St. George UTM UTSC All Faculty Mounir G. AbouHaidar Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Molecular biology of plant and human viruses. Mechanisms of resistance and development of "transgenic" plants resistant to viruses. Thomas Berleth Professor ☀ Accepting Applications The Arabidopsis embryo represents a simple, reproducible cellular pattern comprised of few basic tissues and prototypes of leaf- and root-like organs. These structures are generated in a suite of highly reproducible stages that imply tight control of orientation and frequency of cell division as well as cell morphology and differentiation. Robert Bonin Associate Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Dr. Bonin's research explores the neuropharmacology and molecular underpinnings of chronic pain. Ashley E. Bruce Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Our goal is to understand how morphogenesis and embryonic tissue patterning are linked. We use cellular, molecular and embryological techniques to study these questions in the zebrafish embryo. Leslie T. Buck Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We use a comparative neurobiological/physiological/molecular approach to understand how animals survive environmental extremes, in particular how painted turtles and goldfish survive without oxygen for weeks. John Calarco Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We study how mRNA processing and post-transcriptional gene regulation influences the development, differentiation, and function of the nervous system. Belinda S.W. Chang Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Recreating the evolution of visual proteins in the laboratory; next generation sequencing and computational studies of visual proteins from animals in unusual habitats; mutagenesis studies of visual pigment structure/function. Dinesh Christendat Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Structural biology approaches to understand the functional divergence and regulation of metabolic proteins in plants and microbes. John R. Coleman Professor Emeritus Laura Corbit Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications I study the biological bases of reward-seeking and how different brain circuits contribute to distinct forms of learning and how experiences like drug exposure or diet alter learning and behavioural control. Sherwin S. Desser Professor Emeritus Darrell Desveaux Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Systems biology of plant-microbe interactions. We investigate how pathogens cause disease and how plants defend themselves. Elizabeth A. Edwards Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez Associate Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Cytoskeletal dynamics and mechanical forces in the assembly and repair of epithelial tissues. Christopher Garside Associate Professor, Teaching Stream I am interested in finding ways to increase student engagement with lecture and laboratory materials by providing students with transferrable concepts and skills. Penney Gilbert Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair, Endogenous Repair ☀ Accepting Applications Dorothea Godt Professor Emerita Analysis of molecular networks that drive cell shape changes, cell migration, and cell and tissue architecture during animal development. Daphne Goring Professor ☀ Accepting Applications My overall research interests are to understand how plant cells communicate through signal transduction pathways to regulate plant reproduction in the Brassicaceae family (Arabidopsis and related species). David S. Guttman Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Comparative, evolutionary and functional genomics. Evolution of host specificity and virulence in pathogenic bacteria. Microbiome studies of human and plant diseases. Tony J.C. Harris Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We study how molecular circuits control and coordinate cell polarity, adhesion, cytoskeletal and membrane trafficking machinery to build and re-shape cells during animal development. Michele Heath Professor Emerita Johan Hellebust Professor Emeritus Verna Higgins Professor Emerita Junchul Kim Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Neural circuits underlying approach and avoidance behaviours. Ellen W. Larsen Professor Emerita Qian Lin Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications How does the brain produce adaptive, flexible behavior? We want to understand the neural mechanisms of decision making by combining whole-brain imaging in behaving zebrafish and computational tools. David A. Lovejoy Professor Emeritus Integrated molecular and organismal neuroendocrinology on the actions of stress on metabolism, reproduction and behaviour. Shelley Lumba Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Our goal is to elucidate molecular mechanisms underlying dormancy and germination in both non-parasitic and parasitic plants. We apply systems biology approaches to generate signalling networks during seed germination. Emma Master Professor ☀ Accepting Applications The aim of my research is to create breakthrough biotechnologies that customize nature’s most abundant structural biopolymers for use in sustainable materials. Yoshio Masui Professor Emeritus Peter McCourt Professor ☀ Accepting Applications The laboratory is focused on how hormones regulate developmental responses in higher plants. In particular, we use functional and chemical genomics approaches to dissect abscisic acid (ABA) and strigolactone signaling. Heather McFarlane Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We ask and answer questions about the fundamental mechanisms by which plants sense their environment through the cell wall and how plants adjust their growth in response to these signals. Jennifer A. Mitchell Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We study how stem cells maintain the ability to self-renew and differentiate to specialised cells. Our focus is on finding the on/off instructions in DNA that regulate genes required for stem cell function. Alan M. Moses Professor ☀ Accepting Applications DNA and protein sequences that control gene regulation. Population genetics and molecular evolution of regulatory networks. Development of computational and statistical methods for analysis of large biological datasets. Eiji Nambara Professor ☀ Accepting Applications My research team investigates molecular mechanisms by which plants regulate plant hormone metabolism. Melody J. Neumann Professor, Teaching Stream My primary research interest is the scholarly and scientific analysis of teaching practices to improve student learning in cell and molecular biology. John H. Peever Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Our research is focused on identifying the brain circuits that control sleep and wakefulness, and how breakdown in these circuits contribute to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and narcolepsy. Sergey V. Plotnikov Associate Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We are interested in understanding the mechanisms utilized by mammalian cells to sense and transduce physical inputs from the microenvironment and how cell migration is guided by the mechanical cues. Jessica Pressey Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream ☀ Accepting Applications Cellular mechanisms underlying inhibitory GABAergic synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system Nicholas J. Provart Professor & Chair Bioinformatic tools and analyses for hypothesis generation in plant biology. Wet-lab validation of hypotheses generated using such tools Michael Reber Associate Professor ☀ Accepting Applications How is the visual system network wired? How does it function? These are the questions we are addressing in the lab, using state-of-the-art experimental and computational approaches. Maurice Ringuette Associate Professor Patricia Romans Professor Emerita Arneet Saltzman Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Understanding chromatin regulation during development using C. elegans as a model system. Ritu Sarpal Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream Maxwell Shafer Assistant Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Decoding the genomic and cellular mechanisms of sleep evolution using comparative approaches across vertebrate species, including functional genomics, bioinformatics, cell & molecular biology, neurobiology, and evolution. J. J. Berry Smith Professor Emeritus Marla B. Sokolowski Professor Prof. Sokolowski is interested in how DNA variation predisposes organisms to be more or less affected by their experiences, how our experience gets embedded in our biology and finally how DNA variation interacts with epigenetic processes to affect behavior. Richard Stephenson Professor Emeritus Regulation and function of sleep. Gopal Subramaniam Senior Scientist ☀ Accepting Applications My Laboratory studies regulation of secondary metabolism and virulence in the phytopathogen Fusarium graminearum. Kaori Takehara-Nishiuchi Associate Professor ☀ Accepting Applications My research program aims to understand how the cortical network stores a permanent record of daily experiences and how it deteriorates in memory disorders. Ulrich Tepass Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We study the mechanisms of cell polarity and cell adhesion of epithelial cells during animal development. Our work is relevant for several human diseases, in particular cancer and blindness. Vincent Tropepe Professor and Vice Dean, Research ☀ Accepting Applications We study the molecular and cellular basis of neurogenesis in the brain and retina during development and in the context of regeneration. Susannah L. Varmuza Professor Emerita Rudolf Winklbauer Professor Emeritus We study the molecular and cellular mechanisms and the tissue mechanical basis of vertebrate gastrulation. Melanie A. Woodin Professor & Dean ☀ Accepting Applications Understanding the functioning of inhibitory synapses, both at the cellular level and within neuronal circuits. Kenneth Yip Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream My teaching focus is on evidence-based strategies to improve student success within the biological sciences. Our laboratory interests include cancer, fibrosis, and COPA syndrome. Keiko Yoshioka Professor ☀ Accepting Applications Signal transduction of stress responses in plants with an emphasis on immunity; environmental effects on pathogen resistance; signal transduction networks in abiotic and biotic stress responses; production of stress resistant plants. Mei Zhen Professor ☀ Accepting Applications We combine electron microscopy, genetics, genomics, optogenetics, calcium imaging, and electrophysiology to study how a neural circuit develops and operates, and apply C. elegans models to study neurological disorders.
