Dean Chamberlain - Research Associate
d[dot]chamberlain[at]utoronto[dot]ca
Dean hails from the west. He did his undergraduate in his hometown at the University of Regina where he received a B.Sc.(Hons) in Biology with a focus on microbiology. As a undergrad he also worked part time as a laboratory technician at the Saskatchewan Provincial Laboratory in the departments of central processing and virology. He then went on to do a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency where he was a CHIR Doctoral Fellow. He thesis worked was entitled "The interaction of the p85 subunit of PI3K with Rab proteins". This work lead to the discovery of a novel oncogenic point mutation in the p85 subunit of PI3K. He then did a postdoctoral fellow in the Sefton Tissue Engineering laboratory where he was a CHIR Post-Doctoral Fellow, which is next door to the Wheeler Microfluidics Laboratory. His research uses modular 3D microtissues to form in vivo capillary bed to support the development of artifical organs and to develop liver organoids for in vitro drug testing. Being next to the Wheeler Digital Microfluidics Laboratory developed his interest in BioMEMS for drug discovery and personalized chemotherapy. In 2013 he joined the laboratory as a research associate.