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 and email [email protected]

First Name Last Name Position Affiliation Province Microbiome sites of interest Research area/interests
Karen Madsen Professor University of Alberta Alberta Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Animal models, Mouse models environmental and dietary influences on host-microbial interactions; inflammatory bowel disease; fecal microbial transplantation; obesity and metabolic syndrome; fiber
Benjamin Willing Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Microbiology of Nutrigenomics University of Alberta, Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science Alberta Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Skin, Vaginal, Animal models, Mouse models, Swine, Rat, Cattle, Other 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.
Kellie MacLean Graduate Student - Health Data & Biostatistics University of Calgary Alberta Human microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Oral, Skin, Urogenital, Vaginal, Soil Using AI based approaches for antimicrobial resistance strategies, pattern recognition in biofilms, data visualization, and bacteriophage matching.
Eytan Wine Associate Professor University of Alberta Alberta Human microbiome, Gut microbiome 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.
Sydney Morgan Research Program Coordinator University of Calgary Alberta Human microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Vaginal, Soil, Mouse models
Ian Lewis Assistant Professor University of Calgary Alberta Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Marine, Soil 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 Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Skin, Animal models, Mouse models Microbiome, immunology
Michael Bording-Jorgensen PDF University of Alberta Alberta Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Mouse models Bacterial microbiome in the development and treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. I am particularly interested in the development of pathobionts and the gut microenvironment. In addition, how the commensalism microbes interact with the immune system in generating a level of tolerance and how this is affected in individuals with IBD.
Louise Gau Graduate University of Calgary Alberta Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Oral, Skin, Urogenital, Vaginal, Freshwater environment, Marine, Soil Health Promotion and Disease Prevention through Nutrition and the Gut Microbiome
Marie-Claire Arrieta Assistant Professor University of Calgary Alberta Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Mouse models Early-life microbiome, asthma, microbial eukaryotes, immune development
Dongyan Niu Assistant Professor University of Calgary Alberta Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Cattle Bacteriophage genome and therapy
Gerry Giesbrecht Associate Professor University of Calgary Alberta Human microbiome, Gut microbiome My lab is interested in the relations between the gut microbiota and human behavior. Specifically, we are interested in the role of the gut microbiota in shaping neurocognitive and mental health outcomes among children. Much of our work also incorporates components of the stress response systems, including the vagus nerve and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
Mason Stothart Grad Student University of Calgary Alberta Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Oral, Animal models, Other Host-microbiome ecology and (co)evolution in the wild. Mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of the host-microbiome relationship. Evolution to (and from) and anthropogenic niches, particularly in the context of feral systems and urban ecosystems.
Anna Bramucci post doc UBC British Columbia Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome marine microbiome
Mike Peabody Grad student Simon Fraser University British Columbia Human microbiome, Freshwater environment Metagenomics with a focus on freshwater microbial ecology. I am also interested in the relationship between the microbiome and health.
Helen Tremlett Professor UBC British Columbia Human microbiome, Gut microbiome multiple sclerosis; microbiome; pharmaco-epidemiology; drug safety; drug effectiveness; pharmacogenomics
Carolina Tropini Assistant Professor University of British Columbia British Columbia Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Animal models, Mouse models 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.
Claire Bertelli PDF Simon Fraser University British Columbia Human microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Freshwater environment, Built environment
Justin Jia PhD Graduate Student Simon Fraser University British Columbia Animal microbiome, Skin, Marine 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.
Mehrbod Estaki PDF University of California San Diego British Columbia Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Oral, Skin, Urogenital, Vaginal, Soil, Mining, Built environment, Animal models, Mouse models, Rat host-microbiome interaction, gut-brain axis, bioinformatics, metagenomics, microbial ecology, inflammatory bowel disease, exercise, UTI, Alzheimer's disease, QIIME 2, R, python, FMT, benchmarking bioinformatics tools/pipelines.
Ahmad Ud Din Researcher Southwest Medical University Luzhou Sichuan China British Columbia Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Mouse models
Kelly McNagny Professor University of British Columbia British Columbia Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Mouse models Immunology, Stem Cell Biology, Mucosal Immune Response, Innate Lymphoid Cells, Tissue Repair and Fibrosis, Cancer, Cell Trafficking, Vascular Biology, Kidney Function and Disease
Travis De Wolfe Postdoctoral Fellow University of British Columbia British Columbia Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Mouse models I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital. The goal of my research is to use microbiological culture techniques and sequencing technologies to test theories regarding the role of bacterial communities in human health. My research interests include inflammatory bowel diseases, Clostridioides difficile infection, host-microbe interactions, and microbial ecology.
Lisa Osborne Assistant Professor University of British Columbia British Columbia Gut microbiome, Mouse models Our group uses pre-clinical models and gnotobiotic techniques to interrogate how members of the intestinal ecosystem (bacteria, viruses and helminths) influence host protective immunity in response to pathogen infection and pathogenic autoimmunity, particularly in the context of multiple sclerosis.
Genelle Lunken Assistant Professor University of British Columbia and IBD Centre of BC British Columbia Human microbiome, Gut microbiome In the Lunken Lab we aim to expand our knowledge of host-immune-microbe interactions, with a specific focus on identifying host (i.e., diet) and microbial factors involved in inter-individual response to medical and dietary therapies.
Diego Silva Lecturer (Assistant Professor) University of Sydney British Columbia microbiome and ethics; public health ethics
Ali Mirza PhD student UBC British Columbia Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Oral, Skin, Urogenital, Vaginal Interested in microbiome bioinformatics, analytics, and biostatistics. My current project is on the trivariate relationship between dietary patterns, the gut microbiome, and pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis.
Fiona Brinkman Professor Simon Fraser University British Columbia Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Freshwater environment, Mining, Built environment, Animal models 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.
Alana Schick Staff scientist University of British Columbia British Columbia Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome
Meghan Azad Associate Professor University of Manitoba Manitoba Human microbiome, Gut microbiome Infant microbiome, human milk composition, developmental origins of health and disease, breastfeeding, infant nutrition, donor human milk, maternal nutrition, artificial sweeteners
Alicia Berard Assistant Professor University of Manitoba Manitoba Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Urogenital, Vaginal Reproductive health and diseases, microbiome and mucosal biology, bacterial vaginosis, HPV and cervical cancer, infertility, female and male reproductive microbiomes
Marina Costa Fujishima graduate student University of Manitoba Manitoba Human microbiome, Vaginal, Animal models, Mouse models vaginal microbiome
Maryam Kebbe Assistant Professor University of New Brunswick New Brunswick Gut microbiome Developmental origins of health and disease; breastmilk; microbiome; nutrition; obesity
Morgan Langille Assistant Professor Dalhousie University Nova Scotia Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome Development of bioinformatic methods for microbiome research and studies involving host-microbe interactions. Also I run the Integrated Microbiome Resource (http://cgeb-imr.ca/)
Robert Beiko Professor Dalhousie University Nova Scotia Human microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome Bioinformatics software: microbial ecology, lateral gene transfer, geographic analysis, sequence classification. Also interested in relationships between the microbiome and frailty.
Qingling Duan Assistant Professor Queen's University Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Oral, Skin, Urogenital, Vaginal My research program in bioinformatics aims to identify novel biological mechanisms underlying multifactorial traits/diseases by employing statistical and machine learning methods such as: i) additive and multiplicative models for integrating genomic variations with environmental exposures to determine interaction effects; ii) epistatic and network approaches to construct gene networks ; iii) develop novel methods for simultaneous analysis of multiple ‘omics datasets (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, microbiome) to study the complex and dynamic nature of biological networks.
Daniel Giguere PhD candidate Western University Ontario Human microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Freshwater environment, Mining nanopore sequencing, metagenomic sequencing, bioinformatic software development, data visualization, pipeline development, synthetic biology, illumina sequencing, high molecular weight DNA extraction
Emma Allen-Vercoe Professor University of Guelph Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Oral, Animal models, Mouse models, Swine 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.
Daniel Figeys Professor University of Ottawa Ontario Human microbiome, Gut microbiome Gut microbiome, drug-microbiome interactions, omics and bioinformatics
Amel Taibi Lecturer, staff scientist University of Toronto Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Mouse models Nutrition, Microbiology
Kevin McGregor Assistant Professor York University Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome Statistical genetics, microbiome data analysis, compositional data, Bayesian statistics, DNA methylation analysis
Marta Wojtanowski Student University of Guelph Ontario Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Vaginal, Animal models, Mouse models, Swine Microbiota composition, nutritional implications in gut health, dysbiosis, animal and human microbiome, sampling. I am a dedicated student with an interest in gut health. I am looking for a mentor for my graduate studies. I hope to continue my studies in the area of the microbiome.
Brendan Daisley PDF University of Guelph Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Animal models microbe-xenobiotic interactions, detoxficiation, neuroimmune-microbiota interactions, gut-brain axis, honey bees, pesticides, environmental sustainability
Andrew McArthur Associate Professor McMaster University Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Skin bioinformatics, antimicrobial resistance, Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database, metagenomics
John Parkinson Senior Scientist Hospital for Sick Children Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Urogenital, Vaginal, Mouse models, Swine, Other Eukaryotic Microbiome; Metatranscriptomics; Malnutrition; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Global Health; Poultry Microbiome; Community Metabolic Models; Community Probiotics
Leyuan Li PDF University of Ottawa Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Soil, Built environment, Mouse models Metaproteomics, high-throughput microbiome assay, gut microbiome, bioinformatics for multivariate statistics and visualization, microbial ecology, ecosystem engineering.
Javad Sadeghi Grad student University of Windsor Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Oral, Skin, Freshwater environment, Soil, Animal models
Gloria Rodriguez Patient Senior Ontario Gut microbiome Microbiota and BMS
Padmaja Subbarao Clinician-Scientist Hospital for Sick Children Ontario Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Other 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.
Jessie Hulst Associate professor The Hospital for Sick Children Ontario Gut microbiome Pediatric malnutrition, growth and body composition Pediatric gastroenterology
Eric Yunhan Kwon PhD Student McMaster University Ontario Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Mouse models inflammatory bowel disease; environmental/dietary/xenobiotic influence on host-microbiome interaction; intestinal organoids;
Amanda Ricciuto Assistant Professor The Hospital for Sick Children Ontario Human microbiome, Gut microbiome Paediatric colitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis
Jean Macklaim Bioinformatics scientist Industry: Diversigen/DNA Genotek Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Oral, Skin, Urogenital, Vaginal, Soil Human microbiome; vaginal and urogenital; women's health; applications of bioinformatic and statistical approaches on biological and clinical data; compositional data analyses; sequencing technologies; multi-omics data integration
Peter Dobranowski PhD Candidate University of Ottawa Ontario Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Mouse models Inflammatory bowel disease, precision nutrition, microbiome
Jonathan Schertzer Associate Professor McMaster University Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Animal models, Mouse models 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.
Arthur Mortha Assistant Professor University of Toronto Ontario Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Animal models, Mouse models 1. Innate Lymphoid Cell (ILC) biology 2. Host-microbiome interactions 3. Myeloid Cell biology
Aaron Del Duca Principal OMX Advisors Inc Ontario Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Oral, Skin, Urogenital, Vaginal
Thea Van Rossum PDF EMBL Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Freshwater environment, Mining Human and environmental microbiome analysis and tool development. Teaching data analysis skills and programming.
Steven Kembel Professor UQAM Quebec Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Plant microbiome, Environmental microbiome, Gut microbiome, Freshwater environment, Soil, Built environment Microbial ecology & evolution, quantitative biology, bioinformatics
Thomas Tompkins Research Director Rosell Institute for Microbiome and Probiotics Quebec Human microbiome, Gut microbiome, Vaginal Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis. Microbial influence on behaviour and neurodegeneration. Microbiome in the context of dietary and drug interventions.
Celia Greenwood Senior Investigator Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research Quebec Statistical methods development for microbiome data and other 'omic data.
Mariia Taguer PhD student McGill University Quebec Human microbiome, Gut microbiome Gut bacterial physiology, single-cell methods
Simon Bacon Professor Concordia University & CIUSSS-NIM Quebec Human microbiome Behavioural interventions and factors that link behaviours to health outcomes.
Thiviya Jeyakumar Grad student McGill University Quebec Gut microbiome
Irah King Professor and Centre Director McGill University Quebec Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Animal models, Mouse models Professor Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology Microbiome Research
Tanya Copley Researcher CÉROM Quebec
Janet Hill Professor University of Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Human microbiome, Animal microbiome, Gut microbiome, Pulmonary, Oral, Vaginal, Swine, Cattle Microbial diversity and interactions, infectious disease, microbiomes of humans and other animals, reproductive health, barcode sequencing, diagnostics