GREG
Professor, University of Montreal. Principal Investigator, CRCHUM.
Greg is originally from The Wirral in the North of England, and did his undergraduate degree at University College London (UCL; UK). He also completed his PhD at UCL in the lab of John Carroll, before undertaking a postdoc in Ottawa, Canada, with Jay Baltz. Greg moved back to UCL to start his lab in 2007. In 2014 he returned to Canada, moving the lab (and its members - see below) from the UK to the newly built CRCHUM research centre at the University of Montreal. The lab remains focussed on understanding the cell biology of the egg and early embryo, as a way of understanding female fertility. Greg is Full Professeur (Titulaire) in OBGYN at Université de Montréal, and Chercheur Régulier at CRCHUM. Greg is also Director/Chair of the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at UdeM
When not in the lab Greg plays football (soccer) and likes downhill skiing. |
LAB MEMBERS
Current Lab members
FILIP VASILEV, Postdoctoral Fellow Filip is from Skopje, Macedonia. He obtained his MSc degree in genetics at the Kazan Federal University (Kazan, Russia) and completed his PhD in life and biomolecular sciences at the Open University of London/Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Naples, Italy). Before arriving in Montreal Filip had been working as a postdoc in Dr. Luigia Santella’s laboratory studying the molecular mechanisms of the intracellular Ca2+ increase during fertilization in starfish and sea urchin eggs. He joined the laboratory in the fall 2018 and his project will be to investigate the molecular controls of cytokinesis in mouse embryos. KRUTIKA PATIL, Postdoctoral fellow Krutika holds an MSc in Biotechnology from St. Xaviers College, Mumbai, India, followed by a PhD from the ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproduction and Child Health, also in Mumbai, India. Her doctoral research extensively investigated angiogenic alterations and the interaction between oocyte-cumulus cells in the ovaries of women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). In 2022, she participated in the prestigious 'Frontiers in Reproduction' course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in the USA. Currently, Krutika is engaged in postdoctoral research within Greg Fitzharris's lab, where she focuses on exploring the impact of aneuploid cells in preimplantation embryos. Krutika is a recipient of the FRQS fellowship, Canada. SYDNEY COHEN, Master student Sydney completed her BSc in Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill University. In May 2023, Sydney joined the laboratory of Dr. Greg FitzHarris as a stagiaire for the summer and is now pursuing her MSc in Molecular Biology in the lab, where she is studying whether or not oocyte aneuploidy can be prevented. YANWEN JIANG, Postdoctoral fellow Yanwen is from Northwest China. He obtained his BSc in Animal Sciences in 2015 and MSc in Reproductive Biology in 2018, both at Jilin University (China). Then, he moved to Europe and completed his PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology in 2023 at University College London (UK). His PhD work is focused on the molecular control of apoptotic cell death in the nematode worm C. elegans. He joined the Fitzharris lab in January 2024 as a postdoctoral fellow, and his research project will be to investigate the molecular control of centriole biogenesis in mouse embryos. VALERIY KUTSYNA, PhD Student Before joining the FitzHarris lab, Valeriy did a master at the University of South Bohemia University in Czech Republic in Alexander Bruce’s lab. He is now a molecular biology PhD candidate at UdeM and he will be studying the role of apoptosis in early embryo development. HELIA MOTAMEDI, Master student Helia is from London, England and obtained her BSc in Biological Sciences from Cardiff University, UK. In October 2022, she joined the FitzHarris lab where she completed a Professional Training Year as part of her undergraduate studies. She returned to the lab in August 2024 to complete her MSc in Molecular Biology and is investigating how errors in mitotic checkpoints contribute to aneuploidy in embryos. GAUDELINE RÉMILLARD-LABROSSE, Lab manager Gaudeline did her undergraduate studies in health sciences at Université de Montréal. She completed her PhD in cell biology in the lab of Roger Lippé, where she studied intracellular transport using herpes simplex virus type I as a model. She pursued her academic path by doing a brief postdoc fellowship, for which she received a GRSNC grant. The main objective of the project was to study intracellular transport of proteins involved in neurodegenerative pathologies. She is now a part of Greg Fitzharris’ team as the lab manager. |