Renal

Michael Walsh

Scientist

Michael Walsh is a Principal Investigator in the Renal research program at PHRI, and an Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (nephrology), McMaster University. His research activities are in the areas of the treatment of patients who require dialysis, severe glomerular disease, and perioperative acute kidney injury. He has published more than 70 papers and two book chapters.

He holds a Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training (KRESCENT) Program New Investigator award through CIHR and the Kidney Foundation of Canada.  He’s received multiple Top Abstract awards from the Canadian Society of Nephrology, the Chalmers Prize from the Society for Clinical Trials, and the Detweiller Traveling Scholar Award from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Matthew Lanktree

Investigator

Matthew Lanktree is a clinical scientist in adult nephrology genetics who cares for patients with chronic and end-stage kidney disease at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and Hamilton Health Sciences. He is an Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (division of nephrology) and Department of Health Research, Methods, Evidence and Impact, at McMaster University. His research areas of interest are: nephrology genetics; cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease; dialysis; and polycystic kidney disease.

He obtained a combined MD and PhD at Western University with research in human genetics before residency in internal medicine and nephrology at McMaster University. He then completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in heritable kidney disease at the University of Toronto before returning to McMaster as faculty in 2019. He has published more than 60 articles in high-impact journals in genetics and medicine, and has set his goal to translate genetic studies into improved care of patients with kidney disease.

Amit Garg

Associate Scientist

Amit Garg is the Associate Dean, Clinical Research, at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, has practiced as a staff nephrologist at the London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ontario, Canada since 2003, and is a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI) at McMaster University. A past president of the Canadian Society of Nephrology, Amit Garg serves as the current Ontario Lead of the Kidney, Dialysis and Transplantation Program at ICES.

He values his ongoing collaborations with PJ Devereaux and other leading clinician-scientists at PHRI, which has led to several sub-studies funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research which examined the effects of perioperative interventions on the risk of acute kidney injury (off-pump cardiopulmonary bypass surgery) in the CORONARY study, and more. A current interest is in pragmatic randomized trials embedded into routine healthcare delivery.

Amber Molnar

Associate Investigator

Amber Molnar is a nephrologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, and Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, McMaster University. Her research program focuses on improving the pre-dialysis care of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) and reducing cardiovascular complications in patients with CKD.

She holds a Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training (KRESCENT) program’s New Investigator Award through CIHR and the Kidney Foundation of Canada. Amber earned her M.D. at the University of Saskatchewan followed by internal medicine training at Western University, and completed her nephrology and MSc (Epidemiology) training at the University of Ottawa.

Lonnie Pyne

Research Fellow

Lonnie Pyne is a Research Fellow at PHRI, supervised by Dr. Michael Walsh, and a MSc student in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster. Lonnie is a Clinical Scholar in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology at McMaster University. Lonnie obtained his medical degree from Western University. He completed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at McMaster University.

His current research interests include chronic kidney disease, surrogate outcomes in nephrology, cardiovascular outcomes in kidney disease, and vasculitis.

Tara McCready

Program Director

Tara McCready, PhD, oversees a variety of collaborative programs at PHRI, and serves as Project Manager for PHRI research studies and registries.

She was recruited to PHRI as a Program Director for the Canadian Network and Centre for Trials Internationally (CANNeCTIN), a national network funded by the CIHR/CFI Clinical Research Initiative program to improve the prevention and treatment of cardiac and vascular diseases and diabetes.

Previously the Executive Director of the Canadian Maternal, Infant, Child and Youth Research Network, Tara holds a PhD in Biochemistry and a MBA in Technology Commercialization from the University of Alberta.

Joanne Wilkinson

Senior Research Coordinator

Joanne has more than 35 years of experience in both industry and academic research. In her current role at PHRI, she coordinates global studies in 21 countries with more than 600 clinical research sites, including partnerships with National Leaders, Principal Investigators and Site Management Coordinators. She has participated in two Health Canada Compliant Inspections in the past three years at PHRI. Previously, she worked for 15+ years in the pharmaceutical industry in various positions, including as Director of Clinical Development and Director of GI and Palliative Medicine.