2023 Maud Menten Prize recipients

Éric Samarut

Dr. Éric Samarut holds bachelor's and master's degrees in the biosciences field. In 2013, he completed his PhD at Université de Strasbourg, specializing in the Molecular Aspects of Life Sciences. The following year, he joined the Université de Montréal as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2020, he was recruited as an Assistant Professor at the faculty of medicine, and he is now leading a laboratory at the Research Center of the University of Montreal Hospital Center.

Dr. Samarut established a new field of research that focuses on functional genomics of neurological and metabolic disorders, using zebrafish as a model organism. Collaborating with clinicians and geneticists, his goal is to explore the association between genetic mutations and neurological diseases, aiming to understand the molecular consequences of these mutations. His research could pave the way for innovative therapeutic approaches for neurological diseases and the development of patient-specific zebrafish models to advance precision medicine.

Particularly, Dr. Samarut is investigating the underlying causes of epilepsy. He is exploring molecules with antiepileptic properties and identifying novel pathways, thereby facilitating targeted therapeutic discovery and development. Furthermore, he is interested in understanding how genetic backgrounds impact the responsiveness of epilepsy treatments. This research offers an opportunity for the implementation of precision medicine in the field of epilepsy, where treatments can be tailored to individual patients based on their genetic profiles.

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Kasmintan (Intan) Schrader

Dr. Kasmintan Schrader obtained her medical degree from the University of Melbourne and completed her Medical Genetics residency at the University of British Columbia, Canada. During her graduate studies, she undertook the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Clinician Investigator Program in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. Schrader’s graduate studies’ research focused on studying the association between germline mutations in CDH1 and lobular breast cancer, and she utilized next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to identify Mendelian disease genes as part of her PhD.

During her research fellow position, Dr. Schrader was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health and Research training award. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, she investigated novel susceptibility genes in familial colon cancer, and she co-identified PAX5 as a novel susceptibility gene for Pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia using NGS.

She is an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, a scientist at BC Cancer Research Institute, and a clinical geneticist at BC Cancer’s Hereditary Cancer Program. Dr. Schrader serves as co-medical Director of BC Cancer's provincial Hereditary Cancer Program, co-chair of the Personalized OncoGenomics Policy and Ethics working group and co-chair of the ClinGen CDH1 Variant Curation Expert Panel.

Dr. Schrader also holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Clinical Cancer Genetics and Genomics with the clinical research goals of transforming hereditary cancer care through the adoption of new technologies to improve diagnosis of cancer susceptibility, cancer surveillance, and targeted risk stratification throughout families.

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