Daniel Sibley earned his doctoral degree from the Faculty in 2025 for his research into ways to help patients improve their health before surgery in order to recover faster and with fewer complications.
This process, known as prehabilitation, uses several health-promoting strategies, including exercise, to promote safer surgeries. Sibley's dissertation, which was supervised by Professor Daniel Santa Mina, is the first-ever study of prehabilitation in living liver donors and one of the first studies to explore if improving sleep preoperatively can promote safer surgeries.
“The truth is, most of us may benefit from being more active, but a cancer diagnosis or a decision to undergo surgery are two particularly important times when becoming more active can make a world of difference,” says Sibley, now a post-doctoral researcher at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
Sibley’s current research is focused on optimizing the way we assess and treat older adults undergoing systemic cancer treatment. He is also continuing the research he started during his doctoral studies in prehabilitation and exercise oncology.
“My research program was conceptualized in KPE classrooms and the skills needed to execute this research were developed in the Faculty's laboratories,” says Sibley.
Two courses in particular were transformative: Lifestyle Toxicity and Chronic Disease taught by Assistant Professor Amy Kirkham and Special Topics in Exercise Oncology taught by Associate Professor Linda Trinh.
“I not only learned theory in these classes but how to effectively apply evidence based research in real-world settings,” says Sibley.
Working as a teaching assistant in Santa Mina’s course on Cancer and Exercise Survivorship and Kirkham’s course on Clinical Exercise Testing and Prescription further informed his research interests and instilled a passion for teaching.
“Working with these incredible KPE scientists has been a critical part of my journey, and I still collaborate with them through research,” says Sibley. “These experiences also prepared me to instruct a course in KPE in 2023, called Topics in Professional Kinesiology.
“To this day, I still receive emails from students in this class who are now practicing kinesiology all over the world, literally.”
Sibley’s research now builds on his kinesiology experience to understand ways to improve not only physical function of patientis, but also their medication regimens, nutrition and cognition.
“While pursuing my doctorate at KPE, I frequently collaborated with clinicians across the University Health Network (UHN), including my current supervisor Dr. Shabbir Alibhai, a senior scientist and geriatrician,” says Sibley. “These experiences and networking opportunities helped make my transition to Princess Margaret seamless.”