Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Dalhousie University

2019

Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 9:30 a.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Stefan A. Warkentin

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Aciniform spider silk proteins: investigating solution state assembly and the potential of nanoparticles as a drug delivery vehicle"

Location
Room C311, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB)
Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Timothy E. Shutt

Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Genetics University of Calgary

"Mitochondrial dynamics and mitochondrial DNA: insights from mitochondrial disease"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 218, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Monday, December 2, 2019 at 1:30 p.m.

PhD Thesis Defence - Saki Sultana

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Glycosphingolipid metabolism and the glycosphingolipid-metabolizing enzyme beta-glucosidase-2: biochemical and cell biological studies"

Location
Room 3107, The Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Friday, November 29, 2019 at 3 p.m.

New and Emerging Laboratory Techniques

Presented by the students of BIOC 3610, Laboratory Research Techniques in Biomedical Sciences, as the service learning component of the course. All students, staff and faculty are welcome. For further information: vewart@dal.ca

Location
Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building Link (hallway)
Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Gregory D. Fairn

Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto

"Membrane dynamics during the life cycle of the phagosome, peptidoglycan sensing and Crohn's disease"

Location
Theatre B, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 9:30 a.m.

PhD Thesis Defence - Jonghwa Lee

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Identification of factors regulating cytoplasmic and nuclear lipid droplets"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Deniz Top

Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Pharmacology, Dalhousie University

"Molecules to behaviour"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. John McCutcheon -  Student Research Day Guest Speaker

Assistant Professor, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana

"Genetic, biochemical, and cell biological mosaics in insect-bacteria symbioses"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, November 6, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Gregory McCluskey - Recipient of the 2018 Patrick Prize Award

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ottawa

"Evolving our understanding of protein biochemistry"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Francesca Di Cara

Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University

"Peroxisomes grease the wheel of the immune system"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Logan Slade

PhD Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Role of transcription factor EB in the pathobiology of triple negative breast cancer"

Location
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. John Frampton

Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University

"Engineering cellular micro-environments through biomolecular confinement and directed assembly of biomaterials"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Stefan Warkentin

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Aciniform spider silk proteins: investigating solution state assembly and the potential of nanoparticles as a drug delivery vehicle"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, September 18, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Stephen L. Bearne

Professor and Department Head, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Thinking outside the tetrahedron: rational design and inhibitors of racemases and epimerases"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dane Sands

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Alternative detection of a winter flounder antifreeze protein"

Dandan Zhao

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Eukfinder: a bioinformatic workflow to retrieve eukaryotic genomes from metagenomic data"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Mary-Ellen Harper

Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, University of Ottawa

"Mitochondrial (de)acetylomic control of brown adipose tissue (BAT), and other “hot topics” in BAT thermogenesis"

Location
Theatre A, Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 9:30 a.m.

PhD Thesis Defence - Kenneth D'Souza

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Autotaxin is nutritionally regulated and alters mitochondrial function in obesity-induced insulin resistance"

Location
Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street
Wednesday, August 14, 2019 at 9:30 a.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Luke E. Hattie

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"A novel model of elevated mitochondrial cholesterol and the consequences for mitochondrial function"

Location
Room C264, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB) (Halifax, NS)
Room 266, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, August 1, 2019 at 9:30 a.m.

MSc Thesis Defence- Christopher Fetter

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Exploring catalysis in the mandelate racemase subgroup of the enolase superfamily: subtle differences in the catalytic machinery"

Location
Room C264, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB) (Halifax, NS)
Room 221, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Thursday, July 11, 2019 at 1:30 p.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Anastasiia Mereshchuk

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Investigating maintenance of the yeast 2-micron family of plasmids"

Location
Room C264, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB) (Halifax, NS)
Room 221, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, July 10, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Qinyan (Andy) Song

PhD Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Two is better than one: regulation of p53 activity"

Location
Theatre B, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 218, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Thursday, July 4, 2019 at 9:30 a.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Tyler MacDonald

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Mechanistic insight into the prolactin-/androgen-inducible carboxypeptidase-D and EDD E3 ubiquitin ligase genes in triple-negative breast cancer"

Location
Room C264, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB) (Halifax, NS)
Room 221, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Katherine Strynatka

PhD Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"From fungi to flies: identifying a new therapy for Parkinson's disease"

Location
Theatre B, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 218, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Stanley Moore

Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, University of Saskatchewan

"The structure of yeast Ddi2 reveals its role in an oxidative/chemical stress response pathway"

Location
Theatre B, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 266, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Luke Hattie

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"A novel model of increased mitochondrial cholesterol"

Location
Theatre B, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 218, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Aaron Woblistin

PhD Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"The role of NPC2 in cholesteral transport and the endocytic system"

Location
Theatre B, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 218, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Kenneth D'Souza

PhD Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Autotaxin-LPA signalling contributes to obesity-induced insulin resistance in muscle and impairs mitochondrial metabolism"

Location
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Anastasiia Mereshchuk

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Investigating maintenance of the yeast 2-micron family of plasmids"

Jeffrey Simmons

PhD Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Characterizing the mechanisms and structure of recombinant pyriform silk"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Franco Vizeacoumar

Research Scientist, Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, Adjunct Professor, Oncology and Pathology, University of Saskatchewan

"Targeting telomerase by synthetic dosage lethality"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Chris Fetter

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Exploring catalysis in the mandelate racemase subgroup of the enolase superfamily: subtle differences in the catalytic machinery"

Tyler MacDonald

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Prolactin-inducible pro-survival genes in breast cancer"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Claudio Slamovits

Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Genome research in non-model eukaryotes: Challenges and opportunities"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Esther M. Verheyen

Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Centre for Cell Biology, Development and Disease, Simon Fraser University

"Investigating signal transduction and cancer in a Drosophila model"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. David Pollock

Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO

"A memory foam model of evolutionary mechanics: entropy and epistasis drive molecular evolution"

Cosponsored by: Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics (CGEB)

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 4:30 p.m.

Dr. Ross Waller

Reader in Cell Biology and Evolution, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, UK

"Global mapping of protein subcellular location illuminates the function and evolution of apicomplexan cells"

Cosponsored by: Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics (CGEB)

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 1 p.m.

MSc Thesis Defence - Calem Kenward

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Characterization of structural and functional properties of class IB hydrophobins"

Location
Room C150, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB)
Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Honours Student Research Presentations 2019

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Graduate Student Symposium
Hot Topics in Nature & Science

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
2:00 - 2:30 p.m. Lax, G., et al. (2018). Hemimastigophora is a novel supra-kingdom-level lineage of eukaryotes. Nature, 564, 410-414.
-- Shelby Williams
2:30 - 3:00 p.m.
 Hall RJ, et al. (2019). A tale of three species: adaptation of Sodalis glossinidius to tsetse biology, Wigglesworthia metabolism, and host diet. mBio 10:e02106-18.
-- Gregory Seaton
3:00 - 3:30 p.m.
 Zhang, M., et al. (2018). Uncovering the essential genes of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum by saturation mutagenesis. Science, 360 (6388), eaap7847.
-- Morgan Colp
3:30 - 4:00 p.m.
 Nowoshilow, S., et al. (2018). The axolotl genome and the evolution of key tissue formation regulators. Nature, 554, 50-55.
-- Ronie Haro
4:00 - 4:30 p.m. Break - Refreshments Provided
4:30 - 5:00 p.m.
 Ortega, E., et al. (2018). Transcription factor dimerization activates the p300 acetyltransferase. Nature, 562, 538–544.
-- Alex Brown
5:00 - 5:30 p.m.
 Katsyuba, E., et al. (2018). De novo NAD+ synthesis enhances mitochondrial function and improves health. Nature, 563, 354–359.
-- Oliver Kuehm
5:30 - 6:00 p.m. Gonzalez, P. S., et al. (2018) Mannose impairs tumour growth and enhances chemotherapy. Nature, 563, 719-723.
-- Sarah van der Ende
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Jean-Yves Masson

Full Professor, CHU de Québec Center (Oncology Division), Laval University Cancer Research Center, QC

"Controlling DNA end resection and strand invasion during DNA double-strand break repair"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Calem Kenward

MSc Candidate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Fungal Hydrophobin self-assembly has a basis in shared structural features"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Danielle Tokarz

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Saint Mary's University

"Visualizing and quantifying microscopic biological tissue arrangement with nonlinear optical active molecules"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 7 p.m.

The Possibility of Gaia

A conversation with:
Frédéric Bouchard (Université de Montréal)
Tim Lenton (University of Exeter)
Ford Doolittle (Dalhousie University)
Joe Bielawski (Dalhousie University)

"James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis holds that the biosphere's global feedbacks are products of natural selection, but traditional Darwinists say this is impossible"

"Recent approaches in the philosophy of evolution and results of computational modeling studies suggest that Gaia can now be integrated into Darwinian theory"

Sponsored by: Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics (CGEB)

Location
Alumni Hall, New Academic Building
University of King's College
6350 Coburg Road, Halifax
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Alejandro Cohen

Scientific Director, Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Core Facility, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University

Dr. Devanand M. Pinto

Senior Research Officer, National Research Council, Adjunct Professor, Dalhousie University

"Metabolomics for the masses: Principles and applications in human health"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Barbara Karten

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University

"Two aspects of cholesterol homeostasis: Cholesterol in mitochondria and neuronal cholesterol turnover"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Kyungsoo Shin - 2017 Patrick Prize Award Seminar

Postdoctoral Fellow, Sanford Burnham Prebys, Medical Discovery Institute, San Diego, California

"Biomolecular interactions at the cell surface: My journey from helpful hormones to the deadly plague"

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