ACT-COAG

Noel Chan

Scientist

Noel Chan is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology and Thromboembolism, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, specializing in anticoagulant therapy and thrombosis medicine. His research seeks to improve our understanding of the triggers for thrombosis (including the role of inflammation) and the determinants of variable response to antithrombotic therapies to inform on novel strategies that have the potential to further reduce the burden of thrombosis.

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. 

John Eikelboom

Senior Scientist

John Eikelboom is Professor, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Senior Scientist, Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation, and Hematologist, Thrombosis Service, Hamilton General Hospital. He completed training in Internal Medicine and Hematology in Perth, Australia, in 1998 and in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University, Canada, in 2000.

He has authored or co-authored more than 800 articles in peer-reviewed journals and for the past decade has been listed annually by the Web of Science among the top 1% of cited researchers. He holds the Jack Hirsh/Population Health Research Institute Chair in Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis. His current research, supported by peer reviewed funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Gates Foundation focuses on the efficacy and safety of antithrombotic therapies in arterial, venous, cardiac, and procedure-associated thromboembolism as well as strategies to reduce the burden of the “big three” infectious diseases (HIV, TB, malaria) on the African continent.

Emilie Belley-Côté

Associate Deputy Director, Scientist

Emilie Belley-Côté is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University; she practices critical care cardiology in the cardiovascular intensive care unit and coronary care unit at the Hamilton General Hospital. Her research interests include perioperative cardiac surgery care, knowledge synthesis and guideline development. At this stage in her career, she has more than 120 publications, including articles in NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, as well as first-tier critical care journals.

She obtained her MD from Université de Sherbrooke in 2006. After internal medicine and cardiology training, as well as an MSc in Clinical Sciences, she completed a critical care fellowship at McMaster. In 2019, she completed a PhD in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University.

Richard Whitlock

Scientist

Richard Whitlock is Associate Chair, Research, and a Professor at the Department of Surgery, McMaster University. He was awarded the inaugural Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery in 2020.

As well as being a PHRI Scientist, Richard is a cardiac surgeon and intensive care physician at Hamilton Health Sciences. His clinical focus is on aortic valve intervention and aortic surgery. He is a lead investigator for the CIHR funded studies SIRS, LAAOS III, and TRICS III, which have established a network of more than 120 centres to address important questions in his field.

He has published more than 90 articles in referred journals. Medically qualified at the University of Toronto, Richard received his specialist training in cardiac surgery and critical care medicine at McMaster University. In 2012, he received his PhD in clinical epidemiology.

Salim Yusuf

Founder and Emeritus Executive Director, Senior Scientist

Salim Yusuf is an internationally renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose work over 40 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Medically qualified from St John’s Medical College in Bangalore in 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholar-ship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which he (along with Richard Peto, Rory Collins and Peter Sleight) initiated the concepts of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis. He coordinated the first ISIS trial (which established the structure for future international collaborative work in cardiovascular and several other diseases) that demonstrated the value of beta-blockers in myo-cardial infarction, and was a member of steering committees for all subsequent ISIS trials.

In 1984, following clinical training in medicine and cardiology in the UK, he moved to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, where he led the SOLVD trial (establishing the value of ACE-inhibitors on LV dysfunction) and DIG trial (clarifying the role of digitalis).

In 1992 he moved to McMaster University as head of cardiology, where he established an inter-national program of research in cardiovascular diseases and prevention, culminating in the creation of the Population Health Research Institute. His therapeutic trials have established the roles of ACE-inhibitors in CVD prevention, dual antiplatelet therapies in acute coronary syndromes, novel antithrombotic therapies, and most recently the value of the polypill in substantially pre-venting heart attacks and strokes globally, and at low cost. The Polypill was recently included by the WHO in its Essential Medicines List.

His epidemiologic work in over 80 countries involving all inhabited continents of the world shows the majority of risks of both heart attacks and strokes are attributable to a few risk factors. He currently leads the PURE study exploring the role of societal and environmental factors in CVD. This study (PURE) involves 200,000 people from over 800 communities in 27 high, middle and low-income countries.

He has built capacity for clinical and population research across Canada and the world by establishing research networks involving over 1500 sites in 102 countries. He has trained over 100 researchers, many of whom are now nationally or internationally renowned leaders in medical research. He has helped develop major research institutes or programs in Canada, India, Argentina, Brazil, S. Africa, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and China.

He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair, was a Senior Scientist of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (1999-2004), and has received (among over 100) the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the World Heart Federation, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society, the European So-ciety of Cardiology gold medal, the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award, the Killam Prize, and the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in 2014. He has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada, been appointed an Officer in the Order of Canada, and has been in-ducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2023 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford. He has been conferred 4 honorary doctorates.

He has published over 1400 articles, and was the second most cited researcher in the world for 2011, and has been among the highest cited scientists in the world (his H index is currently 17th of all scientists in history) for over a decade. He is Past President of the World Heart Federation, where he initiated the Emerging Leaders program (now named after him) to build capacity for research in all continents of the world, with the aim of halving the CVD burden globally within a generation. This program has already trained over 250 individuals from 50 countries.