Current Research Group

May 2019
Front row (left to right): Nurzhan Mukhametzhanov, Rojo Rakotoharisoa, Marina Cañellas Fontanilles, Roberto Chica, Jesús Agustín Banda-Vázquez, Sandrine Legault, Tony St-Jacques
Back row (left to right): Marc Mayer, Adam Damry, Matthew Eason, Aron Broom, Mykhaylo Slobodyanyuk, Scott Foster

 

Graduate Students

Matthew Eason
Ph.D. candidate (2013/09-present)
B.Sc. Biochemistry / B.A.Sc. Chemical Engineering, University of Ottawa (2013)
Home town: Wawa, Ontario, Canada

NSERC PGS-D Scholarship (2017-2019)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2015-2017)
NSERC CGS-M Scholarship (2014-2015)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2013-2014)

Research Project: Genetically-encoded biosensors for studying transiently-expressed proteins

 

 

Sandrine Legault
M.Sc. candidate (2019/05-present)
B.Sc. Biochemistry (2014-2019)
Home town: Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

NSERC CREATE Scholarship (2019-2021)
NSERC CGS-M Scholarship (2019-2020)
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (2017)

Research Project: Red fluorescent protein engineering

 

MarcM

 

Marc Mayer
M.Sc. candidate (2018/09-present)
B.Sc. Biomedical Sciences (2014-present)
Home town: Casselman, Ontario, Canada

NSERC CGS-M Scholarship (2019-2020)
NSERC CREATE Scholarship (2018-2020)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2018)
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (2017)

Research Project: Development of a genetically-encoded biosensor for in vivo tracking of exosomes

 

Nurzhan Mukhametzhanov
M.Sc. candidate (2017/09-present)
B.Sc. Chemistry, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (2014)
Home town: Karagandy, Kazakhstan

Bolashak Scholarship (2017-2019)

Research Project: High-throughput screening of tryptophan synthase mutant libraries

 

Rojo Rakotoharisoa
Ph.D. candidate (2018/09-present)
M.Sc. Chemistry, Université Paris Diderot (2018)
B.Sc. Biology, Biomolecules, Bioinformatics, Université Paris Diderot (2015)
Home town: Antananarivo, Madagascar

NSERC CREATE Scholarship (2019-2021)

Research Project: Multistate enzyme design

 

 

Mykhaylo Slobodyanyuk
M.Sc. candidate (2018/09-present)
B.Sc. Biochemistry, University of Ottawa (2018)
Home town: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

NSERC CREATE Scholarship (2018-2020)
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (2017)

Research Project: High-throughput assay for screening ligand-gated ion channel mutant libraries

 




Niayesh Zarifi
M.Sc. candidate (2019/09-present)
B.Sc. Biotechnology, University of Tehran (2019)
Home town: Kish Island, Iran

NSERC CREATE Scholarship (2019-2021)
Dr. Yu Scholarship for International Students (2019-2020)

Research Project: De novo enzyme design

 

Postdoctoral Fellows

 

Jesús Agustín Banda-Vázquez
Postdoctoral Fellow (2019/02-present)
Ph.D. Biochemical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Mexico (2018)
M.Sc. Biochemical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Mexico (2013)
B.Sc. Genomic Sciences, National Autonomous University of Mexico (2010)
Home town: Mexico City, Mexico

Research Project: Computational design of biosensors based on ligand-gated ion channels


Tony St-Jacques
Postdoctoral Fellow (2019/01-present)
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Ottawa (2018)
B.Sc. Chemistry, University of Ottawa (2011)
Home town: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2012-2014)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2011, declined)
Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (2011)

Research Project: Computational design of multisubstrate enzyme specificity

 

 

Undergraduates

Scott Foster
B.Sc. Biopharmaceutical Sciences, University of Ottawa (2015-present)
Home town: Burlington, Ontario, Canada

NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (2019)

Research Project: Aminotransferase substrate specificity engineering

Ornella Kahasha
B.Sc. Biochemistry / B.A.Sc. Chemical Engineering, University of Ottawa (2016-present)
Home town: Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Research Project: Fluorescent protein engineering

 

 

Alumni

For a list of past members, click here.