Aaliya Naaz
PhD, Dr. Kachroo’s lab
I am currently working on humanization of fission yeast.
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Alexander Pawelczak
MSc, Dr. Brett’s lab
My research focuses on the study of humanized yeast extracellular vesicles (EVs). These cellular nanoparticles are important in the development of next-generation therapeutics as they are able to deliver a wide variety of biological cargo. I aim to establish a research platform capable of upscaling humanized yeast EV bioproduction using automated robotic equipment in Concordia’s Genome Foundry.
Brandon Jaunky
MSc, Dr. Kharma's lab
My research focuses on introducing modularity to the nuclease deficient CRISPR/dCas9 system by controlling its half-life in yeast. I will also combine the system with transcriptional activating domains to study oscillating effects.
Brian Baxter
MSc, Dr. Shih’s lab
My research is to design a microfluidics device able to synthesize DNA on chip at the benchtop.
Cécilia Brancheriau
PhD, Dr. Piekny’s lab
I am currently working on an optogenetic tool to spatio-temporally control importin during anaphase and cytokinesis. The aim would be to further study the diverse functions of importin during mitosis using diverse methods.
Christien Dykstra
PhD, Dr. Martin’s and Dr. Kachroo's labs
My research focuses on using CRISPR and DNA repair mechanisms to streamline the design and construction of combinatorial pathways. I will apply this approach to different metabolic pathways to showcase the diversity and transferability we are currently able to achieve.
Derin Gokbayrak
MSc, Dr. Brett’s lab
My current research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanism behind the lysosome membrane remodeling by Intralumenal Fragment (ILF) pathway in the model organism S. cerevisiae. I hope to shed light on the relationship of cell aging and related abnormal accumulation of lipids and proteins to lysosomal storage disorders, some types of cancers and neurodegenerative disorders.
Dulce Valdez
MSc, Dr. Kwan’s lab
My project focuses on the identification of selective glycosyltransferase inhibitor molecules targeting cell surface fucosylation in cancer using a high-throughput assay.
Gabriel Aguiar-Tawil
PhD, Dr. Kharma’s lab
I am engineering DNA oligonucleotides for the development of small molecule detection systems.
Gaëlle Serena Kouyoumdjian
MSc, Dr. Whiteway’s lab
High throughput screening has identified candidate genes in Candida albicans whose absence either sensitizes or increases resistance to potential antifungal plant extracts. Creating double mutant gene combinations, my project will identify whether the simultaneous inactivation of genes results in a synergistic behavior and help establish how these plant extracts function.
Hananeh Ghafelehbashi
PhD, Dr. Whiteway’s and Dr. Kachroo's labs
My research focus is on identifying the essential and non-essential genes in the Candida albicans GRACE library by CRISPR-mediated deletions.
Homin Jeong
MSc, Dr. Kachroo’s lab
My project aims to fully humanize 20S core particle proteasome in budding yeast, towards developing a strain with completely humanized proteasome for research purposes. I focus on humanization of chaperone genes involved in its assembly pathway, and investigation of protein-protein interaction between proteasome subunits responsible for incompatibility.
Jacob Sicheri
MSc, Dr. Kwan’s lab
My research aims to identify and improve enzyme catalysts for the production of sustainable polymers. Using high-throughput directed evolution, this research aims to decrease dependence on fossil fuels for modern plastics.
Jay Pimprikar
MASc, Dr. Shih’s lab
My research focuses on hybridizing synthetic biology and microfluidics to create a novel, low-cost in-vitro diagnostic for infectious disease detection. I am working on building a protein-based biosensor for rapid analyte detection at the point-of-care.
Joseph Del Corpo
PhD, Dr. Kuzmin’s lab
I'm currently surveying the tumor suppressive genetic network that underlies chromosome 4p deletion, along with the genetic interaction network involving tumor suppressors within chr4p. With this, we hope to better understand the role of chr4p deletion in the initiation and progression of triple negative breast cancer.
Jyler Menard
PhD, Dr. Mansbach’s lab
I am working on computational design of therapeutics/drugs/peptides using machine learning and simulation methods, along with trying to better understand what's happening inside of deep learning models.
Keegan Scott
MSc, Dr. Kwan’s lab
My research focus is on identifying and creating tools for glycan engineering. These tools will be used to humanize the glycome of yeast exosomes to develop a novel system for delivering a payload into human cells.
Lynn Karam
MSc, Dr. Kuzmin’s lab
My research involves developing gene editing tools for constructing mutant cell lines harbouring large chromosomal deletions, in order to understand their role in triple negative breast cancer.
Mackenzie Thornbury
PhD, Dr. Martin’s lab
My research focuses on creating a yeast biomanufacturing platform for the production of organic acids. Organic acids are the building blocks of many complex polymers and chemicals used extensively in industry. This platform aims to decrease the reliance on petrol-derived organic acids, offering a more sustainable solution for the chemical building blocks we all rely on.
Maria Orozco Hidalgo
MSc, Dr. Potvin-Trottier’s lab
My research focuses on investigating prion dynamics in single cell bacteria using a microfluidic device called the mother machine. This will be useful to understand protein-based inheritance.
Nicholas Crudele
MSc, Dr. Shih’s lab
My research project is building a system for electrochemical sensing of metabolites produced by droplet encapsulated single yeast cells on a digital-droplet microfluidic device. I will also build a high throughput version capable of sensing the metabolites of 50 different single yeast cells with different DNA sequences associated with the production of the metabolite of interest.
Nmeri Iwuchukwu
MSc, Dr. Whiteway’s lab
My research focuses on understanding and characterizing the genes and transcription factors involved in biofilm formation in Candida albicans.
Paige Allard
MSc, Dr. Potvin-Trottier’s lab
My research focuses on investigating the trade-off between metabolic burden and precision of synthetic circuits in E. coli. I use a microfluidic platform called the mother machine to observe single-cell dynamics in a tightly controlled environment.
Sara Ouadhi
PhD, Dr. Kwan’s lab
My research centers on developing sustainable methods towards natural product synthesis. Using directed evolution, molecular dynamics and high-throughput screening, I am developing efficient enzymatic pathways for glycosylated products. Furthermore, I am working on developing bioinformatics tools to predict efficiency of the designed artificial pathways.
Sydney Johnson
MSc, Dr. Whiteway’s lab
My research focuses on engineering yeast to produce organic acids, creating a synthetic transcription factor network that will activate stress tolerance pathways in our target yeast strains. The project is in collaboration with an industry partner and this technology will ultimately be implemented within the Canadian dairy industry.
