Updated: Mon, 10/07/2024 - 21:42

From Saturday, Oct. 5 through Tuesday, Oct. 8, the Downtown and Macdonald Campuses will be open only to McGill students, employees and essential visitors. Many classes will be held online. Remote work required where possible. See Campus Public Safety website for details.


Du samedi 5 octobre au mardi 8 octobre, le campus du centre-ville et le campus Macdonald ne seront accessibles qu’aux étudiants et aux membres du personnel de l’Université McGill, ainsi qu’aux visiteurs essentiels. De nombreux cours auront lieu en ligne. Le personnel devra travailler à distance, si possible. Voir le site Web de la Direction de la protection et de la prévention pour plus de détails.

Felix Mathew

Felix Mathew
Contact Information
Email address: 
felix.mathew [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Degree(s): 

BSc, Physics, University of Delhi (2017)

MSc, Medical Physics, McGill University (2019)

PhD, Medical Physics, McGill University (in progress)

Graduate supervision: 

Principal supervisor: Dr. John Kildea

Current research: 

It is well known that radiation poses a risk of carcinogenesis, which is ultimately a result of mutagenesis in the human genome. Therefore, understanding the underlying biophysical mechanisms of carcinogenesis/mutagenesis always has merit especially when thinking about avoiding radiation-induced cancer. Thus, with this research, we are trying to identify how different radiation induces genomic mutations in cells and if they have distinguishable characteristics that can be used to identify the radiation type involved.

Our idea is to look at the genomic sequence of irradiated human cells using the single-cell whole-genome sequencing (ScWGS) technique. Because radiation interaction is a stochastic process, each cell experiences radiation differently and will have unique mutation profiles. Therefore, we look at the genome of every individual cell one by one using ScWGS. We hope to identify the mutation signature of high-LET neutrons at the end of this work. Apart from getting more insights into radiation carcinogenesis, the findings from this project will be significant in the field of radiation risk assessment and biodosimetry especially in the event of an unforeseen radiation accident.

Areas of interest: 

Radiation-induced carcinogenesis, Neutron RBE, Radiobiology of high- and low-LET radiation, Single-cell whole-genome sequencing, Natural language processing and machine learning 6. Monte Carlo simulation studies, Open science

Selected publications: 

F. Mathew, H. Wang, L. Montgomery, J. Kildea, J. Natural language processing and machine learning to assist radiation oncology incident learning, J. Appl. Clin. Med. Phys. 222.11(172-84) (2021). www.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.13437.

F. Mathew, C. Chilian, L. Montgomery, J. Kildea, Development of a passive gold-foil nested neutron spectrometer to validate the active current-mode He-3 measurements in a high neutron flux radiotherapy environment, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A. 985(164662) (2021). www.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.164662

F. Mathew, G. Almakdessi, L. Montgomery, M. Evans, J. Kildea, The impact of treatment parameter variation on secondary neuron spectra in high-energy electron beam radiotherapy, Physica Medica 80(125133) (2020). www.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2020.10.016

L. Montgomery, G. Landry, G. Almakdessi, F. Mathew, J. Kildea, A novel MLEM stopping criterion for unfolding neutron fluence spectra in radiation therapy, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A. 957(163400) (2020). www.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.163400

Awards, honours, and fellowships: 

Graduate Excellence Fellowship, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University

James O. and Maria Meadows Fellowship, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University

BBME Excellence Award BBME, McGill University

3MT - 2nd Prize and Peoples’ Choice Award, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)

Oral Presentation - 1st Prize, BBME, McGill University

Junior Investigator Award, Council of Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards (CIRMS)

Mary H Brown Endowment, McGill University

Graduate Excellence Fellowship, Medical Physics Unit, McGill University

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