Michael Joseph Email & Phone Number

- Improving the lab's MRI data management, quality control and pre-processing software and collaborating with neuroinformatics team to implement these practices at an institutional level- Coordinating data capture for several autism and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders as well as data sharing for 2 NIMH-funded studies- Aiding in the operations of REDCap, a.

Toronto, Canada Area

• Developed an automated pipeline to remove protected health information from multi-modal neuroimaging data, correct mislabeled, missing or duplicated data, and upload it to an XNAT database
• Coordinated between BrainCODE, Indoc Research and Mouse Imaging Centre to help launch Ontario Brain Institute's first public data release, comprising neuroimaging data for 26 autism-related mouse models
• Investigated methods of managing neuroimaging data, learning about reproducible science and data quality control in the process
• Integrated existing software to manage MRI data, perform quality control and automate common pre-processing tasks, avoiding data duplication and easing computation for researchers
• Flagged data entry errors, programming errors and multivariate outliers from behavioural data collected from over 2000 study participants through R Markdown reports

Toronto, ON

• Performed multi-stain immunohistochemistry protocols to label oligodendrocytes and their precursors in young and aged rat brain sections after hemorrhagic stroke
• Optimized 10+ antibodies for routine use in the lab, troubleshot protocol for staining aged tissue to diminish autofluorescent pigments and analyzed hundreds of microscopy images in a detailed and exploratory manner
• Contributed to amending animal use protocol annually and adopted new standards for animal care to protocol
• Demonstrated manual dexterity in performing stereotaxic animal surgeries and collecting, sectioning and processing brain tissue
• Described research to donors in a concise and comprehensible manner to help secure funding for future projects
• Proposed ideas for grants while considering the scientific interests of the lab and the tools available and aided in creating a budget for a 2014 Heart and Stroke Foundation grant

Hamilton, ON

• Assisted Dr. Bennett in a series of psychophysics experiments investigating the challenge of incidental learning of random visual stimuli and presented work in a senior thesis and at 2 local conferences
• Successfully deconstructed a complex and abstract problem into meaningful parts and identified real world applications to make it more relatable

Hamilton, ON

• Assisted Dr. Foster in research focusing on early immune challenge and inflammation in the brain
• Mentored two students around the lab, instructing on gel electrophoresis and immunohistochemistry and performing own research using these techniques
• Managed murine colony by weaning offspring and handling regularly
• Performed righting reflex tests in neonatal mice and analyzed videos of mouse pairs in social interactions tasks to test anxiety-like behaviour

Hamilton, ON

• Collaborated with 3 other students to design an audio-visual experiment, apply for ethical approval, pool subjects and analyze data in 4 month period
• Quickly became proficient in programming with MATLAB during the academic term and was designated by the group to implement experimental design using those skills

Toronto, ON

• Mentored by research veterinarian Dr. Filip Konecny in research focusing on the study of the molecular cardiology of heart failure by addressing the influence of cell cycle therapy in post-myocardial infarctions
• Demonstrated independent working abilities instantaneously once instructed in DNA genotyping with accurate results
• Managed murine colony of over 100 cages and aided in weaning offspring, ear marking and collecting tail samples for genotyping various mouse strains used in lab

Master’S Degree, Physiology

Supervisor: Dr. Lyanne Schlichter Thesis title: After intracerebral hemorrhage, oligodendrocyte precursors proliferate and differentiate.

Bachelor’S Degree, Honours Biology And Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour

Supervisor: Dr. Patrick Bennett Thesis title: Non-optimal stimuli comparisons and the noisy visual system