Dr. Swayne is a cell biologist and neuroscientist who completed her BSc in Biological Science at the University of Guelph and her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Calgary. After training as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Montpellier (France), and as a 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.
Her work focuses primarily on investigating the roles of ion channels and their interacting proteins in brain and heart cell development, and uses a combination of advanced microscopy and biochemistry approaches.
In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Swayne is dedicated to academic leadership and service. For example, she is currently serving as a Canadian representative on the IBRO US/Canada Regional Committee and as Secretary for the Canadian Association for Neuroscience. She also recently co-organized and co-chaired the 2019 International Gap Junction Conference in Victoria, BC.
Dr. Swayne is a strong proponent of having activities “outside of the lab” and enjoys several hobbies including powerlifting and painting.