Dr. Catrina Loucks
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, UBC; Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Dr. Catrina Loucks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia. Additionally, she is an Investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. She has experience uncovering genetic causes for rare disorders from her MSc work at the University of Calgary, under the supervision of Drs. Micheil Innes and Jillian Parboosingh. She then sought to explore functional impacts of uncovered genetic mutations by pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Michel Leroux at Simon Fraser University, using the simple roundworm, C. elegans, as a model. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, Catrina worked with Dr. Bruce Carleton and the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety to understand how genetic variation contributes to variable responses to medication. Currently, she is working to improve pain management in women and children by identifying genetic factors that can help predict an individual’s need for, and subsequent response to, specific analgesics. Additionally, she is working to translate genetic discoveries into improvements in clinical care. Together, her work will allow for more individualized risk-benefit decisions for pain management in women and children, while also contributing to the discovery of novel components of pain response pathways that could pave the way for improved pain management strategies with increased safety and effectiveness.
Dr. Catrina Loucks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia. Additionally, she is an Investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. She has experience uncovering genetic causes for rare disorders from her MSc work at the University of Calgary, under the supervision of Drs. Micheil Innes and Jillian Parboosingh. She then sought to explore functional impacts of uncovered genetic mutations by pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Michel Leroux at Simon Fraser University, using the simple roundworm, C. elegans, as a model. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, Catrina worked with Dr. Bruce Carleton and the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety to understand how genetic variation contributes to variable responses to medication. Currently, she is working to improve pain management in women and children by identifying genetic factors that can help predict an individual’s need for, and subsequent response to, specific analgesics. Additionally, she is working to translate genetic discoveries into improvements in clinical care. Together, her work will allow for more individualized risk-benefit decisions for pain management in women and children, while also contributing to the discovery of novel components of pain response pathways that could pave the way for improved pain management strategies with increased safety and effectiveness.
