Kaela recently completed her MSc from the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr. Derrick Gibbings where she investigated how different stressors can impact the targets of autophagy. She worked to link these changes to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a disease in which autophagy is heavily implicated. Previously, she completed her undergraduate Honours Thesis with Dr. Jing Wang, investigating the role of pericytes in stroke recovery, and assessed their response to hypoxia ex vivo.
She is excited to work with the Lochmüller lab to identify novel causative genes in CMS patients, and subsequently uncover how they impact neuromuscular transmission. She is particularly excited about the prospect of utilizing both bioinformatic and wet lab techniques to better understand CMS subtypes, and to enable patients to receive a genetic diagnosis.
