Biomarker Discovery Partnership Program

Guillaume Paré

Director, CRLB- GMEL; Senior Scientist

Guillaume Paré is Director of the Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank (CRLB) – Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL). He is also Deputy Director of the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI), a Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, a Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, and a University Scholar at McMaster University. He holds the Cisco Professorship in Integrated Health Biosystems.

His clinical interests are centered on lipoprotein disorders, obesity and cardiovascular disease prevention, with research interests in cardiovascular genetics, biomarker development and pharmacogenomics. Gui’s research combines high-throughput biomarker screens with genetics, bioinformatics and epidemiology to identify novel cardio-metabolic biomarkers. He has published more than 200 papers and has been cited over 27,000 times.

A medical biochemist with board certification from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Gui completed a Master’s in Human Genetics at McGill University under the supervision of renowned geneticist Thomas Hudson. He further trained in genetic epidemiology with Paul Ridker at Harvard Medical School.

Salim Yusuf

Executive Director; Senior Scientist

Salim Yusuf is an internationally renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose work over 40 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Born in India, medically qualified at St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore in 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which he (along with Richard Peto, Rory Collins and Peter Sleight) initiated the concepts of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis. He proposed the concept of combination drug treatment for prevention of CVD to achieve large reductions in CVD with a single pill (now called the polypill concept), but more importantly has been evaluating the concept through large randomized trials.

He leads several global studies involving more than 60 countries in every inhabited continent of the world aimed at enhancing knowledge about the biological, behavioural and societal causes, consequences, and approaches to the control of heart diseases, and strokes through large multi-country programs such as INTERHEART, INTERSTROKE, and PURE.

He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair and has received (among others) the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society; the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society; the European Society of Cardiology gold medal, the clinical Research Prize of the American Heart Association and the International Award and the Braunwald Lecture of the American College of Cardiology. He has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame; been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in 2014. He has received four honorary doctorates, and is among the top 20 most cited health researchers in history.

Salim Yusuf has published more than 1,000 articles in refereed journals, rising to the second most cited researcher in the world for 2011. He has mentored more than 120 scientists, several of whom are in leadership positions across the globe. He has been President of the World Heart Federation (2015-2016), where he initiated several programs (the Emerging Leaders program, road maps for CVD control and a course for training primary care practitioners in CVD prevention) aimed at halving the CVD burden globally within a generation. The World Heart Federation has recognized his contributions by naming the program the Salim Yusuf Emerging Leaders Programme.

He is a Distinguished University Professor of Medicine, and Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University and Chief Scientist, Hamilton Health Sciences.

Matthew McQueen

Deputy Director, CRLB-GMEL

Matthew McQueen co-founded the Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank (CRLB) in Hamilton, Canada in 1987. As a physician and Director of the Lipid Research Clinic, his clinical focus has been on lipid disorders, primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, and the investigation of statins, fibrates, and probucol in reducing disease risk. He expanded his clinical research laboratory (then known as CRCTL) to provide analytical support for the large epidemiologic studies and clinical trials from PHRI. To date, he has been the author or coauthor of more than 250 publications.

He has retired as a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University (since 1987) and Director of the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program and Chief of the Departments of Laboratory Medicine at Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare (since 1998).

He received his medical degree and doctorate from the University of Glasgow. He was recruited to Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia in 1974 and to McMaster University in 1976. In 1981 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada and in 1984 a Founding Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Clinical Biochemistry.

Michael Chong

Investigator; Asst Director CRLB-GMEL

Michael Chong is a PHRI Investigator and the Assistant Director of the Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank (CRLB) – Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL). He is also a Research Associate at McMaster University in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. To date, he has published approximately 40 articles related to stroke and cardiovascular disease genetics, mitochondrial genomics, biomarkers, and bioinformatics.

He completed his MSc in Medical Sciences at McMaster University (2012-2014) under the supervision of Guillaume Paré, where he studied the role of rare genetic variants as risk factors for early-onset stroke. From 2015-2017, he worked as a bioinformatician at GMEL and played key roles in the genetic analyses of several PHRI studies including INTERSTROKE and ORIGIN. From 2018-2021, he completed his PhD in Biochemistry at McMaster university, where he integrated genetics and biomarker data to uncover novel drug targets for stroke.

Reina Ditta

Academic & Research Dev. Manager

Reina Ditta is the Academic and Research Development Manager of the Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL) – Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank (CRLB). Previously, she was the lab manager, GMEL, at PHRI.

Reina received her Honours Cell Biology from Western University, her Master’s in Forensic Science from King’s College London, and has more than 11 years of laboratory experience.

Tara Bryce

Operations Manager

Tara Bryce is the Operations Manager for the Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank (CRLB) and Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL). A member of the CRLB since 2007, Tara has over 13 years’ experience as a laboratory professional, with expertise in biobanking and clinical research.

Tara holds an Honours Bachelor of Science from McMaster University, and is a Medical Laboratory Technologist registered with the College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario (CMLTO).