Bringing our vision to life – advancing knowledge and treatment of diseases
Hasan Alkumru, DDS, PhD
Associate Professor, Schulich Dentistry
Dr. Alkumru’s passion for prosthodontics and for teaching has taken him on a journey around the world. He completed his training and PhD in prosthodontics at Ankara University in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. He spent five years at the University of Toronto, serving as the Interim Head of Department of Prosthodontics and Director of Graduate Prosthodontics Program in the Faculty of Dentistry. He is recognized for helping develop a clinical program to include advance oral rehabilitation cases in the Department of Dentistry at Mount Sinai Hospital. He has been lecturing for more than 25 years and is an internationally recognized speaker and researcher.
Brian Allman, PhD
Assistant Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Dr. Allman is a systems-level neurophysiologist, whose recent research has focused on basic questions investigating how the cortex integrates information from more than one sense, as well as on clinically-relevant questions as to how the cortex adapts to hearing loss and its perceptual implications.
Dr. Allman has been tremendously successful in establishing himself as a junior researcher and teacher. He is devoted to pursuing excellence in all aspects of academics — research, teaching and mentorship, and service. His passion about his research inspires his trainees, and his mentorship provides them with the skills to become critical thinkers.
Kelly Anderson, PhD
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
With research interests in mental health and social determinants of health, a great deal of Dr. Anderson’s research revolves around evaluating access to mental health services and identifying how factors such as gender, socioeconomics and ethnic background dictate whether or how services for mental disorders are sought.
One specific research project is focused on adolescent mental disorders. She’s found herself drawn to this area because of the high burden of mental disorders among youth, as well as the very early onset of most mental conditions. According to Dr. Anderson it’s been estimated almost 75 per cent of all mental disorders have their onset before the age of 25. Through her research she is aiming to find better ways to deliver mental health services to young people as a way of improving their overall wellbeing and life trajectories.
Tom Appleton, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine, Physiology and Pharmacology
Dr. Appleton is a Schulich Medicine & Dentistry alumnus, who now serves as a clinician scientist continuing his research in osteoarthritis. He is investigating the mechanisms of osteoarthritis disease development and progression to identify new therapeutic targets for disease modifying therapies. Dr. Appleton’s program includes a prospective, longitudinal cohort of patients with early osteoarthritis of various types. His research is also studying the molecular interplay between synovium and articular cartilage and the inflammatory mediators that drive joint damage and dysfunction in early osteoarthritis.
Nilgun Ari, DDS, MSc
Assistant Professor, Schulich Dentistry
Originally from Turkey, Dr. Ari moved to London in 2010 and began studying at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. She became a part-time clinical instructor in various disciplines of dentistry including removable prosthodontics, fixed prosthodontics, dental anatomy, and occlusion and restorative dentistry. She was appointed as a full-time faculty member in 2013. Her research interests include biomaterial in prosthodontics, effects of fixed partial restoration, alternative treatment technique in removable dentures, and mandibular protruding devices on patients with sleep apnea.
Eric J. Arts, PhD
Professor and Chair, Microbiology and Immunology
An internationally renowned scholar, Dr. Arts always knew he would be a scientist and began his studies at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. Following completion of his PhD at McGill, 20 years at Case Western University and the establishment of labs in Uganda, Dr. Arts returned to Western University to lead the Department of Micro-biology and Immunology and continue his HIV research.
One of the challenges of HIV research is the sheer diversity of the virus, with hundreds of different strains. Dr. Arts’ team has shown that this diversity has an impact on how the virus causes disease and how the disease progresses. And they are exploring whether certain drugs in the arsenal of 29 approved antiretrovirals are better suited to fight each subtype. The team has also developed a heterogeneous vaccine and are now working with a delivery method developed by Schulich Medicine & Dentistry colleague Dr. Yong Kang.
Dr. Arts’ team is hoping to develop a ‘cure’ for HIV. They have developed an approach that involves creating virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from the patient’s own virus. Their goal is to flush out the latent virus so that the patient’s immune system, bolstered by the antiretrovirals, destroys it. The approach currently requires the creation of individual VLPs for each patient, and they plan to create VLPs that could be administered to entire populations.
Samuel Asfaha, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine, Oncology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
After completing his undergraduate and graduate studies, as well as his medical and residency training in Alberta, Dr. Asfaha pursued postdoctoral research training at Columbia University. While there, he conducted ground-breaking research into the cellular origin of colorectal and gastric cancer and improving tissue repair in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).
His goal is to better understand what regulates the cells and how inflammation affects the cell leading to cancer. Since IBD patients are predisposed to increased risks of cancer, researchers need to understand why some patients with IBD develop it and some don’t. Because of this, all IBD patients are recommended to undergo colon cancer testing or monitoring on an annual basis. By identifying and differentiating patients based on the stem cell, researchers could have a more effective way of screening patients and predicting outcomes.
Esperanza Bohorquez, DDS
Assistant Professor, Schulich Dentistry
Dr. Bohorquez became a faculty member in 2015, bringing many years of experience as a dentist in Colombia focusing on the areas of aesthetics and restoration. She focuses on the design, fabrication and adjustment of dentures and is very familiar with leading techniques and materials. And she has taught a variety of courses including operative dentistry, dental anatomy and occlusion, fixed prosthesis, and removable prosthodontics.
Tim Bussey, PhD
Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology, Psychiatry; Scientist, Robarts Research Institute
Dr. Bussey aims to understand cognition — learning, memory, attention — and how the brain does it, what goes wrong in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia, and possible targets for therapy, using several different converging methods of inquiry. His lab’s theoretical work has challenged prevailing views regarding the organization of brain function, and has recently been substantiated by a number of studies carried out in our own and several independent laboratories. In another stream of research, he has elucidated the neural mechanisms underpinning object recognition memory and related cognitive functions. Dr. Bussey and his team are currently using the methods developed in these studies to investigate psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, and testing potential therapeutic agents. He co-invented the touchscreen testing method for rodents, which allows computer-automated cognitive testing of rodent models on the same types of tests currently used to diagnose and study human patients.
