The Toronto Urban Fellowship program provides an intensive introduction to the governance, operations and administration of Canada’s largest city. Urban Fellows make important contributions to the City of Toronto’s policy and research agenda.Research on:- Impacts of climate change on Toronto- Aging apartment tower renewal- COVID-19 epidemiology and responses in various jurisdictions

Demographic analyses of impact of violence on public health in Brazil

Teaching assistant for Intro to Demographic Methods

Small Area Estimation and spatio-temporal analyses of homicide risk

Analyzed sequencing data relating to microbiome experiments in murine models. Performed meta-analysis to identify microbial signatures of inflammation detectable across multiple studies.

REINVENT was an interdisciplinary academic conference that aimed to question the social inequalities that allow neglect to proliferate, and ask who benefits from these systems of inherent inequalities. REINVENT brought together students, academics, and professionals from public health, international development, political science, history, anthropology, sociology, and public policy. The objectives of were to:- Develop a deeper understanding of the broader social, political and economic structures that influence global patterns of neglect including a deconstruction of the colonial roots of tropical medicine;- Critically analyze neglected diseases through the use of theoretical frameworks that conceptualize access to power and resources as the strongest determinants of health and disease; and- Encourage critical thought about the production and consumption of knowledge, in order to explore alternatives that seek to disrupt systems of oppression.

Worked on a project that aims to develop and validate a model to predict changes in epidemiology of pneumococcal serotypes following introduction of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines (PCVs). My work focused on optimizing experimental conditions to simulate pneumococcal competition in the nasopharynx, and using it to generate data regarding competitiveness of different serotypes. This involved growing them in a high-throughput fashion in various combinations to measure serotype interactions, quantified using next-generation sequencing. I worked on optimizing very-low-cost library preparation protocols for highly multiplexed Illumina sequencing.

Work focused on isolating and characterizing bacteriocins, specifically E. coli colicins, to understand their ability to kill bacterial cells through membrane depolarization. The project aims to utilize such specific agents on a bacterial biosensor for development of rapid diagnostics. My role involved inducing colicin production from various E. coli strains, characterizing their killing spectra, cloning, purifying and assaying wild type colicins and designing particular fusions designed to alter specificity. I also worked on isolating bacteriophages from E. coli strains.

1. Worked in the lab to process nasopharyngeal specimens as part of the "Vaccination and the Pediatric Microbiome" project. The project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to understand the dynamics of the pediatric nasopharyngeal microbiome and help decipher the consequences of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) introduction.2. Carried out PCR identification of Group B Streptococcus serotypes from samples taken from mothers and newborns as part of a project funded by the CDC aiming to understand GBS transmission and carriage.3. Drafted a scientific manuscript on a novel method of pneumococcal serotyping.4. Edited and wrote project descriptions for CHRF's website.