Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Dalhousie University

2015

Wednesday, December 9, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

Ph.D. Thesis Defence - Aditya Pandey

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Expression, Purification and Biophysical Characterization of Large Fragments of the Apelin Receptor Enabling Delineation of a Juxtamembrane Helix with Amphipathicity Necessary for Plasma Membrane Localization"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

Ph.D. Thesis Defence - Jose Sergio Hleap-Lozano

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Comparative Quantitative Genetics of Protein Structures: a composite approach to protein structure evolution"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Monday, December 7, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Jeffrey Thorne

Bioinformatics Research Center
North Carolina State University

"ncorporating disease data and interlocus gene conversion into evolutionary inference"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)

Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics
Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Erin Bertrand

Department of Biology
Dalhousie University

"The role of cobalamin in diatom molecular physiology and interactions with bacteria: implications for Southern Ocean productivity"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 11 a.m.

M.Sc. Thesis Defence - Robin Elisabeth Patterson

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Probing Membrane Catalyzed Apelin-Receptor Interactions by Fluorescence Spectroscopy"

Location
Room L10, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building
Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Paul X.-Q. Liu

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Protein ligation using intein: engineered protein ligase?"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. John Rubinstein

Molecular Structure and Function Program
The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute

"Electron cryomicroscopy ‎of rotary ATPases"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, November 4, 2015 at 2:30 p.m.

M.Sc. Thesis Defence - Susan Christina Sharpe

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"The Protistan Origins of Multicellularity:Timing and Evolution of Cell Adhesion Molecules"

Location
Room 223,Chemistry Building
Wednesday, November 4, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Hugo Wurtele

Université de Montréal Centre de recherche, Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont

"Chromosome acetylation cycles and the DNA damage response"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Jeffrey Waller - CANCELLED

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Mount Allison University
""
Location
 
Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Simon Lamarre

Assistant Professor, Department of Biology
University of Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick

"Adjustments of protein metabolism following food withdrawal in fish and cephalopods"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Angelo Iulianella

Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Neuroscience
Dalhousie University

"The making of a brain: molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural development"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Jack Stewart

Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Soricimed Biopharma Inc.

"Targeting the oncochannel TRPV6: deployment of TRPV6-binding peptides for treatment and diagnosis"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Ian Weaver

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, and Psychiatry
Dalhousie University

"Maternal Care effects on chromatin-remodelling protein ATRX expression and long-term neurobehavioural development"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, September 23, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Vytas Bankaitis

E.L. Wehner-Welch Foundation Chair in Chemistry
Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine
Texas A&M University Health Science Center, College Station, Texas, USA

"Phosphatidylinositol Transfer Proteins and the Conversion of Membrane Surfaces to High Definition Lipid Signaling Screens"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Monday, August 17, 2015 at 10:30 a.m.

Dr. Laura Wegener Parfrey

Assistant Professor, Departments of Botany and Zoology
University of British Columbia

"ukaryotes in the mammalian gut"

Location
Room 3-H1, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building

Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics
Thursday, August 6, 2015 at 10:30 a.m.

Dr. Michael Dietrich

Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Dartmouth College, USA

"DNA Evolution and the Multi-Model Regress in Molecular Systematics"

Location
Room 3-H1, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building

Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics
Tuesday, August 4, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

Ph.D. Thesis Defence - Dale Corkery

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"PRP4K is a Novel HER2-Regulated Modifier of Anoikis and Taxane Resistance"

Location
Room Change: CS 430, Goldberg Computer Science Building
Tuesday, August 4, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. David Litchfield

Professor & Chair
Department of Biochemistry
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
University of Western Ontario

"Deciphering the Regulatory Networks That Control Cell Proliferation and Survival Using Functional Proteomics and Chemical Genetics"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building Link (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB(Saint John)
Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Thomas Richards

Professor of Evolutionary Genomics
University of Exeter, UK

"Horizontal gene transfer and the evolution of osmotrophic phenotypes"

Location
Room 3-H1, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building

Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics
Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

PhD Thesis Defence - Michelle Leger

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"The diversity and origins of mitochondrion-related organelles"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Wednesday, July 29, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

PhD Thesis Defence - Mary McQuaid

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Contributions of DNA Sequence Elements, Plasmid-Encoded Proteins and Host Proteins to Maintenance of the Yeast 2-Micron Plasmid"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Matthew Harty

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Studying the Role of the Divalent Metal Cation Activator of the Cambialistic Enzyme Mandelate Racemase"

Location
Room 1116, McCain Building
Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 10:30 a.m.

Dr. Maureen O'Malley

Senior Research Fellow
Department of Philosophy
University of Sydney

"From Correlation to Causation in Microbiome Research"

Location
Room 3-H1, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building

Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 1:30 p.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Jésica Noelia Dufay

Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina

"Defining the Role of Hem25 in Mitochondrial Function: Implications for Congenital Sideroblastic Anemica"

Location
Room 14B-2, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building
Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Katherine Strynatka & Purvi Trivedi
M.Sc. Candidates

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Katherine Strynatka
"Using Yeast to Screen for Drugs for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease"

Purvi Trivedi
“Nutrient Regulation of Cardiac Autophagy in Obesity and Diabetes”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Thursday, June 16, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Azadeh Kermanshahi pour

Professor of Evolutionary Genomics
University of Exeter, UK

"Microalgae-derived chemicals: opportunity for an integrated chemical plant"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Kyungsoo Shin, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 
Dalhousie University

"Redefining the Apelinergic System From a Simple Ligand-Receptor Pair to a Plethora of Protein-Membrane and Protein-Protein Interactions"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

Ph.D. Thesis Defence - Mitesh Nagar

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Mandelate Racemase: Insights into Substrate Tolerance, Novel Inhibitor-Binding Modes, and the Role of Binding Determinants"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Michael McLeish

Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

"Engineering Enzymes and Pathways"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Saki Sultana & Noelia Dufay 

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Saki Sultana, Ph.D. Candidate
"Glycosphingolipids : From Homeostasis to Genetic Disease"

Noelia Dufay, M.Sc. Candidate
“Function of Hem25 and it’s Role in Congenital Sideroblastic Anemia: Interactions with Mitochondrial Proteins”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Andy Song & Robin Patterson

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Andy Song, M.Sc. Candidate
"Segmental Isotopic Labeling of p53 for Structure Characterization"

Robin Patterson, M.Sc. Candidate
“Probing Membrane Catalyzed Apelin-Receptor Interactions by Fluorescence Spectroscopy”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. John Rohde

Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Dalhousie University

"Protein Chemistry as Taught by Bacterial Pathogens"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

PhD Thesis Defence - Rafaela Andrade-Vieira

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Loss of LKB1 Tumour Suppressor Function Plays a Role in Mammary Gland Tumourigenesis and Regulation of Cell Metabolism"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Wednesday, April 23, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Montse Sanchez-Cespedes

Group Leader
Cancer Epigenetics & Biology Program
Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute
Hospital Durant I Reynals Av. Gran Via de Hospitalet
Barcelona, Spain

"Dissection of the BRG1 and MYCIMAX Biological Connection and Its Use in Lung Cancer Therapeutics"

Location
Theatre C, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax NS) and
Room 218, DMNB (Saint John) 
Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Denis Dupré

Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacology
Senior Scientist, Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute
Dalhousie University

"Understanding G-protein Coupled Receptor Function and Specificity Through Analysis of Their Role in Cancer and Oligomerization"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Matthew Harty & Sergio Munoz

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Matthew Harty, M.Sc. Candidate
"Characterizing the Entatic State of the Cambialistic Enzyme Mandelate Racemase"

Sergio Munoz, M.Sc. Candidate
"The Origin and Early Evolution of Mitochondrial Structure"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Vasantha Rupasinghe

Associate Professor
Canada Research Chair in Fruit Bioactives & BioProducts
Department of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University

"Flavonoids and Their Acylated Derivatives: Potent and Versatile Biological Activities"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Karen Bedard

Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology
Dalhousie University

"Using Cell Models to Study Mutations in Rare Genetic Disorders With a Dominant Inheritance Pattern"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Friday, March 27, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Honours Student Presentations - Day 3

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Location
Theatre D, CRC Building (Halifax)
Room 221, DMNB (Saint John)
Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Honours Student Presentations - Day 2

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Location
Theatre D, CRC Building (Halifax)
Room 221, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesdau, March 25, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Honours Student Presentations - Day 1

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Location
Theatre D, CRC Building (Halifax)
Room 221, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Karen Bedard - Rescheduled April

Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology
Dalhousie University

"Using Cell Models to Study Mutations in Rare Genetic Disorders With a Dominant Inheritance Pattern"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. John Rubinstein

Professor
Department of Medical Biophysics
The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute
University of Toronto

"Electron Cryomicroscopy of Rotary ATPases"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 12:30 - 5 p.m.

Graduate Student Symposium

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Location
Room 3-H1, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 266, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Song Lee

Professor
Applied Oral Sciences
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Dalhousie University
Canadian Centre for Vaccinology

"Do Gram-positive Bacteria Have a Disulfide Bond Formation Pathway?"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Bryce Nelson

Director
Antibodies and Phage Display
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York

"Structure-Guided Design of Synthetic Antibodies"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, February 04, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Aarnoud van der Spoel

Assistant Professor
Pediatrics
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"For Better or Worse: Beta-Glucosidase 2, Target of Beneficial Drugs but Mutated in Neurological Disease"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, January 30, 2015 at 2:00 p.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Alexandra Reda

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Structural Characterization of 20 kDa Lipid-Binding Fragments of Apolipoprotein B100"

Location
Room 3-H1, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building
Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Morgan Fullerton

Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology
University of Ottawa

"AMP-Activated Protein Kinase (AMPK): Metabolism, Macrophages and More"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building Link (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Melanie Kelly

Professor
Departments of Pharmacology, Ophthalmology & Vision Sciences,
Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine,
Dalhousie University

"Pharmacological Actions and Therapeutic Potential for Drugs Targeting the Ocular Endocannabinoid System: A New Vision or Another Smokescreen"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building Link (Halifax)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 4 p.m.

Recipient of the 2013/2014 Doug Hogue Award
Rafaela Andrade-Vieira - Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"From Cell Signalling to Pre-clinical Trials; the Role of a Tumour Suppressor Protein Networks"

Location
Theatre D, CRC Building (Halifax) Room 102, DMNB (Saint John)