Ryan is currently pursing a PhD in the Experimental Medicine program at UBC where his research focuses on the interaction between environmental exposures and frontline asthma medications. Specifically, he is investigating how air pollution interrupts the function of inhaled corticosteroids in asthmatic airways in a controlled human exposure study (DIGR). The aim of this research is to guide treatment and prevention policies with the hope of reducing asthma exacerbations, as well as identify air pollution-associated molecular pathways that could potentially be therapeutically targeted.

Previously Ryan received his Bachelor of Medical Sciences in Biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario, and completed his MSc in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia in 2015 under the supervision of Dr. Marco Marra at the Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre. His MSc thesis focused on using genome-engineering tools to investigate the gene KMT2D, which encodes an epigenetic modifier frequently mutated in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Outside of the lab Ryan is an avid long distance runner, hiker, and skier.