Diabetes & Metabolism

Hertzel Gerstein

Interim Executive Director; Senior Scientist

Hertzel Gerstein is PHRI’s Interim Executive Director and Senior Lead of the Diabetes Scientific Program. He is also a Professor of Medicine at McMaster University where he holds the Population Health Research Institute Chair in Diabetes; an Endocrinologist; Director of the Boris Clinic Diabetes Care and Research Program; Chair of Diabetes Clinical Trials Network Canada; and a Fellow of both the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada.

Gerstein pioneered and firmly established international long-term diabetes-focused outcomes trials as the norm to support Evidence-Based Diabetes Care. Randomized trials that he designed and led have collectively included more than 90,000 people with either diabetes or prediabetes to date, and have studied and identified clinically important, life-saving diabetes therapies. These trials were supported by the US National Institute of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, other Canadian peer-review agencies, and by industry. Together, they have substantially expanded the evidence-base pertaining to the prevention, remission, and treatment of diabetes and its consequences, and some of their findings have provided the evidence base for international diabetes guidelines and novel drug indications that have improved the lives of people living with diabetes or prediabetes.

His research has been published in over 600 papers and his h index is 100. His work has been recognized by many awards, including the 2012 Canadian Diabetes Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2022 American Diabetes Association’s Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award.

Guillaume Paré

Director, CRLB- GMEL; Senior Scientist

Guillaume Paré is Director of the Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank (CRLB) – Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL) and Senior Scientist at the PHRI. He is also Deputy Director of the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI), a Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, a Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, and a University Scholar at McMaster University. A medical biochemist with board certification from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Gui completed a Master’s in Human Genetics at McGill University under the supervision of renowned geneticist Thomas Hudson. He further trained in genetic epidemiology with Paul Ridker at Harvard Medical School.

His clinical interests are centered on lipoprotein disorders, obesity and cardiovascular disease prevention, with research interests in cardiovascular genetics, biomarker development and pharmacogenomics. Gui’s research combines high-throughput biomarker screens with genetics, bioinformatics and epidemiology to identify novel cardio-metabolic biomarkers. He has published more than 300 original contributions in peer-reviewed journals, all related to his research program in cardiometabolic disease and genetics. These include first or last authored articles in the NEJM, Lancet, Nature Communications, Circulation, EHJ, Stroke, JACC, PloS Genetics, Circulation Genomics and Precision Medicine and AJHG. His work has been sited over 45,000 times with a corresponding h-index of 89. He was inducted to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artist and Scientists in 2018. 

Zubin Punthakee

Scientist

Zubin Punthakee is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine (endocrinology and metabolism) and Pediatrics, at McMaster University. His research interests are: clinical trials of diabetes management; association between obesity and insulin resistance/diabetes, especially in youth; health care delivery and outcomes during transition from pediatric to adult care; and long-term outcomes of pediatric endocrine diseases.

At PHRI, he has held leadership roles in the TIDE trial, ORIGINALE study and RICH LEGACY study. He has published more than 22 articles, been supported by Research Career Awards from Hamilton Health Sciences and the Department of Medicine at McMaster University, and holds research grants from agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Natalia McInnes

Investigator

Natalia McInnes is the Joint Principal Investigator for the Diabetes Remission program at PHRI, and Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, McMaster University. She has received peer-reviewed research funding from CIHR and Canadian Diabetes Association and is supported by the Medicine Internal Career Award from McMaster University. Her research interests include remission of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, and the relationship between dysglycemia and ectopic fat deposition.

She received her medical degree from the University of British Columbia. After completing her Internal Medicine and Endocrinology training, she pursued MSc in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University.

Marie Pigeyre

Scientist

Marie Pigeyre is a Scientist at PHRI, and Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, McMaster University. She has received peer-reviewed New Investigating Funding from Hamilton Health Sciences, and is supported by the Medicine Internal Career Award from McMaster University.

She completed her clinical and research post-doctoral fellowship in epidemiology, genetics and biomarkers at McMaster University in 2019, preceded by a PhD in Epidemiology and Genetics, medical degree, and endocrinology training at the University of Lille in France (2007).

Jorge Wong

Scientist

Jorge Wong is a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences, as well as a scientist in the Arrhythmia and Heart Failure program at PHRI. His research interests focus primarily on the intersection between atrial fibrillation and heart failure, atrial fibrillation epidemiology and catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. He holds research grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and Hamilton Health Sciences.

He obtained his MD at McMaster, followed by his internal medicine and cardiology training at the University of Western Ontario. Jorge subsequently completed his clinical electrophysiology fellowship at the University of Calgary and at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health, and is currently pursuing his PhD in Health Research Methods at McMaster.

David Jenkins

Associate Senior Scientist

David Jenkins is a Professor, Departments of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, a staff physician in the division of endocrinology and metabolism, Director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center, and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital., Unity Health Toronto.

Educated at Oxford University, he was the first researcher to demonstrate the breadth of metabolic effects of viscous soluble fiber on blood glucose and cholesterol lowering of relevance to prevention and treatment of diabetes and heart disease. David  Jenkins’ studies on combining cholesterol lowering food components (dietary portfolio) have been recognized as creating an effective dietary alternative to drug therapy (statins) for lower risk people.

Katherine Morrison

Associate Senior Scientist

Katherine Morrison is Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, and a Principal Investigator for childhood risk factors research at PHRI. She has received various awards including the Excellence in Pediatric Research Award, and a Heart and Stroke Foundation Fellowship in Preventive Cardiology. Katherine is supported in her research by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Hamilton Academic Health Sciences Organization, and McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Diana Sherifali

Associate Scientist

Diana Sherifali is an Associate Professor, School of Nursing, McMaster University, and clinical nurse specialist in the Diabetes Care and Research Program at Hamilton Health Sciences. She is also Director of the McMaster Evidence Review and Synthesis Team based in the School of Nursing. Her research focuses on optimizing the management of diabetes and quality of life of people with diabetes across the lifespan.

She received the inaugural Heather M. Arthur Population Health Research Institute / Hamilton Health Sciences Chair in Inter-Professional Health Research at McMaster University in 2019.

Reema Shah

Research Fellow

Reema Shah completed her MD and internal medicine residency at the University of Toronto, and her endocrinology and metabolism residency at McMaster University. After residency, she completed the Clinician Investigator Program at McMaster University and Master of Public Health degree at Harvard University. Reema is interested in clinical research in the area of diabetes and its complications. She is being supervised by Dr. Hertzel Gerstein.

Tara McCready

Program Director

Tara McCready, PhD, oversees a variety of collaborative programs at PHRI, and serves as Project Manager for PHRI research studies and registries.

She was recruited to PHRI as a Program Director for the Canadian Network and Centre for Trials Internationally (CANNeCTIN), a national network funded by the CIHR/CFI Clinical Research Initiative program to improve the prevention and treatment of cardiac and vascular diseases and diabetes.

Previously the Executive Director of the Canadian Maternal, Infant, Child and Youth Research Network, Tara holds a PhD in Biochemistry and a MBA in Technology Commercialization from the University of Alberta.

Stephanie Hall

Project Manager

Stephanie Hall has more than 25 years of experience working in research for McMaster University. With PHRI since 2006, she has managed multiple large international trials. In her current role, she coordinates various studies in diabetes care. Stephanie has a business degree, and a degree in Health Care Administration.

Jennifer Cunningham

Project Manager

Jennifer Cunningham has more than 20 years’ experience working in research at PHRI. Starting with a few months assisting in research accounting in the then CCC Project Office in 1998, she began her PHRI career with study teams in 2000. Since then, Jennifer has had many roles at PHRI, from data management to her current role in project management; and has worked on and managed multiple studies, from large international cardiovascular, national gastrointestinal, to policy changes and vulnerable/marginalized people studies within our own local community.