Penney Gilbert

Biography

Penney is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and holds cross-appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and the Donnelly Centre at the University of Toronto. Penney obtained her BSc (1999) from Haverford College and her PhD (2006) from the University of Pennsylvania in the area of cell biology and mammary oncogenesis. Following this she switched research focus and became a postdoctoral fellow with Helen Blau at Stanford University in California working in the field of skeletal muscle stem cells under the support of an NIH Pathway to Independence K99/R00 Award. In 2012, Penney was recruited to the University of Toronto where her research program is focused on skeletal muscle endogenous repair. Her team engineers and studies three-dimensional models of human skeletal muscle and explores muscle stem cell mechanobiology with the goal of identifying signaling pathways that can be tweaked to boost the function of skeletal muscle stem cells in the body. Her lab was supported by grants from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Connaught Fund, and U of T Faculty of Medicine Dean’s Fund. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Ontario Research Fund, Medicine by Design CFREF, and an Early Researcher Award from MRI currently support her work. At the University of Toronto Penney is Chair of the IBBME Distinguished Seminar Series, and she is a member of the IBBME Curriculum Committee, the Collaborative Program in Developmental Biology Steering Committee, and Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy Animal Care Committee. Penney has been involved with OIRM as a member of the Governing Council and is an Associate Member of the American Society for Cell Biology Women in Cell Biology Committee.

Research Interest

Skeletal muscle regenerative medicine