People

Principal Investigator

Hai-Ying Mary Cheng, Professor

I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and obtained a B.Sc. (hons) in Biochemistry at the University of Calgary. Afterwards, I moved to Toronto to pursue graduate studies, attaining a M.Sc. (1999) and subsequently a Ph.D. degree (2003) in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. From there, I moved to Ohio State University to pursue post-doctoral training in the field of circadian rhythms. In 2008, I returned to Canada to take up my first faculty position at the University of Ottawa. However, family ties drew me back to the Greater Toronto Area, and I relocated my lab in 2011 to this beautiful campus at UTM.

Current Members

Post-Doctoral Researchers

PhD Candidates

Nick Boehler

Yijie Zhu

Osama Abdalla

Brittany Mascarenhas

Michael Huang

Muhammad Wahid

MSc Candidates

Amber Akbar (September 2024)

Undergraduate Students

Evelina Tronina

Kevin La

Daniel Chen

Amber Akbar

Other trainees

Bradley Freeman (high school student)

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Alumni and Where They are Now 

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Christian Beaule, PhD, MBA (Executive Director, Research and Innovation, Universite de Sherbrooke)
Peng (Gloria) Zhang, PhD (Associate Professor, Southwest Medical University, People’s Republic of China)

Master’s  

Shavanie Seecharran
Julian Rios Garcia (Chiropractic Student, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College)
Michael Fana, MD (Neurology Resident Physician, Michigan)
Neel Mehta, PhD (Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia)
Harrod Ling
Ghadi Antoun, MD, PhD (Plastic Surgery Resident, Université de Montréal)
Matias Alvarez-Saavedra, PhD 

PhD  

Chris Lowden, PhD (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Toronto)
Arthur Cheng, PhD (Bioinformatician, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto)
Sara Hegazi, PhD (Evidence Operations Manager, Roche)
Pascale Bouchard-Cannon, PhD
Lucia Mendoza-Viveros, PhD (Assistant Professor, IPICYT, Mexico)

Undergraduate Students  

Matthew Rykaczewski
Ruth Alemayehu
Zhicheng Liu
Lingfeng Oliver Ma (MSc Candidate, University of Toronto)
Wanzhang Annette Wang
Samuel Fung (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto)
Nick Lowe, MSc
Safa Ahmad, BSc, MPH (Epidemiologist, Public Health Agency of Canada)
Jonathan Ong, BSc (Medical Student, National University of Singapore)
Brandon Conforti, BSc, MSc (Registered Physiotherapist)
Zobia Anwar, MSc
Thomas Piekut, MD (Neurology Resident, United States)
Priscilla Valentino (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto)
David Przelicki (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto)
Fabio Sanjuan Gomez, BSc
Ishani Shah (Sales Representative)
Rawan Abdelmegid (Pricing and Contracting Associate)
Adeel Shoaib, MD
Dennison Trinh (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto)
Saina Beitari, PhD (Research Associate, National Research Council, Canada)
Matthew Michniewicz, O.D. (Optometrist)
Abhilasha Patel, MD (Internal Medicine Resident, University of British Columbia)
Atteyeh Rostami-Hafshejani, MSc
Keeley Cheung (Senior Analyst, Business Banking)
Andrew Yuen, MMI (Business Analyst & Project Manager, Hong Kong SAR)
Cristian Castro Restrepo, MSc (Research Technician)
Andrea Shim, R.N. (Registered Nurse, Vancouver, British Columbia)
Julie Yeo (Pathologist’s Assistant, Mississauga, Ontario)
Daniel Cornejo-Palma, MD (Family Physician, Ontario)
Jocelyn Beckstead, MD (Family Physician, Calgary, Alberta)

Visiting Scientists

Reynaldo Oliva Hernandez, DVM, MSc, PhD