Board Members
Marta Cerruti
President
McGill University
Department of Mining and Materials Engineering
Email: marta.cerruti@mcgill.ca
Davide Brambilla
Secretary
Université de Montréal
Faculty of Pharmacy
Email: davide.brambilla@umontreal.ca
In 2017, Davide was appointed Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal, where he started his independent research laboratory at the interface of biotechnology and pharmaceutical sciences. He teaches the Development of Biotechnology Drugs and Pharmacokinetics to the Pharmacy and Biopharmaceutical Sciences students. His research interests include the design, manufacturing, and performance evaluation of polymeric microneedles for non-invasive transdermal delivery of diagnostic and therapeutic agents.
Marc A. Gauthier
Treasurer
Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Energy Materials Telecommunications Centre
Email: gauthier@emt.inrs.ca
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Prof. Marc A. Gauthier obtained his PhD in polymer chemistry at the Université de Montréal in 2007 under the supervision of Profs. Julian X Zhu and Thomas H Ellis. Following a postdoc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) with Prof. Harm-Anton Klok, he became a Research Associate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) in 2009 with Prof. Jean-Christophe Leroux.
In 2013 he joined the EMT Research Center of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Canada as Assistant Professor, where his work focuses on developing new types of dynamic covalent bonds, designing therapeutic protein–polymer conjugates, establishing new technologies for drug discovery, and investigating new opportunities for physically actuating therapeutic bioconjugates using non-ionizing radiation. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017.
Afsaneh Lavasanifar
Member-at-Large (Alberta)
University of Alberta
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: afsaneh@ualberta.ca
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Dr Lavasanifar is a Professor of Pharmaceutics in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta. Afsaneh is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Meros Polymers, a spinoff company established based on the technology developed her lab. Her research is focused on the development of delivery systems that can increase solubility, modify the pharmacokinetics, reduce toxicity, and increase the activity of different therapeutics with a focus on the development of nanomedicines for cancer chemo- and immunotherapy.
Larry Unsworth
Member-at-Large (Alberta)
University of Alberta
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
Email: larry.unsworth@ualberta.ca
Valentina Francia
Member-at-Large (British Columbia)
University of British Columbia
Life Sciences Institute
Email: v.francia@umcutrecht.nl
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Valentina is a Board Member and Social Media Coordinator of the CRS Canada Chapter. She is also a Board Member of the BeNeLux & France Local Chapter where she acts as Chapter Liaison. Currently, she is working as a joint postdoctoral fellow between the University of British Columbia, Canada in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Pieter Cullis and the University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Raymond Schiffelers. Her project is part of the Horizon2020 EXPERT consortium, and is focused on the investigation of the biomolecular corona of lipid-based nanoparticles for nucleic acids delivery.
Sarah Hedtrich
Member-at-Large (British Columbia)
University of British Columbia
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Email: sarah.hedtrich@ubc.ca
Shirley XY Wu
Member-at-Large (Ontario)
University of Toronto
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
Email: sxy.wu@utoronto.ca
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Dr. Xiao Yu (Shirley) Wu is a full Professor in Pharmaceutics & Drug Delivery at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto. She has led an outstanding 24-year academic career, having published >160 journal papers and book chapters, 270 proceedings and abstracts, and is a co-inventor of 27 issued or pending patents. She has served CRS Best Paper Selection Committees for Journal of Controlled Release and Drug Delivery and Translational Research. She has been a member-at-large of CC-CRS since late 2016.
Johans Fakhoury
Member-at-Large (Quebec)
McGill University
Department of Chemistry
Email: johans.fakhoury@mail.mcgill.ca
Dr. Johans Fakoury currently holds the position of Director, Strategic Planning and Operations with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at McGill University, and am mandated to be the bridge builder between BME and other institutions, nationally and internationally, in order to promote the department and recruit high caliber researchers and trainees, and encourage scientific exchanges.
Ellen Wasan
Member-at-Large (Saskatchewan)
University of Saskatchewan
College of Pharmacy and Nutrition
Email: ellen.wasan@usask.ca