THE LAB
Dmitry Trubetskoy (Research Associate)
Dmitry came to do a short post-doc with us in the fall of 2019 learning the nuts and bolts of transcriptomic analyses; he is continuing this work as well as helping with other RNA-sequence analyses projects remotely from France
Tamanna Yasmin (Ph.D. candidate)
Tamanna is a PhD student in Biology under co-supervision of Dr. Margaret Docker and Dr. Sara Good. Her PhD project involves gonadal transcriptomic analysis during sex differentiation and sexual maturation in sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) to determine the genes involved in the key events of gonadal developmental process and how they are expressed across different stages in both male and female lampreys. The focus of her research is to understand the genetic basis of gonad development by revealing sex- and stage-specific gene expression patterns in sea lamprey as well as identifying novel genes those are not identified before in sea lamprey genome.
Drake Hechter (Ph.D. student)
I am interested in nutrition and its role in aging and longevity and by default, chronic disease. My project is based upon developing Japanese medaka as a model organism for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as well as further understanding the mechanisms by which calorie restriction (CR) may ameliorate IBD pathology and associated behaviour. Our lab focuses on the novel hormone and receptor pair, insulin-like peptide 5 (INSL5) and relaxin family peptide receptor (RXFP4), and their involvement in linking energy homeostasis and the immune system, potentially serving as a protective energy sensor. The results of my current project will improve the understanding of IBD pathology, provide insights on CR as a potential treatment method and test the hypothesis that INSL5-RXFP4 system acts as a protective energy sensor.
Ilya Kisselev (M.Sc.
Ilya's is examining the genetic legacy of sex-biased movement in ex-nomadic Kazakh tribes using both mitochondrial and Y-SSR data.
Ian McNicol (M.Sc.)
Ian is examing the role of Insl5-Rxfp4 mediated signaling in immune cells using cell culture and animal models.
Tiana Tiede (USRA)
Tiana is studying the role of changes in the gut microbiome and focal gut peptides associated with chronic intestinal inflammation as induced by soy-bean meal using Japanese medaka as a model. She has piloted the use of performing 16S microbial genotyping using the Oxford Minion in the lab.
Lambert Wilson (M.Sc)
Lambert is working with Dr. Shrivastav and I doing Chip-Seq analyses of novel proteins that may act as transcription factors in cancer cells.
Recent former graduate students
Nisha Ajmani (Bioinformatician)
Nisha recently completed her MSc on transcriptomic analyses of gonad development in the parasitic chestnut lamprey and non-parasitic Brook lamprey with Dr. Docker and myself. She is now working as an instructor in the Department of Biology at UofW and continuing to help with Bioinformatics analyses in the laboratory.
Hend Al Nafea, MSc
Hend completed her MSc in the laboratory in 2018, and is currently looking for Doctoral opportunities here and abroad. Remotely, she is working on the third manuscript arising from her MSc.
Brett Vakhal (MSc, PhD candidate at Uof Ottawa)
Brett completed her MSc in the laboratory in 2018, investigating the possible function of Insl5 and Rxfp4 in the immune system using a mouse model. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology. She continues to collaborate with us examining the immune system effects of Insl5-Rxfp4 in animal models.
