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SMITH LABORATORY
cancer signalling & structural biology
Funding
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Matthew J. Smith, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator and Canada Research Chair, Cancer Signalling and Structural Biology, Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC)
Research Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal
Matt joined IRIC in late 2015, following completion of a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Mitsu Ikura's laboratory at the Ontario Cancer Institute. His Ph.D. studies were performed at the University of Toronto under tuteledge from the late Dr. Tony Pawson, a pioneer of the signal transduction field. Matt's B.Sc. was done at the University of Guelph, and included microbiology research in the laboratory or Dr. Joseph Lam.
Marilyn Goudreault
Laboratory Manager and Research Assistant
Marilyn joined IRIC in early 2016, taking control of the lab. She's trained with Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras, Dr. Tony Pawson and Dr. Mike Tyers at the prestigous Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto. She obtained her Baccalauréat en biotechnologie from La Cité collégiale in Ottawa. (514) 343-6111 x 35190
Chang Hwa joined IRIC in October 2017. He completed his Ph.D. in Dr. Kwang Yeon Hwang’s laboratory at Korea University in South Korea, where he determined and studied several protein structures (DNA recombinase, tegumetal-allergen-like from archea) by X-Ray crystallography. He received his M.Sc. from Sogang University in South Korea, where he trained in crystallography of materials with Dr. Kee Kahb Koo.
Jaafar joined IRIC in January 2024. He completed his Ph.D. in structural biology in Dr. Christian Baron’s laboratory at Université de Montréal where he worked on bacterial type IV section system pili structures using electron microscopy. He previously worked as a research assistant on protein purification and characterization with Dr. Stephane Delbecq at the institute of biomolecule Max Mousseron in Montpellier, France. He received an M.Sc. degree in structural biology from Université de Montpellier after completing a master’s thesis at Novartis in Switzerland under the supervision of Dr. Aengus Mac Sweeney, working on protein purification and crystallization.
Swati joined the lab in March 2017. Previously, she worked in Dr. Sankaranarayanan’s lab at the CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India, as a Project Research Fellow where she studied the mechanism of enantioselectivity and catalysis of a key translational proofreading enzyme, D-aminoacyl-tRNA deacylase (DTD), using structural and developmental biology. She did her B.Tech at Banasthali University, India. Swati is working to decipher new interacting partners of RAS GTPases and their effector proteins.
Supported by M.Sc. scholarships from CIHR and IRIC and a doctoral award from the FRQS
Gaby joined the lab in September 2017. She obtained her BSc. (Hon) in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from Carleton University, where she worked under the supervision of Dr. Alex Wong. Her work there focused on study of the adaptation of Escherichia coli single-gene knock-outs in the presence of selective pressures.
Regina Strakhova
Ph.D. Candidate
Supported by Ph.D. scholarships from IRIC and the Cole Foundation
Regina joined the lab in February 2020. She obtained her BSc. in Genetics and Cellular Biology from Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France. Her first year of MSc. focused on Cellular and Molecular Biology and the second year focused on Innovative Cancer Therapies. In Charles Dumontet and Lars-Petter Jordheim's lab at CRCL (Lyon), she worked on two projects: investigation of a biological role for adenosine in the cancer microenvironment and development of novel protein transduction techniques using ultrasound.
Amandine Wegbecher
Ph.D. Candidate
Supported by an IRIC Ph.D. scholarship
Amandine joined the lab in May 2023 following an M.Sc. in Chemistry, Biology and Medicine from Strasbourg University. She worked at Novartis in Thierry Schlama's team where she studied biocatalysis conditions and enantioselectivity of several decarboxylases during the first year of her M.Sc. In the second year, she studied ribonucleoproteic complexes implicated in dengue viral replication using biophysical technics in Eric Ennifar's team at the IBMC in Strasbourg. As a Ph.D. student she's working on developing membrane mimetics for application in protein biochemistry and structural biology research, specially in oncology.
Emma Teszner
M.Sc. Candidate
Supported by Ph.D. scholarships from IRIC and the Cole Foundation
Emma joined the lab in January 2024. She obtained her B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences and Medical Physiology from the University of Waterloo, in Ontario. In the summer of 2022, she was a Next Generation intern in our lab where she worked on elucidating the function and conservation of RAS-MAPK signalling complexes in the nematode worm C. elegans under the supervision of Ph.D. candidate Gabriela Bernal Astrain. In the last year of her B.Sc., Emma completed an honours thesis in Dr. Joe Quadrilatero lab where she studied the restoration of myogenesis in autophagy- and mitophagy-deficient cells using mitochondrial biogenesis.
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Swati Singh
Ph.D. Candidate
Supported by IRIC M.Sc. and Ph.D. scholarships, UdeM Faculté de médecine Bourse de Mérite, Bourse d'excellence ESP, FRQNT PBEEE and FRQS Ph.D. scholarships
INTERNS & GRADUATE STUDENT ROTONS
TOUT FINI
Lindsay Noonan
M.Sc. in Systems Biology Student
via UPEI
Xingjian 'Jim' Xu
M.Sc. of Systems Biology Student
via UBC
Chithra Muthuramu
M.Sc. of Systems Biology Student
via McMaster
Alex Anderson
Next Generation Summer Research Intern via Wilfrid Laurier
Ana María Hincapie
Summer Research Intern
via Concordia
Rebecca Tian
Next Generation Summer Research Intern via Queen's
Azalea Uva
Co-op Intern
via Concordia
Valérie Gagné
Laboratory Manager and Research Technician
Sarah Denford
Next Generation Summer Research Intern via Western
Dr. Ryan Killoran
Postdoctoral Fellow
via Western
Dhanaraman Thillai Villalan
Ph.D. of Molecular Biology Student
via Anna University, India
Dr. Mehdi Talebzadeh
Research Associate in
Biomolecular NMR
Maya Nikolova
M.Sc. of Molecular Biology Student
via McGill
Rajan Leung
Next Generation Summer Research Intern
via Western
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