C4T is led by a multidisciplinary team of child health experts from across Canada
The scientific director, Dr. Lauren Kelly, is a Pharmacologist and Associate Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Manitoba. She is the Clinical Trials Director and a Scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and the Director at Increasing capacity for Maternal and Paediatric Clinical Trials (IMPaCT). You can read more about Dr. Kelly’s expertise and research program here: https://www.clinpharmlab.ca.
Our research members span child health research institutes across the country. We currently have around 133 members which most are listed here.
Steering committee
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Dr. Alcorn is Dean of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, member of the Drug Discovery and Development Research Group, and a founding member of the Cannabinoid Research Initiative of Saskatchewan. As a pharmaceutical scientist, Dr. Alcorn has expertise in pharmacokinetics and pharmaceutical analysis, which she applies to various collaborative and translational research projects in drug discovery. Her specific research interests include ontogeny of drug elimination mechanisms, pediatric pharmacokinetics, and alternatives models as replacement for animal research.
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After completing medical school and a pediatric residency at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dr. Huntsman completed a three-year fellowship in pediatric neurology at the University of Alberta. Although his practice encompasses the full spectrum of pediatric neurology, his areas of special interest include the use of medical cannabis for pediatric neurological diseases and the study of pediatric neuro-degenerative and neuro-metabolic diseases. Currently Dr. Huntsman is a lead investigator of the Cannabidiol in Children with Refractory Epileptic Encephalopathy study and is a founding member of the Cannabinoid Research Initiative of Saskatchewan.
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Dr. Thierry Lacaze is the scientific director of MICYRN; the section head of Neonatology at the Cumming School of Medicine; and the regional program director of Neonatology at Alberta Health Services. He was appointed professor of Pediatrics at the University Paris 11 in 1997. Thierry moved to Edmonton in 2003 to become the inaugural director of the Women and Children Health Research Institute in 2006. In 2010, He was recruited as a senior scientist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and was the scientific director of the Clinical Research Unit from 2011 to 2015. His areas of study include clinical trials with an emphasis on medications.
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Antonia entered the world of cancer in 2009 when her two year old son was diagnosed with stage IV high-risk neuroblastoma. Antonia is the co-founder of Advocacy for Canadian Childhood Oncology Research Network (Ac2orn), founder of Neuroblastoma Canada, a member of the Cancer in Young People Canada (CYP-C) steering committee, a research advocate for the St. Baldrick’s-Stand Up to Cancer Phase 2 Pediatric Immunotherapy Dream Team, the pediatric community member for the Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board (OCREB), the Education Officer of the Parent Advisory Council for the New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) consortium, and volunteers for many other cancer focused organizations. Antonia holds a masters degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Antonia lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband Aaron and three beautiful boys, Nate, Alex and Jonathan.
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Dr. Geert ‘t Jong is a clinician scientist at CHRIM, and the medical lead for the Clinical Research Unit of CHRIM. He works as a pediatrician – Hospitalist and Clinical Pharmacologist at the Winnipeg Children’s Hospital and as a assistant professor of Paediatrics and Pharmacology at the University of Manitoba. He does a combination of clinical work as a pediatrician and clinical research in pediatrics, with a research focus on drug safety in children, clinical trials, and pharmacoepidemiology in children. Dr. ‘tJong has a number of advocacy and leadership roles in regards to pharmacotherapy and children.
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Dr. Holly Mansell is an Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, at the University of Saskatchewan and a clinical pharmacist who specializes in transplantation. She has a broad range of research interests which include solid organ transplantation, cannabis and youth, patient education and patient-oriented research. She is the Primary Investigator on a variety of studies, ranging from randomized controlled trials and interventional drug studies, to qualitative research. Dr. Mansell is the Knowledge Translation Pillar Lead for the Cannabinoid Research Initiative of Saskatchewan.
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Dr. Finkelstein is a professor of Pediatrics, Pharmacology and Toxicology (University of Toronto) and a staff physician, The Hospital for Sick Children. He is board-certified in Clinical Pharmacology (American Board of Clinical Pharmacology, 2007), and an appointed senior associate scientist in the Research Institute (Child Health Evaluative Sciences). Dr. Finkelstein’s main research focus is in pediatric therapeutics in acute-care settings. His long-term goal is optimization of drug safety, especially of highly toxic drugs and poisoning management and prevention in children. He has made significant contributions to the understanding and prevention of pediatric poisonings.
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Dr. Lauren Kelly is a Pharmacologist, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Manitoba and Certified Clinical Research Professional. She is a Clinical Trialist at the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Clinical Trials Director and Scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, and the Director at Increasing capacity for Maternal and Paediatric Clinical Trials (IMPaCT). Her interests are in research methods, clinical trials, drug exposure in lactation and pediatric opioid response, and she is an expert in clinical research methodology and perinatal drug safety and effectiveness. Dr. Kelly is the lead of C4T.
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Dr. Tim Oberlander is an investigator at BC Children's Hospital; a physician in the Complex Pain Service at BC Children's Hospital and BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre; developmental pediatrician at BC Children's Hospital and BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre; and professor at UBC in the Division of Developmental Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics. His research focuses on how early social experience (prenatal maternal mental illness and psychotropic medication exposure) influences the developmental origins of stress and self-regulation and its impact on thinking, learning and behaviour during childhood.
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Dr. Rod Rassekh is a clinical assistant professor at UBC in the Division of Oncology/ Hematology, and an investigator at BC Children's Hospital in the Michael Cuccione Childhood Cancer Research Program. His research focuses on the treatment and long-term outcomes of children treated for cancer, specifically on quantifying what complications are seen in survivors of childhood cancer. His research program established state-of-the-art testing for genetic markers that may identify those who are at risk of a specific complication. He is also developing clinical trials in pediatric oncology locally and through the Children's Oncology Group.
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Vivian Tsang has been involved in pediatric patient advocacy for the past eight years. She has served as the Team Lead of a local KidsCan chapter based out of BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver and on a national scale developing the CHILD-BRIGHT Youth Advisory Panel Steering Committee. She has also directed public-private engagements on the Executive Steering Committee on the International Children’s Advisory Network, a global collaboration with 21 teams in 9 countries working with researchers to improve patient involvement in paediatric research. She is currently a medical student at UBC.
Site leads
Jane Alcorn
University of Saskatchewan & Jim Patterson Children’s Hospital
jane.alcorn@usask.ca
Ariane Blanc
CHEO Research Institute
ablanc@cheo.on.ca
Michael Rieder
Children's Health Research Institute (CHWO)
mrieder@uwo.ca
Lauren Kelly
Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
Lauren.Kelly@umanitoba.ca
Rod Rassekh
BC Children’s Hospital Research
rrassekh@cw.bc.ca
Lucia Capano
Queens University
Lucia.Capano@kingstonhsc.ca
Richard Belanger
Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval (CHUL)
richard.belanger@chudequebec.ca
JP Appendino
Alberta Children`s Health Research Institute
jp.appendino@albertahealthservices.ca
Yaron Finkelstein
Sick Kids Research Institute
yaron.finkelstein@sickkids.ca
Stacey Marjerrison
McMaster University
marjersl@mcmaster.ca
Bruce Crooks
IWK Health Centre
Bruce.Crooks@iwk.nshealth.ca
Jannette Mailo
WCHRI/Stollery
jmailo@ualberta.ca
Catherine Litalien
CHU Sainte-Justine
catherine.litalien.hsj@ssss.gouv.qc.ca
C4T Membership List
Our research members span child health research institutes across the country. We currently have around 133 members. If you want to work with us, please click here.
Conflict of Interest Policy
We collect information on conflicts of interest and divided loyalty forms from all C4T members. Our full conflict of interest policy is available below. Please contact us for a full list of disclosures.