People

Those listed below are interested in microbiome research in Canada, including researchers, developers, funders and domain experts from academia, industry, and government. If you would like to be added to this list, please sign up for a MicrobiomeCanada account here.

First Name Last Name Position Affiliation Province Researcher type Research area/interests
Arthur Mortha Assistant Professor University of Toronto Ontario Academic 1. Innate Lymphoid Cell (ILC) biology 2. Host-microbiome interactions 3. Myeloid Cell biology
Diego Silva Lecturer (Assistant Professor) University of Sydney British Columbia Academic microbiome and ethics; public health ethics
Meghan Azad Associate Professor University of Manitoba Manitoba Clinical, Academic Infant microbiome, human milk composition, developmental origins of health and disease, breastfeeding, infant nutrition, donor human milk, maternal nutrition, artificial sweeteners
Emma Allen-Vercoe Professor University of Guelph Ontario Industry, Academic Culture of microbial ecosystems, predominantly from the human colon but also other sites/animals. Use of bioreactors to support whole ecosystems. Development of complex but defined microbial ecosystems. Understanding and characterizing the hunter/gatherer human gut microbiome; culture and characterization of rare taxa/missing microbes. Anaerobic microbiology. Development of 'microbial ecosystem therapeutics' to treat human disease. Co-founder and CSO of NuBiyota LLC to promote translational microbiota research and develop novel biologic drug products based on the microbiome.
Ian Lewis Assistant Professor University of Calgary Alberta Academic The Lewis Research Group’s Calgary Metabolomic Research Facility (CMRF) is the metabolomics and proteomics lead for the International Microbiome Centre, and it serves as the metabolomics hub for the IMPACTT Microbiome core. Through these partnerships, the Lewis Research Group supports a variety of investigations into the proteomic and metabolomic underpinnings of host-microbiome interactions.
Kathy McCoy Professor University of Calgary Alberta Academic Microbiome, immunology
Marie-Claire Arrieta Assistant Professor University of Calgary Alberta Clinical, Academic Early-life microbiome, asthma, microbial eukaryotes, immune development
Dongyan Niu Assistant Professor University of Calgary Alberta Academic Bacteriophage genome and therapy
Carolina Tropini Assistant Professor University of British Columbia British Columbia Academic In the Tropini lab, we are investigating how a disrupted physical environment in diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and chronic diarrhea affect the microbiota and host at a multi-scale level. We are a cross-disciplinary group that incorporates techniques from microbiology, bioengineering, biophysics and more to create highly parallel assays and study how bacteria and communities function, with the eventual goal of translating the knowledge we gain to improve human health.
Kelly McNagny Professor University of British Columbia British Columbia Academic Immunology, Stem Cell Biology, Mucosal Immune Response, Innate Lymphoid Cells, Tissue Repair and Fibrosis, Cancer, Cell Trafficking, Vascular Biology, Kidney Function and Disease
Stuart Turvey Professor University of British Columbia British Columbia Clinical, Academic Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways that typically begins in childhood. The underlying cause of asthma is a complex product of genetic and environmental factors; however research suggests that early life exposure to microbes alters immune system priming to increase susceptibility to asthma and allergic diseases. My lab aims to identify key compositional differences in the early-life gut microbiome, and metabolome between children who develop asthma and those who remain healthy, which can ultimately be targeted to predict and prevent asthma.
Benjamin Willing Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Microbiology of Nutrigenomics University of Alberta, Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science Alberta Academic My lab is interested in understanding the role of the intestinal microbiota and diet-microbe-host interactions in health outcomes, with particular focus on metabolic disease and infection resistance. We use rodent and pig gnotobiotic models with defined communities to understand the role of previously uncharacterized microbes in microbial ecology, metabolite production, and host responses. Microbes that we are currently focusing on include Prevotella, Parasutterella, Escherichia coli and yeast. We are also working on improving microbial formulations of kefir.
Eytan Wine Associate Professor University of Alberta Alberta Academic Host-microbe interactions, especially related to pediatric inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Also interested in effects of nutrition on micrbiome. Lab uses human samples, translational models, and wet-lab methods.
Karen Madsen Professor University of Alberta Alberta Academic environmental and dietary influences on host-microbial interactions; inflammatory bowel disease; fecal microbial transplantation; obesity and metabolic syndrome; fiber
Helen Tremlett Professor UBC British Columbia Academic multiple sclerosis; microbiome; pharmaco-epidemiology; drug safety; drug effectiveness; pharmacogenomics
Amanda Ricciuto Assistant Professor The Hospital for Sick Children Ontario Academic Paediatric colitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis
Mike Peabody Grad student Simon Fraser University British Columbia Academic Metagenomics with a focus on freshwater microbial ecology. I am also interested in the relationship between the microbiome and health.
Claire Bertelli PDF Simon Fraser University British Columbia Academic
Justin Jia PhD Graduate Student Simon Fraser University British Columbia Academic Bioinformatics, tool development, 16s amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing of microbiomes. My current project involves detecting and understanding the lateral gene transfer of antimicrobial resistance in the environment, and studying the effect of environmental contaminants on Canadian beluga health and identify microbiome biomarkers of such contaminants.
Fiona Brinkman Professor Simon Fraser University British Columbia Academic Integration of microbiome data with other data, and application of integrated approaches for studying infectious diseases, microbial interactions. Development of bioinformatic resources for genomic epidemiology, understanding pathogen evolution, and improving prediction of new vaccine/drug targets. Also applying our approaches to study innate immunity, allergic disease, and the environment.
Thea Van Rossum PhD candidate Simon Fraser University British Columbia Academic The effect of anthropogenic contamination on environmental and host-associated microbial communities, and its potential to inform novel biomonitoring. Particular interest in bioinformatic methods, reference-free techniques and data analysis.
Andrew McArthur Associate Professor McMaster University Ontario Academic bioinformatics, antimicrobial resistance, Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database, metagenomics
Jonathan Schertzer Associate Professor McMaster University Ontario Academic Immunometabolism, diabetes, obesity, microbiota, postbiotics: We are interested in figuring out how xenobiotics, diet and microbial stress promote or combat obesity, prediabetes, and diabetic complications. We are excited to help students discover new aspects in the 2-way street between host glucose and commensal or pathogenic bacteria.
Celia Greenwood Senior Investigator Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research Quebec Academic Statistical methods development for microbiome data and other 'omic data.
John Parkinson Senior Scientist Hospital for Sick Children Ontario Academic Eukaryotic Microbiome; Metatranscriptomics; Malnutrition; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Global Health; Poultry Microbiome; Community Metabolic Models; Community Probiotics
Padmaja Subbarao Clinician-Scientist Hospital for Sick Children Ontario Clinical, Academic The CHILD study is a birth cohort study aimed at understanding the root causes of asthma, allergy and the development of chronic disease. Children, now age 8 years, have been followed along with their mothers since early pregnancy. Children have been exquisitely phenotyped for asthma and allergy and have provided repeated biological samples since early life. Unique to this study is the extensive objective measures obtained in allergy (skin prick testing) since infancy as well as lung function that has been repeated since infancy.
Robert Beiko Professor Dalhousie University Nova Scotia Academic Bioinformatics software: microbial ecology, lateral gene transfer, geographic analysis, sequence classification. Also interested in relationships between the microbiome and frailty.
Morgan Langille Assistant Professor Dalhousie University Nova Scotia Academic Development of bioinformatic methods for microbiome research and studies involving host-microbe interactions. Also I run the Integrated Microbiome Resource (http://cgeb-imr.ca/)