Engelbrecht, Hannah-Ruth

Engelbrecht, Hannah-Ruth

PhD (Genome Science and Technology, University of British Columbia), MSc Med (Human Genetics, University of Cape Town)

Department of Biological Sciences

Biography:

Dr. Hannah-Ruth Engelbrecht is a postdoctoral fellow at SFU working with Dr. Julian Christians (SFU) and Dr. Wendy Robinson (UBC). She completed her MSc at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), where she studied the role of genetic variants in bipolar disorder. Hannah-Ruth completed her PhD at UBC in 2026, and investigated DNA methylation-based biomarkers of healthy aging in a Canadian cohort and “longevity hot spots” in Costa Rica, Sardinia, and Ikaria. She is interested in sex differences in health and aging across the life course, and the influence of these factors on DNA methylation. Hannah-Ruth aims to contribute to our understanding of biological differences in sex at chromosomal and physiological levels, and how socially gendered exposures also contribute to DNA methylation differences that are not explicitly sex-related.

Research Themes:

Newborn Health Global Health Genomics and Personalized Health

Find another Researcher

The Women’s Health Research Institute would like to acknowledge that we are uninvited guests on the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lo, and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.

As a provincial research institute committed to improving the health outcomes of women, including those across the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum, we recognize our responsibility in the collective effort towards establishing culturally safe health care systems and services that address health inequities among Indigenous peoples, especially Indigenous women, girls, and Two-spirit peoples.

We encourage all people involved in research to read both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action and the In Plain Sight Report, and reflect on ways we can incorporate the recommendations into our work. As we gather in spaces together, we encourage you to reflect on your positionality on these lands and your personal commitments to reconciliation.

Top