Lab Personnel
Julie A. Brill, PhD – Principal investigator (2001 – present)
Dr. Brill graduated with Distinction in Biology from Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA. She received her PhD in Biology from M.I.T., where she was a graduate student with Dr. Gerald R. Fink. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Margaret T. (Minx) Fuller at Stanford School of Medicine, and a visiting postdoc with Dr. Barbara T. Wakimoto at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. As a senior postdoc, Dr. Brill was the recipient of a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Special Fellowship. She is currently a Senior Scientist in the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. She is a Member of the Institute of Medical Sciences, the Vision Science Research Program and the Collaborative Program in Developmental Biology at the University of Toronto. She is also Treasurer of the Genetics Society of Canada. e-mail
Gordon Polevoy, MSc – Research technologist (2002 – present)
Gordon received his Masters in Dr. Mark Peifer's lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. He is studying the role of Drosophila PI4KIIIbeta (Fwd) in spermatocyte cytokinesis. e-mail
Lacramioara Fabian, PhD – Postdoctoral fellow (2007 – present)
Lacramioara did her PhD in Dr. Art Forer’s lab at York University, where she studied the role of the actin cytoskeleton, spindle matrix proteins and titin in cell division. Currently, she is examining the role of PIP2 in regulating cell polarity and microtubule organization during sperm tail formation in Drosophila. e-mail
Ronit Wilk, PhD – Research associate (2008 – present)
Ronit received her M.Sc. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, with Dr. Ben-Zion Shilo, and was a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Howard Lipshitz’s lab at University of Toronto. She is studying the role of PI4P in Drosophila eye pigmentation. e-mail
Raymond Wong – PhD student (Institute of Medical Sciences) (2002 – present)
Raymond did his M.Sc. with Dr. Art Forer at York University, and worked in the lab as a technician before becoming a PhD student. He uses real-time imaging of fluorescent marker proteins to examine the role of phosphoinositides in regulating the actin cytoskeleton during cytokinesis. e-mail
Jason Burgess – PhD student (Molecular Genetics) (2002 – present)
Jason received his M.Sc. from McGill University, where he worked with Dr. Siegfried Hekimi. He is studying the role of Drosophila PI4KII in membrane trafficking. He has discovered novel roles for PI4KII during salivary gland glue granule formation and at other stages of fly development. e-mail
Phil Goldbach – PhD student (Molecular Genetics) (2003 – present)
Phil was an undergraduate at McGill University. He is studying the role of the actin-binding protein Anillin in linking the contractile ring to the cell cortex during cytokinesis. e-mail
Julie Tan – PhD student (Molecular Genetics) (2005 – present)
Julie was an undergraduate at University of Toronto and a former 4th year project student in the lab. Julie has identified null mutations in the essential PI4KIIIa gene. She is studying the role of PI4KIIIalpha in actin organization and membrane trafficking during oogenesis in Drosophila. e-mail
Kishan Bellamkonda – MSc student (Molecular Genetics) (2008 – present)
Kishan is performing genetic screens to identify genes involved in cell polarity and actin cone formation during spermatid differentiation in Drosophila.
Anya Cyprys – MSc student (Molecular Genetics) (2009 – present)
Anya was an undergraduate at York University. She is studying mechanisms of cytokinesis in Drosophila spermatocytes.
Rozhan Sheykhani – Visiting graduate student (York University) (2008 – present)
Rozhan is a PhD student in Dr. Art Forer’s lab at York University. She is creating transformation vectors to make transgenic crane flies expressing fluorescent marker proteins.
Miluska Jauregui – 4th year project student (Molecular Genetics) (2008 – present)
Milu is conducting screens to identify genes that interact genetically with PI4KII.
Nasir Haider – 4th year project student (Molecular Genetics) (2008 – present)
Nasir is conducting screens to identify genes that interact genetically with PI4KIIIalpha.
John Jeung – Work-study student (2008 – present)
John was previously a summer student in the lab and is currently maintaining and organizing our Drosophila stocks.
Former Lab Members
Full-time Lab Members
Kai-Ping Sem, M.Sc. – Research Technologist (2001 – 2002)
Meng Zhang, M. Sc. – Research Technologist (2002)
Rachel McBride – Research Technologist (2002)
Ho-Chun Wei, PhD – Postdoctoral fellow (2002 – 2007)
Visiting Scientists and Students
Janet Rollins, PhD – Visiting ASCB MACS Professor (2008)
Sarah Steinbach– Visiting graduate student (2007)
Undergraduates and Summer Students
2001 – 2002
Sharon Lobo, Sameer Nathoo
2002 – 2003
Farzad Yousefian, Lingling Chen, Marta Ciechonska, Irene Hadjiyanni
2003 – 2004
Michelle Strasberg, Jackie Monaghan, Ramtin Vakilian, Marlena Habal, Daniel (Yening) Xia
2004 – 2005
Julie Tan
2005 – 2006
Jennifer (Yinuo) Cao, Roopali Chaudhary
2006 – 2007
Sumaiya Sharmeen, Anthony Chiu
2007 – 2008
Preethy Prasad, Yi-an Chen
2008
Anya Cyprys
Work-study Students
2004 – 2005 Aida Gordanpour
2005 – 2006 Sumaiya Sharmeen
2006 – 2007 Thiru Shathasivam
2007 – 2008 Stella Liu