

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

Alexia de Graaf - Summer USRA Student, Microbiology

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

Margot Henry, BSc. (Hons) - MSc. student, Statistics
Margot just completed her honours degree in statistics at the University of Manitoba. She was the first co-op
student for MicroStats lab and is now back to do her masters. Her research is based on developing an R (Bioconductor) package to measure the population-level distribution of genome sizes in samples that
contain multiple sub-populations of fungal cells. Margot is currently a trainee in the VADA program.
Funding: NSERC CREATE in Visual and Automated Disease Analytics, NSERC CGS-M
Margot just completed her honours degree in statistics at the University of Manitoba. She was the first co-op
student for MicroStats lab and is now back to do her masters. Her research is based on developing an R (Bioconductor) package to measure the population-level distribution of genome sizes in samples that
contain multiple sub-populations of fungal cells. Margot is currently a trainee in the VADA program.
Funding: NSERC CREATE in Visual and Automated Disease Analytics, NSERC CGS-M

Thanh Hoang - Summer USRA Student, Applied Mathematics

Rebekah Kukurudz, BSc. (email) - Research Technician
Rebekah completing the final year of her B.Sc majoring in Genetics in 2020. She was instrumental to the
initiation of the lab (our first official student!), and is now acting in both administrative and investigative
capacities. On the science side, she's leading our nascent studies on vulvovaginal candidiasis.
Rebekah completing the final year of her B.Sc majoring in Genetics in 2020. She was instrumental to the
initiation of the lab (our first official student!), and is now acting in both administrative and investigative
capacities. On the science side, she's leading our nascent studies on vulvovaginal candidiasis.
Beamlak Manyaz - BSc. Project Student, Microbiology
Beamlak is currently in her final year of a Microbiology Honours degree. She is currently doing her thesis project investigating both phenotypic and genotypic variation among various isolates of Candida species that were isolated from recurring vaginal infections. |
Javier San Juan, 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. |
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. |
ALUMNI
Yana Syvolos - University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2020, MBIO4032 student Winter 2022
Ola Salama - MSc student, Microbiology, 2019-2021
Devin Habon - University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2021
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
Madison Chapel - Honours project student, Microbiology, September 2019- April 2020
Currently a Laboratory Biology at the National Microbiology Laboratory
Riley Sierhuis - NSERC Undergraduate Research Award), Summer 2020
Tri Le - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Research Assistant, May 2019 - April 2020
Daniel Peter-Salawu - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Summer 2019
Quinn Wonitowy - Co-op student, NSERC Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2019
Yana Syvolos - University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2020, MBIO4032 student Winter 2022
Ola Salama - MSc student, Microbiology, 2019-2021
Devin Habon - University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2021
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
Madison Chapel - Honours project student, Microbiology, September 2019- April 2020
Currently a Laboratory Biology at the National Microbiology Laboratory
Riley Sierhuis - NSERC Undergraduate Research Award), Summer 2020
Tri Le - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Research Assistant, May 2019 - April 2020
Daniel Peter-Salawu - Science Undergraduate Summer Research Award, Summer 2019
Quinn Wonitowy - Co-op student, NSERC Undergraduate Research Award, Summer 2019