Our People - Environmental Biotechnology

Research Interests:

• Pathogen detection, disinfection and sterilization using UV light

• Photochemistry, photocatalytic applications to water and air treatment

• Environmental engineering

• Biotechnology, biofiltration

• Metal nanoparticle synthesis and applications

• Process modelling and simulation

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Research Interests:

• Characterization And Modelling Of The Behaviour Of Construction Materials
• Smart Pavement Materials And Structures
• Mechanistic Pavement Design Methods
• Optimization Of The Use Of Recycled Materials In Sustainable Infrastructure System
• Sustainable Development
• Life Cycle Analysis

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Research Interests:

• Research, in vitro toxicology, and biotechnology of animal cell cultures
• Roles of nutrition, hormones and polypeptide growth factors on the growth and differentiation of fish tissues and organs.

Research Interests:

• Bacterial molecular genetics

• Functional genomics, metagenomics, genome engineering

• Metabolic functions

• Synthetic biology, bioplastics and bioproducts

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[Biology News] December 21, 2016 "Waterloo biologist part of a research collaboration creating new genetic toolbox"

[Royal Canadian Institute Lecture] November 8, 2015 "Genome Engineering. Should we do it? (Can we afford not to?)"

[YouTube Lecture] September 30, 2014 "Mining microbial metagenomes"

[YouTube Lecture] September 19, 2013 "Mining metagenomes for bioplastics and other useful bioproducts"

[CBB researcher story] November 29, 2012 "Breaking Ground in Open Resource Metagenomics"

Research Interests:

• Effects of toxic chemicals, including metals and oilsands process water, on aquatic organisms, principally fish.
• Biotic modifying factors of toxicity.
• Development of methods for environmental effects monitoring.
• Physiologically based pharmacokinetic modelling of contaminant levels in fish.

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[Waterloo Stories] March 21, 2013 "A river runs through it: Keeping an eye on the Alberta oil sands"

Research Interests:

• Genomics, proteins, antibodies
• Molecular immunology and immunotoxicology in fish populations and the design for better vaccines for aquaculture

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Canada Research Chair in Fish and Environmental Immunology [Canada Research Chair Profile]

[UW Science News] June 15, 2018, Waterloo Biologist mentors local teen, the 2018 International BioGENEius Challenge winner

[Waterloo Stories] January 22, 2018 "Vaccines not protecting farmed fish from disease"

[Waterloo Stories] February 13, 2014 "True love makes pacific salmon healthier"

[YouTube] October 9, 2013 "Science Scoop - For the love of fish!"

[Waterloo Stories] September 9, 2013 "Video conferencing connects Waterloo biologist to young students"

Research Interests:

• Molecular function prediction, design (proteins, DNA)

• Computational genomics

• Evolutionary bioinformatics and computational biology

[WCMR] June 18, 2018, receives Thermo Fisher Scientific Award

[Daily Bulletin] June 1, 2018, 11 CBB Members Named Outstanding Performance Award Winners

[Waterloo Stories] January 26, 2018 "Scientists find new kind of botox"

Research Interests:

• Cancer research

• Cell cycle, DNA replication, biomarkers and checkpoints

• Genetics, yeast genetics, molecular biology

• Protein factors

• Kinases

• Chromatin

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[CBB researcher story] January 2, 2013 "How the Trout are Saving Us: Using Biomarkers to Improve Water Quality"

Research Interests:

• Effect of food, beverages, herbal products and other drugs on drug metabolism and disposition
• Investigation of the interaction between grapefruit juice and prescription medication
• pharmacokinetics

• drug metabolism

• pharmacogenomics

• drug interactions

• bioavailability/bioequivalence

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Research Interests:

• Methionine chemistry and biochemestry (amino acid methionine and its roles in proteins, cellular pathways and its functions)

• Bionanomaterials, bionanotechnology (for novel drug carriers, molecular foundations for nanodevices)

• Medicinal chemistry

• Enzymology
• Bioorganic chemistry
• Protein structure and function

ResearchGate

[Daily Bulletin] June 1, 2018, 11 CBB Members Named Outstanding Performance Award Winners

Research Interests:

• Robustness of water supply systems, with a focus on treatment
• Facilitating application of newer treatment technologies (e.g. UV disinfection and membranes), including integration into existing facilities
• Identification and removal of trace chemical contaminants (pharmaceuticals & endocrine disrupters)
• Known and emerging pathogens, and their removal/inactivation by treatment processes
• Biodegradation

ResearchGate

NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Water Treatment [NSERC Profile]

[Waterloo Stories] March 14, 2013 "Protecting our drinking water for 20 years"

Research Interests:

• Microbial diversity and function at contaminated sites (primarily municipal landfills)
• DNA, RNA, and protein (meta-omics) sequences
• Environment remediation
• Impacts of human activities on the environment

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Canada Research Chair in Environmental Microbiology [Canada Research Chair Profile]

[YouTube] October 23, 2015 "Piecing life together - microbial diversity and function through meta-omic analyses"

[Waterloo Stories] April 12, 2016 "New tree of life may hold clues to cleaning up pollution"

Research Interests:

• Mathematical modelling in systems biology
• Control theory
• Synthetic biology

ResearchGate

​[Google Scholar]

[CBB researcher story] August 6, 2015 "Decreasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria"

[YouTube Lecture] September 30, 2014 "Model-based design in synthetic biology"

Research Interests:

• Micro and nano-analytical chemistry
• Micro and nano samples
• Micro-miniaturization (lab-on-a-chip)

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[YouTube] June 7, 2013 "Energy scavenging to power remote sensors"

Research Interests:

• Innate immunity of amphibians
• Regulation of innate immune cell development (macrophages, neutrophils) from progenitor cell populations
• Host-pathogen-environment interactions

Google Scholar

Research Interests:

• Production of bio-energy (electricity, H2, and CH4) and bio-chemicals from biomass

• Thermodynamic/kinetic analyses on microbial metabolisms in engineered and natural systems

• Microbial ecology in engineered biological systems

• Environmental biotechnology

• Nutrients recovery from organic waste and wastewater

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[Waterloo Stories] March 18, 2014 "Giving people a simple way to test their drinking water"

[Waterloo Stories] May 10, 2013 "Can bacteria create green energy?"

Research Interests:

• Biochemical engineering
• Protein and biomimetic engineering
• Biosensor development
• Bioprocess monitoring and soft sensor development
• Protein thermodynamics stability and analysis
• Environmental bioremediation and green bioprocesses
• Biological water treatment and membrane-based processes
• Spectroscopic techniques combined with chemometric methods for process optimization and the development of on-line sensor technology

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Research Interests:

• Biophysics of lipids and lipid-protein interactions

• The role of structural changes and physical properties of lipid template in controlling biological processes and diseases

• Biomedical nanotechnology (lipid films, molecular mechanism of Alzheimer's disease)

• Drug development and delivery systems, antimicrobial peptides in lung disorders

• Fluorescence and atomic force microscopy

• Kelvin probe force microscopy and single molecule force spectroscopy

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[Global Impact] May 2018, studying Alzheimer's at a molecular level to find a cure

[YouTube Lecture] October 1, 2014 "Scanning probe microscopy in biomedical research"

Research Interests:

• Biomedical diagnosis

• Targeted drug delivery

• Environmental monitoring

• DNA-based biosensors and functional polymers

• Nanomaterials, (gold nanoparticles, liposomes, magnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots, graphene hydrogels, hybrid nanomaterials)

• Bioinorganic / Bioanalytical chemistry

University Research Chair

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[Waterloo Stories] February 27, 2013 "Waterloo researcher uses nano-materials to clean water"

Research Interests:

• Biochemistry and enzymology

• Thermostable Biocatalyst and dehydrogenases (Biofuel/Bioethanol production, pharmaceutical and other industrial processes)

• Enzyme evolution and protein engineering, microbial physiology, molecular biology

• Sulfur reduction and energy metabolism, alcohol metabolism

• Electron transfer and flavoproteins.

• Proteins purification and analysis, metal-containing
• Fermentation
• Hyperthermophiles

Office of Research - Technology Transfer & Commercialization:

• Novel Thermostable Biocatalyst

Research Interests:

• Protein structure, functions, evolution (yeast, mammalian cell lines, plant-bacterial)

• Bioinformatics, systematics and protein evolution

• Protein structure and interaction modeling
• Protein expression pattern analysis
• Molecular genetics

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Research Interests:

• Social-ecological sustainability
• Sustainable agriculture
• Restoration and conservation ecology
• Policy analysis

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ResearchGate

[Waterloo News] March 16, 2015 "Expert: Parties need to consider bigger picture for Rouge National Urban Park"

Research Interests:

• Flexible, wearable energy storage and sensing technologies
• Graphene production and post-processing techniques
• Directed assembly of 2D nanomaterials at the air-water interface
• Bottom-up assembly approaches for energy storage, sensing and electrocatalysis
• Supercapacitors
• Next generation batteries
• Electrochemical sensors
• ​Thin films and membranes
• Nano-materials

​ResearchGate

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Office of Research - Technology Transfer & Commercialization:

• Film Forming Process

Research Interests:

• Sea water desalination, hydrogen production for fuel cells, CO2 recovery from fossil fuel power plants

• Membrane processes, catalysis, organic or inorganic nanoparticles

• Porous materials, materials and sol-gel integrative chemistry

• Nanostructures and superlattices

• Sustainable processes

• Microemulsions

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ResearchGate

[YouTube Lecture] September 29, 2014 "Biofuels and Waste Management"

Research Interests:

• Experimental biological physics
• Stochastic processes in physics and biology
• Pysiological constraints on bioproduct synthesis

Lab Equipment: Imagestream MkII with 488nm, 642nm and 785nm lasers; 60x magnification

[YouTube Lectures] Winter School on Quantitative Systems Biology 2015

Alternate Location:

• Satellite Campus, UW-Schlegel Research Institute for Aging, Research Building, Sensors and Devices Lab

Research Interests:

• Bio-wearable electronics and systems
• Bio-electromagnetics, bio-technology, bio-sensors and energy harvesting systems
• RF/microwave/millimeter wave/Terahertz (THz) circuits and antenna systems
• Radio frequency (RF)/microwave packaging and Electromagnetic compatibility 
• (EMC)/Electromagnetic interface (EMI) analyses
• Vehicle and UAV wireless communications, navigation systems, and telematics systems
• Complex propagation and scattering phenomena
• Devices and novel electromagnetic materials and wireless sensors

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Awards:

• Top downloaded paper in Medical Physics (arXiv) – October 2019
• Best Imaging Paper, CVS, 2018
• ACM MobileHCI 2017 Best Worskshop Paper Award
• IEEE APS 2017 SPC Honorable Mention Paper Award
• IEEE Sensors Most Popular Article (March 2017)
• IEEE Sensors Annual Volume Cover Page

[CBB Events] November 15, 2019 "Professor Shaker organizes a Health Canada Regulatory insights Workshop"

[CNN] November 11, 2019 "Scientists develop sensor to save children and pets from hot car deaths"

[Waterloo News] October 29, 2019 "Advancing healthcare through innovative technology"

[Inside Digital Health] June 3, 2019 "Study: Radar Monitors Sleep with Accuracy Comparable to Current Standards"

[Waterloo News]  June 28, 2018 "AI and radar technologies could help diabetics manage their disease"

[Engineering News] June 28, 2018 "Researchers developing a prick-free glucose monitor"

[RD Magazine] June 28, 2018 "AI and Radar Technologies Could Help Diabetics Manage Their Disease" 

[Engineering News] July 5, 2016 "Waterloo wins big with tiny power device"

Research Interests:

• Microalgae
• Microfluidics
• Biophotoreactors
• Biomass conversion
• Heterogeneous catalysis

Research Gate

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[Engineering News] March 9, 2018 "Finds manure can yield energy and ease global warming"

Research Interests:

• Enhanced drug delivery systems, gene therapy

• Associative polymers for environmentally friendly coatings

• Sustainable nanomaterials (cellulose nanocrystals)

• Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) and stimuli responsive polymeric systems

• Polymer-surfactant interactions

• Magnetic nanoparticles for novel separation processes

University Research Chair

Google Scholar

Research Interests:

• Nanomaterials, nanodevices, biosensors for applications in food processing, bioreactors and biotechnology, natural gas purification, fuel cell, and water purification

• Nano-Bio Hybrids for Tissue Engineering and Medicine for drug delivery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

• Bio-molecule assisted nanomaterial self-assembly

• Health and environmental effects of engineered nanomaterials

Research Interests:

• Biochemistry and molecular biology of programmed cell death

• Functional genomics of senescence (biological aging) and apoptosis

• Comparative aspects of senescence and stress including the role of hormones and the involvement of free radicals

• Applicable therapies for cancers, inflammatory diseases (arthritis and sepsis), and in the agricultural sector (enhance yield, develop tolerance to environmental stress and plant diseases, and increase the shelf-life of perishable produce)

The Royal Society of Canada Fellow

Research interests:

• Environmental biology, industrial biotechnology, and therapeutics
• Production of sustainable chemicals
• Novel bioprocesses for applications in bioresource engineering and biorefining
• Microalgae, metabolic engineering, and ionic liquid based separations in biological systems

Google Scholar

Research Interests:

• Biopharmaceuticals (therapeutics, treatment of autoimmune diseases, prevent rejection of organ transplants)

• Industrial biomanufacturing and biotechnology (fermentation, food ingredients, enzymes, biofuels)

• Environmental management (bioremediation of carcinogenic environmental pollutants, filtration, chromatography)

The Royal Society of Canada Fellow

[YouTube Lecture] September 29, 2014 "Biofuels and Waste Treatment"

[YouTube Lecture] September 19, 2013 "Industrial Biotechnology: Current developments and trends"

[UW Eng-e-news] August 14, 2013 "Engineering Life-enhancing research"

[Waterloo Stories] May 3, 2013 "Can bacteria help create a cheaper fuel for our cars?"

[CBB researcher story] December 6, 2012 "Bringing Bioengineering and Biotechnology to its Fullest Potential"