TEAM

Minerva received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Havana and her master’s degree from the University of Southern Denmark. Minerva has more than twenty years of combined experience from the biotech industry and academic organizations, and her organization skills are on part with Marie Kondo. As a lab manager, Minerva makes sure all day-to-day operations run smoothly and efficiently. She also enjoys training new students. In her free time, she loves to travel and explore new cultures.

Soheil Jahangiri is an affiliate scientist in the Stem Cell Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. He received his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Shahid Beheshti, Iran, working on Comparative Genomics and Phylogenomics of bacterial strains. He was also a research assistant at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Iran, where he worked on Drug-Target interaction prediction and Protein Subcellular localization prediction using recommender systems. In 2019, he joined Dr. Benjamin Haibe-Kains’ lab at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre as a postdoctoral fellow, where he worked on drug sensitivity prediction and personalized combination therapy using single-cell RNASeq and machine learning techniques. In our lab, Soheil focuses on mapping receptor-ligand interactions between hematopoietic cells and the bone marrow microenvironment. Outside of academic life, Soheil enjoys wood carving and the outdoors.

Gibran received his B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He then completed his Master’s of Bioinformatics from University of Guelph, where he was introduced to the Tikhonova Lab as part of his summer placement. He has since joined the Tikhonova Lab as a Research analyst to investigate cellular communication in the bone marrow niche. Outside of lab, Gibran loves to spend time with his family and crocheting.

Pirakashini graduated from the University of Toronto after completing her HBS in Life Sciences. Her interest in research started in her undergrad, during which she worked with naked mole-rats to help study how sexually differentiated neural circuits mediate the expression of various social behaviours and how in turn, social factors influence the structure and function of these neural circuits. After graduating, she joined the Tikhonova lab to further develop her lab and mouse handling techniques. In her spare time, she enjoys painting and spending time with family and friends.

Mursal received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., USA. From there, she went on to work as a research associate first at MIT, and later at Yale School of Medicine studying anti-tumor T cell responses. Mursal joined the our lab as a graduate student to elucidate the role of the bone marrow niche components in orchestrating inflammatory responses. Aside from her research interests, Mursal is a passionate advocate for promoting the advancement of minorities and underrepresented groups in science. She is the founder and cochair of Women in Science Initiative (WSI) at UofT, where she hopes to increase representation and retention of women in the life sciences. In her spare time, Mursal enjoys traveling and exploring new places with family.

Ximing completed her undergraduate degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto. Ximing’s research project is to investigate both the short term and the long-term effects of the standard leukemia chemotherapy regimen on the bone marrow niche. Her passion for research started with a groundbreaking study of fried chicken restaurants and bubble tea shops around Toronto that is currently under peer review. Ximing is an avid photographer of people in their natural habitat and one of her goals is to create meme collage for every person in our lab.

Mark is a post-doctoral fellow investigating crosstalk between the bone marrow and leukemic cells. He completed his Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Toronto where he identified novel biomarkers and chemotherapy resistance mechanisms of high-risk B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In our lab, Mark aims to characterize how T acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells reshape the bone marrow microenvironment to escape immune cell destruction and gain chemotherapy resistance. Outside the lab, Mark has a passion for cooking, a task that offers greater flexibility in deviation from the recipe and more immediate results than most lab work.

Alicia obtained her MsC in Molecular Biomedicine and her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM). She has been working with dissecting human bone marrow (BM) microenvironment in Aging and Acute Myeloid Leukemia. As part of her PhD studies, Alicia described a spatial association between adipocytes and hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) and its increase in aging. Now, Alicia focuses on delineating the changes in the BM architecture in the context of chronic inflammation. Alicia loves to learn new techniques and embark in new adventures.