Our People - Synthetic Biology

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)

ResearchGate

YouTube channel

Research Interests:

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

LinkedIn

Research Gate

Research Interests:

• Bacterial molecular genetics

• Functional genomics, metagenomics, genome engineering

• Metabolic functions

• Synthetic biology, bioplastics and bioproducts

LinkedIn

ResearchGate

​Google Scholar 

[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:

• Nano-Biomedical engineering, biochemistry, molecular cell biology

• Colloid and Surface Science (surface chemistry, absorption kinetics, thermodynamics)

• Polymer materials, CO2

• Energy storage and conversion, battery systems and alternative energy

• Drug and gene delivery, genomics

• Lipid bilayer and cell membrane actions

University Research Chair

Research Interests:

• Biochemical engineering

• Microbial biotechnology

• Synthetic and molecular biology

• Genetic, metabolic and protein engineering

• Biopharmaceuticals (to treat autoimmune diseases and prevent rejection of organ transplants)

• Biomanufacturing, bioprocessing technologies (biological strain construction, bioreaction cultivation, biofuels, bioproduct recovery and purification)

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

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

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:

• Design/discovery of potential therapeutics to target various diseases
• Understanding the structure and pharmacology of membrane proteins
• Development of in silico methods/tools for sequence, structure and functional analysis
• Inferring the structure-function evolution of proteins
• Protein engineering for biotechnology and pharmaceutical applications

[American Chemical Society] January 23, 2012 "Exploring Inhibitor Release Pathways in Histone Deacetylases Using Random Acceleration Molecular Dynamics Simulations"

[Wiley Online Library] July 27, 2013 "Ligand release mechanisms and channels in histone deacetylases"

[Royal Society of Chemistry] December 19, 2013 "A steered molecular dynamics mediated hit discovery for histone deacetylases"

[Nature Methods] May 8, 2017 "ModelFinder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates"

[Royal Society of Chemistry] October 24, 2017 "Reverse engineering: transaminase biocatalyst development using ancestral sequence reconstruction"

Research Interests:

• Design of mixed analog/digital circuits for wireless communication
• Phase noise of oscillator, mixer noise and mixer distortion analysis

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

LinkedIn

ResearchGate

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

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

LinkedIn

ResearchGate

Research Interests:

• Medicinal chemistry/enzymology (treatment of prostate and breast cancer, diabetes)

• Nanomedicine; development of novel antibiotics

• Bionanomaterials; synthetic polymers and methodologies

• Peptide, charbohydrate, nucleoside and nucleotide chemistry

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

[Science News] February 4, 2015 "Chemists develop new method to improve the discovery of antibiotics"

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"