Our People - Biomarkers

Research Interests:

• Assistive Robotics and Rehabilitation Engineering

• Neuromechanical Modeling; Robot-Based System ID
• Human-Robot Interaction and Neural Control
• Movement Analysis and Sensorimotor Deficit Modeling
• Smart Implants and Prosthetics
• Intelligent Systems and Machine Learning 

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Research Interests:

• Multisensory integration
• Perception and action
• Psychophysics
• The vestibular system
• Virtual reality

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[Waterloo News] September 25, 2018 "Virtual reality motion sickness may be predicted and counteracted"

[ScienceDaily] December 15, 2018 "Aging warps our perception of time, study finds"

[Record] October 12, 2017 "Aging slows perception of falls: UW study"

Research Interests:

My research program combines a fundamental in-vitro research approach, examining the time varying response of the lumbar spine tissues, with in-vivo human research, examining biological responses to cumulative loading exposure from both pain generating and tissue altering/injuring perspectives. Work in my laboratories involves developing approaches to assess workplace cumulative loading exposure and injury in conjunction with in-vitro tissue mechanics studies investigating the injury pathways from repetitive loading. Currently, quantifying the influence of modifiers such as repetition and magnitude of exposure to establish the relationship between cumulative loading and low back pain is a major focus in my research. This knowledge will complement existing epidemiological data, linking cumulative loading and low back pain, for setting exposure limits and helping to prevent low back injuries.

Google Scholar

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:

• Discovering biomechanical determinants of occupational performance

• Advancing functional capacity evaluation

• Advancing digital human modeling

• Inform better, safer products 

Google Scholar

Research Interests:

• Biocompatibility with biomaterials and biomedical devices
• Mechanisms of material-induced thrombosis (blood clot formation) with mechanical heart valves and coronary stents
• Ophthalmic biomaterials (such as soft contact lenses and keratoprosthesis)

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ResearchGate

[CBB researcher story]

[YouTube] December 23, 2013 "Waterloo Engineering Research: Targeted Drug Delivery"

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

Research interests:

• Brain Health
• Social neuroscience of eating 
• Social neuroscience of addictions and mental health 

• Mobile brain imaging technology

• Neuromodulation techniques

Podcast: Developing new ways of quantifying brain health using magnetic brain stimulation paradigms; this involves using brain stimulation for diagnostic assessment rather than the conventional usage in therapeutics.

Recent Publications: https://uwaterloo.ca/prevention-neuroscience-lab/recent-publications

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:

• 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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ResearchGate

Google Scholar

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:

• Cellular-scale retinal imaging and light safety for the eye.
• Pioneer of two-photon excited fluorescence imaging through the pupil of a living primate eye, which enabled my group to be the first to image translucent primate retinal ganglion cells in vivo.
• First to deploy in vivo fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy of the retina at the cellular scale in living human and non-human primate eyes.

Research interests:

Research Interests:

• Clinical trial design
• Contact lens performance
• Drug delivery
• Ocular biomaterials
• Proteins at interfaces

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ResearchGate

​Google Scholar

University Research Chair

Office of Research - Technology Transfer & Commercialization:

• Long-lasting Eye Drop Delivery Platform for Targeted Ocular Delivery Applications

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:

• Improving nutrition and health in hospitals, long term care and the community
• Dementia

Schlegel Research Chair in Nutrition & Aging

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ResearchGate

Google Scholar

[Grand River Hospital News] March 15, 2019 "Good food, better healing: How GRH is studying to improve food for patients in hospital"

​[Waterloo News] March 23, 2017 "Survey will reduce rates of malnutrition in hospitals"

Research interests:

• Upper-extremity biomechanics 
• Orthopaedic biomechanics 
• Osteoarthritis
• Computational modeling 
• Imaging

[Google scholar profile]

Research interests:

• Developing machine learning and statistical methods for genomics and proteomics data analysis using interpretable machine learning, reproducible (error-controlled) machine learning, and heterogeneous data integration
• Developing interpretation methods to find scientifically interesting and statistically confident hypotheses from complex biological data from single-cell genomics, mass spectrometry-based proteomics, and metagenomics

Research Interests:

• High Resolution flexible pressure and tactile sensors

• Microbial fuel cells

• Nano electrodes for electrochemical detection

• Flexible Electrodes for bio-interfacing, electrical mapping self-powered devices

• Cell-inorganic composites
• Multi-functional materials and devices
• Wearable sensors
• Composite membranes

Research interests:

• Aging and neurodegeneration
• Movement disorders
• Gait kinematics
• Neuropsychology and neurocognitive assessment
• Mood, emotion and cognition
• Fear, threat, anxiety and depression
• Virtual reality

Google Scholar

Research interests:

• Neurodegeneration
• Huntington Disease
• Autophagy
• Apoptosis
• Fatty acylation

Google Scholar

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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ResearchGate

Google Scholar

Research interests:

• Identifying interventions to promote well-being of people with, and those at risk for, dementia
• Co-design of technologies, programs, and services with people living with dementia, care partners, and other stakeholders, with a focus on physical activity and other lifestyle strategies
• Co-development of professional development programs for health and community service providers to promote quality and accessibility of health and wellness programs and services for persons living with dementia
• Integration of virtual programs, including virtual reality, to promote physical activity and healthy living

Research interests: 

• Neurobiological embedding of adversity
• Biological characteristics that influence outcome from brain injury
• Drug development, biomarkers
• Stroke; biological characteristics that influence outcomes from brain injury

Google Scholar

Research Interests:

• Drug discovery
• Rational drug design and medicinal chemistry
• Cancer therapy
• Treatment of neurological disorders (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's)
• Drug discovery/rational design
• Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel organic molecules and peptides/peptidomimics as therapeutic agents

ResearchGate

​Google Scholar

[Science News] October 22, 2018 "Nekkar lab determines that depression medications can help treat Alzheimer’s disease"

​[Pharmacy News] July 29, 2015 "Waterloo pharmacist examines drug therapies for Alzheimer’s disease"

Research interests:

• Aging
• Balance and mobility impairment
• Central nervous system function
• Wireless sensor technologies

[National Centre for Biotechnology Information] August 31, 2019 "Key factors for the assessment of mobility in advanced dementia: A consensus approach"

[Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative] September 26, 2019 "Wearable technologies to improve health outcomes in people with neurodegenerative diseases?"

Research Interests:

• RNA Biology
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Genetics
• Developmental Biology

Research interests:

Google Scholar

Research Interests:

• Protein and DNA separation analysis towards disease diagnosis and drug discovery

• Biosensing and Devices (bacterial, proteins, fluorescence)

• Living cell analysis and water toxicity testing

• Lab-on-a-Chip technology (point-of-care biomedical diagnosis , chemical detection, protein separation and identification, environmental testing)

• Micro-scale fluid mechanics, droplet microfluidics and nanofluidics

• High Throughput Screening For Drug Screening
• Manufacturing Nanomaterials and Carbon Management

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ResearchGate

​Google Scholar

Canada Research Chair in Lab-on-a-Chip Technology [Canada Research Chair Profile]

[Waterloo Stories] June 14, 2012 "Creating the tiny future of science"

Research Interests

• Early Cancer Detection
• Eliminating Positive Surgical Margins
• Non-contact Biopsies for Endoscopy 
• Functional Brain Imaging 
• Early Detection and Understanding the Age-related Vision Loss Problems
• Wound Care
• Cardiovascular
• Machine learning/AI

[Linkedin]

[Google Scholar]

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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ResearchGate

​Google Scholar

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:

• Drug discovery, delivery systems and nanomedicine

• Gene therapy, microbial genetics

• Oncology, Antiviral therapeutics design

• Anti-bacterials

• Acne cosmeceutical design

• Phage-based biotechnology

• Viral exclusion systems

• Cosmeceuticals

• Vaccine design (dementia), bacteriophage-based biotechnology, use of coliphages to design and construct vectors for the development of novel vaccines, pharmaceuticals and gene delivery systems, and the identification and application of novel phage genomic anti-bacterial genes with potential phage therapy applications.

• Strategic management in Pharmacy; healthcare reform

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ResearchGate

Research Interests:

• Calcium channel analysis for target drug delivery for treatment of pain, arrhythmias, angina, and potential benefits in treatment of epilepsy and cancer.

• Structure, function and pharmacology of calcium channels and sodium channels

• Structure and function and analysis of NALCN cation channel  and anti-calcium channel toxins

• The Spafford Neurobiology Research Laboratory studies voltage-gated calcium channels, molecular physiology, biophysics, cell biology, protein biochemistry, fluorescence microscopy and tissue cultures.

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ResearchGate

​Google Scholar

[Science News] April 25, 2014 "Waterloo discovers a key regulator in the pacemakers of our brain and heart"

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:

• Biomaterials and mechanics of biomaterials and tissues

• Bone quality and fragility, collagen

• Engineering of bone mimetic materials for skeletal reconstruction (3D printing)

Google Scholar

Research interests:

• Vision rehabilitation
• Systems for optimizing patient care outcomes
• Retinal disease
• Pharmacology.