Research Team

Dr. Jibran Khokhar

Dr. Kayir completed his undergraduate training at Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) in Turkey, and his PhD in the Department of Medical Pharmacology, under the supervision of Prof. Tayfun Uzbay. His dissertation was on the relationship and co-morbidity between addiction and schizophrenia. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at University of California at San Diego with Prof. Athina Markou. He worked as an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Pharmacology in GATA, and as a researcher and in Commat Ltd. and Norosaglik Inc. in Turkey. Dr. Kayir is the Lab Manager and Research Associate at Khokhar Lab in the Biomedical Sciences Department at the University of Guelph.

Patrick holds a BSc in Chemical Physics from the University of Guelph as well as an MClSc and PhD in Medical Biophysics from Western University. His dissertation focused on the development of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging techniques at ultra-high field strength in preclinical models of brain injury and neurodegeneration. Prior to joining the Khokhar lab, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children utilizing multimodal neuroimaging techniques to elucidate the pathophysiological underpinnings of brain injury and PTSD in military personnel. Currently he is pursuing a JD/MBA at Ryerson University with a focus on technology commercialization and intellectual property law.

Richard has a BSc. Engineering (Biomedical) degree from the University of Ghana and an MSc Neuroscience degree from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He completed his PhD Neuroscience degree at Laval University in 2020 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Khokhar Lab. During his PhD, he focused on the reward system and its role in eating disorders. Richard is particularly interested in addiction, how it develops, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms that maintain addiction, and how it can be treated.

Hayley is a postdoctoral fellow co-supervised by Dr. Khokhar at Western University and Dr. Sanchez-Roige at the University of California San Diego. She completed her BSc in Neuroscience at Dalhousie University in 2015 and received her MSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology through the University of Guelph in 2018. She was a PhD student in the Khokhar lab from 2019-2023, with her research using preclinical techniques to investigate the relationship between genetics, cannabis use, and impulsivity. As a postdoctoral fellow, she now uses large-scale biobanks to explore the genetic factors underlying complex personality traits and psychopathologies that can be validated with animal models.

Before joining the Khokhar lab, Jude studied electrical engineering at UBC. Jude is interested in bringing novel technologies to the forefront of biology, especially in the application of mental health diagnoses and treatment. His primary research is focused on the sex- and age-related consequences of nicotine vaping on behaviour and brain network function. Jude is also active in the field of open science, having published several open-source designs and volunteering as a collaborator at Open Behavior where he disseminates open-source projects in the behavioural neuroscience community.

Pedro completed a double undergraduate degree in Biology and Education from Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil. Before joining the Khokhar Lab, developed research on cognitive neuroscience and psychopharmacology, studying topics such as episodic-like memory, social behaviour, chronobiology and addiction. His PhD project will be focusing on aspects of addiction and other psychiatric conditions, especially related to development, circadian rhythms and psychopharmacology in rodents and non-human primates. In addition to Neuroscience, is also interested in the development of new teaching methodologies to teach science and biology and in the intersection of Neuroscience and Education.

Iman Aziz is a Master’s student in the Khokhar lab studying Neuroscience. She completed her Honour’s Bachelor of Science at the University of Guelph with a major in Biomedical Science and minor in Neuroscience. During her undergraduate degree she explored effects of circadian rhythms in the heart. Near the end of her undergraduate career she became increasingly interested in the field of neuroscience. She is interested in exploring long-term effects of concurrent nicotine and cannabis use in adolescents.