Our team is diverse both culturally and professionally. Each of us bring unique talents and personalities and together, we help each other during these unprecedented times.
Dr. Silvia Cardona
Professor and Principal Investigator
Silvia is the lead researcher of this group. She is passionate about research, and mentoring the next generation of scientists.
Dr. Anna Motnenko
Postdoctoral Fellow
Anna comes with a PhD in Biochemistry from Oxford University and an interest in developing novel methods for detecting microbial pathogens. Winter in Winnipeg? not a problem if you smile!
Andrew Hogan
Ph.D. Candidate, Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar
His mission: to fight bad bugs by discovering novel antimicrobial targets and drugs. Andrew is @MicrobeAndrew on Twitter, and if you follow him, you will have fun and learn a a lot of microbiology!
Zisan Rahman
Ph.D. Student, U of Manitoba Graduate Fellow
Zisan is unstoppable and our CRISPR “go-to person”. Zisan is building a CRISPRi library one 96-well plate of gRNAs at a time! Does he dream in 96-well format?
Haben Tesfu
Masters Student
Haben was brave enough to start a new research field in our lab in collaboration with Dr. David Levin: Bioplastics! He is looking for novel enzymes that degrade bioplastics efficiently.
Dustin Maydaniuk
Masters Student, Canada Graduate Scholar
With passion and determination, Dustin is focused on elucidating the mode of action of novel antibiotic molecules discovered by our collaborator Dr. Mingdi Yan. Did I say passion? Follow @dustin09t as an advocate for social change!
Zhong Ling Yap
Masters Student, Research Manitoba Scholar
Zhong Ling is a fan of Burkholderia and its potential for biotechnological applications. Will she discover novel enzymes in Burkholderia genomes?
Email me: yapzl@myumanitoba.ca
Chengyou Liu
Masters Student, Pingzhao Hu Lab
We borrowed Chengyou from the lab of our co-investigator Dr. Pingzhao Hu. Chengyou is working on a machine learning algorithm to predict antibiotic activity in small molecule libraries
Email me: rliuc7@myumanitoba.ca
Rebecca Lohmann
Becca comes with a Bachelor’s degree from MacEwan University and a strong interest in CRISPR/Cas gene editing methodologies. Burkholderia is waiting for her!
Atif Ul Aftab
Part-time Bioinformatician
Atif has a passion for bioinformatics and machine learning, which brought him here. He obtained a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba.
Email Me:
atif.aftab@umanitoba.ca
Coming soon: Zayra Yael Batun
A previous Mitacs summer intern, Zayra is coming back as a graduate student! We cannot wait until this summer when she joins us again.