Team Member
Biography
Catrina is a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Bruce Carleton and the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety (CPNDS) to understand how genetic variation contributes to the likelihood of developing drug-related toxicities, especially in childhood cancer treatment. Catrina has experience uncovering genetic causes for rare disorders from her Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc) and subsequent MSc work at the University of Calgary, under the supervision of both Dr. Micheil Innes and Dr. Jillian Parboosingh. She then sought to explore functional impacts of uncovered genetic mutations by pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Michel Leroux at Simon Fraser University, using the simple roundworm, C. elegans, as a model. To understand how genetic information can be used to improve the clinical care of patients, Catrina will incorporate genetic predictors of drug-related toxicities associated with childhood cancer treatment into predictive genetic tests that can be used by clinicians and families to assess the risks and benefits associated with specific drug treatments.