Our People - Science

Expertise:

• Plant-microbe interactions
• Symbiotic nitrogen fixation in agriculture
• Functional metagenomics to look at the genomes of organisms present in complex samples such as soil
• Bacterial genome engineering for the production of bioproducts such as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)
• Synthetic biology, bioplastics and bioproducts

Publications:

Trevor Charles Publication List

Expertise:

• Bioinformatics, computational biology and molecular genetics
• Predicting novel protein families and functions by combining sequence analysis with structural bioinformatics
• Predicting evolutionary adaptations in genes and genome by combining sequence analysis, phylogenetics and structural modeling
• Computational approaches to functionally annotate metagenomes and detect biologically relevant differences between them
   

Expertise:

• DNA replication, cell cycle checkpoints, molecular genetics
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism for cancer-related studies of the cell cycle
• Initiation of DNA replication including identifying and characterizing protein factors
• Cancer diagnostic markers for cell proliferation
   

Expertise:

• Protein structure and function
• Understanding of enzyme catalytic mechanisms including in methionine biochemistry and glyoxalase metalloenzymes
• Bio-nanotechnology including nanosized proteins as drug carriers and molecular foundations for nanodevices
• Bacteriophages to produce building blocks used in advanced biomaterials
• Interactions between biomolecules and nanomaterials
   

Expertise:

• Microbial diversity and function, especially at contaminated sites (primarily municipal landfills)
• Microbiome analysis (DNA, RNA and protein in metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics) from environmental samples
• Bioremediation tool development from exploration of microbial community interactions

Publications:

Laura Hug's Publication list

Expertise:

• Hyperthermophilic microorganisms growing at 80°C and above
• Microbial physiology and enzymology
• Alcohol and H₂ fermentation using novel enzymes that work at high temperatures
• Biocatalysis using thermostable enzymes for the production of chiral compounds
• High temperature biochemistry and protein engineering
   

Expertise:

• Proteomics analysis, that is, identifying and quantifying the proteins active within a biological system
• Computational and bioinformatics approaches for investigating protein function
• Quantification of cell cycle proteins in yeast, recombinant protein production in mammalian cell lines, and identification of proteins mediating plant-bacterial interactions
• Structural pattern recognition algorithms to predict protein functions such as carbohydrate binding and antifreeze activity
• Evolution of protein function within homologous protein groups
   

Expertise:

• Microbial carbonation reactions for carbon storage in mine tailings
• Microstucture and chemistry of microbial mats and stromatolites
• Electron and X-ray microscopy of microbial mats and their mineral precipitates
• Microbial nutrient acquisition in polar environments
• Bioremediation of mine waste materials

Expertise:

• Microbial fertilizers to enhance crop productivity and improve environmental footprint
• Bioplastics synthesized by microbes to reduce the negative environmental effects of conventional plastics
• Utilizing nanomaterials (polymers containing nanoparticles) as antimicrobial agents, with applications in healthcare, food processes and packaging, water disinfection, and antimicrobial coatings
• Biodegradable plastic synthesis, including altering bioplastics using byproducts of soymeal fermentation

Expertise:

• World expert on Bangiales – types of red algae
• Red algae of economic importance - they contain compounds (agar, carrageenan, etc.) that are used extensively as thickeners in products such as yogurt, ice cream and toothpaste
• Red algae as food sources - genera such as Porphyra (aka. Nori, laverbread) and Palmaria (a.k.a. Dulse) are important food sources and are global billion-dollar aquaculture industries
• Red algae as a critical group in the evolution of photosynthetic life on earth through secondary endosymbiosis of chloroplasts
• Red algae as a nuisance - (e.g. Cladophora and Chara in Laurentian Great Lakes), invasive species (e.g. Bangia atropupurea in the Great Lakes)
• Cyanobacteria that release toxins and taste and odour compounds in drinking water (Lake Ontario)
   

Expertise:

• Microbial diversity - developing and applying molecular and computational methods to explore complex microbial communities spanning aquatic, terrestrial, and host-associated habitats
• Linking function and phylogeny - by exploring active microorganisms involved in transforming carbon and energy, to better understand who is doing what in the environment
• Nitrogen cycle - using a combination of molecular and cultivation approaches to investigate the microbial community members associated with ammonia oxidation and denitrification

Publications:

Josh Neufeld's Publication List

Expertise:

• Environmental microbiology
• Aquatic virus ecology
• Algal-virus interactions and co-evolution
• Giant virus diversity
• Carbon flow in marine environments

Publications:

Jozef Nissimov's publication list.

Expertise:

• Cycling of key elements in lakes, rivers, forests and agricultural watersheds
• Impacts of climate change and agriculture on aquatic ecosystems
• Development and use of novel tracers, such as stable isotopes and artificial sweeteners, for following impacts on surface water and groundwater
• Indicators of climate change in high arctic and subarctic systems
   

Expertise:

• Exploring abilities of various bacteria to form resistance to widely used antibiotics, including colistin, polymyxin, and metronidazole
• Examining bacterial antibiotic resistance through a public health lens
• Microbial proteins that play a role in antibiotic resistance and microbial pathogenesis, especially considering Clostridioides difficile and Klebsiella sp.
• Relationships between various common antibiotics, concerning bacterial cross-resistance
• Sequencing of bacterial genomes to further understand antibiotic resistance across bacterial species