Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Lab Members
Xuming Yin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Xuming comes from Zhejiang, China. He got his Master’s degree in Neuropharmacology at the University of Fudan, China. In 2016, he received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Lyon, France with Dr. Anne Didier. He studied the top-down control on adult-born neurons during olfactory perceptual learning. In 2017, he joined Dr. Simon Chen’s lab at the University of Ottawa to investigate the delayed motor learning in mouse models of autism. Xuming loves spending time traveling, reading, swimming, and playing badminton.
Nima Raman, MSc
PhD Student
Nima is born and raised in Zanjan, Iran. He completed his BSc in Surgical Nursing at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2014. He worked as a surgical nurse for almost two years in the surgical field. By his developing enthusiasm in the field of research neurosciences, he did his master’s studies at Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) in the UK in 2017, focusing on “Novel translation strategies to inhibit RAN translation in C9ORF72-ALS-driven Neurodegeneration”. Pursuing his dreams, he joined Dr. Chen’s lab as a Ph.D. student in 2018, where he investigates the role of thalamocortical pathways in motor performance in normal and Parkinson’s mouse models. Beside research, Nima thrives on wandering in nature whether on his bike or climbing.
Nathaniel Jones, MSc
PhD Student
Nate is born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States where he lived most of his life. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology and Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with a Certificate in German after spending a semester abroad at the University of Bonn in Germany. Before he came to Ottawa his research was focused on using various neuroimaging techniques to investigate language in the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, and sleep/consciousness at the Wisconsin Sleep center. In the summer of 2018, he came to the Chen Lab to investigate the role of Noradrenaline in motor learning with two-photon microscopy. His hobbies include Soccer, Yoga, and drinking too much coffee.
Jan Sidiangco, MSc
PhD Student
Jan was born in Manila, Philippines but moved to the UK when he was 5 years old. He received a BSc(Hons) in Pharmacology from the University of East London in 2017 where he developed the interests in neuroscience. He then did a MSc degree at the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), University of Sheffield in 2018, where he focused on “Developing zebrafish models of a rare human disorder affecting GPI-anchoring proteins". Before coming to Ottawa, he worked as a research assistant and external genotyper at the MRC Harwell Institute, Oxford. In the autumn of 2022, he joined Dr. Chen's lab group to investigate Npas4 transcriptomics during motor movement. Outside of research, he enjoys hiking, playing tennis and bouldering.
Amy Stewart
TMM Accelerated MSc student
Amy grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario and moved to Ottawa to pursue her undergrad degree in translational and molecular medicine. She is now pursuing her master’s in an accelerated BSc-MSc stream in neuroscience, in Dr. Chen’s lab. She is investigating the expression of noradrenergic receptors in the motor cortex and how they are involved in an ASD model of motor learning. Outside of the lab, Amy is a competitive boxer and loves to read.
Minh Tran
TMM Accelerated MSc student
Minh grew up in Vietnam and came to Canada to complete her studies. Minh is an undergraduate in Honours BSc TMM Accelerated MSc stream. Minh joined Dr. Simon Chen’s lab to investigate the activity of dendritic activity of somatostatin inhibitory neurons (SST-INs) in the primary motor cortex during motor learning in awake mice. Minh enjoys painting, knitting, trying new food and oversleeping when she can.
Liwen, MSc
Lab Technician
Liwen was born in Lanzhou, China. She received B.Sc degree from the East China University of Science and Technology (Polymer Materials Science and Engineering), and she got the second B.Sc degree and M.Sc. degree in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Lyon 1, France in 2016. Following her graduation, she joined Dr. Simon Chen’s lab at the University of Ottawa and worked as technician. She loves reading, drawing, cooking, and swimming.
Irina Morozov, B.Eng
Research Assistant
Irina comes from Kiev (Ukraine), and she earned a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria. In 2017, she joined Dr. Simon Chen's lab at UOttawa to design an automatic training system for learned behaviors in head-fixed mice. She has experience in electrical engineering, signal and image processing, Python, and Matlab programming. When she's not at the lab, Irina loves spending time in the kitchen, traveling with her family, and volunteering with youth sports teams; Kanata Minor Hockey Association and Glen Cairn Skating Club.
Undergraduate Students
Matthew Loukine (McGill University, BSc - Cognitive Neuroscience)
Jayda Felix (University of Ottawa, BSc - Chemical Engineering)
Aaron Jumarang (University of Waterloo, BSc - Biomedical Engineering)
Alumni
Sandrine Coté (PDF, nowAssistant Professor at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières )
Candice Lee (Ph.D. - Neuroscience, now Postdoc at Oxford University )
Jungwoo Yang (PDF, now Technical Officer at NRC)
Pablo Serrano (MS.C - Neuroscience)
Bryan Mercado (BSc - TMM, now MSc student at McGill), Honours Thesis, 2021/22
Hritvic Chaudhary (BSc - TMM), Honours Thesis, 2021/22
Bianka Bezuidenhout (BSc - TMM), Honours Thesis, 2020/21
Zachary Eckert (BSc - Biomedical Science, now MSc student at uOttawa), Honours Thesis, 2019/20
Tianqi (Tony) Jian (BSc - Biomedical Science), Honours Thesis, 2019/20
Nabil Asraoui (BSc - Biomedical Science), NSER-USRA Summer Awardee 2018, UROP Awardee 2017/18, Honours Thesis 2017/18, MD Summer Research Fellowship, 2019
Marie-Eve Mathieu (BSc - Biomedical Science), NSERC-USRA Summer Awardee 2017 & 2018, UROP Awardee 2018/19, Undergraduate student, 2017-2019
Jason Ghossein (BSc - Biomedical Science), UROP Awardee 2018/19, Undergraduate student, 2019
Paul Thienpont, Exhange student from ENS de Lyon, 2017
Mohammed (B. Eng), Engineer UROP Awardee 2017/18, Undergraduate student, 2018