BRIDGE Lab

Research Team

Principal Investigator

Tatyana Mollayeva, MD, PhD

  • Canada Research Chair (Tier 2)
  • Scientist, KITE Research Institute
  • Affiliate Professor, University of Toronto

Research Focus

Dr. Mollayeva’s research advances understanding of neurological disorders and brain health across the lifespan, with particular emphasis on sleep, traumatic brain injury, and health equity. Her work integrates epidemiology, rehabilitation science, and neuroscience to develop strategies that improve long-term outcomes and reduce the burden dementia.

  • Sleep and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
  • Neurological Disorders and Brain Health Equity
  • Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology
  • Dementia Prevention and Risk Reduction

Honors & Recognition:

  • Outstanding Reviewer (2025, 2026), Canadian Institutes of Health Research
  • Evidence Synthesis Best Researcher Award (2025), International AI Data Scientist Awards
  • Top Scholar (2023, 2024), ScholarGPS
  • Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Neurological Disorders and Brain Health (2022), Government of Canada
  • Joshua Cantor Scholar Award (2022), American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
  • Elio Lugaresi Award for Education (2017), World Sleep Congress
  • Full Membership, Sigma Xi (2022), The Scientific Research Honor Society
  • Robert D. Voogt Founders Award (2019), North America Brain Injury Society
  • Deborah L. Wilkerson Early Career Award (2015), American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine

Team Members

Michael Lewczuk
Research Clerk
Nada Ahmad
Undergraduate Trainee
Yupeng Yao
Undergraduate Trainee
Daniel Phan
Undergraduate Trainee
Rachel Spouge
Volunteer Graduate Trainee
Mia Fernando
STEM Pathways Trainee

Shaanuka Sasikumar
Undergraduate Trainee
Jacky Huo
Undergraduate Trainee

Melissa Biscardi
PhD Candidate
Rosie Namungo
STEM Pathways Trainee

Alumni

  • Explainable machine learning of PROGRESS-Plus social factors predicts cognitive trajectories after traumatic brain injury

  • Effects of sex and gender attributes on clinical and functional outcomes

  • Effects of sex and gender attributes on clinical and functional outcomes

  • PROGRESS-Plus and functional outcomes and life satisfaction after TBI

  • Cognitive outcomes among adults following traumatic brain injury: Using the PROGRESS-Plus framework to address inequities through knowledge synthesis and mobilization.

  • Traumatic brain injury: sex and gender in dementia

  • Traumatic Brain Injury: Sex and Gender Considerations Relevant to Rehabilitation

  • Gender in traumatic brain injury through community integration framework

  • Gender in traumatic brain injury through community integration framework

  • Digital technology to support informal caregivers: Matching the tools to the needs from a sex and gender perspective

  • Gender differences in work-related traumatic brain injury: a mixed-method investigation

  • Gender differences in work-related traumatic brain injury: a mixed-method investigation

  • Utility of Person-Environment-Occupation model in exploring sex-specific causes of work-related traumatic brain injury: a retrospective chart review

  • Utility of Person-Environment-Occupation model in exploring sex-specific causes of work-related traumatic brain injury: a retrospective chart review

  • Assessing measurements of sex and gender in clinical and functional outcomes

  • Sex Differences In Sleep Parameters of Disordered Subjects

  • Graphics and coordination for CIHR-IGH 2025 Summer Institute in Sex and Gender+ Science

  • Catering and translation services for CIHR-IGH 2025 Summer Institute in Sex and Gender+ Science

  • Sex difference in sleep markers in healthy humans across lifespan

  • Explainable machine learning of PROGRESS-Plus social factors predicts cognitive trajectories after traumatic brain injury

  • Assessing measurements of sex and gender in clinical and functional outcomes

  • Assessing measurements of sex and gender in clinical and functional outcomes

  • Cognitive outcomes among adults following traumatic brain injury: Using the PROGRESS-Plus framework to address inequities through knowledge synthesis and mobilization.

  • Sex difference in sleep markers in healthy humans across lifespan

  • Sex difference in sleep markers in healthy humans across lifespan

  • Evidence synthesis of why data presented in scientific abstracts is not published as full research paper

  • Sex difference in delta sleep in healthy humans across lifespan

  • The power of images: using infographics to promote patient and family understanding of sex and gender effects in traumatic brain injury

  • Interventions targeting cognitive deficits in person with primary central nervous system infection

  • Viral infection and cognition: Best evidence synthesis

  • Best evidence syntheses on bacterial infection of central nervous system on cognition: A systematic review

  • Central nervous system infections and cognitive disorders: a systematic review

  • Gender inequalities in traumatic brain injury: A mixed-method study from rehabilitation setting

  • PROGRESS in Traumatic Brain Injury: Finding resources to support recovery and care

  • PROGRESS in Traumatic Brain Injury: Finding resources to support recovery and care

  • Sex, gender, and PROGRESS-Plus parameters inclusion in traumatic brain injury research

  • Sex, gender, and PROGRESS-Plus parameters inclusion in traumatic brain injury research

Lab News

Congratulations, Mia and Rosie!

Congratulations to our recent UHN STEM Pathway graduates, Mia and Rosie, for their successful completion of their internships at the BRIDGE Lab and their wonderful research posters! We are excited to see what your future research careers hold in store!

Congratulations, Urooba!

Congratulations to our Research Clerk, Urooba Shaikh, for receiving the 2026 UHN RISE Award, and for acceptance to the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University! Warmest wishes as you embark on your medical school journey!

Congratulations, Yupeng!

Warm congratulations to Yupeng for completion of his undergraduate degree at University of Toronto! Wishing Yupeng all the best as he travels to Hong Kong to pursue a PhD in Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Clinical Medicine!

Congratulations, Thaisa!

We’re incredibly proud to celebrate our former trainee and research analyst, Thaisa, for receiving the prestigious Excellence in Health Equity Research Award by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM)!