Current Group Members
| Faculty Supervisor | Research Staff | Graduate Students |
| Janet Hill | Champika Fernando | Matheus Costa |
| Yanyun Huang | ||
| Research Associate | Undergrad Students | Teenus Paramel |
| Bonnie Chaban | Beata Ng | Matthew Links |
| Isha Katyal | ||
| Postdoc |
||
| Joe
Rubin |
||
Janet E. Hill
Associate ProfessorB.Sc.(Hons), Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Ph.D. (Virology), Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Postdoc (Plant Virology), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Postdoc (Molecular Parasitology), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
I
have a background in Biology
and Microbiology. My Ph.D. research was in baculovirus
(insect virus) pathogenesis. I did postdoctoral work in plant
virology (geminivirus movement) and molecular parasitology
(Trypanosoma cruzi
pathogenesis)
at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My next step was to
work as a research
scientist at the National
Research Council of Canada Plant Biotechnology Institute,
developing cpnDB and
cpn60
sequence-based methods for microbial ecology and diagnostics.
I
became a faculty member in Veterinary Microbiology at the University of
Saskatchewan in January, 2006.Research Associate
B.Sc., M.Sc. (Microbiology), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Ph.D. (Microbiology), Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Bonnie
has a diverse background in
prokaryote microbiology. She began her graduate work using
flagellar genes to identify and characterize brewing
spoilage bacteria and moved on
to study glycosylation
and assembly of flagella of Methanococcus
spp.. At the
University of Hawai'i, she worked on
developing
novel methods for improving ultrasound imaging of medically important
biofilms. Bonnie joined the lab in September 2008 as a SHRF
Postdoctoral Fellow
working
to develop better molecular tools for understanding Campylobacter
ecology in humans and companion animals.
Bonnie is now a Research Associate, working on a
number of
projects and coordinating laboratory activities associated with our
group's role in the Vaginal Microbiome Project.Champika Fernando
Research Technician
B.V.Sc. University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
M.Sc. (Veterinary Pathology), University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Canada
After completing her
undergraduate
degree in Veterinary Medicine, Champika was a Veterinary Research
Officer in the Division of Virology, Veterinary
Research Institute,
Sri
Lanka. During this ten year period, she was involved in
numerous
research projects, largely focused on infectious diseases of poultry.
In 2006 she came to the University of Saskatchewan to pursue
a
masters degree in pathology, focusing on characterization of pathogens
of Saskatchewan's deer population. Champika joined our group
in
2009 and is now busy keeping us all in line!Yanyun Huang
Graduate Student
Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University
M.Sc. (Pathology), South China Agricultural University
M.Sc. (Veterinary Pathology), University of Saskatchewan
After completing his masters degree in Veterinary Pathology, Yanyun
began a Ph.D. program focused on swine infectious disease biology.
Yanyun is co-supervised by Dr.
John Harding (Department of
Large Animal Clinical Sciences).Teenus Paramel
Graduate Student
B.Tech., Calicut University, Kerala, India
M.Tech. (Biotechnology), VIT University, Vellore, India
The
complex microbial community present in the human vagina (vaginalmicrobiota) is important as imbalances in this population are associated with conditions like vaginosis and pregnancy related complications. Although it is of great importance, the vaginal microbiome of clinically healthy women remains poorly characterized. The goal of our team is to determine if there is a "core" vaginal microbiome shared by clinically healthy women of reproductive age. We will characterize the vaginal microbiota of women through the menstrual cycle using culture independent methods involving high through-put pyrosequencing of DNA from samples of the microbiota. The results of these studies will create a baseline resource for future studies focused on understanding the relationship between vaginal microbial population structure and pre-term birth.
Matthew G. Links
Graduate Student
B.Sc. (Biochemistry & Computer Science), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
M.Sc. (Biological Sciences), University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
The
complex communities of bacteria that live on or in humans and animals
play a crucial role in the development and health of their
host.
Until recently, our ability to address questions about the structure
and function of microbial communities has been limited by a lack of
methods to accurately identify community members and monitor their
dynamics. The application of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)
techniques is revolutionizing the accessibility of DNA sequence
data. However, it is also presenting tremendous challenges to
biologists in data interpretation and visualization. My work
is
focused on exploiting NGS data to profile bacterial communities,
identify species richness and microbial diversity and connect community
structure and dynamics with health status in the host.Isha Katyal
Graduate Student
B.Sc. (Zoology), University of Delhi, Delhi, India
M.Sc. (Biotechnology), Thapar University, Patiala, India
The
complex community of microorganisms inhabiting the intestinal tract
plays an important role in animal health. Genomic variation
in
phenotypically distinct pathogenic bacteria has been investigated;
however, little has been done to characterize gene content differences
that contribute to diversity in natural microbial communities. My
research project is focused on non-pathogenic Enterococcus
strains isolated from swine faeces. The aim of the project is to
identify and characterize strain-specific differences in the microbiota
of the pig intestine and study the effects of various factors such as
time, development and diet on strain level population dynamics in the
pig intestine. The results will help us understand niche
specialization and the selective and evolutionary forces that shape
complex microbial communities.Joe Rubin
Postdoctoral Fellow
DVM, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Ph.D. (Veterinary Microbiology), University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Joe's
background is in veterinary medicine and bacteriology. He has
extensive expertise in antimicrobial resistance, with a special
interest in MRSA. He is also interested in emerging diseases
and
joined our team to work on the various projects related to infectious
diseases in pigs, including Brachyspira-related
disease. Joe is co-supervised by
Dr.
John Harding (Large Animal
Clinical Sciences).Matheus Costa
Graduate Student
DVM, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
After
completing his veterinary degree, Matheus joined our team to work on
characterization of the ecology of Brachyspira-associated
colitis in
pigs. Matheus is co-supervised by Dr.
John Harding (Large Animal
Clinical Sciences).Beata Ng
Undergraduate Research Assistant
University of Saskatchewan
Visit the Hill Lab Hall of Fame to see previous lab members who have moved on to bigger and better things!
You can also see more photos on the lab Flickr page.
Updated 2012-04-20