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Dr. John Paul Pezacki

Full Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ottawa
Curriculum Vitae

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Positions available. Contact Dr. Pezacki for more details. 

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 Research Associates and Postdoctoral Fellows

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Dave Prescott, PhD

Research Associate 

• Determining the influence of essential transition metals on the host response to viral infection
• Employing expanded genetic code techniques to develop novel tools to study and utilize exosomes and related extracellular vesicles.
• Characterizing the essential role of RNA-induced silencing during viral infection of mammalian cells. 

Caroline Toudic, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

• Investigating the role payed by extracellular vesicles (microvesicles and exosomes) and their miRNA cargos in modulating the innate immune response to viral infection 
• Developing a cell culture-based model to study Norovirus infections

Shadi Sedghi Masoud, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

• Development of bioorthogonal probes and novel bioorthogonal chemistry

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 Graduate Research Students 

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Geneviève Desrochers

PhD candidate

• ​​​Development of new activity-based profiling methods, application of activity-based profiling methods to study protein-protein interactions

​​Rhea Alonzi

PhD candidate

• ​Investigating the roles of exosomes in host - pathogen interactions and viral propagation​
• Investigating the effects of small molecules on sorting exosomal cargo
• Engineering exosomes as biocompatible, pan-antiviral delivery systems for therapeutic applications

Roxana Filip

PhD candidate

• ​Application of chemical biology methods to study the metabolic response to infection and host-pathogen interactions
• Investigating the role of serine hydrolase enzymes in metabolic pathways 

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Tyler Shaw

PhD candidate

• ​​Activity-based profiling of host-virus interactions and investigation of microRNA modulation of metabolic pathways during viral infection​

Nadine Ahmed 

PhD candidate

 Noreen Ahmed 

PhD candidate

• ​Investigating the role of miRNAs in modulating the innate immune response to viral infection.
• Application of activity-based protein profiling techniques to study the innate immune response during viral infection.
  

• Engineering tools for the study of the RNA silencing pathway and small regulatory RNAs.
• Improving the function of p19 protein for the study of small RNAs
• Utilization of protein engineering techniques including rational protein design and genetic code expansion technology/ unnatural amino acids incorporation.

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Didier Bilodeau

PhD candidate

David Lefebvre

MSc candidate

​Mariam Serhan

MSc candidate

• ​Development and optimization of new bioorthogonal chemistry, namely the Kinugasa reaction
• Exploration of nitrone reactivity

• Application of activity-based protein profiling methods to study the effects of endocannabinoid related serine hydrolases and their role in altering host-pathogen interactions

•  Interested in the development of new bioorthogonal chemistry with a focus on nitrones and 3-oxidopyridium species. ​

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​Salmaan Chummun

​MSc candidate

• ​Investigating the role of RNA G-quadruplexes in HCV replication and pathogenicity.
  

​Gabriel Sullivan

MSc candidate

• Using the expanded genetic code to investigate RNA binding proteins
• Exploring CRISPR technologies

Varis Gupta

MSc candidate

• Activity-based profiling of host-pathogen interactions and identification of kinases involved in Dengue infections

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Kaitlyn Morrill

​MSc candidate

• ​Interested in the developments of bioorthogonal reactions, specifically reactions involving diazapyrones.

Christine Hum

​MSc candidate

• ​Interested in investigating the role of miRNA in modulating innate immune response and metabolic pathways during viral infection

Jordan Pham

​MSc candidate

• Using an expanded genetic code and unnatural amino acids to modify AGO2 for miRNA profiling

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Tiffany Stern

​MSc candidate

• ​Interested in the role of hepatic microRNAs during the immunometabolic response to viral infection.

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Undergraduate Research Students 

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​Emily Pennock

Investigating the role of miRNA-183 cluster in the innate immune response to viral proteins

Jason Josephson

Computational modelling of bioorthogonal reactions using density functional theory and distortion-interaction analysis.

Étienne Bélanger

Using activity-based protein profiling to study the role of serine hydrolases in hepatic metabolism

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Hannah Delion

​Interested in novel biorthogonal chemistry​

Spencer Ugoccioni

Interested in the potential of miRNA for clinical use, particularly as a means of responding to viral infection

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Recent members

Research associates and Post-doctoral fellows: 
Megan Powdrill, PhD
Christopher Ablenas, PhD 
Dennis Özcelik, PhD
Mirka Strmiskova, PhD
Allison Sherratt, PhD

Graduate students: 
Matthew Lafrenière, PhD
Ragunath Singaravelu, PhD
Dana Foss, PhD
Neda Nasheri, PhD
​Rodney Lyn, PhD
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Kaitlyn Margison, MSc
Julie Delcorde, MSc
Doug MacKenzie, MSc

Laboratory managers:
​Shifawn O'Hara, MSc
Mariya Chigrinova, MSc
Yanouchka Rouleau, MSc