| BRUCE RITCHIE |
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Bruce Ritchie is an Associate Professor of Haematology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he is active in both clinical and basic research. His clinical interests include bleeding disorders, thrombotic disorders, primary immunodeficiency, hereditary angioedema, hemoglobinopathies, porphyria and blood borne pathogens. He has developed specialty clinics in Edmonton to provide comprehensive care including home treatment with blood products to these groups. He is intimately involved in surveillance of the blood system in Canada; he chairs the committee which oversees the Canadian Haemophilia Assessment and Resource Management information System (CHARMS), a national program to track blood clotting products used in patient homes. He is principle Investigator of the Blood Borne Pathogens Project and has built a medium size biobank as a proof of concept for a larger automated biobank. He runs a dozen clinical research projects in addition to the Blood Borne Pathogens Surveillance project, including regulatory trials for the pharmaceutical industry, and investigator initiated trials. His research laboratory works on tissue archiving, genomic discovery, cryopreservation, use of ink jet printers to print biomaterials and cells and development of technical fixes to increase throughput in the
biobank. He is on the Governance Oversight Committee of the BC Biolibrary, and has contacts throughout the biobanking community. |
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THE ADMIN
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Meagen LaFave, BA is the Financial Supervisor and Business Manager of CBSR, with a Bachelor of Arts in Canadian Political Science and Canadian History from the University of Alberta. She has successfully completed 3 years of business training at Grant MacEwan University in addition to her BA, and implemented Quickbooks invoicing and inventory systems in two companies different. She has extensive training and experience with Quickbooks software and bookkeeping and is working to complete a Masters in Business Administration and ISO 9000 training for regulatory
processes in the next 4 years. |
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Trevor Soll graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Regina in 1998. He has worked with Dr. Ritchie as a clinical trials coordinator since 2001 implementing and maintaining the Blood Borne Pathogens Surveillance Project.
He is also our resident website and newsletter guru.
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Stephanie Skinner, MSc is the Regulatory Officer at CBSR. She has a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Molecular Genetics from the University of Alberta and a Master of Science in Genetic Counselling from the University of British Columbia. Her education plus previous work experience has given her experience in both laboratory and clinical settings. Stephanie is working to ensure and maintain compliance to relevant FDA and Health Canada regulations, best practice guidelines and is hoping to take the lab through ISO 9000 certification in the near future. |
THE TECHS
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Elizabeth Taylor was the first technician hired at the Canadian Bio Sample Repository. She is a Deans List graduate of NAIT's Laboratory Research program in 2004 and she has been employed at the Canadian Bio Sample Repository as a Senior Laboratory Technician since 2005.
Elizabeth has WHMIS, First Aid, CPR (Canadian College of EMS), Radiation Safety and Biosafety certifications that were obtained at the University of Alberta. She was also an active participant of the International Order of Job's Daughters in Trail BC, which awarded her several scholarships to help fund her education. |
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Jessica Miniaci is CBSR's second Senior Laboratory Technician. She graduated from NAIT in 2005 specializing in Laboratory and Research. Some of the certificate programs she has achieved include Transportation of Dangerous Goods (Saf-T-Pak), basic first aid and CPR level B (Canadian College of EMS), radiation safety and Concepts in Biosafety from the University of Alberta. Her previous experience involved working as a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Technician, on the Human Metabolome Project, a $7.5-million USD effort funded by Genome Canada to systematically characterize the metabolites of the human body. |
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Aaron Peck is the third Laboratory Technician at the CBSR, starting work in July of 2009. He graduated from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology graduating with honours in Laboratory and Research. Aaron also has certificates in Radiation Safety and Biological Safety, both obtained from the University of Alberta. Currently Aaron is enrolled at the University of Alberta, working towards obtaining his Bachelors of Sciences degree in Immunology and Infection while working for CBSR full time. |
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Amie Lee is our newest Technician, having started working with us in March 2011. She is a graduate of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Laboratory and Research. Amie has her certificates in Radiation Safety and Biological Safety, both obtained from the University of Alberta. Amie is in the process of completing her Bsc in Psychology with plans to continue on in Biology. |
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Charity Holland graduated from NAIT with honours in 2007 in the Biological Sciences Laboratory and Research Program. Charity also received a Radiation Safety Certificate from the University of Alberta. In her free time Charity enjoys participating annually for the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life.
Charity is currently on maternity leave.
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THE PROGRAMMERS |
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Nelson Loyola has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, 1990. He is a software engineer with 20 years experience developing software projects for database driven web applications and real time embedded applications. Nelson has worked in leading technology companies such as Nortel Networks, Galazar Networks, and Sedona Networks. Nelson is the programming leader on the software re-development – he has been a key member involved in all aspects of product development including business development, requirements
management, full system development, system integration, system test and external customer trials. |
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Delphine Degris-Dard has a Masters Degree in Computer Science, with specialization in Machine Learning from the Pierre et Marie Curie University (Paris, France), 2002. She is a Software Engineer with 8 years experience developing Java applications and frameworks. She is actively participating in the BioBank software development since 2009. |
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Aaron Young graduated from the U of A with a BSc (Specialization) in Computing Science in 2009. He completed a 16 month industrial internship with the AICML as an undergraduate, rehired after the completion of degree. |
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Jonathan Ferland is a programmer at CBSR. He graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Science, Specialization in Computing Science. He is particularly interested in web frameworks, software architecture, and databases/ ORMs. |
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Jason Badry, BSc, ISP, ITCP holds a BSc. (Computing Science) from the University of Alberta, 1996, and has 14 years of IT Healthcare experience including business analysis, software development, systems and network infrastructure, and security. Co-author of a cardiac jeopardy score manuscript in the American Heart Journal (Aug 2001), and acknowledgements in other journals including Canadian Journal of Cardiology and Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. Certifications include ITIL Foundations, CIPS Information Systems Professional, and CIPS Information Technology Certified Professional. Jason designed the original inventory software program in current use and is consulting on the re-write in Java. |
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THE ENGINEERS
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Nic Ritchie received a BSc Mechanical Engineering in 2008, specializing in Fluid Mechanics and Machine Component Design. Nic has experience with aerodynamics, kinematics of robot manipulators and Numerical Simulation. Previous projects have included a high-efficiency, Biomass fuelled Tobacco Curing Barn and a pneumatic shifting system for an open wheeled race car. Current Projects are a low cost, easy to use cryotube separator for foil sealed tubes and Fitment of equipment for the CBSR
BioBank project.
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Kory Mathewson graduated with a Bachelor of Sciences in Electrical (Biomedical) Engineering from the University of Alberta precisely in June 2010. Over the course of his undergraduate degree he researched Photoacoustic Ultrasound with Dr. Roger Zemp and was successful in co-authoring several papers with his team. Also, he worked with Dr. Nelson Durdle and the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital on a Smart Brace for Monitoring Kyphosis. Following his degree, he accepted an Engineer-In-Training position with Dr. Bruce Ritchie in Hematology working as a Robotic Developer for the Canadian Biosample Repository, developing technologies to solve large scale laboratory automation goals. Current projects include purchasing Automated Sample Processing Robots and co-authoring a paper on a novel low cost vision system for blood fractionation.
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Hooman Hosseinkhannazer is the Automated Biobank Project Manager. He earned his MSc in Mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta in 2008. During his MSc program, he worked as a research/teaching assistant at the University of Alberta and has been involved in project planning, as well as teaching project management and developing commercialization plans. After graduation, he worked for the department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta as a Project Manager and nanofabrication specialist. In August 2008 he joined SNC-Lavalin, Edmonton to work on minable energy projects and pilot plant designs. Hooman has authored books and scientific papers in English and Farsi and brings four years of experience in equipment design, material testing and manufacturing, nanofabrication and project development. As a part of his BSc dissertation, Hooman worked on the design and fabrication of a robotic nurse unit, funded by the World Health Organization. During 2009, he has been responsible for project management and device development in various prototyping projects including nano and micro scale devices for AquaScreen Inc. and a Foil-Cutting device for the Canadian Bio-Sample repository. As a Volunteer, Hooman instructs Disaster Management and supervises new instructors at the Canadian Red Cross. |
HONORABLE MENTION |
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Margie Ritchie obtained her MB, ChB in 1981 from the University of Otago (New Zealand) and after moving to Canada, specialized in Medical Microbiology. She has a background in both public and private laboratories, taking both types of Laboratories through accreditation, and coordinating a large epidemiologic research study at the University of Alberta Hospital to look-back at transfused neonates for hepatitis C.
More recently Margie has taken up and devoted a lot of time to triathlon and duathlon, becoming age group world champion in both in 2009.
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Efficient and Robust Biosample Processing
About Us
