University of Alberta
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: afsaneh@ualberta.ca
Dr Lavasanifar is a Professor of Pharmaceutics in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta. Afsaneh is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Meros Polymers, a spinoff company established based on the technology developed her lab. Her research is focused on the development of delivery systems that can increase solubility, modify the pharmacokinetics, reduce toxicity, and increase the activity of different therapeutics with a focus on the development of nanomedicines for cancer chemo- and immunotherapy.
Board Members
Shirley XY Wu
Davide Brambilla
Université de Montréal
Faculty of Pharmacy
Email: davide.brambilla@umontreal.ca
In 2017, Davide was appointed Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal, where he started his independent research laboratory at the interface of biotechnology and pharmaceutical sciences. He teaches the Development of Biotechnology Drugs and Pharmacokinetics to the Pharmacy and Biopharmaceutical Sciences students. His research interests include the design, manufacturing, and performance evaluation of polymeric microneedles for non-invasive transdermal delivery of diagnostic and therapeutic agents.
Davide Brambilla
President
Université de Montréal
Faculty of Pharmacy
Email: davide.brambilla@umontreal.ca
Ellen Wasan
Secretary
University of Saskatchewan
College of Pharmacy and Nutrition
Email: ellen.wasan@usask.ca
Marc A. Gauthier
Treasurer
Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Energy Materials Telecommunications Centre
Email: gauthier@emt.inrs.ca
Marc A. Gauthier
Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Energy Materials Telecommunications Centre
Email: gauthier@emt.inrs.ca
In 2013 he joined the EMT Research Center of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Canada as Assistant Professor, where his work focuses on developing new types of dynamic covalent bonds, designing therapeutic protein–polymer conjugates, establishing new technologies for drug discovery, and investigating new opportunities for physically actuating therapeutic bioconjugates using non-ionizing radiation. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017.
Afsaneh Lavasanifar
Member-at-Large (Alberta)
University of Alberta
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: afsaneh@ualberta.ca
Afsaneh Lavasanifar
University of Alberta
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: afsaneh@ualberta.ca
Dr Lavasanifar is a Professor of Pharmaceutics in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta. Afsaneh is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Meros Polymers, a spinoff company established based on the technology developed her lab. Her research is focused on the development of delivery systems that can increase solubility, modify the pharmacokinetics, reduce toxicity, and increase the activity of different therapeutics with a focus on the development of nanomedicines for cancer chemo- and immunotherapy.
Larry Unsworth
Member-at-Large (Alberta)
University of Alberta
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
Email: larry.unsworth@ualberta.ca
Sarah Hedtrich
Todd Hoare
McMaster University
Department of Chemical Engineering
Email: hoaretr@mcmaster.ca
Dr. Todd Hoare is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Engineered Smart Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University. His work on the design of functional hydrogels on multiple length scales for drug delivery has been recognized by multiple awards, including an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and a citation as part of the 2018 Class of Influential Researchers by Industrial Engineering & Chemistry Research. He is a Fellow of the International Union Societies of Biomaterials Science & Engineering (IUS-BSE), is the Past-President of the Canadian Biomaterials Society and CC-CRS, and is the President-Elect of the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Division of the Canadian Institute of Chemistry. He is also a Co-Editor of Chemical Engineering Journal, acting as the lead editor for manuscripts in drug delivery.
Todd Hoare
McMaster University
Department of Chemical Engineering
Email: hoaretr@mcmaster.ca
Member-at-Large (Ontario)
Marta Cerruti
Member-at-Large (Quebec)
Marta Cerruti
McGill University
Department of Mining and Materials Engineering
Email: marta.cerruti@mcgill.ca
Marta Cerruti is Associate Professor in Materials Engineering at McGill University. Since 2011, she is Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Bio-synthetic interfaces. Her research focuses on controlling interactions between material surfaces and biomolecules. In drug delivery, with her students she designed gels and coatings that allow for light-induced on-demand release, and mucoadhesive materials to improve drug transport across biological membranes. She published more than 90 papers on journals including JACS, Advanced Materials, Nanoscale, etc. In 2019 she was inducted as member of the Royal Society of Canada Collage of New Artists, Scholars and Scientists; in 2017 and 2018 she was one of the 55 young scientists who participated in the World Economic Forum.
Johans Fakhoury
Member-at-Large (Quebec)
McGill University
Department of Chemistry
Email: johans.fakhoury@mail.mcgill.ca
Shirley XY Wu
University of Toronto
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
Email: sxy.wu@utoronto.ca
Dr. Xiao Yu (Shirley) Wu is a full Professor in Pharmaceutics & Drug Delivery at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto. She has led an outstanding 24-year academic career, having published >160 journal papers and book chapters, 270 proceedings and abstracts, and is a co-inventor of 27 issued or pending patents. She has served CRS Best Paper Selection Committees for Journal of Controlled Release and Drug Delivery and Translational Research. She has been a member-at-large of CC-CRS since late 2016.
Sarah Hedtrich
University of British Columbia
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: sarah.hedtrich@ubc.ca
Sarah Hedtrich obtained her PhD in Pharmacology & Toxicology from the Freie Universität Berlin in 2009. During her postdoc, she moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and Tufts University in Boston, USA. After returning to Berlin 2013, she headed a junior research group and was appointed an assistant professor in 2015. She relocated her lab to the U of British Columbia in 2019. Her research focuses on inflammatory and genetic diseases of human epithelia, the development of novel therapeutic approaches and tissue engineering of complex, human-based organ models aiming for valid and predictive test systems for preclinical and fundamental research. So far, she has authored over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles in reputed journals.
University of British Columbia
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: sarah.hedtrich@ubc.ca
Member-at-Large (British Columbia)
Member-at-Large (Ontario)
Johans Fakhoury
McGill University
Department of Chemistry
Email: johans.fakhoury@mail.mcgill.ca
I was born in Beirut, Lebanon where I attended school till the age of 18. Then I decided to come to McGill to pursue my undergraduate studies. I majored in Biochemistry, but I also had a keen interest in political affairs, so I minored in Middle-East studies. I then pursued my doctoral studies at the Jewish General with Dr. Chantal Autexier. There my research focused on studying telomeres and telomerase, basically the gatekeepers cellular immortality and ageing. Then I joined Dr. Sleiman's lab and together we initiated a great endeavor to transition DNA nanoparticles from biomaterials that were extremely interesting to build to biomaterials that have significant applications in treating human diseases, such as cancer. I currently hold the position of Director, Strategic Planning and Operations with the department of Biomedical Engineering at McGill University, and mandated to be the bridge builder between BME and other institutions, nationally and internationally, in order to promote the department and recruit high caliber researchers and trainees and encourage scientific exchanges.
Simon Matoori
Member-at-Large (Quebec)
Université de Montréal
Faculty of Pharmacy
Email: simon.matoori@umontreal.ca
Simon Matoori
Université de Montréal
Faculty of Pharmacy
Email: simon.matoori@umontreal.ca
Simon Matoori, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at University of Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is a licensed pharmacist, did his PhD in drug formulation and delivery with Prof. Jean-Christophe Leroux (ETH Zurich), and performed his postdoctoral studies in bioengineering with Prof. David Mooney (Harvard University). His research interests are in formulation science and biomedical engineering with an emphasis on diagnostics and biodetoxification, and in clinical research in radiology and social medicine.
