Ray Truant completed his Bachelor's degree at the University of Toronto, Victoria College, and continued on to his graduate studies in the Department of Medical Genetics and Microbiology in the lab of Jack F. Greenblatt at the C.H. Best Institute. For his graduate work, his studies focused on protein-protein interactions of the p53 tumor -suppressor protein and it's mechanism of activation of transcription. After receiving his doctorate in 1996, Ray studied as a post-doctoral Research Associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute at Duke University in the department of Genetics with Dr. Bryan R. Cullen. While at the HHMI, his research centered on protein-protein interactions of HIV-1 proteins and into mechanisms of protein transport to and from the nucleus using biochemical and cell biological techniques. In 1999, Ray was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster University , where he started new projects on polyglutamine diseases, focusing on Huntington's Disease. In 2001, Ray won the CIHR "New Scientist " award and his group is now supported by operating grants from Canada and the United States. In 2005, he was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences. From 2007, Dr. Truant is involved in graduate training with the newly established programs in Chemical Biology and Neurosciences (MiNDS) at McMaster. He is currently Chair of the Scientific Advisory board of the Huntington Society of Canada and a member of the Cell Biology and Mechanisms of Disease (CBM) Panel at the CIHR. biography JOINING THE LAB ►