. Her research program focuses on the environmental and social factors influencing reproductive life course stages, such as pregnancy, preconception health and menopause. 

As a collaborator in the From bench to communities lab, Amira is investigating the associations between exposure to hydraulic fracturing activity and mental health outcomes during pregnancy, such as anxiety and depression.

Current Graduate Students

Ghida Baalbaki

PhD Student in biology (co-supervision)

Ghida started her PhD in biology at INRS - Institut Armand Frappier in January 2021, under the supervision of Géraldine Delbès, Cathy Vaillancourt and Élyse Caron-Beaudoin. Ghida will research the endocrine disrupting effects of environmentally-relevant concentrations of contaminants associated with hydraulic fracturing on fetal development.

After a bachelor degree in “Life and Earth Sciences-Biochemistry” at Saint-Joseph University of Beyrouth, Ghida completed a 2 year Masters at the University of Paris, where she was specialized in ‘Cellular Biology, Physiology and Pathology: Reproduction and development’. In her first year, Ghida worked on the impact of freezing on the integrity of spermatic chromatin at the Reproductive biology laboratory at Poissy hospital. Then, Ghida did her second year internship at the Neurodevelopment laboratory at Robert Debré hospital to understand the synaptic role of a poorly characterized Golgi protein whose genetic deficiency causes a neurodevelopmental disease.

Coreen Daley

PhD in Environmental Science student

Coreen started her PhD in Environmental Science program at the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences (University of Toronto Scarborough) in September 2021. During her PhD, Coreen will use chemical transport models, phase-specific density and proximity metrics, environmental and biomonitoring data to estimate exposure to contaminants associated with unconventional natural gas exploitation in Northeastern British Columbia.

Coreen holds a MEnvSc in Environmental Science and a HBSc in Environment Health and Immunology from the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Matthew Day

PhD in Environmental Science student

Matthew completed the MEnvSc program at the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences (University of Toronto Scarborough) in September 2022. As part of this professional program, Matthew measured the levels of various oxidative stress biomarkers and antioxidant enzymes in the EXPERIVA cohort. His PhD project investigates how air pollutants, aeroallergens, and the air microbiome impact oxidative stress and inflammation pathways in asthma. To study this question, Matthew is developing a cellular co-culture model of the human airway and exposing the model to various air profiles along a latitudinal gradient in Canada.

Matthew holds a BSc in Life Sciences from Queen's University.

Current interns and research assistants

Maduomethaa Pathmaraj

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Maduomethaa is a student at the University of Toronto Scarborough double majoring in Human Biology and Psychology. During her time at the From Bench to Communities Lab, she has assisted MEnvSc student Matthew Day in the measurements of oxidative stress biomarkers in urinary samples of the EXPERIVA study. She is currently measuring a suite of chronic stress biomarkers in the same cohort.

Emilie Nero

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Emilie is a student at the University of Toronto in Biology and Health & Disease. During her time at the From Bench to Communities Lab, Emilie is working on describing the exposure to organophosphate triesters in the Qanuilirpitaa? 2017 Nunavit Health survey. Emilie is a recipient of a University of Toronto Excellence Award.