Josh was the project manager for the group, as well as the primary grant writer and data analyst. He helped with a number of systematic reviews and meta-research projects.

Mohamad worked under a collaborative project between The University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine, and the Blueprint Team, namely the EXCELERATOR program. He led the operational part of the program together with Josh Montroy, with an objective to enhance and enable efficient translation of therapies from bench to early-phase clinical trials.

Gisell primarily conducted qualitative research studies to identify barriers and enablers associated with various health behaviours. She has contributed to the implementation diagnostics component of the EXCELERATOR program for multiple research projects.

As part of her MSc thesis, she completed a systematic review of preclinical multicenter studies. Victoria worked on and helped lead an extension to PRISMA for in vivo preclinical experiments. The program for this extension involves the conduct of a systematic review and reporting assessment of preclinical systematic reviews; and a Delphi exercise to determine consensus on items that should be included in the extension. In another project (nicknamed VAMPIRE) funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Victoria looked at the success rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation; as well as identifying potential factors associated with translational success.

Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology

Emily was primarily involved in the team’s patient engagement projects. She worked on the Making Patient Partnerships A Reality in Very Early Phase Clinical TriaLs (MARVEL) program, looking at how to incorporate patient engagement across four clinical trials at different stages of the development process. Likewise, she worked on the Patient Engagement in Basic Science (PEBS) interview study, which aims to develop a framework for patient engagement in early pre-clinical studies.

Kevin focused on systematic reviews on the effects of mesenchymal stromal cell derived extracellular vesicles on animal models of lung injury and myocardial infarction.

Ciel assisted with the biological sex/sepsis preclinical systematic review, that looked at sex-dependent differences in sepsis interventions. She also aided in the CAR-T Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis.

Damian worked as a coordinator for the group’s national preclinical multicenter studies. He was involved in the lab in working to assess the biodistribution of exosomes in models of acute lung injury, alongside helping develop a new mouse model of COVID-19 induced acute lung injury.

Mackenzie was mainly focused on the VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation.

With the Blueprint Team, Stephanie worked on VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation, and a systematic review that evaluated dietary resistant starch therapies in a wide spectrum of diseases.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

During his time at Blueprint, Javad worked on the VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

During her time with the Blueprint team, Evelyn primarily worked on the Patient Engagement in Basic Science project, which aims to build a framework providing guidance on patient engagement in laboratory research through conduct of a scoping review, interview study and focus groups.

With the Blueprint Team Karolina helped with the VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation, a network meta-analysis of preclinical stroke therapies, as well as a cross-sectional study of preclinical systematic reviews. . Karolina also aided in transcribing interviews aiming to identify barriers and enablers to a perioperative cell therapy clinical trial( and use of reporting guidelines in preclinical research (APPRAISE).

With the Blueprint Team Avonae helped with VAMPIRE project that evaluated the rate of translation from preclinical research to clinical evaluation, a network meta-analysis of preclinical stroke therapies, as well as a cross-sectional study of preclinical systematic reviews. . Karolina also aided in transcribing interviews aiming to identify barriers and enablers to a perioperative cell therapy clinical trial( and use of reporting guidelines in preclinical research (APPRAISE).

Emma led a clinical systematic review and meta-analysis on CAR-T cell therapy within the GO-CART program.

Sasha contributed to the SafeCell-Heart systematic review. She conducted a systematic review on shared-care models and another on the use of LMWH for cancer metastasis.

Neil worked on various systematic reviews and meta-analysis (SRMA): a SR to assess the reporting in preclinical anesthesiology literature, a SR to assess the reporting within preclinical studies of oncolytic virus therapy, a preclinical SRMA on low molecular weight-heparins for treatment of solid tumours, and a SRMA of preclinical studies evaluating MSC treatment on peri-operative myocardial infarction.

Analyssa worked on the STOP-MI interviews, stroke MSC preclinical systematic reviews, and finishing up the Stroke iKT manuscript.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

David worked on the Tinzaparin preclinical review.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

Mitch worked on the Exosome Systematic Review with Dr. David Allan (a Hematologist in the Ottawa Blood Disease Center), and Dr. Lalu.

With the Blueprint Team Andrew helped with the VAMPIRE project and the TOHAMO project.

Aditi worked on the Stroke Network Meta Analysis Project, and on the VAMPIRE project.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

Rania worked on her thesis project conducting both a scoping and systematic review on construct validity in preclinical research. Rania has also worked with the group on the Genome Canada funded project on resistant starches.

Ahmed worked primarily on the Predatory Journals project with the goal of characterizing and assessing the impact of Randomized Controlled Trials published in Predatory Anesthesia journals.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

She is helping to plan a national multicenter preclinical collaborative that will address acute lung injury (ALI) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) research. She is also assisting in the development of a learning module in a massive open online course (MOOC) on the ARRIVE reporting guidelines for animal preclinical studies headed by the EQUATOR network.

BioTalent

Mackenzie's work focuses on the intersection of behavioural and implementation science and public health, involving key stakeholders to improve health interventions and outcomes. Mackenzie is involved in the team's patient engagement projects, using qualitative methods and working closely with patients and caregivers to inform health economic and program evaluations.

Maryam primarily coordinated Systematic Reviews within the team. She also helped with the Patient Engagement in Basic Science (PEBS) research program, aiming to develop a framework providing guidance on patient engagement in laboratory research.

Bashaer worked on multiple projects, particularly in the field of Patient Engagement in Basic Sciences (PEBS) aiming to establish a framework for guiding patient engagement.

Ahmed worked on his honours project: Using AI for the histological analysis of respiratory diseases. This included a scoping review and development of an AI tool to classify lung histology images.

BioTalent

MengQi worked on the biological sex/sepsis preclinical systematic review where he looked at sex-dependent differences in animal models of sepsis.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

Nik worked in the wet lab with Dr. Lalu and Dr. Stewart on a project to develop and characterize a more accesible mouse model of COVID-19 in mice. He also worked on an individual data meta-analysis looking at effect modifiers of CAR-T cell therapy, as well as a systematic review investigating randomized controlled trials publiushed in predatory anesthesia journals.

NSERC Summer Studentship (2022); Canadian Standards Association Summer Studentship (2021)

Claudine worked on both a preclinical and clinical systematic review. Her projects respectively explored the preclinical and clinical safety of mesenchymal stromal cells for improving outcomes in patients with myocardial infarction or ischemic heart disease.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

Malvika assisted with the Virtual Recovery After Surgery (VRAS) program studies. Specifically, she helped with a qualitative focus group study and a systematic review centered around VRAS optimization.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

Sabryna worked with preclinical models of Acute Lung Injury (ALI) with a focus on biological sex differences and in models of sepsis for the National Preclinical Sepsis Platform (NPSP) multi-laboratory project.

Marc worked on a cross-sectional, observational study to characterize policy documents with citations to Predatory Journal articles across multiple disciplines. His thesis research focused on Predatory Journals – specifically on investigating how the trustworthiness of research is considered by individuals and organizations who prepare public health policy documents.

SSHRC Canadian Graduate Scholarship

Ayni’s research interests included bridging the gap among preclinical research, clinical research, and medical treatment. She worked on integrating patient engagement and network meta-analyses as novel approaches to preclinical systematic reviews to potentially improve knowledge translation.

CIHR Canadian Graduate Scholarship

Lobna worked on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses for Preclinical studies (PRISMA-Pre) project to help create reporting guidelines for preclinical systematic reviews. She also helped with projects related to patient engagement in research, where patients join as active collaborators or partners in the research process.

Brittany worked on the Patient Engagement in Basic Sciences (PEBS) project in order to bridge the gap between patient partners and preclinical researchers.

Amira worked on several reviews related to patient engagement in preclinical research which aim to promote patients’ knowledge and priorities throughout the research process.

Casey was the Blueprint technician from 2016-2020. Her primary focus was on mouse models of acute lung injury (ALI) and sepsis and developing MSC exosomes as a potential therapy. She also coordinated many aspects of 2 preclinical multicenter studies, (Preclinical Multicenter ALI Trials in Canada (PreMATIC) and the National Preclinical Sepsis Platform (NPSP)). She is currently working in a Health Canada affiliated laboratory.

Matthew was working on a scoping review, aimed to identify the mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of perioperative myocardial infarctions.

Olivier worked with the Centre for Journalology to assess the influence of predatory journals on public policy.

Faculty of Medicine summer studentship

Myriam was working on a scoping review that aimed to identify and describe pharmacologic opioid minimization strategies for use during the intraoperative period that are tailored to the needs of surgical patients.

He joined the Blueprint team in June 2022 and worked on a patient engagement project regarding novel stroke therapies. During the summer of 2023, he was helping on a scoping review project about requirements that worldwide regulatory bodies impose on preclinical cell therapies for the purpose of trialing them in humans.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship 2022, 2023

John was working with Dr. Michael Verret on the opioid minimization project. He was working on a systematic review assessing the impact of dexmedetomidine on quality of recovery, patient-centered outcomes, and adverse events.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

Grace's research interests included patient engagement along the research continuum. She also worked on a clinical trial focused on virtual care as a method of monitoring recovery at home after surgery. Grace focused her MSc thesis on patient partner recognition, specifically financial compensation.

Samuel was involved in an individual patient data meta-analysis assessing effect modifiers of CAR T-cell therapy and a preclinical systematic review on sex-based differences in treatment response to sepsis. He was also contributing to a systematic review assessing patient outcomes and experiences related to postoperative virtual care and remote monitoring.

As part of his thesis work, Dr. Verret worked on perioperative opioid minimization strategies aiming at finding effective perioperative interventions to improve patient-centred outcomes and reduce persistent postoperative opioid use. He conducted practice surveys, observational studies, scoping reviews, and systematic reviews. He also worked on transfusion practices aiming at finding optimal perioperative transfusion strategies in non-cardiac surgery.

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Canadian Blood Services

Armita was working on investigating the biological sex differences of organ dysfunction in a laboratory model of sepsis.

Hannah was working on a cross-sectional study of animal use protocols to characterize reporting of rigorous practices; with the intention of identifying and understanding specific barriers and facilitators to rigour in cell therapy research, as well as characterizing researcher justifications for use of animal models in cell therapy studies. She previously also worked on the Patient Engagement in Basic Science (PEBS) project, which focuses on developing a framework to guide patients and caregivers as collaborators in preclinical research and the Making Patient Partnerships A Reality in Very Early Phase Clinical TriaLs (MARVEL) program, which involved incorporating patient engagement for upcoming clinical trials at different stages of the development process.

BioCanRx Summer Studentship 2023, Stem Cell Network Summer Studentship 2024

Partha was working with the team involved with Patient Engagement in the National Preclinical Sepsis Platform (NPSP).

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship

Sa’ad worked with the team involved in the National Preclinical Sepsis Platform (NPSP) project conducted with patient partners, focusing on its systematic review and meta-analysis.

Lorien was working on the OPERA Zoom transcripts, as well as assisting with the Labpartners project, which was focused on an Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy Coloring Book. This coloring book was created to demystify the complex field of immunology and cancer immunotherapy, and by combining the scientific content with interactive and enjoyable illustrations, the coloring book aimed to foster a connection with the material, enriching the learning experience.

Cheng En joined the Blueprint group in 2024 and was working with Matthew Jeffers on a scoping review. The review synthesizes international regulatory guidance for the efficacy evidence needed to translate cell therapies from the pre-clinical to early phase clinical trials.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship 2024

Catalina was working on assisting the conduction of a systematic review exploring the safety and efficacy of regulatory T-cells in graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) in adult patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantations.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship 2024

Her thesis work was focused on developing a critical appraisal tool for preclinical systematic reviews, which was completed under the guidance of Professor David Moher and Professor Manoj M Lalu.

Benjamin was working with Dr. Michael Verret on the opioid minimization scoping review project, with the aim of improving patient-valued outcomes following surgery.

uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Studentship