Steffany Bennett MSc, PhD

Dr. Steffany Bennett is a lipid biochemist and systems neurobiologist working to block the pathological changes in brain lipid metabolism that precipitate pediatric and geriatric neurodegenerative disease. She received her Ph.D in Biochemistry at the University of Ottawa and post-doctoral training at the W. Alton Cell Science Centre and Harvard Medical School. She is a Full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of Ottawa, an Affiliate Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, the Associate Director (Education) of the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology and the Director of the STIHR/CIHR Training Program in Neurodegenerative Lipidomics. Her team is pioneering the emerging field of neurolipidomics.

Her applied research focuses on developing methodologies in super-resolution imaging (stimulated emission depletion STED), liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS), and bioinformatics to study membrane metabolism. Her basic and translational research programs focuses on (a) identifying circulating phospholipids and glycolipids at the molecular level that predict neurodegenerative disease conversion, (b) mechanistically determining how changes in these structural and second messenger lipids signal neurodegeneration, and (c) establishing whether these changes can be targeted therapeutically using both pharma and natural health products to resist neurodegenerative disease.