AXIOMATIC-SSP

Mike Sharma

Senior Scientist

Mike Sharma is Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at McMaster University and a vascular neurologist at Hamilton Health Sciences. He holds the Michael G DeGroote Chair in Stroke Prevention and leads the Brain Health and Stroke Program at PHRI. He is the Medical Director of the Regional Stroke Program at HHS.

After neurology training at Western, a stroke fellowship at the Montreal Neurologic Institute and the University of Ottawa, he completed an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology. He founded the Stroke Program at the University of Ottawa and joined PHRI in 2013. Mike is the Past Chair of the Canadian Stroke Consortium and was the Deputy Director of Clinical Affairs and Policy at the Canadian Stroke Network. He has held leadership positions in trials of novel antithrombotic approaches to stroke prevention and imaging/cognitive outcomes in large trials of stroke prevention. He led the imaging substudies in COMPASS and NAVIGATE ESUS that explored the impact of interventions on covert vascular disease as well as cognitive outcomes. Building on these findings he has been heavily involved with the development of FXIa inhibitors for stroke prevention. He led the multinational Phase II dose ranging AXIOMATIC SSP trial that established a dose of the small molecule FXIa inhibitor milvexian for stroke prevention. He currently leads the pivotal efficacy trial OCEANIC STROKE that seeks to establish the benefit of Asundexian and FXIa inhibition in secondary stroke prevention. In addition to other ongoing research, he and Raed Joundi lead PROSPECT – an international cohort study examining the determinants of cognitive and functional decline in those with a recent stroke.

Kanjana Perera

Scientist

Kanjana (Sashi) Perera is a Scientist in the Brain Health and Stroke research program at PHRI, Assistant Professor, Medicine (neurology), McMaster University, and a stroke neurologist at Hamilton Health Sciences. Her main research focus is on secondary stroke prevention, cryptogenic stroke, and uncommon causes of stroke and the optimization of clinical care in this patient population.

She has served as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator for Phase II and III clinical trials, and is on the adjudication committees for international multicenter stroke/cardiovascular trials. She has won research awards, and her work has been published in high-impact medical journals. She obtained her medical degree from Sri Lanka with Honors for academic excellence. She completed her training in Neurology at the University of Western Ontario in 2013 and subsequently pursued a fellowship in Stroke/Vascular Neurology at McMaster University.

Dipika Desai

Program Manager

Dipika Desai oversees many epidemiologic studies, including the South Asian birth cohort, START, the South Asian Heart Risk Assessment (SAHARA), and the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHHM), as well as management assistance and oversight in the utilization of samples from a number of other studies.

She has a Bachelor’s degree in Food and Nutrition from the M S University in Baroda, India, and a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition from the University of British Columbia.

Jodi Miller

Research Project Manager III

Jodi Miller has more than 15 years experience in academic research. She has been at PHRI since 2012 where she has coordinated large international industry and investigator initiated trials. In her current role she coordinates clinical trials and clinical quality assurance projects in stroke.

Jodi has a BSc in Physics from Mount Allison University and a PhD in Medical Biophysics with a focus on magnetic resonance imaging applications from Western University.