Renal

Michael Walsh

Senior Scientist

Michael Walsh is a Principal Investigator in the Renal research program at PHRI, and an Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (nephrology), McMaster University. His research activities are in the areas of the treatment of patients who require dialysis, severe glomerular disease, and perioperative acute kidney injury. He has published more than 70 papers and two book chapters.

He holds a Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training (KRESCENT) Program New Investigator award through CIHR and the Kidney Foundation of Canada.  He’s received multiple Top Abstract awards from the Canadian Society of Nephrology, the Chalmers Prize from the Society for Clinical Trials, and the Detweiller Traveling Scholar Award from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Matthew Lanktree

Scientist

Lanktree is an Associate Professor and Scientist, currently serving as the medical director of the McMaster Kidney Genetics Clinic, where he cares for patients with chronic and end-stage kidney disease at St. Joseph Healthcare Hamilton and McMaster University. His research focuses on nephrology, chronic kidney disease, biomarkers, and genetics.

Matt has published more than 100 articles in genetics and medicine and has received peer-reviewed funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as well as the Canadian and American Societies of Nephrology. In 2022, he was awarded the Canadian Society of Nephrology New Investigator Award. His goal is to use genetics to improve the care of patients with kidney disease.

David Collister

Associate Scientist

David Collister is a nephrologist at the University of Alberta Hospital and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, at the University of Alberta. He completed a PhD in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University and research fellowship at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) focused on run-in periods and patient oriented research in kidney disease including the DISCO-RLS trial.

His research program focuses on symptom management in patients with kidney disease and, in particular, randomized controlled trials of therapies to alleviate symptoms in chronic kidney disease and dialysis. He currently holds a Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training (KRESCENT) New Investigator Award. His research program is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Kidney Foundation of Canada. He is the principal investigator of RESET-DIALYSIS, a prospective cohort study of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease initiating dialysis which will examine the responsiveness of uremic symptoms to dialysis and uremic symptom pathophysiology with metabolomics, proteomics and genomics. He is the principal investigator of DISCO-POT, a randomized controlled trial of nabilone versus placebo for the treatment of uremic pruritus in adults with kidney failure treated with dialysis. He is also interested in the intersection between transgender, non-binary and gender diverse populations and kidney disease.

Amit Garg

Associate Senior Scientist

Amit Garg is a kidney specialist and academic leader dedicated to improving health care through practical research. He is Associate Dean of Clinical Research at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University, a staff nephrologist at London Health Sciences Centre, and a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western. He also holds a cross-appointment in McMaster University’s Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, where he earned his PhD in 2005.

Since 2003, Garg has cared for patients in London, Ontario, while building a research program aimed at making health care more effective and evidence-based. A past president of the Canadian Society of Nephrology, he currently serves as Ontario Lead of the Kidney, Dialysis and Transplantation Program at ICES and as a member of the Leads team at Health Data Research Network Canada.

He values his collaborations with PJ Devereaux and other leading clinician-scientists at PHRI, which have led to several kidney studies funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. His current focus is on pragmatic clinical trials embedded in everyday care, using existing health data to answer important questions in ways that are efficient, innovative, and meaningful for the public.

Amber Molnar

Associate Scientist

Amber Molnar is a nephrologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, and Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, McMaster University. Her research program focuses on improving the pre-dialysis care of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) and reducing cardiovascular complications in patients with CKD.

She holds a Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training (KRESCENT) program’s New Investigator Award through CIHR and the Kidney Foundation of Canada. Amber earned her M.D. at the University of Saskatchewan followed by internal medicine training at Western University, and completed her nephrology and MSc (Epidemiology) training at the University of Ottawa.

Pavel Roshanov

Associate Investigator

Pavel Roshanov, an internal medicine physician and nephrologist. He is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Scientist in the Departments of Medicine (Nephrology) and Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. He directs the Lilibeth Caberto Kidney Clinical Research Unit. In collaboration with national and international partners, he works across randomized trials, cohort studies, prediction modeling, pharmacokinetics, evidence synthesis, and the application of artificial intelligence in clinical research.

Lonnie Pyne

Research Fellow

Lonnie Pyne is a Research Fellow at PHRI, supervised by Dr. Michael Walsh, and a MSc student in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster. Lonnie is a Clinical Scholar in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology at McMaster University. Lonnie obtained his medical degree from Western University. He completed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at McMaster University.

His current research interests include chronic kidney disease, surrogate outcomes in nephrology, cardiovascular outcomes in kidney disease, and vasculitis.

Jessica Tyrwhitt

Program Director

Jessica Tyrwhitt has more than 10 years’ experience in coordinating and managing large, international clinical trials. She oversees interventional trials, registries, and observational research studies looking at primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in a variety of therapeutic areas, including cardiology, thrombosis, nephrology, cardio-oncology and diabetes.

She holds an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree & Business from the University of Waterloo.