Organizing Committee
Ali Abdul-Sater, Ph.D
York University
Dr. Ali Abdul-Sater is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health at York University in Toronto and the Director of the PsA CARE Hub. His research program focuses on uncovering how inflammation is controlled in the body and on developing new strategies to “dial it down” in immune-mediated diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. His lab discovered how a key immune protein, TRAF1, regulates inflammation and immune activation, and is exploring ways to target this pathway to reduce joint damage and improve patient outcomes.
Yuqing Feng, Ph.D
York University
Dr. Yuqing Feng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at York University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan in Dr. Linda
Chelico’s lab, where she studied APOBEC3 enzymes as host restriction factors against RNA viruses and retrotransposons. She then completed postdoctoral training in Dr. Alberto Martin’s lab at the University of Toronto, investigating the role of AID in DNA
damage and repair in B cells. Dr. Feng’s current research focuses on the regulation and function of the novel protein FAM72A in supporting mutagenic programs that generate genetic diversity in B cells. More broadly, her research program investigates the context-dependent effects of mutagenesis, with a particular interest in how mutations can support immunity but also contribute to disease settings such as B-cell lymphoma.
Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Ph.D
York University
Dr. Oikonomopoulou’s research expertise lies in the fields of cell functional/mechanistic, receptor signalling, enzyme function, biomarker discovery and therapeutic investigations in inflammation/innate immunity and cancer. She is leading one of the PsA CARE Hub’s research objectives towards the psoriatic arthritis functional/mechanistic studies and patient-tailored therapeutics, with a particular focus on the role of innate immune cells and inflammatory molecular components in the management of psoriatic disease.
David Hare, Ph.D
York University
Dr. Hare leads a research group at the PsA CARE Hub studying skin innate immune sensing in initiation and progression of psoriatic disease. His group grows 3D cultures from human cells to model psoriatic skin and study how microbes and tissue damage activate innate immune sensors. Dr. Hare previously studied virus sensing at Duke University and was recruited to study psoriatic disease at York University.
Abrar Khan, Ph.D
York University
Dr. Abrar Khan leads a focused research program investigating the immunometabolic regulation of NK cells in autoinflammatory disease. Within the PsA CARE Hub, he conducts mechanistic studies exploring the role of TNF/TNFR2 signaling in NK cells in the development and progression of psoriatic arthritis. His research integrates murine models, cellular immunology, and translational strategies to identify actionable immune-metabolic targets that inform precision immunomodulatory therapies.
Student Committee
Ibrahim Ridany, Ph.D Candidate
Website Designer
I'm a PhD candidate in the lab interested in genetic and environmental modulators of inflammatory arthritis. I study the cell-specific impact of TRAF1 and the effect of novel car tire wear pollutants in inflammatory arthritis mouse models.
Andrew Sun, Undergraduate Student
Website Designer
I am a fourth-year undergraduate and an incoming Master’s student in the PsA Care Hub, interested in all things immunology. I aim to deepen our understanding of psoriatic arthritis by performing transcriptional profiling techniques on key immune cells related to inflammation, such as macrophages and neutrophils.
Connor Sun, Undergraduate Student
Website Designer
I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at York University and an incoming MSc student in Dr. Feng's lab. My project studies how mutagenesis is controlled in B cells during AID-mediated antibody gene diversification.