{"id":17,"date":"2012-01-04T22:32:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T03:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2025-01-10T10:48:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:48:32","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog is about science, photography, motorsports, and other things that interest me, either long-term or just in passing.<\/p>\n

I am a molecular biologist and human geneticist, with a PhD from the University of Toronto’s Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics. I studied the genes that produce antibody heavy chains, a key part of the immune system.<\/p>\n

Following my PhD, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, also in Toronto, studying a small roundworm called C. elegans<\/em>. It has a simple nervous system that is remarkably similar to those of much more complicated animals, like us.<\/p>\n

\"C.<\/a>
\nA C. elegans. It’s about a millimetre long, lives in the ground and eats bacteria.<\/em><\/p>\n

I next worked for six years in a small biotechnology company and one of its spin-offs, studying the genetics of inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Along the way, I became the company’s Director of Research Operations, and wound up managing both people and projects, interacting with collaborators and investors, and taking care of company operations. I’ve also done a fair bit of consulting with government agencies, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and life sciences market research and venture capital firms.<\/p>\n

Since January of 2006, I’ve been at The Centre for Applied Genomics<\/a> (TCAG) at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, where I am the Assistant Director. I’m interested in how genomic variation can contribute to the neuromotor condition, Cerebral Palsy, and am an active member of both CP-NET<\/a> and the International Cerebral Palsy Genomics Consortium<\/a>. I find time to do a bit of teaching, occasionally lecturing to both college and university students.<\/p>\n

\"Lab\"<\/a>
\nThe old lab. I worked in an office across the hall. We’re in the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning<\/a> now.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can find me writing here, and occasionally at other places. If I’m not doing that, you might find me taking photographs<\/a> of race cars, concerts, events, old graveyards, and other interesting things I come across.<\/p>\n

The blog’s title, Adventures in Wonderland<\/em>, is courtesy of Richard Grant<\/a>. Prior to its launch in January of 2012, I blogged at the Occam’s Typewriter Irregulars<\/a>, and from August of 2006 until then, at my personal blog<\/a>\u00a0(abandoned since I came here).\u00a0You could\u00a0also find some earlier science writing at Life Science Tools of the Trade<\/em>, until it was taken offline.<\/p>\n

All views expressed here are my own, and do not in any way reflect those of my employers, past or present.<\/p>\n