Education
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Mayo Clinic
PhD Nutritional Science, McGill University
RD, Member of the College of Dietitians of Ontario
BASc (Honours), Applied Human Nutrition, University of Guelph
Research
As a Canada Research Chair in Clinical Nutrition, Dr. Santosa conducts cutting edge research to identify the long-term effects of obesity, from the cell to the entire body.
Weight is a concern of millions of Canadians both on an individual and societal level. Despite existing public policy and individual weight interventions, we are still “growing” as a population with more Canadians overweight than not.
The metabolic and cellular mechanisms of why some overweight individuals develop diseases while others do not are not fully understood. Furthermore, in people with diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, we do not fully understand how obesity affects the progression or treatment. Obesity treatment itself remains ineffective as most people who lose weight eventually gain it back. Dr. Santosa applies techniques in biology, physiology and nutrition to investigate and understand the underlying effects of obesity that contribute to weight gain and disease.
Results from her studies will promote the development of better public health interventions from disease prevention to management.
Dr. Santosa's research has been/is currently funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research, the Quebec Bioimaging Network, the PERFORM Centre, a Canada Research Chair, Tier 2, NSERC, and CIHR.
Current Projects
Currently recruiting graduate and postdoctoral trainees to join our research team.
Projects in the lab include:
-Examining regional differences in fat tissue in bariatric surgery patients
-Investigating differences in early vs late onset obesity
-Determining protein requirements in bariatric surgery patients
-Using imaging techniques to examine regional fat use and substrate oxidation
Trainees will learn cutting-edge techniques in human research, cellular and molecular biology, physiology, and nutrition. Techniques applied include flow cytometry, cell culture, PCR, body composition (DXA, CT, MRI), and nutritional analysis.
Active Affiliations
Researcher, PERFORM Centre
Researcher, Sacre Coeur Hospital
Associate Researcher, CRIUGM
Editorial Board Member Activities
2019-present International Journal of Obesity
2014-present Scientific Reports
Professional Memberships
Canadian Nutrition Society
College of Dietitians of Ontario
The Obesity Society
Canadian Obesity Network
Société Québécoise de Lipidologie, de Nutrition, et de Metabolisme
Réseau de Recherche en Santé Cardiométabolique, Diabète, et Obésité
Diabète Québec
Feng J, Islam A, Bean B, Feng J, Sparapani S, Shrivastava M, Goyal A, Omran, RP, Mallick J, Whiteway M. (2020) Hof1 plays a checkpoint-related role in MMS-induced DNA damage response in Candida albicans. Mol Biol Cell, 31: 348-359.
Feng J, Yao S, Dong Y, Hu J, Whiteway M, Feng J. Nucleotide excision repair protein Rad23 regulates cell virulence independent of Rad4 in Candida albicans (2020) mSphere 5:e00062-20
Xu H, Fang T, Omran RP, Whiteway M, Jiang L (2020) RNA sequencing reveals an additional Crz1-binding motif in promoters of its target genes in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Cell Commun Signal. 18:1.
Costa ACBP, Omran RP, Correia-Mesquita TO, Dumeaux V, Whiteway M. (2019) Screening of Candida albicans GRACE library revealed a unique pattern of biofilm formation under repression of the essential gene ILS1.Sci Rep. 9: 9187.
Rastghalam G, Omran RP, Alizadeh M, Fulton D, Mallick J, Whiteway M. (2019) MAP Kinase Regulation of the Candida albicans Pheromone Pathway. mSphere. 4: e00598-18.
Sharmeen N, Sulea T, Whiteway M, Wu C. (2019) Adapter protein Ste50p directly modulates yeast MAPK signaling specificity through differential connections of its RA domain. Mol Biol Cell. 30: 794-807.
Polvi EJ, Veri AO, Liu Z, Hossain S, Hyde S, Kim SH, Tebbji F, Sellam A, Todd RT, Xie JL, Lin ZY, Wong CJ, Shapiro RS, Whiteway M, Robbins N, Gingras AC, Selmecki A, Cowen LE. (2019) Functional divergence of a global regulatory complex governing fungal filamentation. PLoS Genet. 15:e1007901.
Islam A, Tebbji F, Mallick J, Regan H, Dumeaux V, Omran RP, Whiteway M. (2018) Mms21: A Putative SUMO E3 Ligase in Candida albicans That Negatively Regulates Invasiveness and Filamentation, and Is Required for Genotoxic and Cellular Stress Response.
Genetics. 211: 579-595.
Xu H, Whiteway M, Jiang L. (2018) The tricarboxylic acid cycle, cell wall integrity pathway, cytokinesis and intracellular pH homeostasis are involved in the sensitivity of Candida albicans cells to high levels of extracellular calcium. Genomics. S0888-7543(18)30307-0.
Shahina Z, El-Ganiny AM, Minion J, Whiteway M, Sultana T, Dahms TES. (2018) Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark essential oil induces cell wall remodelling and spindle defects in Candida albicans. Fungal biology and biotechnology 5, 3.
Veri AO, Miao Z, Shapiro RS, Tebbji F, O'Meara TR, Kim SH, Colazo J, Tan K, Vyas VK, Whiteway M, Robbins N, Wong KH, Cowen LE. (2018) Tuning Hsf1 levels drives distinct fungal morphogenetic programs with depletion impairing Hsp90 function and overexpression expanding the target space. PLoS Genetics 14, e1007270
Chen Y, Mallick J, Maqnas A, Sun Y, Choudhury BI, Cote P, Yan L, Ni TJ, Li Y, Zhang D, Rodríguez-Ortiz R, Lv QZ, Jiang YY, Whiteway M. (2018) Chemogenomic profiling of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 62, e02365
Tebung WA, Omran RP, Fulton DL, Morschhäuser J, Whiteway M. (2017) Put3 Positively Regulates Proline Utilization in Candida albicans. mSphere. 2, e00354-17.
Scaduto CM, Kabrawala S, Thomson GJ, Scheving W, Ly A, Anderson MZ, Whiteway M, Bennett RJ. (2017) Epigenetic control of pheromone MAPK signaling determines sexual fecundity in Candida albicans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 114, 13780-85.
Tebbji F, Chen Y, Sellam A, Whiteway M. (2017) The Genomic Landscape of the Fungus-Specific SWI/SNF Complex Subunit, Snf6, in Candida albicans. mSphere 2, e00497-17.
Regan H, Scaduto CM, Hirakawa MP, Gunsalus K, Correia-Mesquita TO, Sun Y, Chen Y, Kumamoto CA, Bennett RJ, Whiteway M. (2017) Negative regulation of filamentous growth in Candida albicans by Dig1p. Mol Microbiol. 105, 810-824.
Shekhar-Guturja T, Tebung WA, Mount H, Liu N, Köhler JR, Whiteway M, Cowen LE. Beauvericin Potentiates Azole Activity via Inhibition of Multidrug Efflux, Blocks Candida albicans Morphogenesis, and Is Effluxed via Yor1 and Circuitry Controlled by Zcf29. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 60, 7468-7480.
Tebung, WA, Choudhury, BI, Tebbji, F, Morschhäuser, J, Whiteway, M. (2016) In the Saccharomycetaceae the Ppr1 zinc cluster transcription factor has been rewired from purine catabolism to pyrimidine biogenesis. Curr. Biol 26:1677-87.
Sun Y, Gadoury C, Hirakawa MP, Bennett RJ, Harcus D, Marcil A, Whiteway M. (2016) Deletion of a Yci1 Domain Protein of Candida albicans Allows Homothallic Mating in MTL Heterozygous Cells. mBio. 7, e00465-16.
Zhao Y, Yan H, Happeck R, Peiter-Volk T, Xu H, Zhang Y, Peiter E, van Oostende Triplet C, Whiteway M, Jiang L. (2016) The plasma membrane protein Rch1 is a negative regulator of cytosolic calcium homeostasis and positively regulated by the calcium/calcineurin signaling pathway in budding yeast. Eur J Cell Biol. 95, 164-74
Mallick J, Jansen G, Wu C, Whiteway M. (2016) SRYTH: A New Yeast Two-Hybrid Method. Methods Mol Biol. 1356, 31-41.
Yan L, Xiong J, Lu H, Lv QZ, Ma QY, Côte P, Whiteway M, Jiang YY (2015) The Role of Mms22p in DNA Damage Response in Candida albicans (2015) G3 (Bethesda). 5, 2567-78.
