Jessica Dennis – Principal Investigator
Jessica is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at UBC and an Investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. A genetic epidemiologist by training, Jessica applies methods to emerging big data resources in population health. She aims to understand how genetic, , and environmental differences between people contribute to variation in disease susceptibility, to treatment, and recovery. A primary goal of her research is to reduce the suffering associated with psychiatric and disorders, which together account for more years lost to disability and death than either cancer or cardiovascular disease. She conducts studies in large population datasets, with a major interest in electronic health records and biobanks, and she works at the intersection of genetics, epidemiology, statistics, bioinformatics, and computer science. Jessica completed postdoctoral training in the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto, where she was a fellow in the interdisciplinary CIHR-STAGE program (Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategic Training for Advanced Genetic Epidemiology). She also holds a MSc in Epidemiology from the University of Ottawa and a BSc in Biology (minor in Genetics) from the University of Guelph.
Current Staff and Students
Paola Arguello-Pascualli – Graduate Student
Paola is a PhD student in Medical Genetics, co-supervised by Dr. Jessica Dennis and Dr. Mike Kobor. Before joining the University of British Columbia for her Graduate Studies, she completed a degree in Genomic Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. A tremendous gap exists in genetic information for non-European populations, leaving a large proportion of the world behind in the personalized genomic medicine revolution. Her research focuses on closing this gap. To accomplish this, she investigates associations between ancestrally-informed polygenic scores and health outcomes in diverse populations, with extensions to other health-relevant biomarkers, such as epigenetic clocks and global DNA methylation patterns. As a Mexican student she hates to perpetuate stereotypes but she does love dancing, even though she’ll readily admit that she is probably the worst dancer you will ever know. To keep her and other people safe from her two left feet, she likes to keep other hobbies such as board games and watercolor painting.
Graham Boucher – Data Analyst
Graham joined the Dennis Lab in the fall of 2019 as a Data Analyst with the Dennis Lab at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Before joining the Dennis Lab, Graham held many roles at a large commercial insurer where his focus was primarily on analyzing data and implementing strategic initiatives. Graham has a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Guelph and a MSc in Computer Information Systems ( concentration in Data Analytics) from Boston University. At the Dennis Lab, he provides support performing analysis of large data sets using statistical and machine learning concepts.
Will Casazza – Graduate Student
William Casazza is a PhD student in UBC’s Bioinformatics Training Program who joined the Dennis lab in March of 2020 and is co-supervised by Dr. Sara Mostafavi. His research investigates the role of genetic and non-genetic factors in complex disease, with an emphasis on how gene regulation changes in different contexts. This involves heavy use of classical statistics in combination with techniques for summarizing the effect of many biological markers in both supervised and unsupervised settings. He received a BS in Computational Biology at Carnegie Mellon University in 2017, pursuing research in phylogenetics under Dr. Russel Schwartz. In his free time, Will enjoys playing and creating music, meditation, and tending to his plants and his cat.
Karanvir Singh – Graduate Student
Karanvir is a Bioinformatics graduate student who joined the Dennis Lab in August 2022. Eating disorders are characterized by high mortality rates and poor treatment outcomes – anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate out of all mental disorders. Karanvir’s research aims to explore the genetic risk associated with the development of anorexia, using bioinformatics tools to untangle the psychiatric and metabolic genetic makeup of the disease. He received a BSc in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia in 2021, after which he pursued research in the cancer immunology and digital pathology field under the supervision of Dr. Brad Nelson.
Hayley Sowards – Graduate Student
Hayley is a Medical Genetics graduate student that joined the Dennis Lab in September 2021. Her research aims to look at the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the development of mental illness in childhood, with a particular interest in longitudinal data that allows a life-course perspective. She plans to combine genetic methods learned with Dr. Kevin Brown at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), psychological methods learned with the Arizona Twin Project at ASU, and now epidemiological methods learned at UBC to further our understanding of mental health. Her goal is to continue to be interdisciplinary in her work, with plans to translate research to families through the Healthy Minds Centre at BC Children’s. Outside of her work she enjoys volunteering at the Children’s Hospital, playing video games, cooking soups, and caring for her two cats (with three eyes between them), Kevin and Lee.
Alumni
Daniil Belikau – Undergraduate Student
Daniil is a Computer Science and Microbiology undergraduate student in his fourth year at UBC. He joined the Dennis Lab in the fall of 2019 as an INSPIRE program trainee. At the Dennis Lab, his primary role is to help develop the computational infrastructure and software tools. Outside of the lab, Daniil works as a Software Engineer Intern and is actively pursing his interest in synthetic biology.
Emilie Theberge – Graduate Student
Emilie is a Medical Genetics graduate student who joined the Dennis Lab in April 2020. Under the co-supervision of Dr. Jessica Dennis and Dr. Wendy Robinson, she is investigating how sex differences and anxiety/depression influence the identification and management of cardiovascular disease. In the Dennis lab, she is further developing her bioinformatic skills to interpret complex genetic and personal health data, which will compliment her benchwork and clinical experience in neurodevelopmental and cardiovascular disease research. In the long-term, she hopes to contribute to advancing the integration of mental health awareness and genetic screening into personalized patientcare. Outside of research, Emilie enjoys hiking and jogging in forest trails, dance classes, learning new languages, exploring new cities and spending time with friends and family.
