Dr. Swayne is Professor in the Division of Medical Sciences. She trained as a cell biologist and neuroscientist, completing her BSc in Biological Science at the University of Guelph, PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Calgary, and postdoctoral studies as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Montpellier (France), and Vision 2010 Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa (Canada). She joined the Division of Medical Sciences at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 2011. Dr. Swayne was a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar from 2014 to 2019.
The Swayne Lab investigates the roles of ion channel-associated signalling hubs in brain and heart cell development and disease. She also recently developed an interest in neuroinflammation stemming from her work on the pannexin 1 ATP-release channel. Current projects range from synapse stability in development and disease, cellular signalling processes involved in the regulation of membrane deformation, cardiomyocyte differentiation, and COVID-19-associated neuroinflammation. Her team uses a combination of advanced microscopy (live and fixed confocal and super-resolution microscopy), proteomics, as well as classic cell biology and biochemistry approaches.