News
Winter 2025:
Celebrating our paper just published online at Nature Communications!
Here we identified a protein called SLC25A38 as a key regulator of mitochondrial PLP levels using a genome-wide CRISPRi screen and organellar metabolomics. These findings show how SLC25A38 helps maintain PLP levels in mitochondria and reveals its potential connection to certain blood disorders, such as congenital sideroblastic anemia, suggesting a possible new therapeutic route to further explore.
Winter 2024:
Celebrating Rahima's success on completing her MSc in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at uOttawa! We are so proud of you! :)
Welcome Kate Daniel joining our lab as a joint technician for the Pena/Beug labs at CHEO-RI!
Fall 2024:
Welcoming three wonderful additions to our lab:
Sujata Pokharel as a joint technician for Pena/Berman labs at CHEO-RI!
Maanas Vankalapati, MSc student (uOttawa-CMM/NSC)
Justin Nguyen (uOttawa TMM undergradutate student)
Aug 2024:
CHEO-RI golf day a success and a ton of fun as always!
Jul 2024:
Summer barbecue and volleyball day at Dr. Alain's place with the newest additions of our lab!
Spring 2024:
We welcome Pallavi More (uOttawa PhD student, BMI program), jointly to Pena lab/NSO R&D!!
Welcoming Isabella Arlotta (uOttawa undergrad student, Health Sciences) our team!
Sep 2023:
Welcoming Rahima Hasmani, MSc student (uOttawa-CMM) to our team!
Aug 2023:
We had a blast golfing with the CHEO-RI (even dressed as a scientist!!)
Summer 2023:
The CHEO Student Wellness Committee organized a super fun science olympics and we had a ton of fun! Our team "Gene-ius Squad" came as a super close second place! haha
July 2023:
Welcoming Dr Simran Kaur, postdoc joining our team!
Summer 2023:
Moving to Ottawa-ON, Canada to start the Pena Lab at CHEO-RI.
2021:
Picower institute (MIT) news article from September 2nd, reporting my participation on a first pitch ceremony by the Boston Red Sox on the historical Fenway park to celebrate our efforts on science communication for vaccine awareness. I was there representing the volunteers that received the first covid19 mRNA vaccines as part of the Moderna clinical trials. What an honor!
2020:
1. MIT cover article of May 3rd, 2020 talking about my efforts to fight COVID19 misinformation:
2019:
I was selected as one of the ten 2019 Pew Latin American fellows !
See my Pew profile here:
The Whitehead Institute has a series of profiles of its postdoctoral fellows. Here is my interview:
2018:
Best Oral Presentation Award at the 10th Postdoctoral Research Day organized by the Postdoctoral Association of the Faculty of Medicine (University of Ottawa).
Picture: Best oral presentation winners, 10th Postdoctoral Research Day (March/2018). Only girl!!
2017:
Genes to Genomes blog about our Zebrafish model of PDE : http://genestogenomes.org/zebrafish-offer-hope-for-understanding-severe-form-of-epilepsy/
Our paper is the highlight of the December/2017 edition of Genetics! See here.
Check the final version of the article here: http://www.genetics.org/content/genetics/207/4/1501.full.pdf
CHEO Telethon live 2017 - Izabella Pena explaining her epilepsy research projects at CHEO in a simple way and showing what "mad scientists" do:
Celebrating the support of the Canadian government to open science and structural biology: https://www.simcoe.com/news-story/7368922--open-science-is-freedom-genomics-consortium-receives-33m-boost/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6280150093182103552
Photo: CHEO researcher Izabella Pena shows Ministers Reza Moridi and Kirsty Duncan a 3D protein structure model, at the announcement of $33 million invested in the Structural Genomics Consortium. C/O Genome Canada
I received the best oral presentation at the Brain Health Research Day 2017 organized by the Brain and Mind Research Institute of the University of Ottawa :)
Picture: Collaborators Yann Roussell (PhD student, best poster award) and Prof. Tuan Bui and Izabella Pena at the BHRD 2017.
Advocating for Rare Diseases in the Genomics on the Hill event:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/genetic-rare-disease-rsearch-1.3968566
CTV Morning live - Izabella Pena, Nafisa Tasnim and Lynn Kyte talking with Sarah Freemark about science and promoting the CHEO Telethon:
http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1136068&binId=1.1487308&playlistPageNum=1
2016:
Izabella received the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 8th Postdoctoral Research Day organized by the Postdoctoral Association of the Faculty of Medicine (University of Ottawa).
8th Postdoctoral Research Day (2016)
