People in the Hayes lab

Madeline Hayes, PhD
Scientist

Madeline is a Scientist at SickKids and Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto and postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. David Langenau, at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In 2019, Madeline returned to SickKids and worked with Drs. Bret Pearson, Meredith Irwin and David Kaplan developing translational zebrafish cancer models, before starting her own lab in 2022.

Madeline loves zebrafish and spending both park and couch time with her dogs, Pip and Flo.

Alex Weiss - Lab technician in Madeline Hayes lab

Alex Weiss M.Sc.
Research Technologist II

Alex is a Research Technologist II at SickKids in the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program. Alex completed his undergraduate degree and a Masters of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph. In 2018, Alex started at SickKids with Dr. Bret Pearson, working with zebrafish and planarians and helped develop our novel zebrafish brain tumor model using genetic techniques, transplantation and live imaging.

Outside of the lab, Alex likes gaming with friends, getting out into nature, and hanging out with his many pets.

Willow Squires - Graduate student in Madeline Hayes' lab

Willow Squires
Graduate Student – M.Sc. candidate

Willow is a graduate student in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. She completed her BSc (Hons.) degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2022 and a research internship at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the University of Montreal later the same year. Willow joined the Hayes lab at the beginning of 2023, where she’s currently using zebrafish models of metastatic neuroblastoma (NB) to investigate the role of heterogeneous tumour cell populations in features of NB severity.

Outside the lab, Willow enjoys exploring Toronto’s many neighborhoods, visiting new coffee shops, thrifting, reading, and picking up new crafting skills.

Ting Xiong- Graduate student in Madeline Hayes' lab

Ting Xiong
Graduate Student – M.Sc. candidate

Ting is an M.Sc. candidate in the Molecular Genetics Program at the University of Toronto. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in Molecular Genetics (Microbiology stream) and music programs. She joined the Hayes lab in January 2023 and is currently working on modeling patient-derived variants of the DNA damage response genes in a zebrafish model of neuroblastoma.

In her free time, Ting enjoys playing violin in community orchestras and searching for new cafes to satisfy her flat white cravings.