Microstats Lab v4.2 (Summer 2023)
Abdul-Rahman Adamu Bukari, MSc. - Ph.D. student, Microbiology (email)
Abdul got his Honours degree in Biological Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He then joined the University of Bath as a Commonwealth Scholar to pursue a Masters in Molecular Microbiology where he focused on cholera genomics with Jaime Matinez-Urtaza. He is passionate about building bioinformatics capacity in Africa and is a member of the H3ABioNet project. He is interested in employing 'omics approaches to understanding the factors that drive genotypic and phenotypic diversities in microbes with a specific interest in antimicrobial drug resistance. He is honored to be the pioneer Ph.D. student of the lab!
Funding: NSERC CREATE in Evolutionary Fungal Pathogenesis
Abdul got his Honours degree in Biological Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He then joined the University of Bath as a Commonwealth Scholar to pursue a Masters in Molecular Microbiology where he focused on cholera genomics with Jaime Matinez-Urtaza. He is passionate about building bioinformatics capacity in Africa and is a member of the H3ABioNet project. He is interested in employing 'omics approaches to understanding the factors that drive genotypic and phenotypic diversities in microbes with a specific interest in antimicrobial drug resistance. He is honored to be the pioneer Ph.D. student of the lab!
Funding: NSERC CREATE in Evolutionary Fungal Pathogenesis
Caitlin Kostna - Undergraduate capstone project student, Data Science
Caitlin is working on the PloidyPeaks R package that was developed by former MSc student Margot Henry.
PloidyPeaks was developed with a goal of being able to assign and quantify ploidy subpopulations from flow cytometry
data, which we commonly observe during evolution to fungal drugs (and many other things!) She is adding automated
visualization capabilities and coding some finishing touches on the package to get it ready for submission soon to
BioConductor.
Caitlin is working on the PloidyPeaks R package that was developed by former MSc student Margot Henry.
PloidyPeaks was developed with a goal of being able to assign and quantify ploidy subpopulations from flow cytometry
data, which we commonly observe during evolution to fungal drugs (and many other things!) She is adding automated
visualization capabilities and coding some finishing touches on the package to get it ready for submission soon to
BioConductor.
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Javier San Juan Galán, MSc. - PhD. student, Microbiology
Javier got his Bachelor degree in Microbiology at the Faculty of Biology in University of Havana. During his time working as a Research Assistant at the National Laboratory for Fungal Infections in the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí, he got his Master Degree in Clinical Microbiology. His current research project is focused on the evolution and virulence of Candida in women with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis. Funding: NSERC CREATE |
Aleeza Gerstein, MSc., Ph.D. - Assistant Professor (email)
Aleeza did her undergraduate in Ecology & Evolution at the University of Western Ontario (now
inexplicably Western University) where she studied things like Desert Ecology and Meadow Sparrows. She
then moved to the University of British Columbia for her MSc and PhD, where she became enamoured with
coding in R and evolving Saccharomyces cerevisiae in test tubes and the ability to pinpoint specific
mutations in many replicate lines through whole genome sequencing. She conducted her postdoctoral
work in the human fungal pathogens Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans at Tel Aviv
University and The University of Minnesota before migrating back home to start her faculty position in
2018 in her hometown at The University of Manitoba.
Links: google scholar, github, CV
Aleeza did her undergraduate in Ecology & Evolution at the University of Western Ontario (now
inexplicably Western University) where she studied things like Desert Ecology and Meadow Sparrows. She
then moved to the University of British Columbia for her MSc and PhD, where she became enamoured with
coding in R and evolving Saccharomyces cerevisiae in test tubes and the ability to pinpoint specific
mutations in many replicate lines through whole genome sequencing. She conducted her postdoctoral
work in the human fungal pathogens Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans at Tel Aviv
University and The University of Minnesota before migrating back home to start her faculty position in
2018 in her hometown at The University of Manitoba.
Links: google scholar, github, CV
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Erica Pouteau - Undergraduate project student, Microbiology
Erica is in her final year of her undergraduate studies. She is working on characterizing the cross-resistance and cross-tolerance that arises following evolution to the azole drug fluconazole. |
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Parul Sethi, MSc. - PhD. student, Microbiology
Parul completed her Bachelors in Microbiology from University of Delhi. She then carried out her Masters in Microbial Biotechnology from Panjab University, Chandigarh, where she worked on the [enetration of antifungal drugs through biofilms of Candida spp. She since worked as a Junior research fellow at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, working on investigation emerging drug resistance mechanisms in Trichophyton spp. Funding: NSERC CREATE |
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Yana Syvolos - Lab technician
Yana is our lab technician/manager extra-ordinaire. In addition to managing THRIVE-yeast isolate and sample colletion, Yana has also been working on (non) resistance evolution to boric acid. Yana was previously a URA (summer 2021) and MBIO4032 (winter 2022) student. |
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Aruni Sumanarathne - MSc. student, Microbiology
Aruni completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours), Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Peradeniya. She is currently working on characterizing the distribution of neutral mutations in the presence and absence of drug in Candida albicans. Funding: NSERC CREATE, Research Manitoba |
Kelsey Wog - MSc., joint with Dr. Matthew Bakker, Microbiology
Kelsey completed her undergraduate degree in Plant Biotechnology at the University of Manitoba. She is working on an experimental evolution in Fusarium graminearum with the goal of understanding the propensity to develop resistance, tolerance and cross-resistance and cross-tolerance in drug used in agriculture and the clinic.
Kelsey completed her undergraduate degree in Plant Biotechnology at the University of Manitoba. She is working on an experimental evolution in Fusarium graminearum with the goal of understanding the propensity to develop resistance, tolerance and cross-resistance and cross-tolerance in drug used in agriculture and the clinic.
GRADUATE ALUMNI
Margot Henry - MSc student, Statistics, 2020-2022
Currently working for the Public Health Agency of Canada
Ola Salama - MSc student, Microbiology, 2019-2021
Currently a research technician and computational analyst
UNDERGRADUATE ALUMNI
Kenzie Bremner - NSERC Indigenous Award, Summer 2023
Jayden Case - Honours project student, Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, 2022-23
Madison Chapel - Honours project student, Microbiology, September 2019- April 2020, Currently an MSc student in Bioinformatics at the
University of British Columbia
Alexia De Graaf - FoS USRA Student, Summer 2022, Currently a medical student at the University of Ottawa
Devin Habon - University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2021. Currently a medical student at the University of Manitoba
Rebekah Kukurudz - FoS USRA Student & research technician, Fall 2018-Summer 2022. Currently an MSc student in Genetic Counselling
Obaid Maqsood - FoS USRA, Summer 2023. MBIO4032, student fall 2023.
Daniel Peter-Salawu - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Summer 2019
Brooke Sidney - Honours project student, Microbiology, Science Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2020-2021. Currently an MSc student in
Epidemiology at the University of Alberta
Inderpreet Singh - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Summer 2021
Riley Sierhuis - NSERC Undergraduate Research Award), Summer 2020. Currently a medical student at the University of Manitoba
Tri Le - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Research Assistant, May 2019 - April 2020
Quinn Wonitowy - Co-op student, NSERC Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2019. Currently in the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program at the University of Manitoba
Margot Henry - MSc student, Statistics, 2020-2022
Currently working for the Public Health Agency of Canada
Ola Salama - MSc student, Microbiology, 2019-2021
Currently a research technician and computational analyst
UNDERGRADUATE ALUMNI
Kenzie Bremner - NSERC Indigenous Award, Summer 2023
Jayden Case - Honours project student, Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, 2022-23
Madison Chapel - Honours project student, Microbiology, September 2019- April 2020, Currently an MSc student in Bioinformatics at the
University of British Columbia
Alexia De Graaf - FoS USRA Student, Summer 2022, Currently a medical student at the University of Ottawa
Devin Habon - University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2021. Currently a medical student at the University of Manitoba
Rebekah Kukurudz - FoS USRA Student & research technician, Fall 2018-Summer 2022. Currently an MSc student in Genetic Counselling
Obaid Maqsood - FoS USRA, Summer 2023. MBIO4032, student fall 2023.
Daniel Peter-Salawu - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Summer 2019
Brooke Sidney - Honours project student, Microbiology, Science Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2020-2021. Currently an MSc student in
Epidemiology at the University of Alberta
Inderpreet Singh - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Summer 2021
Riley Sierhuis - NSERC Undergraduate Research Award), Summer 2020. Currently a medical student at the University of Manitoba
Tri Le - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Research Assistant, May 2019 - April 2020
Quinn Wonitowy - Co-op student, NSERC Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2019. Currently in the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program at the University of Manitoba
