Meet the team
Leadership
Michael
Brudno
Michael Brudno
Michael Brudno is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and the Chief Data Scientist at the University Health Network (UHN). He is also a faculty member at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Scientific Director of HPC4Health, a private computing cloud for Ontario hospitals.
Amanda
Silva
Amanda Silva
While working with a clinical research team, Amanda quickly became fascinated with the intricacies of project development and project management and obtained her CSM and PMP. With an interest in clinical workflows and enabling digital technology, she works with the DATA-PRO team helping clinicians, scientists and hospital directors to standardize the use and implementation of patient reported data across UHN.
Dorin
Manase
Dorin Manase
Dorin’s passion is to pursue a career at the intersection of computer science and biology. He joined the DATA Team in 2016 where he combines his aptitude for genetics and genomics research, with a desire to continue to further his computational skills on a variety of patient facing applications geared towards connecting and supporting patient needs to improve clinical care.
Justin
Foong
Justin Foong
Justin received his masters in computer science and MBA from the University of Toronto. He is currently a Health Research Informatics Manager at the University Health Network for the DATA Team. He is interested in software development and computational analysis and their application to improve clinical datasets and healthcare.
Karen
Cranston
Karen Cranston
Karen is a computational biologist with a PhD in Medical Genetics from the University of Albert. She has a longstanding passion for Open Science and has spent a good part of her career trying to make science more efficient and reproducible through better software, coding skills and data management practices. Karen joined DATA as the Technical Project Manager for the CanDIG team in 2021 and is now the CanDIG team lead.
Marta
Girdea
Marta Girdea
Marta began her journey with the DATA Team as a Post-doctoral fellow for Michael Brudno; her area of specialty was the standardization of clinical data. As a postdoc, Marta developed the initial versions of both PhenoTips and PhenomeCentral. Today, she is a Senior Manager for the DATA Team leading the development of the CARDS platform. Marta is responsible for writing specs, reviewing code, designing workflows, setting team objectives and priorities, and when time permits, writing code too.
Pouria
Mashouri
Pouria Mashouri
Pouria is committed to creating global impact in the way healthcare is delivered through collaboration and AI. He has had various occupations in this space including time spent as a system administrator, a bioinformatician, a full-stack web developer, and now as a machine learning specialist where he brings his breadth of experience to his work on the DATA team.
Staff
Andrew Crowther
Andrew Crowther
Andrew graduated from the University of Waterloo in spring 2020 with a degree in computer engineering. Since joining the team, he has been responsible for front- and back-end development on the CARDS projects.
Anna
Lindsay-Mosher
Anna Lindsay-Mosher
Anna joined the team as a developer on the PROM team, where she works on patient-facing applications. She has a passion for human factors in software design and joins the team with previous experience as a software developer at a cybersecurity firm. Anna graduated from McMaster University with a combined Honours in Arts & Science and Computer Science.
Anirudh Gangadhar
Anirudh Gangadhar
Anirudh recently joined the DATA team as a Machine Learning Specialist. During his PhD + postdoc, he developed various applications at the intersection of Computational Optics, Deep Learning and Causal Inference. Currently, he implements scalable ML pipelines for surgical applications with the goal of clinical deployment.
Aparna Gopalakrishnan
Aparna Gopalakrishnan
Bio coming soon!
Charles
Choi
Charles Choi
Bio coming soon!
Daisie
Huang
Daisie Huang
Daisie brings both bioinformatics knowledge and software engineering expertise to their role on the CanDIG team. They have worked as a researcher in phylogenomics as well as a software developer for data repositories and API workflows. All inform their understanding of the challenges of creating a distributed system that works to facilitate research and discovery for clinical genomics researchers in Canada.
Elizabeth
Ng
Elizabeth Ng
Elizabeth holds a B.Sc in Biomedical Science and a Graduate Certificate in Project Management. She is passionate about projects that utilize research and innovation towards improving the future of healthcare, leading her to join the DATA team. Having a background in entrepreneurship, she offers valuable perspectives on enhancing and simplifying processes to ensure the efficient and high-quality completion of projects.
Erick
Moon
Erick Moon
Erick Moon holds Master’s in data science and data engineering focused certification. Currently he is a data engineer working with IA/ML team and supporting others teams involving data engineering projects. His background experience with public hospital data environment and healthcare innovation projects contributes to development of the DATA team.
Francis
Nguyen
Francis Nguyen
Francis joined the team in May 2019 following the completion of his Master’s in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. He is a web developer by trade and spends a majority of his time working on frontend work for the CARDS project.
Haochi
Zhang
Haochi Zhang
Haochi joined the team as a software developer in 2019 to work on the PhenoPad project. Since then he has worked on various projects on processing medical documents and images using machine learning.
Hajany
Jeyakumar
Hajany Jeyakumar
Upon completing her Masters in Health Informatics from UofT, Hajany developed a passion in identifying opportunities for improvement at the intersection of people, process and technology. Using her knowledge of clinical workflows and product management, she works closely with development teams to advance projects across multiple portfolios while also engaging in strategic initiatives that align with the team’s overall objectives.
Jaryd
Hunter
Jaryd Hunter
Jaryd joined the DATA Team in the fall of 2021 as an application development specialist. His work is centred around applying ML solutions to healthcare problems. He holds a B.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, and a B.F.A. in theatrical production from York University. When he isn’t thinking about data sampling bias, he enjoys seeing local theatre.
Jeremy Pimentel
Jeremy Pimentel
Bio coming soon!
John
Bracken
John Bracken
John joined the DHP at UHN in the summer of 2019. Before that, he worked at Philips Healthcare, focusing on interventional x-ray onsite imaging research based at Toronto Western Hospital and the University of Colorado Hospital. Currently, as the team lead for data engineering for the DHP, he manages data requests for UHN researchers and provides data import and infrastructure support to the DHP development team. He is passionate about improving data workflows in healthcare.
Kimberly
Begley
Kimberly Begley
Kimberly provides strategic leadership and project management expertise to coordinate the research activities of national, multi-institutional, patient-oriented projects with collaborators in academia, government, public, not-for-profit and private organizations. She has managed projects, networks, clinical trials, and programs in chronic disease including cancer, arrhythmia, and chronic pain.
Prior to joining the Pan-Canadian Genome Library project she was the Strategic Lead of Programs at the CIHR Institute of Genetics.
Kelly
Bell
Kelly Bell
Kelly holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from the University of Guelph. She joined the DATA team in Spring 2021 as a software developer, eager to contribute to the development of software that promotes better health outcomes for patients. Before joining the DATA team, she was a full-stack developer at a security software company.
Marco
Pagura
Marco Pagura
Bio coming soon!
Marion Shadbolt
Marion Shadbolt
Since completing her Masters in Bioinformatics at the University of Melbourne, Marion has worked in informatics support, data platform development and digital research infrastructure solutions across three continents. She brings technical and domain knowledge as well as an innate belief in the benefits of data sharing to her role providing project management support to the CanDIG project.
Martin
Pham
Martin Pham
Martin joined the DATA team in 2018. He spends his time focused on full-stack development and web technology requirements gathering. Most of his work involves consolidating different data sources and compute onto a user-friendly interface respecting the constraints of various stakeholder-networks.
Michael
Lescisin
Michael Lescisin
Michael Lescisin holds a Master of Applied Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UOIT researching the use of machine learning for improving computer/network security and reliability. Currently, Michael implements application features, administers servers, and integrates academic research projects with production systems.
Neha
Ratti
Neha Ratti
Neha holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Toronto. She brings extensive experience in facilities and event management as well as administrative operations. As part of the DATA team, Neha provides support to Dr. Michael Brudno and thrives on making meaningful contributions to organizational success.
Odesho
Oraham
Odesho Oraham
Bio coming soon!
Peter Maksymowsky
Peter Maksymowsky
Peter is pursuing a B.A.Sc in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto with a focus in software, machine learning, and engineering business. He is also a full-stack JavaScript developer with the DATA PRO team, helping build a number of clinical and research applications used across Canada.
Samantha Thompson
Samantha Thompson
Samantha holds a Master of Science in Health Policy & Law from the University of California. Her passion is rooted in disseminating innovative methods of care delivery to optimize the healthcare journey. Samantha joined the team to utilize her experience in stakeholder communications and development of health data policies across the team’s project portfolio.
Sasha
Andjic
Sasha Andjic
From a very young age, Sasha knew she had a passion for IT. She pursued a degree in electrical engineering, with a major in computer science. Her professional career includes time spent as a software developer, business analyst and a project manager. Today, she continues to share her passion with the DATA team as a Quality Assurance Analyst.
Sergiu
Dumitriu
Sergiu Dumitriu
Moulded by years of developing open source enterprise data management platforms, Sergiu brings his expertise in designing flexible solutions catering to the needs of UHN professionals. As a senior software architect, developer, and code sniffer, he supports the DATA team by carefully designing specifications and reviewing pull requests.
Shakiba Rahnama
Shakiba Rahnama
Bio coming soon!
Sian
Brooks
Sian Brooks
Sian graduated from the University of Portsmouth, UK, with a BA Hons in Politics and International Relations. Since joining the team in November 2018 she continues to provide administrative support to Michael Brudno and the team at large.
Sophie
Liu
Sophie Liu
Sophie holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and has a background in biology and bioinformatics. Currently, she is a software developer building applications for use in clinical and research settings. She is interested in translational research and improving patient care and experiences.
Son
Chau
Son Chau
Son acquired his Master of Data Science from UBC in 2022. He is an Application Specialist for the CanDIG project with a focus on developing a new data model for the Marathon of Hope initiative and on Katsu, a service that stores clinical data from multiple hospitals across Canada to advance cancer research. Prior to joining the DATA team, he worked as a full-stack developer in Dallas using Django to design the API for web and mobile apps.
Veronika Koltunova
Veronika Koltunova
Veronika holds two Master’s degrees in Pure Math and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. Currently, she acts as a Sr. Programmer/Analyst at the University Health Network as part of the DATA Team developing a complex of software tools for phenotypic and genotypic matchmaking of patients with rare genetic diseases.
Students
Amirhossein Kazerouni
Amirhossein Kazerouni
Bio coming soon!
Anastasiia Repalo
Anastasiia Repalo
Bio coming soon!
Arij Al Chawaf
Arij Al Chawaf
Balagopal
Unnikrishnan
Balagopal Unnikrishnan
Balu is a CS PhD student at UofT, where he is co-advised by Dr. Michael Brudno and Dr. Chris McIntosh. Alongside the Vector Institute and the UHN, he works on building algorithms and tools to detect and mitigate data biases in the healthcare space to improve AI model generalization and clinical workflows. Prior to this, he was an AI Engineer with A*STAR working in AI/HealthTech in Singapore and earned his Masters from the National University of Singapore.
Dariia
Kucheruk
Dariia Kuckeruk
Bio coming soon!
Ian
Ruffolo
Ian Ruffolo
Ian is a MSc student at the University of Toronto, interested in using machine learning with mobile sensing to improve treatment and outcomes for patients. He is also interested in the intersection of ML in health and safety-critical system design. Prior to joining UofT, he was a research Software Engineer working with autonomous vehicles at Thales Canada.
Michael
Cooper
Michael Cooper
Michael is a Computer Science Ph.D. student at UofT, co-advised by Michael Brudno and Rahul Krishnan. His research is focused on leveraging machine learning to augment human intelligence in the practice of medicine, with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of medical care. Prior to his doctoral studies, he earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from Stanford University, and worked in Program Management at Microsoft.
Sergey
Protserov
Sergey Protserov
Sergey is a PhD Direct student at the University of Toronto, his bachelor’s degree is in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Lomonosov Moscow State University. He joined the team in Fall 2021 as a machine learning specialist to work on medical applications of AI. In his free time Sergey likes to read different ML- and math-related stuff on the Internet.