MSc Student (2022-2025)
Erica received her Graduate Diploma in Oncology from the Gerald Bronfman Department at McGill University. She also completed her BSc at McGill, majoring in Honours Microbiology and Immunology. Since 2021, Erica has worked with co-supervisors Drs. Julia Burnier and Annie Leung on an HPV cervical cancer project to develop a minimally invasive liquid biopsy-based test that could predict patients' cancer risk and treatment response based on their levels of HPV-related circulating tumour (ct)DNA in blood, urine, vaginal swabs, and cervical cytology. Erica leads patient recruitment, the external validation of established ctDNA detection methods, and is exploring protein biomarkers, in addition to ctDNA, to assess their potential in cervical cancer screening and monitoring.
MSc Student (2022-2024)
Amelie has been helping the lab since July 2020 as a research trainee while she’s eager to start her second year of B.Sc in Biology - Physiology at Université de Montréal in the fall. She believes working on liquid biopsy research projects at Dr. Julia Burnier’s lab is a great opportunity to learn and assist on further developing our understanding and prediction of disease.
Undergraduate Student (2021-2023)
My name is Armen and I am currently completing my degree in Honors Biology. I joined the lab in the summer of 2022 working on encapsulating the small molecule calcein in liposomes and comparing the liposome production efficiency and encapsulation efficiency of different microfluidic mixers. For my Honors project, I am working on mimicking extracellular vesicles using liposomes to observe how their physicochemical characteristics affect cellular uptake.
Medical Student (2019-2023)
Emma started at the lab in August 2019, working as a research volunteer while in Cegep. She will be starting Medical school at McGill in the fall 2020. Currently, she is helping out with a research project focused on liquid biopsies, but she hopes to eventually get a personal research project.
Medical Student (2021-2023)
Qianqian (Chelsea) Zhou is a first year medical student at l’Université de Montréal and has an interest in the field of oncology. She joined the lab in July 2021 as a research volunteer. She is currently participating in a research project focusing on the effect of blue light on the tumorigenesis of uveal melanoma.
Undergrad Student (2022-2023)
Lily is a 3rd year undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Neuroscience at McGill University and has an interest in cancer. She joined the lab in September 2022. She is working on some cell culture techniques, and in the future, she is hoping to participate in projects about uveal melanoma and extracellular vesicles.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2023)
Ruben graduated from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, where he completed a B. Eng. in Mechatronics and M.Sc. in Electronics. During his studies, he worked on several projects focused on biomedical and sustainable engineering. Upon completing his degrees, he worked in an engineering consulting firm for three years.
In 2016, he was awarded a full CONACyT-ETS scholarship for PhD graduate studies at École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). During his PhD, he studied the production of next-generation nanomedicines on an industrial scale based on liposomes. Ruben graduated from ÉTS in 2020. The same year, he joined as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Julia Burnier’s laboratory. His research focuses on extracellular vesicles and their role in cancer metastasis. He is also interested in the production of EV-like liposomes using microfluidics to study cell-to-cell communication. The New Frontiers in Research grant funds this work. In his free time, Ruben likes practicing karate shotokan, learning photography, recreative biking, and traveling.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2023)
Daniel obtained his MD degree from Tongji University, where he received comprehensive training of medical knowledge and practice. During medical school, he was also actively engaged in basic and translational biomedical research including a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. After graduation, he practiced briefly as resident physician/gastroenterologist.
In 2018, he came to Canada for a PhD training at McGill University, his project was about the regulation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and neutrophils in cancer progression and lymph node metastasis. During this training, he developed expertise in EV, innate immunity, gastroesophageal cancer, and the field tumour microenvironment. He has presented at multiple conferences and published multiple peer-reviewed articles. In 2022, he joined Dr. Julia Burnier’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow. He is currently working on the regulation of EVs in chemoresistance and developing new therapeutic tools using the bioengineering platforms in the lab.
MSc Student (2020-2022)
Chaymaa is a first-year master’s student at l’École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) and she is doing her masters’ thesis under Dr Julia Burnier’s (RI-MUHC), Dr Rubén Lopez’s (RI-MUHC) and Dr. Vahé Nerguizian’s (ÉTS) supervision. She is currently working on the development of liposomes that mimic the naturally produced extracellular vesicles produced by different types of cancer cells. Chaymaa has a bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (she graduated in 2019) and is eager to continue working in the field of nanotechnology applied to cancer research.
PhD Student (2018-2022)
Upon Prisca completed her master’s degree in experimental biology and working for two years in the pharmaceutical industry in Mexico City, she joined Dr. Julia Burnier’s Laboratory as a Ph.D. student in summer 2018. She is a scholarship recipient for Ph.D. studies by The National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico. She is currently working on liquid biopsy to predict tumor progression and metastasis in melanoma.
Undergrad Student (Volunteer 2021)
Caroline is a third year B.Sc student, in Microbiology and Immunology, at McGill University. She joined the lab in August 2021 as a research volunteer and is currently completing a 396 research project focused on detecting the presence of circulating tumour DNA in head and neck cancer patients.
MSc Student (2019-2021)
Alexander graduated from McGill University with a B.Sc. in Honours Anatomy and Cell biology. He completed an honours research project in Dr. Peter Metrakos’ laboratory, where he worked on determining the immunological landscape of liver metastases. From there he joined Dr. Julia Burnier’s laboratory to pursue a M.Sc. in pathology. His thesis focuses on characterizing the proteomic profile of extracellular vesicles obtained from malignant melanoma patient liquid biopsies. This work, funded by the FRQS award, seeks to optimize a minimally invasive method for earlier detection of metastasis through the identification of EV biomarkers.
Summer Intern (2021 Summer)
Charles is a fourth year mechanical engineering student completing his biomedical concentration at ÉTS. He had the opportunity to join Dre Burnier laboratory as an engineering intern for the 2021 summer. He is fascinated by the fields of healthcare and medical technologies, and he wants to be part of the solutions.
MSc Student (2018-2020)
Eva obtained B.Sc. from McGill, majored in Anatomy and Cell Biology. She joined Dr. Julia Burnier’s lab for completion of M.Sc. in Pathology. She worked on project characterizing GNAQ mutant melanocytes, and also investigating the effect of blue light exposure.
Medical Student (2019 Summer Student)
Rafaella is a medical student in Brazil who completed an observership in Dr Julia Burnier's lab. She obtained the opportunity by Dr. Julia, to come back as a researcher trainee the following year. Her research focuses on evaluating aqueous humor as a potential source of tumor derived material, that can be used for the diagnosis and monitoring of uveal melanoma.