Sutapa Mukherjee

Biographical Sketch

Dr Mukherjee is a Respirologist and Sleep physician with a strong research background in several diverse areas including epidemiology, lung malignancy and sleep medicine. She currently holds clinical appointments as a respirologist and sleep physician in the Department of Medicine, Division of Respirology at Women's College Hospital and UHN and is a Scientist (Assistant Professor, Clinician Investigator, University of Toronto) at the Women's College Research Institute.

She completed her Medical degree (MBBS 1989) at the University of Adelaide in Australia followed by Respirology specialist training and a PhD focussed on lung malignancy, at the University of Western Australia. Following her PhD, she undertook post-doctoral work at Harvard University in the area of respiratory and occupational epidemiology with an in depth study of biomarkers of oxidative injury in boilermakers and diesel bus mechanics. Most recently she co-founded the Western Australian Sleep Health Study, a sleep clinic cohort of over 5000 extensively phenotyped sleep apnoea patients which is a major international resource for study of genetic epidemiology of sleep apnoea and related diseases. In Toronto she continues her research in sleep and genetic epidemiology and lung malignancy. She is involved in international Sleep Genetics consortia and the Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology Web Committee of the American Thoracic Society.

She has a major role in the Ontario Health Study, a major general population cohort study, and has been appointed as Clinical Lead of this landmark Canadian study. As such she provides clinical and epidemiologic input to this study. Thus far over 225,000 subjects have been recruited to this study via completion of an online questionnaire. She holds responsibility for operationalizing the Ontario Health Study Assessment Centres, as Assessment Centre Working Group Chair, to allow physical measures including blood samples to be collected across Ontario from participants in the Ontario Health Study. She has also recently been appointed to the Scientific Steering Committee of the Ontario Health Study.

University Appointments

Assistant Professor, Clinician Investigator, University of Toronto, Scientist Women's College Research institute

Hospital Appointments

Women's College Hospital and University Health Network

Clinical Activities

All aspects of general respirology and sleep medicine with a particular focus on sleep apnea and its interrelationships to other diseases, COPD and asthma.

Educational Activities

University and Postgraduate teaching, invited seminars and lectures.

Current Local, Provincial, National and International Activities

Clinical Lead Ontario Health Study
Co-Chair of Sleep Working Group Ontario Health Study
Chair Assessment Centre Working Group Ontario Health Study
Member Questionnaire Working Group Ontario Health Study
Member Scientific Steering Committee Ontario Health Study
Member Clinic-based recruitment Ontario Health Study
Member Respiratory Working Group Ontario Health Study
Member Smoking cessation Steering Group collaborative for action in TAHSN hospitals
Member American Thoracic Society Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology Website Committee
Member Sleep Apnea Genetics International Consortium
Co-Chair International Sleep Genetics Epidemiology Consortium
Member Women's College Hospital Medicine, Quality and Operations Committee

Research Interests

Sleep Epidemiology and Genetic Epidemiology, Life-course epidemiology, Lung Malignancy, Smoking Cessation

Current Grant Support

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Investigator Award

Selected Recent Publications

Click here for search results from PubMed

1. Simpson L, Mukherjee S, Cooper M, Ward K, Lee J, Fedson A, Potter J, Hillman D, Eastwood P, Palmer LJ, Kirkness J. Sex differences in the association of regional fat distribution with the severity of obstructive sleep apnea Sleep 2010 Apr 1;33(4): 467-74
2. Mukherjee S, David Hillman, Jessica Lee, Annette Fedson, Laila Simpson, Kim Ward, Gregory Love, Cass Edwards, Bernadett Szegner, Lyle J. Palmer. Cohort Profile of the WA Sleep Health study. Sleep and Breathing. 2012; 16(1):205-15
3. Speliotes EK, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Wu J, Hernaez R, Kim LJ, Palmer CD, Gudnason V, Eiriksdottir G, Garcia ME, Launer LJ, Nalls MA, Clark JM, Mitchell BD, Shuldiner AR, Butler JL, Tomas M, Hoffmann U, Hwang SJ, Massaro JM, O'Donnell CJ, Sahani DV, Salomaa V, Schadt EE, Schwartz SM, Siscovick DS; NASH CRN; GIANT Consortium; MAGIC Investigators, Voight BF, Carr JJ, Feitosa MF, Harris TB, Fox CS, Smith AV, Kao WH, Hirschhorn JN, Borecki IB; GOLD Consortium. Genome-wide association analysis identifies variants associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that have distinct effects on metabolic traits. PLoS Genetics 2011;7(3):e1001324. Epub 2011 Mar 10.
4. Zhu H, Shyh-Chang N, Segrč AV, Shinoda G, Shah SP, Einhorn WS, Takeuchi A, Engreitz JM, Hagan JP, Kharas MG, Urbach A, Thornton JE, Triboulet R, Gregory RI; DIAGRAM Consortium; MAGIC Investigators, Altshuler D, Daley GQ.The Lin28/let-7 axis regulates glucose metabolism. Cell. 2011 Sep 30: 147(1): 81-94.
5. Fox CS, Liu Y, White CC, Feitosa M, Smith AV, Heard-Costa N, Lohman K; GIANT Consortium; MAGIC Consortium; GLGC Consortium, Johnson AD, Foster MC, Greenawalt DM, Griffin P, Ding J, Newman AB, Tylavsky F, Miljkovic I, Kritchevsky SB, Launer L, Garcia M, Eiriksdottir G, Carr JJ, Gudnason V, Harris TB, Cupples LA, Borecki IB. Genome-wide association for abdominal subcutaneous and visceral adipose reveals a novel locus for visceral fat in women. PLoS Genet. 2012 May;8(5):e1002695. Epub 2012 May 10.
6. Patel S; Goodloe R; Gourab De; Kowgier M; Weng Jia; Buxbaum S; Cade B; Fulop T; Gharib S; Gottlieb D; Hillman D; Larkin E; Lauderdale D; Li Li; Mukherjee S; Palmer L; Zee P; Zhu X; Redline S. Association of genetic loci with sleep apnea in European Americans and African-Americans: The Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe)". PLoS ONE (in press; accepted October 1st 2012)
7. Simpson L; Hillman D; Cooper M ; Ward K, Hunter M, Cullen S; James A, Palmer LJ; Mukherjee S ; Eastwood P. Control selection using the Berlin questionnaire and the methodological quandary of undiagnosed sleep apnoea in the general population. Sleep and Breathing (in press: accepted October 18th 2012)

Chapters and Monographs

1. Scott B, Mukherjee S, Lake R, McLaren B, Robinson B. Malignant mesothelioma. In: Textbook of Lung Cancer. Editor H. Hansen, London: Martin Dunitz; 2000; 273-293.
2. Sterman DH Albelda SM, Mukherjee S and Robinson BWS. Gene therapy for malignant mesothelioma- 'Suicide Gene' and immunological approaches. In Mesothelioma, Editors BWS Robinson and P Chahinian, London: Martin Dunitz; 2002; 223-234.
3. Mukherjee S and Robinson B. Immunotherapy of mesothelioma. In Mesothelioma, Editors BWS Robinson and P Chahinian, London: Martin Dunitz; 2002; 325-338.