Research
Researchers at CCT have several years of experience in working with cannabis, cannabis-derived products and cannabinoids, in research and in the clinic.
CCT Researchers have research license to work with cannabis and derived products from Health Canada, and have proven track record of undertaking large research projects navigating the regulatory guidelines for preclinical and clinical research.
CCT Co-Leads: Hance A. Clarke, MD, PhD, and Lakshmi P. Kotra, B.Pharm., PhD.
Anuj Bhatia, MBBS, DNB, MD
Clinician-Scientist
Robert Bonin, PhD
Assistant Professor
Hance Clarke, MD, PhD
Clinician-Scientist
Peter L. Carlen, MD, FRCPC
Clinician-Scientist
Joseph Fiorellino, MSc, MD
Clinician-Scientist
Eleanor N. Fish, PhD
Senior Scientist and Professor
Andrea Furlan, MD, PhD
Clinician-Scientist
Mohit Kapoor, PhD
Professor and Senior Scientist
Lakshmi Kotra, BPharm, PhD
Professor and Senior Scientist
Karim Ladha, MSc, MD
Clinician Scientist
Timothy Leroux, MD, PhD
Clinician-Scientist
Orit Zamir, MD
Clinician-Scientist
Mandeep Singh, MD, MSc
Clinician-Scientist
Peter Tai, MD, FRCPC
Clinician-Scientist
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Dr. Bhatia is an Associate Professor at University of Toronto and Clinical Director, Acute and Chronic Pain Services at Toronto Western Hospital. His clinical and research interests include use of wearable technology and epidemiological tools for assessing outcomes of treatments for pain, fluoroscopy and ultrasound-guided procedures for chronic neuropathic, musculoskeletal, and cancer pain, and neuromodulation. He published over 50 papers, 6 book chapters, and co-authored two books on ultrasound-guided interventional pain procedures.
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Hance Clarke is the Director of Pain Services and the Pain Research Unit at the Toronto General Hospital(TGH). He is the Translation Chair for the University of Toronto Centre For the Study of Pain and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management. He is a champion of evidence-based solutions for the opioid crisis and a national pain and addictions strategy. He has been recognized for the development of the Transitional Pain Program and has authored over 100 peer reviewed publications.
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Peter Carlen obtained his MD from the U of Toronto and his internship and Internal Medicine training at McGill U, completing his Neurology training at the U of Toronto. He did postgraduate training in cellular electrophysiology at the Neurobiology Unit of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Carlen is a Professor in Medicine (Neurology), Physiology, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He has over 300 peer-reviewed biomedical publications and 6 patents. His main research interests are mechanisms, pharmacology (cannabinoids), and control of neural synchrony and entrainment in epilepsy, brain state classification, and using human cerebral organoids to study epilepsy. Dr. Carlen serves as a clinician at Toronto Western Hospital in the area of epilepsy.
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Dr. Joseph Fiorellino is a cardiac anesthesiologist appointed to the department of anesthesia and pain medicine at Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Fiorellino received his undergraduate degree from University of Toronto, graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors. He obtained a Master’s degree in Immunology from the University of Toronto. Dr. Fiorellino completed his medical degree at the University of Toronto and his anesthesia residency training at McMaster University. He completed a cardiac anesthesiology fellowship at Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Fiorellino was the recipient of the Hisham Zokari and Louis E. Garrido awards for clinical excellence. Dr. Fiorellino’s clinical interests include cardiac and transplant anesthesia, acute and chronic pain and the use of cannabis in the treatment of pain conditions.
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Dr. Fish is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiologists and a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Dr. Fish has received many international awards and has published more than 170 peer reviewed papers in international journals. Dr. Fish studies the interactions of cytokines, specifically interferons and chemokines, with their receptors in normal and diseased tissues and cells. Her research focuses on the host-pathogen interactions at the cellular and molecular level, specifically in the context of viruses and interferons. She also has extensive expertise in the area of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, her studies being directed towards understanding the mechanisms that drive the persistent aberrant immune response in these diseases.
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Dr. Andrea Furlan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and staff physician and scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. She is also Associate Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. Her research focus is on treatments of chronic pain including medications, complementary and alternative therapies, and rehabilitation. She was the team leader for the development of the Canadian Opioid Guideline, and is now involved with Guideline's National Faculty in dissemination and implementation of the guideline across Canada. She developed the Opioid Manager™, a point-of-care tool for physicians using opioids for chronic pain, which is available in many EMR platforms and as an App for iPad/iPhone. Dr. Furlan is a Co-Chair of Echo Ontario for Pain and Opioid Stewardship.
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Mohit Kapoor is the Director of the Arthritis Research Program (the largest Canadian Arthritis Research Program) at the University Health Network (Toronto), where he is directing basic, clinical, and translational research in orthopedics, rheumatology, hand and osteoporosis programs. He is the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Mechanisms of Joint Degeneration. His research is funded by various research organizations including the CIHR, Canada Research Chairs program, Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), NSERC, Krembil Foundation, The Arthritis Society, Stem Cell Network, etc. His work has been published in reputed journals including Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Annals of The Rheumatic Diseases, Nature Reviews Rheumatology.
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Kotra research group specializes in the areas of medicinal chemistry, preclinical and clinical development of small molecule and natural product-based drugs. Dr. Kotra is an inventor of several licensed technologies, authored/co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and delivered over 140 scientific and plenary talks globally. Dr. Kotra is a co-founder of WinSanTor Inc., CIDAVA Innovations Inc, CannScience Innovations, Inc. (now Scientus Pharma, Inc.). Dr. Kotra serves on the Board of Directors of WinSanTor Biosciences (San Diego, CA), Scientific Advisory Board of Montdorex Inc. (Montreal, Canada), and on the College of Reviewers at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, editorial boards of Molecules, and Current Medicinal Chemistry.
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Dr. Ladha was trained at John's Hopkins Univ, Mass. Gen. Hospital, and Harvard School of Public Health. Ladha research program uses mixed methodologies to obtain a multifaceted view of pain and recovery after surgery including retrospective analyses of administrative databases, prospective observational studies, and multi-center randomized controlled trials. He has a particular interest in the impact of cannabis on health outcomes and pain. His research has been published in top-tier journals including JAMA, BMJ, Br. J. Anesthesia and Anesthesiology. He has received numerous awards for his work including the International Anesthesia Research Society Mentored Research Award, a new investigator award from the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society and the IMPACT Award in anesthesia.
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Dr. Leroux is a Clinician Investigator in the Arthritis Program at the Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network; his clinical practice focuses largely on arthroscopic management of shoulder disorders and shoulder replacement. His current research focus includes understanding patterns of health care use among patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery, developing new models of health care delivery, and understanding the role cannabis plays in the management of pain and dysfunction secondary to osteoarthritis. He participates in several prospective multicenter trials evaluating the surgical management of common shoulder patholog. Dr. Leroux has over 60 peer-reviewed publications, has received large peer-reviewed research grants, and sits on the editorial board of the Arthroscopy Journal.
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Dr. Orit Zamir is a psychiatrist who has a special interest in chronic pain. She is a lecturer with the University of Toronto and works at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Women’s College Hospital as a pain psychiatry consultant and group facilitator.
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Dr. Mandeep Singh is a clinician-scientist and dual-certified in Sleep Medicine and Anesthesiology from University of Toronto and practices in both the disciplines. He holds a Masters degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Sciences Research. His current translational research interests include evaluating diagnostics, therapeutics and health care delivery systems to improved patient-cantered outcomes related to sleep heath disruption and chronic pain. His interest in cannabinoid therapeutics research has stemmed from the bidirectional relationship between sleep and chronic pain and how these agents can be utilized to better understand this relationship and improve the alit of life of patients with chronic pain.
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Dr Tai is a neurologist at Toronto Western Hospital with a specialization in Epilepsy, who was trained at the Columbia University Medical Centre’s Neurological Institute. He has founded the Toronto Western Hospital First Seizure Clinic, although his practice centres in particular on patients with medically intractable seizures. He has a special interest in the clinical management of medically intractable epilepsy patients, with a focus on the evaluation of patients for their candidacy for advanced treatments like epilepsy surgery. His interests now include other treatment options for such patients, including novel drug therapies such as cannabis. As a Clinician Teacher, Dr Tai also has educational responsibilities to medical students, interns, and neurology trainees.