Aly Karsan Lab

Bob Hancock Lab

Bio: I am a postdoctoral fellow in Bob Hancock’s lab. My PhD work focused on developing high-throughput functional genomic and proteomic screens to study host-pathogen interactions. During my first postdoc in the Nislow lab, I transitioned from molecular microbiology to bioinformatics, analyzing bacterial genomes and integrating phenotypic data to understand how Burkholderia cenocepacia adapts in the cystic fibrosis lung. My current work incorporates these skill sets to look at the dysregulation that occurs in the host immune system during infections and various diseased states. I also help organize the Vancouver Bioinformatics User Group (VanBUG) and the UBC R Study Group.

Expertise: High throughput screening, molecular biology, bacterial genomics and host immunoinformatics.

Chris Orvig Lab

Chris Overall Lab

Bio: I completed my Bachelor thesis in cancer research at the Center of Molecular Immunology, Cuba. I recently finished the PhD at the University of Salzburg, Austria. My PhD mainly focused on identification, physicochemical, and immunological characterization of clinically relevant weed pollen allergens. I moved to Vancouver to start as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr. Chris Overall. Here, I will be working on the project “Moonlighting Inflammatory Proteolytic Proteins”.

Expertise: Mammalian cell culture, mice tumor models, flow cytometry, recombinant protein expression and purification, protein analytics (CD, FTIR, western blot).

Bio: I employ N-terminomics to profile the proteolytic processing patterns of MMP12 and its effect in different pathological processes. Understanding the effects of protease webs and proteolytic processing can provide new avenues for drug design and treatments for pathologies, such as cancer and arthritis. For a full research profile and list of publications, please visit my ResearchGate or LinkedIn profile.

Expertise: mass spectrometry-based proteomic methodologies.

Bio: I am interested in studying rare human variants to advance our understanding of fundamental biological processes and disease pathogenesis.Defective proteolysis is a mechanism that is common to a diverse range of diseases. I am therefore undergoing postdoctoral training in the lab of Prof. Chris Overall to learn ‘degradomics’ workflows, which allow the identification of protease substrates in an unbiased way. I am currently applying these methods to study the role of the only known human paracaspase (MALT1) in health and immunological disease.

Expertise: proteomics, mouse models, bioinformatics, cell models, imaging.

Bio: I am a Post-Doctoral Fellow working in the lab of Chris Overall. I did my PhD at the Cancer and Translational Medicine Research Unit, University of Oulu. My PhD research focused on the molecular mechanisms of oral wound healing and tongue cancer, specifically the role of matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8). My current projects in Overall lab focus on the roles of various MMPs in breast and oral cancers. The research aims to reveal the molecular mechanisms that mediate the effects of MMPs, to identify novel proteinase substrates and affected pathways, and finally, to discover potential targets for treatment.

Expertise: molecular cell biology, cancer biology, mammalian cell culture, in vitro cell and tissue culture models, in vitro toxicity screening, mouse tumor models, MMPs.

Bio: My research topics are GPS-TAILs and inflammatory proteolytic signatures in pathology. I am investigating the role of proteases in inflammatory diseases using positional quantitative proteomics.

Expertise: Protein Biochemistry, Analytical chemistry, Proteomics, Immunology.

Dana Devine Lab

Bio: With the support of CBS Postdoctoral Fellowship, I am working in Dr. Dana Devine’s lab at CBR aiming to improve platelet quality and safety in blood banking. My research focuses on the biochemical mechanism of platelet storage lesion and platelet deterioration following pathogen inactivation treatment during storage.

Expertise: Protein biochemistry (protein expression and purification techniques), molecular chemistry, cell biology.

Dieter Bromme Lab

Bio: I completed my PhD in the group of Gilles Lalmanach, and I defended my thesis in December 2015. During my PhD I studied the regulation of the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 by human cysteine cathepsins during lung inflammatory diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and COPD. I joined Dieter Brömme’s Lab as a PDF, where I’ll be working on the involvement of elastolytic and collagenolytic human cysteine cathepsins K, S and V in the calcification of the extracellular matrix of blood vessel during atherosclerosis. I’ll also investigate the benefits of cathepsin K inhibitors in blood vessels calcification associated to osteoporosis.

Expertise: human cysteine cathepsins and their endogenous inhibitors, enzymology related to proteolysis, lung antimicrobial defenses and lung inflammatory diseases.

Bio: I have background in liposomes mediated drug delivery. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dieter Bromme Group, I am currently investigating the mechanism of cathepsin K mediated extracellular matrix degradation, and identification of specific anti-collagenase inhibitors of cathepsin K and their in vivo evaluation.

Expertise: molecular biology, drug delivery, electron microscopy, primary cell culture.

Ed Conway Lab

Bio: I am a Post-doctoral fellow at the Conway lab. Currently, I am investigating complement activation in vascular physiology and relevant diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration. I finished my PhD in Germany and during that time I was working on the effect of a Regulator of G protein signaling protein in the development of cardiovascular diseases using a knock out mouse model of atherosclerosis.

Expertise: Cell/tissue culture, gene expression assay, microscopy, flow cytometry, cloning, Mouse models of disease, Microarray and whole genome sequencing analysis.

Ed Pryzdial Lab

Fabio Rossi Lab

Bio: I studied Biotechnology at the University of Padua, Italy. After receiving my master degree, I moved to Switzerland at the University Hospital of Basel where I did my PhD in vascular biology. In September 2014, I joined Rossi lab at UBC to focus my research in the crosstalk between vessels (endothelial cells and pericytes) and non-myogenic fibro/adipogenic mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells during the process of tissue regeneration.

Expertise: flow cytometry, histology, confocal microscopy, techniques of molecular biology, transgenic mouse models.

Bio: I’ve been a Postdoctoral fellow at Fabio Rossi lab at the Biomedical Research Centre since November 2012. My research focuses on understanding the role of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) or fibro/adipogenic progenitors in tissue regeneration and fibrosis. Specifically, I’m interested in discovering new drugs, which may be able to target MSCs and counteract the fibrotic condition in skeletal muscles and other tissues.

Expertise: Cell culture, mouse models, flow cytometry, histology, RNAseq, drug screening.

Bio: I’m a postdoctoral fellow in the Fabio Rossi lab at the Biochemical Research Center since May 2015. I am interesting in tissue resident stem cell behaviour during skeletal muscle regeneration and in case of myopathies. I performed my PhD in France in the lab of Bénédicte Chazaud, working on the effect of metabolism on satellite cell fate.

Expertise: Skeletal muscle biology, Cell culture, mouse models, flow cytometry, metabolism, immunochemistry.

Heather Leitch Lab

Helene Coté Lab

Hongshen Ma Lab

Bio: I received my Bachelor degree (Hons) in Biomedical Science from The National University of Malaysia and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from University of Malaya, Malaysia. I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at UBC MECH. My research interests include cell and molecular biology, analytical chemistry, biomaterials and nanomaterials, and the development of microfluidic technologies for environmental monitoring, food safety analysis and a wide range of biomedical applications.

Expertise: cell and molecular biology, stem cell technology, analytical chemistry, nanotechnology, biomaterials, microfluidics.

Hugh Kim Lab

Bio: I joined in September 2016, as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Hugh Kim. My research project focused on the role of platelets cytoskeleton in the regulation and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Importantly, platelets are well known for their role in hemostasis but have recently gained recognition as pro-inflammatory immune-competent cells. Since my PhD research project was focused on the interplay between the complement and coagulation systems, Dr. Kim’s laboratory is providing me with an opportunity to further pursue my interests in cell signaling in the immune system. The overall goal of the project is to provide insight into the molecular basis of platelet secretion, and over the long term, contribute to our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying chronic inflammation.

Expertise: Flowcytometry, Microscopy, Complement and Coagulation analysis assays.

Bio: In April 2018, I joined as a visiting researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Hugh Kim. I studied Biotechnology at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, in Japan. My PhD research project was “Change of extracellular matrix by mechanical loading in TMJ”. I also conducted research on Cementocyte cell death occurs in rat cellular cementum during orthodontic tooth movement.

Dr. Kim’s laboratory is conducting research on the cell signal in the immune system, so I would like to review the research that I have done so far from the viewpoint of cell signal.

Expertise: techniques of molecular cell biology, histology, gene expression assay, protein analytics (western blot).

Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu Lab

Bio: I moved to UBC as a postdoctoral fellow, working in Dr. Kizhakkedathu’s research group at CBR. Currently, I am working on the development of novel polymeric therapeutic approaches for the treatment of iron overload associated pathogenesis and cancer diseases.

Expertise: polymer engineering, cell biology, and micro/nano fabrication techniques.

John Wu Lab

Karen Cheung Lab

Kate Chipperfield Lab

Kelly L. Brown Lab

Kelly McNagny Lab

Leonard Foster Lab

Mark Scott Lab

Bio: I am a Post-Doctoral researcher in Dr. Mark Scott Lab in the Centre for Blood Research. I have a background in molecular microbiology and immunology. Currently, I am investigating the induction of immune tolerance using immunocamouflaged lymphocytes and miRNA-based therapeutics in both in vitro and in vivo models.

Expertise: isolation and culture of human and murine lymphocytes, polymer modification of lymphocytes, flow cytometry-based phenotyping assay, and establishment of autoimmune-disease model.

Michael Barnett Lab

Natalie Strynadka Lab

Bio: I am using structural and biochemical methods to characterize bacterial secretion systems as well as bacterial enzymes associated with the teichoic acid biosynthetic pathway.

Expertise: Biochemistry and structural biology methods (X-ray crystallography and others).

Paul Yenson Lab

Ralph Matthews Lab

Robert McMaster Lab

Ross MacGillivray Lab

Shannon Jackson Lab

Tyler Smith Lab

Wilfred Jefferies Lab