Previous Education/ Experience: I pursued undergraduate studies in Physics at Queen’s University in Kingston and received my PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto in 1990. I went on to work as a Research Associate and Assistant Scientist at the University of Wisconsin where I earned a National Cancer Institute FIRST award. Moving to Carleton University in Ottawa in 1995, I helped establish the Ottawa Medical Physics Institute and pioneered hyperpolarized xenon-129 for lung MRI in rodents. In 2004, I joined the Robarts Research Institute (RRI) where I held a CIHR Industry-Partnered Chair award for Respiratory Imaging as the Director of the Robarts GE 3T MRI Facility. The RRI team produced the first xenon-129 human lung images in Canada and the first carbon-13 lung images in the world. In 2013, I joined SickKids as a Senior Scientist where I am focusing on MRI approaches to study the lungs of children and young adults.

Current research interests: My current research involves hyperpolarized xenon-129 and proton MRI of anatomical and functional lung tissue and cellular biomarkers, specifically: airway and lung parenchymal morphology, ventilation, perfusion, gas exchange and inflammatory cell trafficking in lung diseases afflicting children and animal models of these diseases.

Previous Education/ Experience: I obtained my B.Sc. in Physics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay (2007-2011). I obtained my M.Sc. in Physics at Carleton University in Ottawa (2011-2013). My master’s research involved improving the quantitative accuracy of Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI for cancer detection. I am currently obtaining my PhD through the University of Toronto (2013-Present). My research at SickKids involves the use of hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe for pulmonary imaging.

Current research interests: My research involves exploring new functional imaging techniques involving hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe MRI. These techniques involve the quantification of ventilation, perfusion, and gas exchange within the lungs. I specifically look at a disease known as Radiation-Induced Lung Injury (RILI) which manifests as a result of radiotherapy treatment in certain cancer patients. RILI is a debilitating respiratory disease, which can impact patient survival and post-treatment quality of life. If detected early enough, there is the potential to reverse the effects of RILI through modification of radiotherapy treatment or adjuvant therapies. Unfortunately, current techniques are insensitive to the early stages of RILI. Hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe MRI has shown promise for the early detection of RILI, therefore opening the potential for intervention.

Previous Education/ Experience: I read medicine at St George’s University of London, graduating with honours in 2008. I pursued my medical training in London and Nottingham, specialising in respiratory and general internal medicine. I obtained my PhD in respiratory medicine from the University of Nottingham in 2019, and was appointed to the post of clinical assistant professor in respiratory medicine. My research has been focused on developing MRI biomarkers of respiratory diseases, and I have been involved in the design and conduct of a number of clinical trials, using proton MRI on a novel open upright scanner, hyperpolarised xenon-129 MRI, and oxygen-enhanced MRI.

Current research interests: Funded by the Royal Society of Medicine Ellison-Cliffe travel grant and the Morriston-Davies award, I am currently on sabbatical from the University of Nottingham, undertaking a post-doc at the Santyr lab. My focus is on developing and learning MR image analysis techniques as well as conducting a clinical trial of the role of functional and structural MR lung imaging in paediatric patients with a number of conditions, including severe asthma.

Previous Education/ Experience: Dr. Wallace Wee is a Staff Pediatric Respirologist in the Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD), Interstitial Lung Disease and Pulmonary Vasculitis clinics at the Hospital for Sick Children.  Wallace received his Honors BASc and MHSc in engineering, and MD in medicine from the University of Toronto (UofT). He completed his clinical training in Pediatrics at the Stollery Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Respirology subspecialty training, with a focus in PCD and pediatric rare lung diseases, at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Wallace is currently finishing his PhD in clinical epidemiology at UofT with funding from the UofT Clinician Investigator Program and the SickKids Clinician Scientist Training Programs.

Current research interests: Dr. Wee’s primary research focus is to improve the understanding of PCD and other pediatric rare lung diseases through the use of novel MRI techniques, like hyperpolarized xenon, and ICES population health data.  Wallace is excited to be a continued member of Dr. Santyr’s team, and being a part of the translation of these MRI techniques into medicine.

Previous Education/Experience: I received my BSc from York University in Specialized Honours Biophysics. During my undergraduate degree, I conducted my research in the BioSA Lab where I designed and implemented various biological and physical sensors. I am currently a PhD student in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, working at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Current research interests: I am interested in examining pulmonary ventilation and perfusion in pediatric cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease using ¹H MRI and ¹²⁹Xe MRI techniques. I am currently developing an automated computational pipeline to reliably and efficiently evaluate ventilation defects in CF and hope to extend my work to neonatal lung diseases.

Previous Education/Experience: I graduated from UofT with a BSc in Biomedical Physics and minors in chemistry and math. I have had the pleasure of working in various biophysics labs over the course of my career, including Dr. Lilge’s lab (working on an optical stretcher), Dr. Milstein’s lab (working on a sheath flow microfluidic device), Dr. Barzda’s lab (using Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy), and Dr. Prosser’s lab (exploring metabolic pathways in yeast). I am currently a PhD student in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, working at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Current research interests: I am interested in measuring lung ventilation using a novel inert fluorinated (19F) gas multiple breath wash-out MRI technique to quantify disease progression and treatment response in children with cystic fibrosis. I am currently building a foundation in the same technique using the HP 129-Xenon contrast gas and aim to transition into 19F PFP gas over time.

Previous Education/Experience: I graduated with a Master’s in Applied Biology from the University of Mumbai. India and completed the Clinical Research Associate Certificate Program from the Michener Institute of Applied Health, Toronto. My experience thus far has been working as a Clinical Research Professional at Princess Margaret Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and now at the Hospital for Sick Children in the Santyr Lab.  My previous experience includes working in Oncology Clinical Trials and a Multi-site Fetal Cardiology trial.  More recently, I have become involved with Lung MRI trials in children and adults as a Clinical Research Project Coordinator at Sickkids.

Current research interests: I am currently involved in clinical trials that employ conventional Proton MRI and Interventional Tracer gases namely Hyperpoloarized Xenon and Perfluoropropane as contrast agents for imaging healthy lungs as well as those affected by various pulmonary diseases to evaluate changes in lung structure and function.  I hope to see these interventional agents become standard of care in the future.

Previous Education/ Experience: I completed my B.Sc. in Biology (Physiology) at McMaster University in 2012 and received my M.Sc. in Biology/Neuroscience in 2015. I have worked in different labs at SickKids since then and have joined Santyr Lab in May 2018.

Current research interests: I am currently working on developing a rodent model for BPD to be used for our imaging experiments.Alongside developing new techniques for intubation and ventilation, I am also involved with providing support for other lab projects.