Dr. Przybyl is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, McGill University and a Principal Investigator in the Cancer Research Program of the Research Institute of the McGill University
Health Centre (RI-MUHC).
Dr.
Przybyl is also an Associate Member of the Department of Pathology, McGill University, and an Associate Member of the Division of Experimental Medicine in the Department of Medicine, McGill University.
Dr. Przybyl pursues a research program focused on the clinical
applications of liquid biopsy, metabolic reprogramming and multi-omic profiling of sarcoma.
Dr. Joanna Przybyl received a joint Ph.D. degree in
biomedical sciences from KU Leuven, Belgium and Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial
Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland. Her doctoral studies
focused on identifying new prognostic and predictive markers for soft tissue
sarcoma. She then joined the laboratory of Dr. Matt van de Rijn in the
Department of Pathology at Stanford University, where she completed her
postdoctoral training in computational biology. During her postdoctoral
studies, Dr. Przybyl demonstrated potential clinical utility of ctDNA
monitoring in patients with leiomyosarcoma and leiomyoma, discovered activation
and prognostic role of hexosamine biosynthesis pathway in leiomyosarcoma, and
identified macrophage infiltration in undifferentiated uterine sarcomas.
Philippe started his career
in science in a genomics-focused lab after graduating with a technical degree
in 2007. In 2010, he was offered a position at a new next-generation sequencing
core facility which he helped to set up and run for many years. In 2014, he
decided to pursue higher learning with a bachelor's in biochemistry at
Université de Montréal. After graduating in 2018, he was offered a permanent
Research Assistant position in an RNA Biology lab. In early 2022, Philippe
joined Dr. Joanna Przybyl's lab as Project Manager to put his sequencing
expertise to work in the fight against sarcoma.
Contact: philippe.jolivet (at) muhc.mcgill.ca
In 2021, Chelsea graduated from McGill
University with a B.Sc. degree majoring in Computer Science and Biology. During
her B.Sc. studies, she created a pipeline to source data from the online databases
about specific proteins, merge the database information with experimental
results, and display the data on an interactive website. During her B.Sc.
studies, she was also involved in a project for which she created a Turing
pattern (TP) simulator, where the user could replicate TP found in nature.
After obtaining B.Sc. degree, she developed new artificial intelligence technology to read, interpret and parse data from semi-structured texts. In
2022, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Przybyl as a Master’s student in the Digital
Health Innovation Program, and obtained M.Sc degree in May 2024. The goal of Chelsea’s studies is to decipher intra-
and inter-tumor heterogeneity of mesenchymal tumors by analyzing the multi-omic
data.
Contact: chelsea.debellis (at) mail.mcgill.ca
Hila holds a B.Sc. in
Psychology from McGill University, obtained in 2019. Since graduation, she has
been involved in clinical research in the fields of biomedical engineering and
vision science. At MUHC, Hila contributed to research on the development of an
artificial pancreas. Subsequently, she joined the McGill Vision Science
Research Department where she focused on dichoptic training for the treatment
of amblyopia. Additionally, she participated in volunteer work at the
University of Toronto and the University of Montreal, examining the use of
psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in mental health. Hila currently serves as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the
laboratories of Dr. Joanna Przybyl and Dr. Annie Leung, where she contributes
to the liquid biopsy studies.
Contact: hila.tabrizian (at) muhc.mcgill.ca
In 2019, Richard obtained a M.Sc. degree in Cancer Biology from ISPB-Claude Bernard VetAgro in the University of Lyon, France. In 2023, Richard obtained
a Ph.D. degree at the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille Luminy, France in Dr. Philippe Naquet's laboratory where he specialized in sarcoma metabolism. Richard has a broad expertise in cancer biology including cancer metabolism, tumor immunology and proteomics. His previous studies demonstrated how to stimulate anti-sarcoma immune response by targeting mitochondrial physiology and metabolism. Currently, his postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Przybyl is focused on metabolic reprogramming in sarcoma and development of 3D models of sarcoma.
Contact: richard.miallot (at) mcgill.ca
Pegah received her M.Sc. in Cellular and
Molecular Biology from the University of Science and Culture in collaboration
with Royan Institute, Tehran, Iran. After graduating, she worked as a research
assistant at the Royan Institute to elucidate the molecular mechanisms
underlying male infertility. Pegah published the results of these studies in
peer-review journals, and obtained several scholarships, grants and awards for
these studies. In 2022, Pegah joined the laboratory of Dr. Przybyl where works
on her doctoral studies focused on metabolic reprogramming in leiomyosarcoma and
desmoid type fibromatosis.
Contact: pegah.rahimizadeh (at) mail.mcgill.ca
Meagan graduated with a B.Sc. degree from the Department of Physiology of the McGill University in 2023. After graduating, she pursued an Undergraduate Research Internship at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) where she obtained a scholarship for academic excellence. During her internship, she worked towards characterizing the role of
non-coding RNAs in genetic and metabolic regulation in bacteria. Meagan joined Dr. Przybyl's laboratory in 2023. Her Master's research is focused on liquid biopsy studies in sarcoma.
Contact: meagan.cobb (at) mail.mcgill.ca
Urshila Naithani
completed her B.Tech. degree in Biotechnology from Jaypee Institute of Information
Technology (India) in 2023. Her undergraduate research focused on the
computational analysis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, SARS-CoV-2, and
various autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. She's currently a Master's
student in the Experimental Surgery program at McGill University. In 2024, she
joined Dr. Przybyl's laboratory, where she analyzes microRNA expression in
gastrointestinal stromal tumors.
Contact: urshila.naithani (at) mail.mcgill.ca
Hwan is a 3rd
year undergraduate student in the Department of
Microbiology and Immunology at McGill. He is interested in development of
liquid biopsy assays for sarcoma. In the Przybyl laboratory, Hwan works on
isolating and characterizing extracellular vesicles released by the cultured
cells and circulating extracellular vesicles from patient blood specimens.
Contact: zachary.lee2 (at) mail.mcgill.ca
Sandip studies at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical
Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He joined the Przybyl Lab in
2024 as a summer intern through the Fulbright Canada-Mitacs Globalink Program.
Under the mentorship of Dr. Przybyl and Dr. Miallot, he researches the
hexosamine biosynthesis pathway and metabolic reprogramming in leiomyosarcoma.
At Georgia Tech, he is a PURA Scholar studying the proteome of kidney tissue
through multiplexed imaging.
Contact: sdas359 (at) gatech.edu