New Students at TAARI

The new school year is in full swing, with bright-eyed new students ready to learn and contribute to the exciting research being produced here at TAARI. As we welcome all new students to our beautiful research institute, I got to sit down and chat with a few new additions to the Matino lab to find out what they are looking forward to as they embark on their research journey.

Selina Zhao is starting her Master’s degree in Medical Sciences, and she’s looking forward to getting hands-on in wet lab work and perfecting her research skills.

“I chose to join TAARI because of its connections to large hospitals and its renowned reputation”

Her project is focused on understanding the immune responses in Hemophilia A. “Hemophilia A patients are lacking functional FVIII, causing uncontrolled bleeding, and when these patients are treated with infused FVIII they often produce an immune reaction. Antibodies specific to FVIII produced by the patient leave the treatment useless”. Selina hopes that by studying this immune response, they will be able to identify new treatment strategies that improves patient response to FVIII replacement therapy.

“Connections, research experience, and collaborations are some of the valuable things I am excited to gain here at TAARI, and of course that priceless graduate degree!”

The Matino lab also has two new undergraduate students joining the lab this year to work on their thesis projects; Vrunda Patel and Aurora Bruno. Both working to complete their Bachelors of Science at McMaster, they have chosen to be a part of TAARI because of the exciting research being done here and the close-knit community of the institute.

Aurora says “We are looking forward to contributing valuable results to the projects we are working on, as well as learning new techniques from the graduate students here at TAARI.”

While working to complete their thesis, Vrunda states that they would like to “perfect our problem-solving skills, get the chance to collaborate and integrate ideas, and even learning to communicate science”

Seeing all the new faces walking around our institute is refreshing and brings motivation to our community. We wish you all an exciting and productive academic year!