People

Prof Benedikt Hallgrímsson  (bhallgri@ucalgary.ca)

Benedikt Hallgrímsson was born in Reykjavík, Iceland and completed his studies at the University of Alberta and The University of Chicago.  He is a biological anthropologist and evolutionary biologist who combines developmental genetics and bioinformatics with 3D imaging and morphometrics to address the developmental basis as well as evolutionary significance of phenotypic variation and variability. His work has focused on the mammalian craniofacial complex, craniofacial dysmorphology in humans, and skeletal biology and disease and has employed both experimental and comparative approaches. Among other accomplishments, he was awarded the Rohlf medal for excellence in Geometric Morphometrics in 2015. and is currently the chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy and the Theme Leader for the Genes, Development and Health theme of the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute. He is also a full member of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Join Health. 

Lisa Mesluk (lmesluk@ucalgary.ca)

Wei Liu (weiliu@ucalgary.ca)

Wei was born in Harbin (China) and completed his studies at Harbin Medical University. He then moved to Canada to study Software Engineering at the University of Calgary, where he specialized in Micro Computed Tomography (microCT). Wei has been a member of the Hallgrímsson lab since 2005. He has extensive experience in 3D X-ray microCT scanning, data collection, and deep learning image registration approaches for automated landmarking. He manages and maintains multiple microCT systems in the Hallgrímsson lab and provides support to both internal and external users. Outside the lab, Wei enjoys outdoor activities, plays soccer, and is a licensed referee in CUSA.  

For all samples or imaging inquiries, please contact Wei at weiliu@ucalgary.ca

Dr. David Katz (David.Katz@ucalgary.ca)
David completed a law degree at New York University School of Law prior to pursuing a PhD in evolutionary anthropology. His work focuses on the application of multivariate statistical models to explain the evolution and evelopment of human skull form. David's dissertation research adapted quantitative genetics models to characterize genetic and environmental (climate, diet) influences on global human cranial diversity. In parallel to completing his dissertation, David also developed and is now a principal investigator on an ongoing study of admixture signals in skeletal form; the project uses an captive, admixed rhesus macaque population as a model for human admixture in the Late Pleistocene. In the Hallgrimsson lab, David focuses on the genetic and epigenetic bases for cranial variation. Specific subjects include human syndromic craniofacial dysmorphology, and in mouse models, (a) the identification of genetic loci that contribute to craniofacial variation, (b) the effects of growth hormone deficiency and treatment on craniofacial development, and (c) the basis of genetic-background-independent admixture effects on the face. David has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation (3 times), ACHRI, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History.

Dr. Lucas D. Lo Vercio (lucasdaniel.lovercio@ucalgary.ca)
Lucas completed his degree in Software Engineering in 2011, from UNCPBA (Argentina). Then, he recieved his PhD in Computational Mathematics in 2017 as scholar of CONICET (Argentina). During his PhD studies, he worked on automatic processing of ultrasound images for computer-assisted diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. In late 2018, he moved to Dr. Hallgrimsson’s lab as Eyes High Postdoctoral Scholar of the University of Calgary. His current work is to develop computational methods to quantify anatomic features of embryos, under the supervision of Dr. Hallgrimsson and Dr. Forkert (Department of Radiology, UofC).

Dr. Marta Vidal-García (marta.vidalgarcia@ucalgary.ca)
Marta joined the Hallgrímsson lab in 2019, after completing a PhD and a postdoc at the Australian National University. Marta is an evolutionary biologist whose interests stem from the relationship between form and function. Her research has been focused on identifying the macroevolutionary patterns that drive morphological diversity across clades, using various different vertebrate and invertebrate study systems. Recently she has expanded her research to understanding the developmental and genetic bases of phenotypic variation. Marta uses a combination of methods to answer these questions, including morphometrics, comparative methods, and machine learning approaches. She has previously been awarded an Endeavour Leadership Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Australian Government and an ACHRI Postdoctoral Fellowship, and is currently supported by an Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowship in Health Innovation. To know more about her research, visit her website.

Dr. Craig Jacobs (craig.jacobs@ucalgary.ca)
Craig received his Bachelors in Biological Sciences and his Masters in Molecular Medicine from the University of East Anglia in the UK, where he first became interested in developmental biology studying Xenopus and chick. He moved to the University of Calgary in 2015 to complete his PhD with Dr. Peng Huang, studying cell signalling during spinal cord development. During this time, he looked at how the cells of the early spinal cord use Notch signalling to coordinate their pattern in both space and time. He joined the Hallgrimsson lab as a postdoc in 2021, interested in how external pressures can cause irreversible change to the developmental program of an organism and decipher how those pressures are interpreted into evolutionary progression and childhood disease. In his spare time he enjoys everything Calgary has to offer, including hiking, craft beer, skiing and hockey.

Dr. Hanne Hoskens (hanne.hoskens@ucalgary.ca)

Hanne completed her PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the KU Leuven, Belgium, in 2021, and continued her research as a postdoc at the Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven. 
Her research on imaging genetics lies at the transdisciplinary interface of complex trait genetics, medical imaging and data science. Hanne joined the Hallgrímsson lab in 2022 and will be focusing on integrating 3D imaging and morphometric methods to study the genetic basis for human craniofacial variation, including normal-range facial variation and syndromic craniofacial dysmorphology. She is supported by an Achievers in Medical Science (AIMS) Postdoctoral Fellowship and ACHRI LEAP Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Jay Devine (Jay.devine1@ucalgary.ca)
Jay completed a BA (Hons) in Anthropology at the University of Victoria in 2016. His undergraduate thesis leveraged laser scanning and morphometrics to explore the influence of physical activity on humeral morphology. Such work was supported by NSERC and supervised by Dr. Helen Kurki. Now a PhD student in Dr. Benedikt Hallgrimsson's lab, with support from the McCaig Institute and NSERC, Jay is developing, optimizing, and applying automated high-throughput medical imaging and machine learning methods to study anatomical variation in shape, form, and function. Using mouse models of disease, three specific questions are currently under investigation. First, what are the effects of a wide range of morphological variation on automated phenotyping? Second, to what extent can single-cell level variation be mapped onto tissue level variation? Third, what major patterns of cellular and morphological variation manifest in the growth-restricted fetus?

Eva Zaffarini (eva.zaffarini@ucalgary.ca)
Eva completed her Master’s degree in Biology at the University of Milan-Bicocca in 2019. Her thesis, conducted at the University of Vienna under the ERASMUS+ Research Fellowship, focused on determining the environmental factors that contribute to the worldwide increase in Caesarean section rate, as well as studying the pattern of sexual dimorphism in the chimpanzee pelvis in relation to the human obstetric dilemma. At the Hallgrimsson lab she is studying the genetic factors and developmental processes underlying the covariation between skull shape and pelvic shape in relation to Cephalopelvic Disproportion and the evolution of childbirth. For this project she is using a combination of Geometric Morphometrics, automated landmarking methods and Genome Wide Association Studies. She is currently supported by the Eleanor Mackie Scholarship and the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship. 

Cassidy Da Silva (cassidy.dasilva@ucalgary.ca)

Cassidy graduated from McMaster University in 2019 with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biology and an Interdisciplinary Minor in Archaeology. She then went on to the University of Calgary and the Hallgrímsson lab for her Master's degree in Biological Anthropology, where her project investigated the genetics of facial sexual dimorphism. Cassidy is continuing her research on sex differences as part of her PhD, evaluating the patterns and processes of endocrine-mediated masculinity and femininity in the human face. Her primary research interests include morphology, human anatomy, complex trait genetics, and human evolution. Cassidy is also passionate about science education, having earned several teaching certificates while studying at the University of Calgary, including the Graduate Student Certificate in University Teaching and Learning.

Andreas Dauter (andreas.dauter@ucalgary.ca)

Andreas completed his Honours Bachelor’s in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Calgary in 2021. Now, as a graduate student pursuing a Masters of Medical Science, Andreas studies how cell-level processes, including proliferation and signaling, drive tissue-level dynamics to cause shape changes in the developing face. His primary research interests include proliferative orientation, BMP4 signaling, developmental simulations, and lightsheet microscopy. Andreas has been with the Hallgrimsson lab since 2019 and is also passionate about teaching and engagement in the academic community.

Anandita Mahika (anandita.mahika@ucalgary.ca)
Anandita is a Bioinformatics undergraduate student entering her 2nd year and is working towards her Bachelor in Health Sciences. She joined the Hallgrimsson lab in 2021 as a summer student, and will be working on the imaging pipeline for light sheet microscopy image processing using mice embryo scans. 

Bilal Shakir (muhammad.shakir@ucalgary.ca)
Bilal is a 2nd-year Biomedical Sciences undergraduate who joined the Hallgrimsson lab in 2021 as a summer student. He is currently working to understand the morphological phenotypes associated with genotype variants. His research focuses on how shape changes in murine facial development are due to differential cell proliferation within tissues. He also aims to define 'normal' phenotypic variance across genetically unique individuals.