Research interests
I am a postdoctoral research fellow under Dr. Michael Hoffman at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre within the University Health Network (UHN). I previously completed my PhD in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia under Dr. Wendy Robinson.
I am interested in omics data to understand the etiology of pregnancy and fetal pathologies and use that data to develop predictive models. Currently, I am working with bioinformatics and machine learning approaches to analyze DNA methylation data to give insights into pathogenesis and develop predictive signatures of preterm birth. I am using these data to build predictive signatures that will be usable in the clinical setting.
I am interested in integrating omics data in many types of pregnancy complications to increase our understanding of placental development through gestation, understand how pregnancy complications arise, how each of these complications relate to each other and the heterogeneity present within each clinical class of complication.
Publications
Original research
Brockway, H.B., Wilson, S.L., Kallapur, S.K.,Buhimschi, C.S., Muglia, L.J., Jones, H.N. Characterization of methylation signatures in spontaneous preterm birth. Submitted.
Wilson, S.L., Shen, S.Y., Harmon, L.M., Burgener, J., Triche, T., Bratman, S.V., De Carvalho, D.D., Hoffman,M.M. Synthetic spike-in controls enable sensitive and reproducible cell-free methylome interrogation.Submitted.
Lee, Y., Choufani, S., Weksberg, R., Wilson, S.L., Yuan, V., Robinson, W.P., Burt, A., Marsit C., Lu, A., Binder,A., Ritz, B., Bohlin, J., Gjessing, H., Harris, J., Magnus,P., Jugessur,A. Horvath,S. Placental epigenetic clocks:estimating gestational age using placental DNA methylation levels. Aging. 11 (12), 4238. 2019.
Konwar, C., Price, E.M., Wang, L.,Wilson, S.L.,Terry, J., Robinson, WP. DNA methylation profiling of acutechorioamnionitis-associated placentas and fetal membranes: insights into epigenetic variation in spontaneouspreterm births. Epigenetics and Chromatin. 11 (1), 63. 2018.
Leavey, K.,Wilson, S.L., Robinson, W.P., Cox, B. Epigenetic Regulation of Placental Gene Expression in Tran-scriptional Subclasses of Preeclampsia. Clinical Epigenetics. 10 (1), 28. 2018.
Magee, L.A., Synnes A., von Dadelszaen, P., Hutfield, A., Chainoine, J.P., Cote, A.M., Devlin, A., Dorling, J., Gafni, A., Ganzevoort, W., Gruslin, A., Helewa, M., Hutton, E., Koren,G., Lee, S.K., McArthur, D., Rey, E., Robinson, W.P., Roseboom, T., Singer, J., Wilson S.L., Moutquin, J.M., and CHIPS-Child Study consortium. CHIPS-Child: Testing the developmental programming hypothesis in the offspring of the CHIPS Trial. Pregnancy and Hypertension. 14, 15-22. 2017.
Wilson, S.L., Leavey, K., Cox, B., Robinson, W.P. Mining DNA methylation alteration towards classification ofplacental pathologies. Human Molecular Genetics. 27 (1), 135-146. 2017.
Barha, C.K., Salvante, K., Hanna, C.W., Wilson, S.L., Robinson, W.P., Altman, R.M., Nepromnaschy, P. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and cellular aging in mothers. PLOS One. 12 (5), e0177869. 2016.
Wilson, S.L., Liu, Y., Robinson, W.P. Placental telomere length decline with gestational age differs by sex and TERT, DNMT1, and DNMT3A DNA methylation. Placenta. 48, 26-33. 2016.
Barha, C., Hanna, C.W., Salvante, K., Wilson, S.L., Robinson, W.P., Nepromnaschy,P. Number of Children andTelomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation. PLOS One. 11 (1), e0146424. 2016.
Wilson, S.L., Blair, J.D., Hogg, K., Langlois, S., von Dadelszen, P., Robinson, W.P. Placental DNA methylation atterm reflects maternal serum levels of INHA, but not PAPPA or FN1, early in pregnancy. BMC Medical Genetics. 16 (1), 111. 2015.
Reviews, proceedings, letters, and editorials
Wilson, S.L. and Wallingford, M. Epigenetic regulation of molecular reproduction in human and animal models. Molecular Human Reproduction. 7(7), gaab041. 2021.
Wilson, S.L., Way, G.P., Bittremieux, W., Armache, J-P., Haendel, M., Hoffman, M.M. Sharing biological data:Why, when and how. Federation of European Biochemical Societies Letters. 595 (7), 847-863. 2021.
Wilson, S.L., Robinson, W.P. Utility of DNA methylation to assess placental health.. Trophoblast Research. 64, S23-S28. 2017.
Manokhina, I., Konwar, C., Del Gobbo, G.F., Wilson, S.L., Robinson, W.P. Placental biomarkers for assessingfetal health.. Human Molecular Genetics. 26 (R2), R237-R245. 2017.
Albrecht, C., Baker, J.C., Blundell, C., Chavez, S.L., Carbone, L., Chamley, L. Hannibal, R.L., Illsley, N., Kurre,P., Laurent, L.C., McKenzie, C., Morales-Prieto, D., Pantham, P., Paquette, A., Powell, K., Price, N., Rao, BM.,Sadovsky, Y., Salomon, C., Tuteja, G., Wilson, S., O’Tierney-Ginn, P.F. IFPA meeting 2016 workshop report 1:Genomic communication, bioinformatics, trophoblast biology and transport systems. Placenta. 60, S5-S9. 2017.
Manokhina, I., Wilson, S.L., Robinson, W.P. Non-invasive nucleic-acid based approaches to monitor placentalhealth in pregnancy. American Journal of Obstetics and Gynecology. 213 (4), S197-S206. 2015.
Cohen, ASA., Wilson, S.L., Trinh, J., Ye, X.C. Detecting Somatic Mosaicism: Considerations and Clinical Implications. Clinical Genetics. 87 (6), 554-562. 2014.
Book chapters
- Robinson, W.P., Penaherrera, M.S., Konwar, C., Yuen, V., Wilson, SL.. Epigenetic Modifications in the Human Placenta. Human Reproductive and Prenatal Genetics .Elsevier. 293-311. 2019
Theses
- Wilson, S.L. Genetic and epigenetic profiling of placental insufficiency: identifying biomarkers of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction. University of British Columbia. 2017
Funding
Research grants
Accelerator grant in genome medicine, McLaughlin Centre, University of Toronto. Genome-wide cell-free DNA methylation enrichment and sequencing for preeclampsia diagnosis. Role: Co-investigator. 2019-2020
CIHR project grant, Canadian Institute of Health Research. DNA methylation profiling in cell-free DNA: a non-invasive method to screen for pre-term birth. Role: Co-investigator. 2019-2024
Salary awards
CIHR Fellowship, Canadian Institute of Health Research. 2020-2023
Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation Fellowship, Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation. 2019-2021
Princess Margaret Postdoctoral Fellowship, Princess Margaret Cancer Research Centre. 2018-2019
UBC Four Year Doctoral Fellowship, University of British Columbia. 2015-2019
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Graduate Studentship, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. 2014-2016
NSERC Undergraduate Research Student Award, National Sciences of Engineering Research Council. 2011
Awards
Presentation awards
Elsevier Placenta New Investigator Award, International Federation of Placenta Association. Best oral presentation at the IFPA 2021 meeting. 2021
JW Knox Ritchie Research Award, University of Toronto, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Best poster presentation by a postdoctoral fellow. 2019
Medical Genetics Research Day Poster Prize, University of British Columbia, Department of Medical Genetics. 2017
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Poster Presentation Award, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. 2017
CIHR Poster Presentation Award Silver at Canadian Student Health Research Forum, Canadian Institute of Health Research. 2017
Elsevier Trophoblast Research New Investigator Award, International Federation of Placenta Association. Awarded to the top poster presentation (>200 presenters). Along with the award, was invited as a plenary speaker to IFPA 2017 meeting in Manchester, UK, and invited to write a review article on my work in placental DNA methylation in the Trophoblast Research Journal. 2016
Academic Day Best Oral Presentation,University of British Columbia, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2016
Medical Genetics Research Day Poster Prize, University of British Columbia, Department of Medical Genetics. 2015
Teaching awards
- Teaching Assistant Award, University of British Columbia, Department of Medical Genetics. 2017 & 2014
Travel awards
Elsevier New Investigator Travel Award, International Federation of Placenta Association. 2021
CIHR Institute Community Support Travel Award, Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health, Canadian Institute of Health Research. 2019
CIHR Travel Award, Canadian Institute of Health Research. Nominated as being within the top 5% of doctoral students. 2017
Loke Travel Award, International Federation of Placenta Association. 2016
BC Children’s Hospital Research Methodology Grant, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. 2016
CEEHRC Travel Award, Canadian Epigenetics, Environment and Health Research Consortium Network. 2016
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Travel Grant, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. 2015
Wellcome Trust Epigenomics of Common Diseases Travel Bursary, Wellcome Trust. 2014
Disclosures
Patent Applications
International Patent Application No. PCT/CA2020/051507 SYNTHETIC SPIKE-IN CONTROLS FOR CELL-FREE MEDIP SEQUENCING AND METHODS OF USING SAME. November 6, 2020.
Media
Science Expert, The Science Pawdcast
February 2020
The Science Pawdcast is an online podcast run by high school chemistry teacher, Jason Zackowski, featuring his twitter science dog, Bunsen the Bernese mountain dog. The podcast aims to make science accessible and engaging to the public. I was interviewed as a science expert in episode 3 of season 2.
Social links and contact information