Career Portfolio provided by Beyond.com
scientist manager
Member Number: 64271652
Murray River, PE c0a1w0 Canada
Portfolio: http://www.beyond.com/people/64271652
Professional Information
Job Function: Science & Biotech
Education: Post Graduate Degree
Experience: 10 – 15 Years
Employment: Any Position Type
Salary: $60-120k
Citizenship: Non U.S. Citizen
Resume
Objective
Research scientist or management position where innovative problem solving and project management skills are required.
Qualifications
ADMINISTRATION
Organized Axelas laboratory move in *** including the design of the new laboratory facilities which optimized safety and
workflow. Budgeted and purchased all lab equipment.
Managed the Axela R&D laboratory facility. Created SOPs and scheduled the cleaning, testing, calibration, maintenance
and repair of all lab equipment. Maintained an inventory of, budgeted for, and organized the purchase of all laboratory
consumables.
Implemented Axelas laboratory information management system to maintain an inventory of all customer and laboratory
samples.
Chaired Axelas health and safety committee. Performed regular sessions of WHMIS and biohazard material handling
safety training for all company employees.
Documented research experiments for Axelas yearly Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax incentive
program (SR&ED) submissions to the Canada Revenue Agency. Underwent successful audit.
Performed HR duties for Axelas R&D department personnel, including personnel hiring, salary negotiation, vacation
scheduling, annual performance reviews and conflict resolution.
MANAGEMENT
As director for 5 years of Axelas R&D department consisting of *** molecular biology scientists and research associates,
personally participated in the training of all new department personnel in laboratory procedures and protocols. Regularly
reviewed and evaluated each employees laboratory technique and performance, discussed opportunities for improvement
and scheduled any additional required training.
scientist manager
Directed all of Axelas Ziplex R&D department projects, including the development of optimal RNA isolation, amplification,
hybridization and detection protocols and chemistries for the Ziplex microarray platform.
Directed all of Axelas Expression Services department projects. Under tight budgetary and timeline constraints,
successfully organized and managed completion of *** custom gene expression projects designed to showcase the
capabilities of the Ziplex instrument and to assess feasibility for IVD product development.
Managed project and troubleshooting teams for new and existing Ziplex RUO installations, including leading weekly
expression services meetings to coordinate engineering, sales and manufacturing resource allocations for customer
projects.
Designed and directed a successful Ziplex IVD project pilot study allowing identification of optimal microarray probe
design and breast cancer sample handling procedures.
ISO***/QUALITY CONTROL
Created a quality management system for Axelas R&D department, including documentation of, and SOPs for all
personnel training, material component specifications and sample receiving, sample processing and data reporting. This
resulted in Axelas successful ISO*** audit and certification required for IVD development and FDA submission.
Regularly contributed R&D, troubleshooting and instrument and microarray consumable performance evaluation reports to
the Ziplex IVD Design History File.
As a senior member of Axelas inter-departmental Ziplex IVD risk management project team, coordinated the R&D,
manufacturing and engineering department resources required to identify root causes of non-conformances and planned
and directed the execution of research and guard-band studies.
As a senior member of Axelas inter-departmental quality control team, co-developed Axelas Ziplex microarray
consumable and instrument manufacturing quality control criteria, testing methods and performance metrics.
TECHNOLOGY
*** years experience operating microarray systems, including the whole genome Affymetrix GeneChip system and
focused array systems such as Axelas Ziplex Flow through Chip system. Microarray probe array design. Microarray
sample preparation, blocking, hybridization, washing and imaging chemistries.
Proficient performing microarray data analysis techniques including clustering. QC metric analysis, correlation and
concordance measures, Principle Component Analysis and pathway analysis. Design of custom microarray data QC and
analysis tools.
Adept in nucleic acid isolation (DNA, RNA, mRNA) from human, mouse, rat, bovine and equine tissues, including difficult
tissues such as formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) breast tissue, protein and lipid rich brain tissue, fibrous artery
tissue, globin RNA rich blood samples, and low cell count human synovial fluid.
Expert in mRNA purification, amplification, labeling, and detection methodologies, including magnetic bead target capture,
cDNA synthesis, in vitro transcription (IVT), PCR and qRT-PCR.
Skilled in the design, maintenance and programming of liquid handling (Biomek) and pneumatic robotics (Ziplex).
4 years experience with the tissue culture and transfection of human fibroblasts, monkey kidney and Chinese hamster cell
lines.
Work Experience
Axela Biosensors Inc. / Xceed Molecular Inc., Toronto, Ontario ***/*** ***/***
Director of Research and Development
scientist manager
Managed molecular biology laboratory facility, including R&D Department and Expression Services Department projects
and personnel.
Key leader in the development of the Ziplex, an automated Flow-Through Chip microarray gene expression platform
starting from the initial prototype planning and design through to the *** version system. Developed and optimized
TipChip® probe and array design methodologies; RNA isolation and sample amplification and QC protocols from difficult
tissue types, as well as blocking, washing, hybridization and imaging chemistries and fluidics methods for the Ziplex
instrument. Senior member of inter-departmental quality control team.
Molecular biology lead for the development of an IVD version of the Ziplex and sample handling protocols in strict
compliance with ISO*** requirements, including FDA mandated and risk management processes. Senior member of
Ziplex IVD risk management team.
Organized and managed completion of *** custom gene expression projects primarily designed to showcase the
capabilities of the Ziplex instrument and to assess feasibility for IVD product development. These projects involved
working with scientists to identify ideal gene lists sourced from previous data sets run on other platforms, designing
probes and arrays, performing quality assessment of manufactured arrays and measuring probe performance, performing
RNA isolation, amplification and hybridization of clinical samples. qRT-PCR was also performed on sample sets for
certain projects. Performed detailed analysis and QC of data, documented and reported the clinical utility of the gene
signatures tested to customers.
Developed and optimized novel target capture and amplification protocols, successfully shortening the sample preparation
process from days to hours.
Managed all molecular biology research associates/scientists. Performed administrative duties such as personnel hiring,
work scheduling, yearly evaluation and problem resolution. Managed laboratory facility, equipment and consumable
purchases, and safety. Chaired company health and safety committee. Organized laboratory facility move in ***
Gene Logic Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland ***/*** ***/***
Scientist, Research and Development
Provided R&D support for the production of BioExpress® microarray gene expression databases.
Affymetrix microarray troubleshooting: R&D representative on a multi-departmental team that scrutinized the companys
sample preparation processes, resulting in a significant decrease in GeneChip failure rate.
Developed globin depletion RNA amplification protocols for human and animal whole blood gene expression analysis,
resulting in improved correlation of white blood cell and whole blood sample gene expression data.
Developed optimal RNA isolation and alternative amplification protocols for small samples and difficult tissues, including
human brain, rat mesenteric artery, horse blood and human synovial fluid.
Identified the impact of biotinyllated nucleotide chemical structure on in vitro transcription sample amplification and
labeling in company processes.
Oncormed Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland
***/*** - ***/***
Senior Research Scientist
Organized a new molecular biology lab facility including purchasing of equipment.
Optimized GeneChip sample preparation. Evaluated existing products and developed new protocols for the following: total
and mRNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, IVT and Affymetrix GeneChip hybridization.
Automated the cDNA and IVT protocols by upgrading and programming a Biomek *** robot.
Montreal Childrens Hospital Research Institute, Montreal, Quebec ***/*** - ***/***
Research Associate
scientist manager
Performed Differential Display on RNA isolated from various adult and fetal rat tissues. Novel, differentially expressed,
gene fragments cloned via this method were then used as probes to screen lung epithelial and fibroblast cDNA libraries in
order to identify novel genes that were essential to fetal lung development, particularly the production of surfactant.
Education
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec ***/***
Master of Science in Biology (Human Genetics/Cell Biology)
Thesis title: Calnexin Association with Lysosomal Hydrolases is Limited to Overexpressed Enzymes Destined for
Secretion.
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia ***/***
Bachelor of Science with Honours in Biology
Thesis title: Molecular Analysis of the Maritime Cystic Fibrosis Population: Determination of the Frequency of the Cystic
Fibrosis Mutations G***X, R***T, G***D, R***X, S***I, and S***N.
Scientific Publications
M.C. Quinn, D.J. ***, F. Young, A.A. Dempsey, S.L. Arcand, A.H. Birch, P.M. Wojnarowicz, D. Provencher, A.M. MesMasson, D. Englert, P.N. Tonin.
The Chemiluminescence Based Ziplex Automated Workstation Focus Array Reproduces Ovarian Cancer Affymetrix
GeneChip Expression Profiles.
J Transl Med. *** ***, ***
D. Tackels-Horne, M.D. Goodman, A.J. Williams, D.J.***, T. Eskandari, L.M. Vogt, J.F. Boland, U. Scherf, J.G. Vockley.
Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Metastatic Liver Tumors by
Oligonucleotide Expression Profiling.
Cancer. ***(2). *** ***
D.J. ***, S. Peres-da-Silva, C.P. Alvares, D.T. Horne, T. Eskandari, A.J. Williams, L.M. Vogt, U. Scherf, J.G. Vockley.
Identification of Biologically Relevant Genes in Different Tissue Types measured by Oligonucleotide Microarrays and their
use in Sample Classification.
Am. J. Hum. Genet. ***(4). A*** (Data presented at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting, ***)
D.J. ***, P. Hechtman, F. Kaplan, D.Y. Thomas, and J.J.M. Bergeron.
Selective Association of Overexpressed Secreted Lysosomal Hydrolases with Calnexin.
Mol. Biol. Cell. 7, ***a. (Data presented at the International Congress on Cell Biology/American Society of Cell Biology
Annual Meeting, ***)
D.J. ***, F. Kaplan, P. Hechtman, D.Y. Thomas, J.J.M. Bergeron.
scientist manager
Lysosomal Hydrolases Exit the Endoplasmic Reticulum by a Calnexin-Independent Pathway.
Am. J. Hum. Genet. ***, A*** (Data presented at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting, ***)