A trophy.

Awards and recognition

The Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology (OISB) celebrates the outstanding achievements of its community: from early-career researchers to graduate scholars, from exceptional publications to competitive grant awards.

Celebrating success

Congratulations to the recipients of the following 2024 OISB Awards and the 2025 OISB-NRC Graduate Scholarship Awards

The 2024 OISB Early Career Researcher Award

  • Dr. Suresh Gadde

The 2024 OISB Paper of the Year Awards

  • Dr. Lucia Minarrieta (PDF category) (Dr. J. St-Pierre Lab)
  • Alyssa Pastic (co-winner in PhD category) (Dr. D. D’Amours Lab)
  • Kanchi Baijal (co-winner in PhD category) (Dr. M. Downey Lab)
  • Heba Farookhi (MSc category) (Dr. X. Xia Lab)

The 2025 OISB-NRC Graduate Scholarship Awards

  • Kieran Furlong (Dr. A. Rudner and Dr. J. Li Labs)
  • Maram Ashraf El-Azouni (Dr. M. Lavallée-Adam and Dr. J. Hill Labs)
  • Angel Albarran-Ponce (Dr. S. Bennett and Dr. M. Cuperlovic-Culf Labs)
  • Shelby Kaczmarek (Dr. S-H. Lee and Dr. S. McComb Labs)
  • Rholls Tomsine (Dr. M. Khacho and Dr. J. Sandhu Labs)
  • Ella McIlroy (Dr M-E. Harper, Dr. A. Haqqani and Dr. M. Cuperlovic-Culf Labs)

The OISB congratulates BRIGHT Canada team members on their award of an NSERC CREATE grant!

OISB member, Dr. Jean-François Couture will be leading a new Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. This NSERC CREATE program award of $1.65M over the next 6 years will support the training of graduate students in research and professional development in areas related to radiobiology and innovation. For this CREATE program, Dr. Couture has assembled an outstanding team of researchers from the Universities of Ottawa, Carleton, Calgary, Victoria, and from TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator center and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). Aptly abbreviated, BRIGHT Canada will be Bringing Radiobiology Innovations to Grow the Highly Trained workforce in Canada. This is the third NSERC CREATE program directed by OISB members in the last 10 years.

The OISB would like to congratulate the following OISB principal investigators who have been awarded funding in the CIHR Spring 2025 Competition

  • Morgan Fullerton - Metabolic regulation of anabolism suppresses atherogenesis
  • David Cook (OHRI/CMM) - Targeting cancer cell plasticity to improve outcomes in high-grade serous ovarian cancer
  • William Stanford (OHRI/BMI/CMM) - Cellular and molecular pathogenesis of renal tuberous sclerosis complex
  • Erin Mulvihill (UOHI/BMI) - Understanding and Treating Cardiac Fibrosis in PAI-1 Deficiency: Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Strategies

Congratulations to the following OISB members, recipients of 2025 NSERC Grants

NSERC DISCOVERY Grants:

  • Dr. Mathieu Lavallée-Adam - Computational Guiding of Proteomics Data Acquisition for a Comprehensive Coverage of Proteomes and Interactomes
  • Dr. Theodore Perkins - Algorithms for Large-Scale Epigenomics

NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grant:

  • Dr. Tommy Alain with co-applicant Dr. Zakia Djaoud - A System to Monitor Molecular Mechanisms of Translation Control and Immunophenotyping

Leadership Announcement

Congratulations to OISB member, Dr. Erin Mulvihill, on her leadership role of Interim Director at the Biochemistry (BCH) Graduate Program

Congratulations to an OISB trainee, recipient of the 2025-2026 FRQNT Doctoral Research Scholarship   

The OISB is thrilled to announce the FRQNT (Natures and Technology) Doctoral Research Scholarship 2025-2026 competition has been awarded to OISB trainee Kieran Furlong, PhD student from the Rudner Lab at uOttawa.

Kudos on the Eberhard. F. Mammen Young Investigator Award 2024 and the ISTH 2025 Early Career Award for an OISB PDF trainee 

Congratulations to Dr. Tom Kazmirchuck, OISB PDF trainee from the Golshani Lab, for selection for the Eberhard. F. Mammen Young Investigator Award 2024 (Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis), and ISTH 2025 Early Career Award, selection of which funds attendance at the ISTH 2025 Congress (https://www.isth2025.org/).

The OISB congratulates the following 3 OISB members, each recipient of a 2025 CIHR grant

  • Michael S Downey (CMM): “Metabolism and function of polyphosphate chains in S. cerevisiae.”
  • Ryan Russell (CMM): “Uncovering the mechanisms of ATG16L1 regulation in autophagy control”
  • Tommy Alain (CHEO RI/BMI): “Development of Reovirus-based, orally administered, colon cancer vaccines.”                                                             

Congratulations to 3 OISB members on their newly appointed or renewal of Canada Research Chairs

The University of Ottawa is furthering research excellence through 15 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) that address a broad range of global challenges.

New CRC holders are: Anne Broadbent (Quantum Communications and Cryptography); Céline Castets-Renard (International and Comparative Law of AI); Josephine Etowa (Advancing Black Women’s Health in Canada); Mary-Ellen Harper (Mitochondrial Bioenergetics and Metabolic Health) and Bernard Thébaud (Lung Stem Cell Biology and Regeneration).

They also include Hang Chi (Quantum Electronic Devices and Circuits); Ebrahim Karimi (Structured Waves and Quantum Communication); Thirusha Naidu (Equity in Global Medical Education); Yan Xu (Thrombosis); and Vignan Yogendrakumar (Stroke).

The following CRCs have been renewed: Robert Boyd (Quantum Nonlinear Optics); Kelly Bronson (Science and Society); Melike Erol-Kantarci (Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Next-Generation Wireless Networks); Mireille Khacho (Mitochondrial Dynamics and Regenerative Medicine); and Maxime Rousseaux (Personalized Genomics of Neurodegeneration).

The CRC program supports researchers who conduct high impact work that benefits society. Appointed scholars receive dedicated funding to focus on projects that drive progress and strengthen Canada’s role in science, technology and innovation.