Team | lajoie-lab

ABOUT

Our lab is always looking for passionate people to join our group. Prospective postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to contact Dr Lajoie to enquire about available positions. Please consult our departmental webpage for a complete description of our graduate program.

LAB MEMBERS

Patrick Lajoie

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Patrick Lajoie

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Patrick Lajoie, PhD

Associate Professor

Patrick holds a BSc in Biology from UQAM ('02) and a PhD in Anatomy and Cell Biology from the University of British Columbia ('08) followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has been a faculty member at Western since 2013.

Google Scholar Profile

Diba Chowdhury

MSc Student

Diba joined the lab in September 2021 for her 4th year thesis project. She is doing her masters working on the role of the UPR in the placenta. She is co-supervised by Dr Steve Renaud.

Julie Genereaux

Research Technician

Julie shares her time between our lab and the Reanud at Western. She has extensive experience in molecular biology and yeast genetics.

Sam Stack-Couture

PhD Student

Sam joined the lab in September 2020 for his 4th year thesis, COVID19 edition. He started his PhD in the lab in September 2021.

Unnati Yagnik

Undergraduate Student

Unnati joined the lab in May 2023. She works on the biology of Candida albicans .

Sophie Demski

MSc Student

Sophie joined the lab for her basic research rotation in the IMS program in the Fall of 2023.

Natalie Lu

Undergraduate Student

Natalie joined the lab in May 2023. She works on the biology of Candida albicans .

Tanya Misra

MSc Student

Tanya joined the lab for her basic research rotation in the IMS program in the Fall of 2023.

Khaleda Afrin Bari

PhD Student

Afrin has a BEng from the University of New Brunswick and two Masters degrees in engineering and biochemistry from Western. She she joined the lab in September 2020.

Gabriela Librais, PhD

Research Associate

Gabriela holds a PhD from the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil. She works on the biology of Tra1 in Candida albicans .

Bryan Lung

Undergraduate Student

Bryan joined the lab in September 2022 for his 4th year thesis project. He works on the biology of Candida albicans .

Celeste Gledroyc

MSc Student

Celeste joined the lab for her basic research rotation in the IMS program in the Fall of 2023.

Niharika Karol

MSc Student

Niharika joined the lab for her basic research rotation in the IMS program in the Fall of 2023.

LAB Alumni

Elena Fazio, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Elena holds a PhD from the University of Western Ontario ('12). She joined the lab in 2013 and was working on the role of the UPR in aging and cardiac hypertrophy. She was supported by the CIHR traning program in vascular research. She is now a medical science liaison at Medicure.

Daniel Richmond

Undergraduate Student

Daniel joined the lab in 2014 and his 4th year thesis is about the role of IRE1 in malignant gliomas. Daniel is now a dentist.

Jessica Siu

Undergraduate Student

Jessica joined the lab as a work study student in May 2013. She is now family physician in Kitchener.

Amanda Attalah

Undergraduate Student

Amanda joined the lab in 2013 and her 4th year thesis was Er stress in different yeast species. She is now an optometrist in Pickering.

Eun Jin (Anna) Park

Devika Jayawardena

Sanila Akhtar

Alexandra Yhip

Volunteer

Undergraduate Student

Volunteer

Devika graduated with her B.Sc in 2015 from Western and joined the lab for the summer '15. She is now a graduate student in Biology at Western.

Anna was a work study student who joined the lab for the summer '15. Se is now a chemist at Apollo Health and Beauty care.

Sanila joined the lab during the fall of 2015 for her 4th year thesis in Biology and worked on UPR in fission yeast.

Alexandra graduated from Western in '16 and is working in the lab for the summer. She is planning to come back for graduate school next year.

Parnian Etedali-Zadeh

Undergraduate Student

Parnian was a work study student who joined the lab as a work study student during the summer '15 and did her 4th year thesis starting September 2016. She is now a medical student at Western.

Bryden McBane

High School Student

Bryden was a High School PEL Co-op student for the Fall 2017 term.

Sydney LaPierre

Undergraduate Student

Sydney was a 2nd year scholar elective student for 2017/18.

Alec Popa

Undergraduate Student

Alec was a 2nd year undergraduate student in the scholar elective program.

Hazel Dhaliwal

Undergraduate Student

Hazel was a 4th year thesis student helping in the lab while learning basic yeast genetics. She was awarded an NSERC-USRA scholarship for the summer 2017. She is now studying public health at McMaster University.

Khadija Ahmed

Yuwei Jiang, PhD

Sarah Chadwick, PhD

MSc Student

PhD Student

Khadija joined the lab as a 4th year thesis student in Spetember 2016 and worked on TORC1 signaling during ER stress. She received an NSERC-CGSM Scholarship for 2018-19. She is now a medical student at Western.

Alex holds a B.Sc. from the Xiamen University in China ('14). He obtained his PhD from Western in '19. He was the recipient of a Dean MSc to PhD transfer scholarship from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western. He is now a PDF at McMaster University.

Sarah holds a B.Sc. from Western University ('15) and joined the lab in 2014 for her 4th year thesis. She worked on the mechanisms of aging in the yeast model . She received an OGS scholarship for 2016-2017 and 2018-19. She held a Canada Doctoral Scholarship from NSERC. She is now a PDF at SickKids in Toronto.

Justine Lau

Undergraduate Student

Justine joined the lab in September 2019 as a volunteer.

Mihnea Morar

Undergraduate Student

Mike joined the lab in September 2019 as a volunteer.

Margaret MacDonald

Stephanie Howe

Undergraduate Student

Stephanie joined the lab in September 2019 for her 4th thesis project.

Undergraduate Student

Margaret joined the lab in September 2019 as a volunteer. She was awarded an NSERC-USRA award for the summer 2020. She is now a medical student at McMaster.

Maram Albakri

MSc Student

Maram joined the lab in 2014 as a work study student to help everybody, make reagents and insure the lab runs smoothly. She liked it so much that she decided to do her 4th year thesis in the lab. She completed her MSc working on placenta stem cell differentiation in collaboration with the Renaud lab on 2020.

Mohammad A. Esmaeili, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Mohammad holds a PhD from the University of Teheran in Iran. He was spending his time between our lab and the Duennwald lab at Western. He is now a biochemist at Apotex.

Jeffery Li

Undergraduate Student

Jeffery joined the lab in May 2021 as an NSERC-USRA summer student. He is now in medical school at McMaster.

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Sonja Di Gregorio, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Sonja recently graduated with her PhD from Western with Martin Duennwald. She joined our lab for the remainder of 2021 before moving on to her next scientific endeavour as a PDF in Toronto.