Our People - Science

Research Interests:

• Solid-state electron and nuclear spin based implementations for quantum information processing (QIP)
• Spin qubits in quantum dots
• Low temperature quantum transport
• Nanowires and novel materials
• Coherent control of quantum systems
• Electron and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies

• Infrared imaging technology

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[Waterloo Stories] September 29, 2013 "Waterloo researcher loves the hands-on side of quantum science"

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:

• Biomedical optics

• Tissue optics and spectroscopy

• Ultrafast optics, coherence tomography, sensing, imaging

• Confocal and fluorescence microscopy

• Skin cancer detection

• Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics

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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:

• 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:

• Pharmacokinetics of drugs and environmental contaminants
• Optimization of drug therapy
• Physiologically-based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling and simulation (prediction of the absorption, distribution and elimination of a compound within an organism)

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:

• Intelligent drug delivery system design (dermal, transdermal, transmucosal, ocular, and intranasal) for Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Cancer, Immunology (Glaucoma, neural degenerative disorders, HPV, LSIL/CIN I, cervical cancer, Scleroderma)

• Non-invasive drug delivery technologies, biomolecular devices

• Gene therapy, protein, and vaccine development

• Nanomedicine, pharmaceutical development

• Nanotoxicology (nanomaterials, bioimaging, biomarkers)

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[Global Impact] [CBC] April 30, 2018 "Working with gene therapy to treat glaucoma"

[Waterloo Stories] July 5, 2012 "Revolutionary drug delivery"

Research interests:

• Public Health - access to care and healthcare system efficiency
• Telehealth - remote delivery of healthcare locally and globally
• Health Informatics – use of AI and machine learning to optimize the diagnosis and management of ocular disease
• Ocular Disease & Ophthalmic Imaging
• Interprofessional Education and Collaboration

Research interests:

[Science Direct] August 10, 2018 "Revealing the atomistic details behind the binding of B7–1 to CD28 and CTLA-4: A comprehensive protein-protein modelling study"

[Nature] August 27, 2019 "Comprehensive in vitro characterization of PD-L1 small molecule inhibitors"

Research Interests:

• Mobile health technologies and social media in medication management

• Clinical and post-marketing phases of medication use

• Improve medication use and primary care via emerging technologies (mobile apps, social media)

• Pharmacy remuneration models and chronic disease management services in the community pharmacy setting

• Usability of mobile health applications and wearable activity trackers for older adults living with chronic disease.

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

​[Waterloo Stories] November 16, 2016 "The opioid crisis: How pharmacists can help save lives"

Research Interests:

• Theoretical molecular biophysics and soft matter (chromosomes, polymers, electrostatics)

• Polymer physics for chromosome organization in a cell

• Confined polymers (chain topology, spatial organization, and dynamics)

• Electrostatic modification of lipid membranes

• Physical basis for cell selectivity of antimicrobial peptides

• Polyelectrolytes and polyampholytes

Research interests:

• Imaging, treatment, and prevention of diseases
• Fabrication and characterization of innovative biomaterials for drug delivery systems (nanoparticles, medical devices, biodegradable films, hydrogels, etc.)
• Vaccine development for protection against HIV and other diseases

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[Waterloo News] February 6, 2019 "Researchers find new treatment for Chlamydia"

[Waterloo News] April 16, 2018 "Developing new way to fight transmission of HIV"

Research interests: 

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

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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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:

• 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:

• 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:

• 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

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Research Interests:

• Classical and visual optics
• Optical system design, science and engineering
• Psychophysics/human factors
• Visual perception, visual optics math modelling
• Biomedical image processing

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[CBB researcher story] July 29, 2015 "Image processing to automate early glaucoma diagnosis"

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:

• Green energy: solar cells and hydrogen generation

• Biosensing and environmental remediation using hybrid nanomaterials
• Quantum electronics
• Surface chemical physics
• Ultra-large scale computational chemistry

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:

• 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:

• 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:

• Proteins: energetics, kinetics, mechanisms, structure, dynamics, folding, function, evolution, engineering and design, thermodynamics, kinetics (ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, prions, cancer)

• High resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fluorescence, CD, NMR, FTIR, DLS)

• Optical spectroscopies

• Bioinformatics and computational modelling

• Biocomputing and protein engineering

• Biophysical chemistry and biochemistry
• Bionanotechnology and biomaterials

​[Waterloo News] November 24, 2015 "New insights into protein structure could change the future of biomedicine"

[​Chemistry News] August 20, 2014 "Chemist Elizabeth Meiering takes on the ALS ice bucket challenge"

Research interests:

• Development of a thermal imaging system for the ocular surface
• Development of a tear evaporation sensing and measurement system
• Development of an ocular surface sensory neuroscience testing system
  
   

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:

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

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

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:

• 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:

• 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

• human visual cortex development and plasticity
• videogames for vision rehabilitation (amblyopia)
• vision loss treatments and rehabilitation
• diagnostics
• imaging

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[YouTube] February 13, 2019 "Teaching an old brain new tricks" TEDxUW

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:

• Gene therapy and drug delivery systems (prostate and ovarian cancer treatment)

• Polymeric nanomaterials, biopolymers

• Novel surface active compounds (gemini surfactants)

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

[CBB researcher story] July 21, 2015 "Vectors for gene therapy and improving drug solubility"

Research interests:

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

Research Interests:

• Numerical simulation
• Optics
• Polarization
• Electric field propagation
• Guided waves
• Optoelectronics devices and systems

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