Biochemistry Faculty Members Research areas

Mark Berry

My research is in the health and disease relevance of a family of G protein-coupled receptors known as Trace amine-associated receptors. This work combines cell culture, animal models, and various pharmacological and biochemical signalling assays. I am open to supervising any of the thesis options, although some might require a co-supervisor as I am on sabbatical for the 2023/24 academic year.

Robert Bertolo

Dr. Bertolo studies amino acid and methyl metabolism in neonates, using the surgically altered pig as a model. He has a particular interest in parenteral nutrition composition and how it can be modified to prevent programming of risk for chronic diseases in later life. Dr. Bertolo also studies amino acid requirements for non-protein compounds such as creatine and phosphatidylcholine in neonates and how competition for these amino acids can limit growth. Dr. Bertolo will supervise honours projects using wet lab, systematic/scoping review with or without meta analysis, and narrative review / grant proposal.

Valerie Booth

Dr. Booth’s broad area of research is biophysics.  Her research topics include antimicrobial peptides and the effects of macromolecular crowding on intrinsically disordered protein behavior.   Her tools include NMR, molecular dynamics simulation, systematic reviews, calorimetry, and dynamic light scattering. Honours students carry out work on either 1) molecular crowding of intrinsically disordered proteins; or 2) antimicrobial peptides as the basis for novel antibiotics. Projects can be wet lab, computational, or systematic review.

Robert Brown

Our interests include the study of lipids and lipoproteins, and their effects on cellular functions. A variety of in vitro and in vivo methods, plus the use of mass spectrometry to identify lipids, are employed in our studies.

Janet Brunton

Dr. Brunton's research addresses questions related to amino acid nutrition of newborn and premature infants, using a neonatal piglet model. When "normal" feeding is not possible because of medical consequences related to preterm birth, total parenteral (intravenous) nutrition (TPN) is often necessary to sustain life; but TPN use leads to serious complications including intestinal atrophy, intestinal infections and liver damage. We study whether altering the nutrient composition of TPN can reduce the development of liver and gut complications. We also use a model of intestinal atrophy to assess feeding strategies that might reduce infection and inflammation and enhance more rapid gut recovery. Honours students would work closely with a graduate student who will lead the project. Dr. Brunton prefers to have a student do a wet lab project, but is willing to consider library-based research projects including systematic/scoping reviews.

Sukhinder Cheema

Dr. Cheema's research focuses on maternal nutrition (specifically dietary fats), pregnancy outcome, and metabolic regulation of the offspring. The disease states explored are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and brain health. 

The following are two projects in my lab: (1) Maternal nutrition, pregnancy outcome, and metabolic regulation of the offspring. The project involves working with tissues collected from animal models fed specialized diets, measuring biochemical parameters/enzyme activities/gene regulation. (2) Marine bioactives in health. The project involves investigating the health benefits of marine bioactives in various cell culture models, measuring biochemical parameters, fat accumulation, inflammation, oxidative stress, and gene regulation.

Sherri Christian

The work in Dr. Christian’s lab is focused on understanding communication between cells. 

The following are two projects in my lab: (1) Maternal nutrition, pregnancy outcome, and metabolic regulation of the offspring. The project involves working with tissues collected from animal models fed specialized diets, measuring biochemical parameters/enzyme activities/gene regulation. (2) Marine bioactives in health. The project involves investigating the health benefits of marine bioactives in various cell culture models, measuring biochemical parameters, fat accumulation, inflammation, oxidative stress, and gene regulation.

Zahra Farahnak

Dr. Farahnak studies the impacts of nutrients such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and exercise on fat mass and lean mass across the lifespan. The aim is to understand how different nutrients, exercise and dietary patterns may optimize body composition toward leaner body phenotype, manage chronic health conditions (e.g., obesity) and enhance healthspan.

Travis Fridgen

Dr. Fridgen and his students study the energetics, reactions, and structures of gaseous self-assembled complexes composed of metal ions and biologically relevant molecules such as DNA bases, amino acids, and peptides. They use a combination of techniques such as mass spectrometry, tunable infrared lasers, and computational chemistry. His research program is aimed at answering fundamental questions such as how metal cations affect the intramolecular noncovalent interactions and the structures of biologically relevant molecules, and of all the metal cations in our body, why K+ is associated with guanine quadruplexes such as telomeric DNA. Honours projects can be experimental, computational, or a combination depending on your interests. 

Scott Harding

Dr. Scott Harding: The Nutrition and Lifestyle Lab has several different research themes that focus on human nutrition and health. Theme 1. Sugars. We have projects that focus on how sugars get metabolized and contribute to changes in sleep, activity and how the body processes other nutrients. We also have a project that is studying the sugar sweetened beverage tax implementation in NL. Theme 2. Sleep. We have two on-going human clinical studies that are investigating the role sleep quality has on food choices and how other lifestyle factors like screen time and shift work affect sleep. Theme 3. Sea Urchin Aquaculture. We have a project that is studying the viability of sea urchin aquaculture in NL, looking specifically at dietary and genomic factors that might affect production quality. Theme 4. Omega-3 Fatty Acids. We have an ongoing project that focuses on dietary omega-3 fatty acids and how the body digests, absorbs, and distributes these fats under varied dietary conditions. We have 1) animal experiment and wet lab projects, 2) systematic and scoping review projects, and 3) public health projects available.

Pavan Kakumani

Dr. Kakumani Lab works on small RNAs in post-transcriptional gene silencing. Small RNAs are short duplex RNA molecules, essential for cell homeostasis and development in animals. Changes in their expression and activity are linked to numerous human illnesses including cancer, neurodevelopmental and degenerative disorders. Our research program aims to identify and characterize proteins that influence small RNA function in the control of the expression of protein-coding and non-coding genes. Here, we employ animal and human cell cultures along with Next Generation Sequencing technologies and biochemical research techniques such as RNA-Immunoprecipitation, RT-qPCR based TaqMan assays to investigate the involvement of potential protein candidates in small RNA biogenesis and target mRNA repression. Further, we explore the consequence of this regulation (both in vitro and in vivo) in cell proliferation, differentiation, and death - the phenomena associated with various human diseases.

Shyamchand Mayengbam

My research focuses on the role of gut microbiota and their metabolites in regulating human health. We investigate how micronutrients, such as B-vitamins, impact the host microbial profile, gut integrity, and inflammatory markers. If you are interested in gaining experiences with fecal DNA extraction or metaoblite analysis, or if you would like to study intestinal integrity, please feel free to contact me.

Dr. Mayengbam is interested in wet lab and scoping review.

Jaeok Park

Our research is centred on the concept of enzyme allostery, specifically examining the relationship between structure and function of enzymes that are regulated by allosteric mechanisms within metabolic pathways. Our ultimate goal is to apply this knowledge towards the development of new drug candidates through the design and discovery of novel allosteric molecules.

Dr. Park is willing to supervise any of the thesis style options, including computational studies.

Edward Randell

Main research interests relate to:
1. Discovery and characterization of biochemical markers of disease.
2. Evidence-based laboratory medicine and utilization management.
3. Process Improvement.

Fereidoon Shahidi

Three projects are available in my group:

(1) Extraction of phenolic compounds from agro/aqua sources and evaluation of their characteristics and antioxidant potential. This work may use selected seeds or relevant aquatic sources as such or as affected by certain processing conditions followed by their extraction using different media or conditions. Subsequently, the extracts will be examined for different activities in in-vitro models.

(2) Oxidative stability of selected oils and their modified counterparts. This project makes use of vegetable, algal or marine oils to examine their oxidative stability as such or upon addition of selected extracts or compounds of interest or after their inclusion in products over time.

(3) Valorization of agro/aquatic resources. This work involves use of underutilized species or processing by-products to prepare value-added components.

Kapil Tahlan

Our laboratory employs molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, genomics/proteomics, small molecule analysis, etc. to study different aspects of bacterial biology and metabolism. Three research areas include: (1) Streptomyces; (2) Mycobacteria; and (3) Antibiotic Resistance. 

Amy Todd

I supervise honours students who are completing a systematic review with a cellular molecular focus, and students completing research dissertations or systematic reviews with an educational focus. My background is in Cellular Molecular Biology, but I currently study Life-Sciences Pedagogy in the context of Higher Education, with a focus on long-term retention and transfer, metacognition, inclusive and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and the impact of student health and lifestyle on various aspects of learning. My work ranges from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), with studies examining the impact of instructional strategies within courses, to broader, longitudinal studies that explore impacts on learning within and beyond academic programming.

Hélène Volkoff

I do research in fish endocrinology with a focus on the regulation of food intake and reproduction. My work ranges from in vivo treatments and behavioural observations to molecular biology. 

Katie Wilson

Dr. Wilson’s research uses computational biochemistry to understand how biochemical systems function. Current research is focused on understanding the structure and function of glycosyltransferase enzymes, which are responsible for synthesizing carbohydrate chains (glycans) that are subsequently added to proteins or lipids to form glycoproteins or glycolipids, respectively. Glycans play a critical role in cell signalling, Alzheimer's disease, bacterial infections, and cancer metastasis and therefore, gaining a better understanding of how glycosyltransferases function can aid in the development of new drug molecules. Dr. Wilson can supervise computational lab or systematic review  projects; however other project formats are possible with co-supervision. 

On Sabbatical

The following faculty members are on sabbatical for the 2023/24 academic year and therefore not available to supervise honours projects:

Dr. Mark Berry