The Hynes Lab
Disrupting the neuroscience of addiction
Simon Fraser University
Dr. Tristan Hynes
Principal Investigator
​Dr. Hynes is a behavioural neuroscientist who wants to know why everybody uses drugs but only some become addicted. He views addiction as disorder of aberrant learning, where those with an addictive disorder may learn too well. By uncovering how neurobiology and biological sex contribute to learning in health and disease, he aims to connect fundamental discoveries about brain function with personalised and precision treatments for addiction. ​Before joining Simon Fraser University, Dr. Hynes was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where he worked with Professor David Belin to reveal new roles for astrocytes in shaping the neurochemical pathways that underlie opioid use disorder. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of British Columbia with Professor Catharine Winstanley, where he investigated how dopamine and reward cues influence gambling-like behaviour. Dr. Hynes has also spent time in the private sector, working at the intersection of therapeutic biotechnology and engineering.
Kimberley Marty
SFU MA Student (NSERC-funded)
Kim wants to know why people make bad decisions (e.g., gamble and doom scroll) and how females and males differ in this regard. In both popular and top secret in development animal models of decision making, Kim records brain activity using fluorescent biosensors and fibre photometry. Kim is in search of the neural signature of a bad decision, and she thinks this signature might differ between females and males. When she finds it, she is going to deploy a closed-loop optical intervention to quell the signal and prevent a bad decision before it happens. Before joining the Hynes Lab, Kim worked with Drs. Daniela Palombo, Fidel Vila-Rodriguez, & Peter Suedfeld at the University of British Columbia. Kim got interested in the biological basis of addiction when she took Dr. Hynes' class "Brain & Behaviour." When not doing research, Kim can be found reading on her couch cuddled up with her two bunny rabbits.
Mary Hudson
SFU MA Student - Circadian Scientist in Residence
Mary is a master’s student based in the laboratory of legendary circadian biologist Dr. Ralph Mistlberger and is helping the Hynes Lab understand how time itself can trigger reward seeking. She studies circadian rhythms and how rewarding stimuli, such as food, can shape behaviour outside of the brain’s central clock (suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN). She is interested in the cellular mechanisms behind reward anticipation and how rhythmic clock gene expression interacts with dopaminergic reward circuits to influence addiction-like behaviour in rodent models. In the Hynes lab, she is exploring how circadian timing mechanisms and dopamine-dependent learning processes within the striatum may influence time-of-day-specific drug anticipation and vulnerability to addiction, including differences in both biological male and female rats. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with her three cats and two dogs, playing volleyball, and collecting unconventional art.
Artemis Kohanfekr
SFU Undergraduate Researcher
Artemis is a fourth-year Behavioural Neuroscience student at Simon Fraser University with research interests in neuropharmacology and neurotransmitter systems. She is particularly interested in addiction models, learning processes, and the neurochemical mechanisms that influence behaviour across neurological and psychiatric disorders. She also works with Dr. Brianne Kent on projects that use mouse models in the context of Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on learning and memory paradigms and pharmacological interventions. Her broader goal is to better understand how alterations in brain chemistry contribute to disorders of brain function. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, long walks, and true crime documentaries.
Gurkirat Singh Nijjar
Visiting Medical Student - Toronto Metropolitan University
​Gurkirat Singh Nijjar is a medical student at the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Medicine researching the neurobiology of addiction, focusing on glial cells and neural circuitry in substance use disorders. Formerly in Dr. Annie Ciernia’s lab at UBC, he explored translational research connecting neuroscience with improved prevention, treatment, and recovery for neuropsychiatric illness. He is the Founder and Managing Director of the Students Overcoming Substance Use Disorder and Addictions Society of Canada (SOUDA), a nonprofit promoting harm reduction and culturally safe substance use education. Through multilingual workshops in English and Punjabi, he has trained over 30,000 people in overdose prevention. In his free time, he plays field hockey with
the Surrey Raiders Field Hockey Club.
Juniper Quin
SFU Undergraduate Researcher
Juniper is a fourth year undergraduate psychology student who brings both previous academic training and frontline experience to her research interest in the neurological processes underlying addiction. In particular, she’s curious about how CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, in vivo dual-colour fibre photometry, and chemogenetics can help us better understand the role of astrocytic and neuronal dopamine transporter (DAT) in the development, maintenance, and remission of compulsive behaviour in the context of opioid and social media addiction. Juniper draws inspiration from previous employment in community-based mental health and addiction recovery settings, and from collaborating with Indigenous and Iranian communities in developing culturally safe community-building and mental health services. She is committed to contributing to research that advances more effective and accessible interventions. In her free time you can find Juniper reading poetry, playing her daf, or hiking.
Dana Braynina
SFU Undergraduate Researcher
As someone who had close loved ones affected by addiction, Dana is deeply interested in understanding why certain individuals are more vulnerable than others, what individual differences in neural circuitry underlie this susceptibility, and how we might intervene. She finds it fascinating that astrocytes, once thought to be just support cells, actively influence maladaptive learning. She hopes that her contributions will advance understanding of these mechanisms and inform more precise, personalized intervention strategies. Outside the lab, Dana loves exploring new hobbies and challenging herself - this year alone, she's taken up pole dancing, rock climbing, acting, and Krav Maga.
Chanelle Wong
SFU Undergraduate Researcher
Chanelle Wong is a fourth-year Behavioural Neuroscience student at Simon Fraser University, also completing a Certificate in Forensic Sciences. Her research explores how learning and motivation processes in the brain influence addiction and guide patient-centered treatments. As a Research Assistant in the Azar Lab at Vancouver General Hospital, she has supported projects improving accessibility and patient experience in opioid use disorder care, gaining insight into the structural barriers and stigma shaping outcomes. In the Hynes Lab, she hopes to connect community-based findings with molecular and behavioural research on learning. Outside academics, Chanelle enjoys baking, horseback riding, paddle boarding, and teaching her dog new tricks.
Sofiia Shevchuk
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher - University of Cambridge
Sophiia is deeply interested in learning about the neurobiology behind emotion and motivation, in particular about the dopamine system and reward, and how this can be used to understand addiction. Sofiia worked under Dr. Hynes at the University of Cambridge and is now a visiting researcher in his lab at Simon Fraser University. Sofiia was the first to use CRISPR/Cas9 to delete the dopamine transporter from astrocytes of the striatum. She has come to Canada to use spatial transcriptomics and in vivo dopamine reuptake assays to show exactly what this transporter can do. Fun fact: she was a social media manager for a light bulb company.
Daniel Wood
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher - University of Cambridge
Daniel is a Cambridge-educated mathematician who is interested in researching the application of image processing software to RNAscope - in particular, the algorithms used in these software, the mathematics behind them, and how they may be optimised. Fun fact about Daniel: when he was a kid he had 10 guinea pigs, and he would try give them "IQ tests" to do. Usually they just ran away. Daniel thinks that by producing a GUI for the RNAscope imaging software, he will make a real-world impact by making the software more accessible and easier to use, removing the requirement of having programming knowledge to use it.
Abira Raza
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher - University of British Columbia
I'm a fourth-year undergraduate fascinated by the neuroscience of addiction — specifically how dopaminergic signalling shapes reward processing and vulnerability to addictive behaviours. Professor Hynes' work, particularly "Clueless about Clues," pulled me out of the classroom and into the deeper, messier questions I actually want to spend my time on. When I'm not thinking about the brain, I'm usually painting or falling down rabbit holes of art history from corners of the world I haven't visited yet.
Rya Reed
Visiting Thesis Student - Whitman College
Rya took a rhetoric class on drugs and drug policy which expanded her view greatly on the loaded history of drugs and drug addiction. The things she learned in the class showed her this is an area she is deeply interested in, and something she wants to continue to learn about. She then took what she learned and applied it to the psychology and biology classes she is taking for her program, to see how all of that knowledge can intersect. The idea that there are neuronal differences that could lead someone to be predisposed to addiction is something that intrigues her, and aligns well with the work happening in Hynes Lab. Being from Vancouver, Rya witnessed the opioid crisis firsthand, and the devastating impact it has on individuals and the community as a whole. Having the opportunity to contribute to research trying to understand what might cause addiction, would be able to reach so far beyond just the lab and help the people in society who need that support. Research that is focused in this area has the capability to change lives, and that would be in the forefront of Rya's mind for any research she takes part in. Something fun about Rya is that she has recently picked the guitar back up again. She played in a rock band for multiple years when she was younger, and has begun taking lessons again.
Ketan Mann
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher - University of Saskatchewan
Ketan is a recent honours graduate in Psychology from the University of Saskatchewan. Through her honours project and summer research experiences, she found a love for hands-on research. She is interested research interests focus on decision making and the cognitive and social factors that shape vulnerability to addiction. In the Hynes Lab, she hopes to contribute to addiction research that is inclusive and meaningful. Her previous volunteer experiences with marginalized communities has taught her the importance of compassionate and individualized care, values that she aims to carry into her research practice. Outside of school and research, Ketan loves to travel and try foods from different cultures; this is why Vancouver is such a special place to her, as it brings together diverse people, cuisines, and cultures.
Sophia Gorman
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher - University of British Columbia
Since beginning her studies of Psychology Sophia has had an interest in behavioural neuroscience, but that interest was solidified after taking Dr. Hynes' class "Brain & Behaviour." In particular, she is interested in the neural mechanisms behind addiction. This is because studying these mechanisms can lead to a development of different medications or behavioural techniques that can support people who face addiction. She would like to be a part of helping to advance the research in this field as a way of helping others. Aside from her research interests, while completing her bachelors degree, she was a part of the UBC Dance Team as well as dance teams outside of the university such as the Uproar Dance Team.
Kayla Ji
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher - Queen's University
Kayla is a Health Sciences student at Queen’s University interested in the neurobiology of addiction and pharmacological foundations of treatment. She is particularly drawn to the Hynes Lab’s work on astrocytes and dopamine transporters and how these contribute to individual differences in vulnerability to addiction. She hopes to gain experience with the techniques and animal models that connect cellular mechanisms to real-world behaviour and wishes to contribute to precise and personalized addiction treatment research. Outside academics, Kayla is involved with her local air cadet squadron and enjoys playing percussion, running, and listening to music.
Zoraiz Irfan
SFU Undergraduate Researcher
Zoraiz is a Cognitive Science student at Simon Fraser University, and he is interested in behaviour, cognition, and how scientific research can be used to better understand real world challenges and help address them in meaningful ways. What truly fascinates him about research is the opportunity to connect careful, hands-on experimental work with practical impact, whether that is improving knowledge or contributing to more thoughtful and inclusive approaches. Through experiences in volunteer leadership, event coordination, and customer facing roles, he has built strong communication, organization, and teamwork skills, and has learned how important it is to be reliable when working with others. Aside from academics, Zoraiz genuinely enjoys being in team-oriented and community-based environments, so he values spaces where people can learn from one another and contribute in a meaningful way. He believes he could bring a dependable work ethic and a strong willingness to learn, while contributing to research that stands to make a real difference.