Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Fellowships - December 2008 Competition Results
Title: Tracking functional changes in gene coexpression over age using differential coexpression meta-analysis
Research Institution: University of British Columbia
Supervisor: PAVLIDIS, Paul
Dr. Gillis has an undergraduate degree in biophysics, and Masters and PhD degrees in computational neuroscience, all from the University of Toronto. His graduate degrees were both completed under the supervision of Frances Skinner in the department of Physiology, and examined the mathematical properties of brain rhythms. Currently Dr. Gillis is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Paul Pavlidis at the University of British Columbia where he is studying how the relationships between genes (particularly schizophrenia genes) change as people age.
Dr. Gillis' long-term goal is a career as a researcher in the genetics of aging with a particular focus in disease genes. He is interested in using meta-analysis (combining different studies' results) and high-throughput data (data with many simultaneous tests) to tease apart some of the subtler interactions between genes that may characterize their function. This research project uses a large meta-analysis resource, Gemma, to find novel aging and disease genes as well as their properties.
