It has been a whirlwind year in the lab — so much so that regular updates have fallen by the wayside as our team grows and our projects multiply! I am excited to finally share some of the highlights and celebrate the incredible work happening across our group.
Major Publications & Preprints
We are thrilled to announce that two major manuscripts from our lab have made it to preprint and publication this year!
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Noor Rizvi (MSc) led a comprehensive study on the mutational landscape of pure ductal carcinoma in situ and its association with prognosis and treatment response. This work, first posted as a medRxiv preprint, is now published in Breast Cancer Research—a huge milestone for Noor and the team!
Read the paper here. -
Mohamed Meawad (PhD) spearheaded a deep learning project uncovering functional archetypes in the adult human gut microbiome, revealing new insights into interindividual variability and disease signals. This study, initially shared on bioRxiv, has now been accepted in Microbiome—congratulations, Mohamed! Check out the preprint. If you’re curious for a quick overview, Vanessa recently presented a summary of these results at the Microbiome Virtual International Forum.
Our collaborative spirit continues to thrive, too. Together with Mike Hallett at Western and the Sunnybrook team, we contributed to a new bioRxiv preprint on generative and integrative modeling for transcriptomics using FFPE material. This work strengthens our ongoing efforts to profile in-situ breast cancer tissues and identify biomarkers to guide treatment.
Read the preprint.
We are also truly excited for a brand-new partnership with talented MD/PhD student Shengjie Ying and the Anthony Nichols lab at LHSC. This collaboration has already resulted in two impactful publications in The Laryngoscope on transcriptomic predictors and treatment outcomes in idiopathic subglottic stenosis Check out the papers. Kudos to Shengjie and all collaborators for these important contributions!
Awards & Achievements
We are so proud of our trainees’ accomplishments:
- Noor received both a TBCRU scholarship (Breast Cancer Canada) and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) before graduating in June 2025. We wish her all the best in her next chapter!
- Mohamed was also awarded an OGS and has officially transferred into our PhD program—excited to see where his research leads next.
Talks & Outreach
Vanessa was pleased to be invited to speak at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, sharing insights on tumor genomics and systemic immunity for personalized breast cancer management. Many thanks to Quaid Morris for the invitation and warm welcome!
She was also honored to deliver a plenary talk at CanFunNet (virtual), presenting on the characterization of transcriptional programs supporting drug tolerance in Candida albicans. This work highlights how heterogeneous transcriptional responses enable fungal survival under drug pressure, with implications for overcoming antifungal resistance.
A huge thank you to Mike Hallett and team for hosting Open House 2025: Research Opportunities in Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, AI, and Data Science at Western. This event is a fantastic platform for students and researchers to explore cutting-edge opportunities and connect with researcher in the field.
Presenting our lab:
Research Highlights
Binh Tran (MSc) continues to break new ground in single-cell profiling of microbial communities. Early results are shedding light on the molecular programs supporting para-resistance in Candida albicans, in collaboration with Dr. Xie at Stanford.
We are also delighted to welcome two new MSc students this fall:
- Bushra Kabbani will focus on the functional characterization of microbial communities.
- Yubing Xia, recipient of a TBCRU award, will investigate immune responses to aggressive breast cancer subtypes (HER2-positive and triple-negative) during treatment.
Looking Ahead: 24th Systems Biology Workshop
Our 24th Systems Biology Workshop is set for February 6–13, 2026. This year, we’ll bring together 40–50 researchers to explore the organization and dynamics of biological systems across scales—from cellular processes and tissue ecosystems with specific focus on:
- Cellular and tissue ecosystem dynamics, including the tumor microenvironment
- Complex networks across marine, terrestrial, microbial systems, and human disease
The workshop is unique in its cross-disciplinary focus, uniting molecular biologists, microbiome specialists, computational biologists, and environmental scientists. We cannot wait to see the new ideas and collaborations that will emerge!
Thank you all for making this such an exciting place to do science. Here’s to more discoveries, milestones, and shared successes in the months ahead!