Permanent Staff
Devalben Patel
Devalben Patel holds B.Sc (India) and Medical Lab Technology certificate from Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science (CSMLS) and is a research manager for Observational, translational, Breatheomics and Early lung cancer screening studies. She manages local study recruitment along with national and international collaborating studies which involves early detection of lung cancer using different techniques. She also trains research students/coordinators. She is also involved in SHINES Study which is a lung cancer screening study for Never Smoker population. Deval is most interested in the environmental and lifestyle risk factors associated developing cancers and biomarker research.
Dangxiao Cheng
Senior technician, I have been working with Dr. Liu after 5 years postdoc training since 2007. (Two years at Dr. Reginald Gorczynski’s Lab (TGH), three years at Dr. Michael V. Sefton’s Lab (UT)) I involve all the wet Lab works which includes biobank samples processing and retrieving, different kinds of sample DNA and RNA extraction. Each project’s genotype samples preparation and genotype methods setup. My Lab techniques covers many molecular biology areas which includes Real-time PCR, Taqman assay, snap-shot, MeDIP, NGS library preparation, clone construction, protein expression in CHO cell system, ELISA, Weston blot, flow cytometry, etc.
Cathi Brown
Cathi received a M.Sc. in Epidemiology from McGill University and is a Scientific Associate at UHN and the Prosserman Centre for Health Research at Sinai Health Systems. Cathi is the coordinator of the Cancer Outcomes Medicine Biostatistics Informatics Epidemiology and Biostatistics (COMBIEL) training program within the Liu lab and also coordinates the clinical outcomes repository for the International Lung Cancer Consortium (COS-ILCCO), and the Collider Bias Mendelian Randomization (CMR) working group.
Luna Zhan
Luna Zhan is a MPH - Epidemiology graduate from the University of Toronto. Her interests include exploring current data science methods in research, incorporating epidemiologic methods in interdisciplinary projects, real-world data analyses and determinants of clinical treatment outcomes. She is currently involved with clinical-epi research designs, statistical data analyses, and database management in Geoffrey Liu’s Lab.
Khaleeq Khan
Khaleeq graduated from the University of Toronto with a honours bachelor's degree in Kinesiology. Her main role is to coordinate patient recruitment and follow-up for various thoracic and head and neck cancer research studies. Her skills include data collection, entry and organization, as well as biological specimen collection, and coordinating patient visits. Khaleeq is most interested in the lifestyle and environmental risk factors associated with developing cancers, the patient experience, and quality of life of patients during and post cancer care.
Katrina Hueniken
Katrina Hueniken is a senior biostatistician at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She holds Master of Public Health and a Master of Science in Biostatistics, both from the University of Toronto. Katrina’s work focuses on clinical epidemiology research of cancer prognosis and patient quality of life. She has expertise in real world analysis and survival modelling, and is particularly interested in statistical methods to advance personalized medicine and improve patient care.
Karmugi Balaratnam
Karmugi graduated from McMaster University with Honours Bachelor of Science (Life Sciences) and later with an MD degree from Ross University School of Medicine. Her role involves leading the clinical data abstraction for the various studies and training summer students as needed. Over the years, she has done data collection, database design, patient recruitment and many more tasks
Christopher Deutschman
Christopher Deutschman holds an M.A.Sc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and is the manager for the Clinical And Liquid biopsy, Informatics, Breathomics, and Radiomics for Early detection of lung cancer (Lung-CALIBRE) program. He helps coordinate projects at the local, national, and international level, focusing on leveraging new technologies to detect lung cancer earlier and increasing the accessibility of lung cancer screening for historically underserved populations. He is also involved in The Screening High-risk Individuals who Never Smoked (SHINES) Study, which investigates what risk factors aside from smoking influence lung cancer development (www.shinesstudy.ca).He is particularly interested in methods to embed equity, diversity, and inclusivity best practices into clinical and epidemiological research
Faisal Al-Agha
Faisal Al‑Agha obtained a Specialized Honours Bachelor of Health Studies (BHS) in Health Sciences from York University and is currently completing a Master of Management Sciences (MMSc) at the University of Waterloo. Faisal manages CARMA‑BROS, a national Real‑World Evidence (RWE) study, where he oversees study operations, data collection, and coordination among 20+ Canadian sites. As a clinical research professional, Faisal recruits participants into a range of research studies and is dedicated to building strong, trusting relationships with patients throughout their research journey. He is particularly interested in how RWE can be leveraged to answer complex research questions, generate meaningful insights into how medical products perform in everyday clinical settings, and support regulatory submissions such as NDA applications.