Schlossmacher Lab

Sr. Research Associate

Dr. Tomlinson has a background in biochemistry and molecular biology. Since 2012, she has been involved in project development and co-leads the research activities of the lab. Her own scientific focus is to develop mouse models of autosomal dominant PD-linked genes with the long-term goal of better modeling PD as a complex disease. She received a Parkinson Society Canada Basic Research Fellowship (2008-2010) and has been supported by their Pilot Project Grant (2010-2011). She was a co-investigator on a MJF Foundation funded grant on LRRK2 (2010-2012) and served as Principal Investigator on grants obtained from the Weston Brain Institute (2014-2016).

Professor Emeritus 

Dr. Brown is a virologist and semi-retired Professor, who works with the Schlossmacher team since 2013. His expertise in virology and immune function and his experimental models to test virus-host interactions are critical to our study of the role of Parkinson-linked genes in host defenses.

Sr. Research Associate

Dr. Jiang has a strong background in electrophysiology, animal studies, molecular biology and characterization of recombinant proteins. She is involved in several ongoing research projects as well as being the lab manager since 2012.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Michaela received her M.Sc. under the joint supervision of Drs. Shawn Hayley at Carleton University and Michael Schlossmacher (2017-2019) with the thesis: Elucidating the Role of LRRK2 in Innate Immunity. She completed her Ph.D. studies in 2024, studying a role for PD-linked LRRK2 (and disease-linked mutations) in host defences against pathogens. Interestingly, this role is demonstrated specifically in the periphery, and with a female sex bias. Thesis: Role of LRRK2 in Neuropathology Following Pathogenic Infections. Michaela is supported by the CIHR Banting Best Scholarship Award 2020. 

Postdoctoral Fellow/Senior Methodologist I

Dr. Li has background in statistics, psychometrics, and data science; petroleum engineering; and applied mathematics. She joined the lab since 2018 and has been working on assessing and validating the PREDIGT Score to predict the risk of developing PD in still healthy population. She is the co-investigator of the observational study that pilot the PREDIGT Score using self-report online questionnaire and serves as the co-applicant on the grant for this study (Parkinson Research Consortium (PRC) Ottawa, 2021-2023). She has received Parkinson Society Canada Basic Research Fellowship (2019-2021), Crabtree Family Fellowship (PRC Ottawa, 2020-2021), and MDS Junior Award (International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders (MDS), 2019, Nice, France). 

Senior Research Technician

Ms. Lengacher joined our team in 2016 and has applied her experience from an industry laboratory to optimizing existing- and creating new ELISA-based technical platforms to quantify alpha-synuclein and other PD-linked proteins. She completed her MSc in our lab in 2021: Investigating the subcellular localization of parkin in human Substantia nigra. She is involved in the pathological analysis of human autopsy material as well as the analysis of mouse modelling studies performed in the Schlossmacher lab.   

Dr. Coulombe graduated with a PhD from UofO then went on to complete a Post-doc in neurobiology in France. She returned to Ottawa where she has been working as a research associate at the OHRI, first in Molecular Medicine then in the Cancer Therapeutics Program for the last 16 years. She recently joined the Schlossmacher group as a Sr. Research Associate.

PhD Candidate

Priya received her second MSc. in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa in 2022 with her thesis on the Uptake of Polymeric Nanoparticles on Cellular Homeostasis. She also worked on developing nano therapy targeting neuroinflammation for Alzheimer’s and Stroke. She completed her first MSc. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Delhi, India (2017-2019) with her thesis on Analyzing the role of Activating Transcription Factor 3 (ATF3) in patients with Hippocampal Sclerosis under the supervision of Dr. Aparna Dixit. She did her dissertation project at the Centre of Excellence for Epilepsy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India. At Schlossmacher lab, she is looking at the role of alpha-synuclein in host defence mechanisms against infections. She has received the University of Ottawa Financial Aid Bursary (for International students) and is supported by International Doctoral Scholarship.

PhD Candidate

Karan is studying the role of Lrrk2 in host immune responses to infections, and the impact on brain health.

Nazia joined the Schlossmacher lab in 2023 and is currently pursuing a combined Honours/Masters degree in Translational and Molecular Medicine/Neuroscience. Her project focuses on exploring the redox-protective role of parkin following dopamine stress, primarily using immunofluorescence techniques in in-vitro cell models.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Alecu is a lipid biochemist and Silverstein Fellow working with Prof. Michael Schlossmacher and Prof. Steffany Bennett. Her work focuses on developing novel liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry methods to understand the mechanistic role played by lipids in Parkinson’s disease, as well as to develop diagnostic and prognostic lipid panels. Dr. Alecu earned her PhD from the University of Zurich during which she discovered previously unidentified lipids and elucidated a novel metabolic pathway of 1-deoxysphingolipids, toxic lipids thought to be dead-end metabolites. Dr. Alecu has received a number of fellowships and grants including a Swiss National Science Foundation Scientific Exchange Grant (2020), a Parkinson Research Consortium Crabtree Family Fellowship (2019), and a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (2018).

Research Assistant

Kelsey joined the team in 2021 after completing her MSc at Queen's. From 2021-2024 she was a clinical research coordinator with us, working on the pilot study titled the PREDIGT Score: A Questionnaire to Distinguish PD Patients from Other Subjects in the Clinic Setting at The Ottawa Hospital and the Elizabeth Bruyère Hospital. In 2024 she started medical school in Calgary; she continues to be involved in PREDIGT study on a part-time casual basis.