72nd Annual Conference of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists

The Thomas Lab investigates molecular mechanisms of disease in significant human pathogens. Projects employ advanced proteomic and genomic approaches, including innovative next generation DNA sequencing technologies. The overall aim is to discover pathogenic strategies that can be targeted for inhibition by new or existing drugs, thereby limiting human disease. The Thomas Lab is a welcoming and inclusive space for all people to explore scientific investigations.

Dr. John Archibald is a Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Arthur B. McDonald Research Chair of Excellence at Dalhousie University. He is also the Director of Dalhousie’s Institute for Comparative Genomics. Dr. Archibald is the author of ~170 research articles and two books: One Plus One Equals One: Symbiosis and the Evolution of Complex Life (Oxford University Press, 2014) and Genomics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Dr. Robert Beiko is a Professor and Head of the Algorithms and Bioinformatics research cluster in the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University. His research aims to understand microbial diversity and evolution using machine learning, phylogenetics, time-series algorithms, and visualization techniques. His group is developing software tools and pipelines to comprehensively survey genes and mobile genetic elements in bacterial genomes, and understand how these genomes have been shaped by vertical inheritance, recombination, and lateral gene transfer. He is also a co-founder of Dartmouth Ocean Techonlogies, Inc., a developer of environmental DNA sampling devices.

Dr. Erin Bertrand is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Marine Microbial Proteomics at Dalhousie University. Her group employs physiological, biochemical, and bioanalytical approaches to improve our understanding of controls on marine microbial activity and how microbes influence major biogeochemical processes in the ocean. Current foci include identifying key metabolites that structure microbial interactions in the sea, and developing new methods to estimate rates of critical cellular processes in the ocean using metaproteomic measurements.

Dr. Morgan Langille is an Associate Professor and a Canada Research Chair in Human Microbiomics at Dalhousie University. His research program focuses on understanding the human microbiome and its role in human health using a variety of sequencing and bioinformatic approaches. This research ranges from the creation of novel bioinformatic approaches, analyzing the best practices in microbiome research, and the application of these robust approaches in several human disease and model organism studies. These studies have revealed associations between the microbiome and aging, exercise, Crohn’s disease, and cancer, by profiling diverse body sites including the gut and oral cavities.

The primary focus of Dr. Rohde’s research has been to understand the molecular mechanisms of virulence in the cyto-invasive pathogen Shigella. Rohde has pioneered studies in understanding the bacterial pathogen-host ubiquitin interface. This includes the discovery of novel E3 ubiquitin ligases that are used by Shigella to interfere with innate immune systems of mammalian cells. Dr. Rohde is also interested in microbes associated with forest health.

Dr. Robyn Wright is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Morgan Langille’s lab at Dalhousie University. Her research in the Langille lab has focused on: 1) studying links between the oral microbiome and diseases such as cancer and IBD as well as mental health in children and adolescents, and 2) benchmarking computational tools used in microbiome research. She is also interested in the remediation of human or ecosystem health threats by microbes and studying how microbial community succession impacts the degradation of recalcitrant pollutants such as plastics.