Dr. Ray Truant, Ph.D – Principal Investigator

Ray Truant completed his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Toronto and continued on to his graduate studies in the Department of Medical Genetics in the lab of Jack F. Greenblatt at the C.H. Best Institute.

For his graduate work, his studies focused on protein-protein interactions of the p53 tumor-suppressor protein and its mechanism of activation of transcription. After receiving his doctorate in 1996, Ray studied as a post-doctoral Research Associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute at Duke University in the department of Genetics with Dr. Bryan R. Cullen. While at the HHMI, his research centered on protein-protein interactions of HIV-1 proteins and into mechanisms of protein transport to and from the nucleus using biochemical and cell biological techniques.

In 1999, Ray was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster University, where he started new projects on polyglutamine diseases, focusing on Huntington’s Disease. In 2001, Ray won the CIHR “New Scientist” award and his group is supported by ongoing operating grants from the CIHR and the Krembil Foundation, as well as the Huntington Society of Canada, The Huntington’s Disease Society of America and the Hereditary Disease Foundation. In 2012 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for public service and in 2014 the Michael Wright Community Leadership Award.

Dr. Truant is currently Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences and was Chair of the Scientific Advisory board, and Board Officer of the Huntington Society of Canada, 2007-2021. The lab is currently supported by operating grants from the CIHR Institute of Genetics (2020-2025), NSERC (2020-2025), NFRF (2020-2022), HDF (2019-2020) and CFI (2020-2023).

Dr. Tamara Maiuri, Ph.D – Research Associate

After obtaining her PhD in the Medical Biophysics Department at University of Toronto, Tam joined the Truant lab in 2010. In 2017, she received the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) Berman/Topper HD Career Development Fellowship to study DNA repair-specific huntingtin interactions, and has since been funded by the HDSA and Hereditary Disease Foundation to continue work on the role of DNA repair in HD. Tam is also an active member of the HD community, acting as an editor for HDBuzz.net and a member of the Research Council of the Huntington Society of Canada.

Carlos Barba, BSc- Ph.D Student

Carlos started in the Truant Lab for his fourth-year thesis in the Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences program. He is now PhD candidate whose work focuses on investigating the role of huntingtin in the DNA damage response.

Christina Peng, Bsc – Ph.d student

Christina joined the Truant Lab in 2019 for her fourth-year thesis and has since transferred to the Ph.D. program in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences. She is currently investigating the dynamics of PARylation in live cells in the context of Huntington’s disease. In her spare time, she likes to aquascape, cook, and practice calligraphy.

Kaitlyn Neuman, Bhsc – ph.d candidate

Kaitlyn joined the Truant lab in 2020 after completing her BHSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a Specialization in Health Sciences at Trent University. Kaitlyn was featured in the Huntington Society of Canada’s Newsletter “Horizon” (Issue 162–Fall) and is an active volunteer for the organization. Her current work focuses on mitochondrial abnormalities using new high-throughput, semi-automated microscopy and analysis techniques.

Samantha Laville-Dupuy, HBSc – PH.D Student

Samantha completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Toronto before joining the lab in 2022. Her work focuses on the role of the huntingtin protein in excision of kinetin adducts from DNA, as well as the role of HMGB1 in huntingtin association with chromatin. (edited)

Isabel gibson, bsc undergraduate

Isabel recently completed her fourth-year senior thesis in the Truant Lab where she developed a method to prevent focus drift and capture long-term video of cells dividing on our EVOS microscope. Her new project will focus on optimizing an expansion microscopy protocol for our lab. This technique will allow us to take super-resolution images by physically expanding cells, improving the resolution of a conventional confocal microscope. Using expansion microscopy, she will look at phosphorylated huntingtin using immunofluorescence. In her free time, Isabel enjoys hiking, playing piano and travelling.

Justin Alvarado, BHSc – Masters Student

Justin joined the lab in 2022 as an undergraduate student in the Biochemistry program at McMaster University. He has since transferred into the MSc program in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical sciences. His work focuses on how huntingtin is signaled to sites of DNA damage and huntingtin-PARP interactions during DNA damage repair. In his spare time, Justin enjoys playing and coaching soccer, playing guitar, and weightlifting.

Hassaan Sheikh Muhammad- Msc candidate

Hassaan joined the Truant lab in 2021 for his undergraduate thesis and is now on his way to completing his MSc. His work focuses on developing new patient-derived TruHD cell lines to investigate Huntington’s Disease in the context of human patients and how it differs between the unaffected, prodromal, and onset stages of disease. Outside of the lab, he likes to spend his time reading and rock climbing.