Our People - Biology

Research Interests:

• Dynamics and control of MEMS
• Design of MEMS devices
• Micro-power generation
• Multi-body dynamics and control
• Biomechanics

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Research Interests:

• Viral vector drug delivery

• Biological nano-particles (Virus-Like Particles or VLPs)

• Vaccines, gene therapy, gene expression, genetic diseases

• Baculovirus Bioprocessing

• Process dynamics of virus-based systems for the production of complex biologics such as viral vectors and vaccines

• Development of strategies using multiple viruses to obtain recombinant products in cell culture

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[YouTube Lecture] September 30, 2014 "Tools and strategies for complex biologics production in animal cells: applications to insect and mammalian cell culture"

[YouTube] January 26, 2011 "Research Profile: Marc Aucoin"

Research Interests:

• Simulation, light and matter interactions, biomedical applications
• Predictive simulation of light interactions with organic and inorganic materials
• Realistic modeling of material appearance for image synthesis
• Remote sensing (effects of adverse environmental conditions on crops and forests)
• Biomedical optics (development of procedures and equipment for the prevention and treatment of different medical conditions, from jaundice to skin cancer)

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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:

• Treatment of neurological disorders (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and mental health conditions including schizophrenia and depression)

• Molecular pharmacology and pharmaceutical delivery

• Intracellular signaling pathways in neurons, and the role of cytoskeletal dynamics in the trafficking of receptors in neurons

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Research Interests:

• cancer therapy
• colorectal, breast, prostate and lung carcinomas
• cancer tissue microenvironment
• chemokine pathways
• tumor-initiating cells
• proteins

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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.

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Research Interests:

• Imaging for Type 1 Diabetes
• Alzheimer Diagnosis
• Imaging of the Rear of the Eye
• Optical Properties of the Eye amd changes in the Eye's Optical Properties
• Two Photon Therapies
• Ophthalmic instrumentation, optical systems, quality and design

• Confocal microscopy and ophthalmoscopy, measurement of refractive error

• Retinal image quality

• Optical effects of refractive surgery, reflections from the retina

• Optical properties of the eye, monochromatic aberrations of the eye

• Refractive properties of the crystalline lens and their changes with growth and accommodation

• Eye-imaging systems for treatment and diagnosis

• Biophysics, bio-photonics, and Vision Science.

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[Research2Reality] May 8, 2015 "Early Alzheimer's Diagnosis: Imaging the Living Eye"

[YouTube Lecture] October 1, 2014 "Optics of the Eye as a Window on the Brain"

[YouTube] February 12, 2013 "Melanie Campbell AAAS Profile"

[Waterloo Stories] February 12, 2013 "An early test for Alzhemer's disease"

[Waterloo Stories] January 22, 2013 "Early test for Alzheimer's may rely on the eyes"

Office of Research - Technology Transfer & Commercialization:

• Imaging Amyloid Beta in the Retina
• Ophthalmic and Microscopy Imaging Technology

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:

• 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: 

• GTP-dependent phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinases
• IgA1 protease family of bacterial proteases

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:

Research Interests:

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

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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

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Research Interests:

• Integrative kidney physiology

• Biofluid dynamics

• Diabetes

• Hypertension

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March 29, 2018 "Canada 150 Research Chair joins Department of Applied Mathematics"

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:

• Bioinformatics tools (protein structures, genome mapping, conducting homology searches)

• Protein structure prediction, and automated NMR protein structure determination

• Stem cell image recognition

• Deep learning, natural language processing and automated conversation, AI

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Canada Research Chair in Bioinformatics [Canada Research Chair Profile]

The Royal Society of Canada Fellow

[Waterloo Stories] April 5, 2013 "RSVP: Responding to a need"

[Waterloo Stories] July 6, 2012 "Solving life's big issues, one question at a time"

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:

Research interests:

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

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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: 

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

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Research Interests:

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

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

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

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[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:

• Bacterial pathogenesis
• Response to reactive species
• Antibiotic resistance
• Host-pathogen interaction
• Genomics

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Research interests:

[Science Mag] June 6, 2016 "This desert moss can water itself with fog"

[Nature] June 08, 2016 "How desert moss drinks from air"

[PNAS] June 22, 2017 "Cavitation onset caused by acceleration"

Research Interests:

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

Research Interests:

• Molecular genetics

• Cell and Developmental Biology

• Stem Cell Biology & Cellular Differentiation
• Programmed Cell Death
• Live-Imaging Microscopy

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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

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

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

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Research Interests:

• Renewable energy technologies
• Biofuel combustion, biomass gasification, combustion generated particulates
• CO2 capture and storage
• Synthesis, characterization and applications of nanomaterial
• Developing nanothermite and energetic nanocomposites
• EPD fabrication of nanotube and nanowire based electrodes for advanced energy devices
• Engineering thermodynamics
• Energy conversion

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Research Interests:

• Biomaterials and mechanics of biomaterials and tissues

• Bone quality and fragility, collagen

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

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