David Hampson

David R. Hampson is originally from Rochester, New York. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in biology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, an M.Sc. degree in toxicology from Utah State University, and a Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Alberta. He then did a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Neurology in Baltimore and was subsequently a Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Hampson is currently a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, and the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

David Hampson was previously:

• The Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategic Training Program in Biological Therapeutics (2009-2015)
• Chair of the University of Toronto Radiation Protection Authority (2004 - 2018)
• Director, University of Toronto Collaborative Program in Neuroscience (CPIN) (2008-2013)

He is currently:

• Member, University of Toronto Radiation Protection Authority
• Member, American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy
• On the Board of Directors of the Friends of Lake Superior Provincial Park: https://www.friendsoflsp.org
  
• A contributor to, and a participant in environmental discussions led by EcoJustice https://ecojustice.ca 

Yosuke Niibori  

Dr. Yosuke Niibori received a Ph.D. degree from Yokohama National University, Japan, and worked as a postdoc at Mitsubishi Kagaku Institute of Life Science in Japan, and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He joined the Hampson Lab in 2015 and has developed recombinant AAV vectors for Dravet Syndrome using bioinformatics, cell biology, in vivo mouse behaviors, and artificial intelligence. Yosuke is interested in understanding the mechanisms of the progression of epilepsy and autism and developing methods for the prediction and prevention of these genetic disorders.  

Alex Hooper 

Dr. Alex Hooper is a Research Associate in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. Alex has a background in molecular genetics, received his BSc from Western University, and his Ph.D. in Biology from McMaster University. His current research focuses on gene therapy treatments for neurological disorders, including Fragile X Syndrome. He has received funding from/collaborated with the Fragile X Research Foundation of Canada and REGENXBIO, and his research has been published in Neurobiology of Disease, Human Molecular Genetics, and Molecular Therapy: Methods & Clinical Development.

Hayes Wong

Dr. Hayes Wong has a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience and a M.Sc. degree in Pharmaceutics from the University of British Columbia. His research interests include animal modeling of human diseases, in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology and behavioral neurosciences. Hayes is currently working on the gene therapy project for Fragile X Syndrome.

Robert Duba-Kiss

Robert Duba-Kiss graduated with a B.Sc. in Honours Biochemistry from the University of Waterloo. As part of his undergraduate degree requirements, he worked several co-op placements conducting research in the fields of cancer and drug resistance, and in exercise science. Robert is now working on earning a Ph.D. degree in the Dept. of Pharmacology under the supervision of Dr. Hampson. His current research focuses on developing a candidate AAV gene therapy for Dravet Syndrome, as well as on characterizing the immunogenicity of AAV therapies and on targeting therapeutic transgene expression to inhibitory GABAergic neurons.