§ The Lab

Science, data, and people.

A computational biology lab at Western University. We maintain both a wet lab (sample processing, single-cell profiling) and a dry lab (high-throughput data analysis).

Vanessa Dumeaux
Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University; cross-appointed in Biochemistry and Oncology. Affiliate Scientist, London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute & Children's Health Research Institute. PhD in molecular epidemiology (Tromsø / Paris-Sud XI). Previously Research Scientist at McGill, Concordia, and UiT. Works at the boundary of epidemiology, single-cell genomics, and computational biology.

Google Scholar →GitHub →Bluesky →CV (PDF) →
Current trainees & research staff
Eliseos John Mucaki
Research Technician
MSc Biochemistry (University of Windsor). 13+ years as Research Technician. Expertise in splice variant analysis, machine learning for chemotherapy/radiation response, and RNAseq analysis of TCGA/ICGC cohorts.
2022
Mohamed Meawad
PhD Student
Transferred to PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology (Collaborative Specialization in Machine Learning). Previously completed Honours in Computational Biochemistry and Certificate in Data Science at Western.
2022
Dalwinder Singh
Postdoctoral Associate
PhD from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, India. Expertise in deep learning, RNA classification, and optimization algorithms.
2023
Binh Tran
PhD Student
Transferred from MSc to PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology in April 2026.
2024
Monica Zhang
Undergraduate Student (Volunteer)
First-year Medical Sciences student at Western. Interested in oncology. Involved in the Biochemistry Club and HOSA.
2024
Bushra Kabbani
MSc student
MSc student in Biochemistry with Collaborative Specialization in Machine Learning in Health and Biomedical Sciences.
2025
Erin Kim
Work-Study Undergraduate Student
Third-year Honours Specialization in Medical Bioinformatics at Western. Drawn to bioinformatics for its intersection of computer science and biology.
2025
Yubing Xia
MSc student
Intrigued by how the immune system influences disease progression — from studying graft-versus-host disease to immune cell behaviour in aggressive breast cancers using scRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics.
2025
Training environment

Students join the Anatomy & Cell Biology or Biochemistry graduate programs. Computational students can join the Collaborative Specialization in Machine Learning in Health and Biomedical Sciences. Regular one-on-ones, group meetings, and journal clubs.

Mentoring approach

We help trainees translate biological questions into quantitative exploration. We teach R, Python, molecular profiling, and single-cell technologies. We share wet-lab and dry-lab resources with the Hallett lab.

Curiosity

Science is fascinating and fun. Big questions and day-to-day joy.

Persistence

Research gets hard. There's always something to learn.

Openness

Open science, open code, open to being wrong.

Transparency

Honest discussion about data, results, and lab life.

Alumni
Graduate students
Noor Rizvi
MSc (2023–2025)
Aybars Nazlica
PhD student (2023–2024)
Qianrui (Ray) Wang
MSc (2022–2024)
Undergraduate students
Ajita Kanthathasan
Honours thesis 2026, Microbiology & Immunology
Nabeeha Anwar
Work-Study Undergraduate Student
Rachel Chellappah
Undergraduate Student (Volunteer)
Ankit Ray
Honours thesis 2025, Medical Bioinformatics
Athena Ma
BIOCHEM 3383F Research
Karen Ribeiro
MITACS 2024, Medical School
Rohan Sonthalia
MITACS summer 2024, Computer Science & Engineering
Sara Alajrami
Honours thesis 2025, Biochemistry Infection Immunology
Akshay Bhaskaran
MITACS 2023, Computer Science & Engineering
Alice Deng
Honours thesis 2024, Computational Biochemistry
Arad Keshvadi
Undergraduate Volunteer
Evelyn Cai
Honours thesis 2025, Physiology & Pharmacology
Lakni Abeyesekera
Work-Study Undergraduate Student
Rishi Patel
Honours thesis 2024, Microbiology & Immunology
Teddy Lee
Honours thesis 2023, Medical Cell Biology
Emily Salmini
Honours thesis 2023, Biochemistry & Cancer Biology
Interested in joining the lab?
Send a brief email with your CV, transcripts and research interests.
Get in touch →