Dr. Loucks has experience uncovering genetic causes for rare disorders from her BHSc/MSc work at the University of Calgary, under the supervision of Drs. Micheil Innes and Jillian Parboosingh. She then sought to explore biological consequences of uncovered genetic associations by pursuing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Michel Leroux at Simon Fraser University, using the simple roundworm, C. elegans, as a model. Dr. Loucks then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, where she worked with Dr. Bruce Carleton and the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety (CPNDS) to understand how genetic variation contributes to individual responses to a variety of medications.
Currently, Catrina’s work is focused on exploring the genetic basis of heterogeneous drug responses in pain management for women+ and children. Specifically, she is working to identify genetic factors that can help predict an individual’s need for, and subsequent response to, opioid and non-opioid analgesics. Ultimately, her work will allow for more individualized risk-benefit decisions for pain management, while also contributing to the discovery of novel components of pain response pathways that could pave the way for novel pain management strategies to increase pain relief while also avoiding harm.

Appointments