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Our Lab

We are located within the Claudine D’Amours Pavilion at the

Maisonnueuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Center (CR-HMR),

which is affiliated with the University of Montreal. 

Our Team

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Benjamin Haley

Principal Investigator

Ben earned his PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UMass Medical School, during which time he established several key biochemical steps in the RNA interference pathway. Afterwards, he received a fellowship from the American Cancer Society to perform postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley, where he identified unique small RNAs and transcriptional processes and developed enhanced gene silencing technologies in a variety of model organisms. Prior to joining the Université de Montréal as a Full Professor (Professeur titulaire) within the Department of Ophthalmology and as the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ) Chair in Genomic Engineering, Ben spent >13 years as a group leader (Distinguished Scientist) at Genentech, Inc., where his teams created and applied a range of molecular genetic technologies for basic and clinical research programs across the field of Oncology, Immunology, Neurobiology, Cancer Immunology, Infectious Disease, and Biologics Manufacturing.

See this link for Ben’s full CV.

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Sebastian Merker

Research Associate

Sebastian holds a PhD in stem cell and cancer biology. He is an expert in organoids, specializing in high-throughput drug screens and automation. His research interests include gastrointestinal tumors and the development and commercialization of organoid-related technologies.

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Gabriela Flores-Vargas

Research Assistant

Gaby earned her PhD degree in Summer 2023 at the University of Saskatchewan. She specializes in bioinformatics, data analysis, microbiology, and molecular biology. She is now interested in working in next-generation sequencing and machine learning tools to pinpoint potential targets for gene editing therapeutics.   

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Bahareh Rasouli

MSc student

Bahareh completed her Master's in Medical Biotechnology at Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2016. Fascinated by cancer genetics and microbiology, she explored how probiotics affect cancer cell gene expression. With experience as a clinical research associate, she has chosen to deepen her education and research in genetic engineering and molecular biology. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s degree in the Haley Lab, focusing on honing her skills in genome engineering and functional genomics

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Vimal Keerthi

PhD Student 

Vimal joins us from Stanford Medicine, where he served as a Process Development Scientist, focusing on engineering and scaling up cell and gene therapies. With over six years of experience in bioprocessing research, he brings a wealth of expertise to our team. He holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Riverside. Now a PhD student in the Haley Lab, Vimal is driven by a passion for advanced genome engineering. His research applies CRISPR technologies and functional genomics to deepen our understanding of biological systems.

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Jeffrey Sullivan

PhD student

Jeffrey completed his bachelor's degree in Biochemistry at Northeastern University. Upon graduating, he worked at Kymera Therapeutics, a Massachusett's based biotech company, on the Immunology Team for two years. Hoping to further his scientific knowledge, Jeffrey chose to return to school to pursue a PhD in immunology in the Haley Lab. He hopes to continue to grow his skills in genetic engineering and molecular biology as he progresses through his doctorate degree.

Xiaozhen (Jane) Wen

PhD student

Xiaozhen obtained her Master's degree in Biology from the Southern University of Science and Technology. She have gained hands-on experience in the analysis of multi-omics data, encompassing epigenetics (ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq), transcriptomics (RNA-seq, full-length transcriptome sequencing, scRNA-seq).

She has a keen interest in machine learning and functional genomics.

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Aishwarya Jayaraman

MSc student

Aishwarya completed her bachelor's in biology from the University of Pittsburgh, where her main lab focus was on microbiology. She then went on work in the Biotechnology industry. Her most recent, and relevant, work experience at Genentech Inc. focused on viral vector production to be used in CRISPR screens. After her three years spent working in Industry, Aishwarya decided to pursue a master's degree in molecular biology in the Haley lab, where she is focusing on being able to conduct whole genome screenings on various cell lines. 

David Sharon

Postdoctoral Fellow

David holds a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Engineering from McGill University.  He is interested in the application of functional genetics tools to improve the performance of mammalian biomanufacturing platforms.  His work within Dr. Haley’s group focuses on the use of pooled gene perturbation screening to study aspects of cancer, cell therapy, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. 

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Alumni

Yassine El Fazaa, MSc intern

Olivia Marlyse Daynou Chemo, BSc summer intern

Alexane Valence, BSc summer intern

Département d'ophtalmologie, Université de Montréal Centre de recherche de l'Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont
Pavillon Claudine D'Amours
5415 Boul. de l'Assomption
Montréal, QC, Canada H1T 2M4

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