Research Management Committee
The Research Management Committee oversees the R&D portfolio and makes recommendations to the Board on funding for grant applications. The Committee guides research directions based on the overall Board-approved strategic plan.
Members of the Committee
Warren is a Professor from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. The Wakarchuk lab investigates the structure and function of the enzymes which make and degrade various glycoconjugates. This work has been enabling the chemo-enzymatic synthesis of bioactive glycoconjugates both in the laboratory and for industrial projects. The Wakarchuk lab has expertise with both mammalian and bacterial carbohydrate active enzymes for glycan remodelling applications.
Janice Bailey has been the Scientific Director of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature and Technologies (FRQNT) since 2019. The mandate of the FRQNT is to develop and promote research activities to solve challenges
and stimulate socio-economic development in a manner that will benefit Quebec and other nations. In doing so, the FRQNT prioritizes interdisciplinary international collaboration, research partnerships, and diversity in its approaches.
Joerg Bohlmann is a Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is co-director of the UBC Genome Science and Technology Graduate Program. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellow of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and Fellow of the German Scholarship Foundation. He received his PhD from the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Washington State University and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.
Dr. Harry Brumer is a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories and Department of Chemistry, and an Associate Member of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Brumer’s research interests include the discovery, functional and structural characterization, and biotechnological applications of carbohydrate-active enzymes and carbohydrate-binding proteins.
His group is studying the molecular mechanisms by which complex carbohydrate (“dietary fibre”) metabolism fuels the human gut microbiota, and is harnessing this emergent knowledge to improve health through the development of novel gastrointestinal drug delivery strategies.
The group of Pr. Cecioni is dedicated to the development of traceable chemical strategies to capture and quantify glycan-mediated processes. Glycosciences are increasingly recognized as a frontier area for understanding life’s molecular choreography and for translational advances in human health. Through chemical synthesis, chemical biology and biocatalysis, chemists and biochemists in the lab are designing molecules to fluorogenically capture sugar-protein interaction, to monitor carbohydrate-active enzyme activity and to modulate glycan-mediated processes.
Dr. DeAngelis’s research has led to commercial applications, including the design of novel hybrid polysaccharide molecules for medical or industrial applications, the formation of biocompatible coatings and surfaces for use in sensors or other implanted devices, the synthesis of defined oligosaccharides that have potential for use as anticancer agents, anticoagulants, or immune system stimulators and the synthesis of sugar-based targeting drug delivery systems. Dr. DeAngelis is a founding scientist of four life science ventures: Hyalose, Heparinex, Choncept and Caisson Biotech.
Dr. Furneaux is one of New Zealand’s most respected scientists. His team includes 33 research scientists whose achievements include 225 publications, 32 reviews and 13 published patent series. Dr. Furneaux, who holds a PhD in Chemistry from Victoria University of Wellington, is a fellow of both the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry. In 2006 he was awarded the Hector Medal from the Royal Society for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of carbohydrate chemistry and for achieving world-wide recognition of chemistry and pharmacology in New Zealand.
Dr. Yann Guérardel is a CNRS senior researcher, Director of the Institute for Structural and Functional Glycobiology (UGSF, UMR CNRS 8576).
Dr. Yann Guérardel is a biochemist who focuses his research on the structure to function relationships of complex glycoconjugates in different biological contexts including host-parasite interaction and human diseases. He obtained a PhD in biochemistry at Lille University and conducted post-doctoral trainings in Academia Sinica of Taipei (Taiwan) and in Nagoya University (Japan) to develop the use of high-field liquid-state NMR and mass-spectrometry for the structural analysis of carbohydrates.
Dr. Kohler is a Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Research in the Kohler lab focuses on understanding the roles of glycoconjugates in a variety of biological systems.
Dr. Lionel Loubaki conducts research on anti-cancer cellular therapy, new applications for mother’s milk, specialized test development and the effects of using certain drugs and products on the quality of blood products. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bio-informatics in Université Laval’s Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Dr. Macauley joined in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta in 2017. Dr. Macauley is a tier II Canada Research Chair in Chemical Glycoimmunology and the Raymond U. Lemieux Chair of Carbohydrate Chemistry.
Dr. Macauley primarily focuses on the immunomodulatory sialic acid-binding Siglec family of receptors. This includes the development of innovative approaches to probe Siglec-glycan interactions on cells and tissues and utilizing new insights about the biological ligands of Siglecs to test hypotheses about the roles of Siglecs in controlling immune cell function.
Professor Nitz’s research program spans the areas of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry and chemical biology. Focusing on bacterial biofilm formation the Nitz lab has efficiently synthesized key carbohydrate adhesin’s that form the structure of the biofilm matrix. These compounds have served as substrates to elucidate the biochemistry and structure of the enzymes required for polysaccharide adhesin synthesis and biofilm formation.
Dr. Obadiah Plante is currently the President at P5 Innovations. Before P5 Innovations, Dr. Plante was a Sr. Director of Bacteriology in the infectious disease group at Moderna, where he led and directed the bacteriology team in the discovery and early development of bacterial vaccines along with foundational research efforts aimed at advancing mRNA-encoded antibodies. In addition, Dr. Plante led several vaccine programs in the Global Health space and has served as program leader for Covid antibody efforts.
Dr. Plante served as Director of Research at Visterra through their acquisition by Otsuka in 2018. At Visterra, he led early-stage research programs including a CARB-X funded program developing an antibody-drug conjugate for the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. Dr. Plante began his career as a founder and scientific leader at Ancora where he investigated carbohydrate-based vaccines and applications of synthetic glycan technology. He is an expert in the design and discovery of complex, biomolecule-based therapeutics and vaccines.
Dr. Plante holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Organic Chemistry and a Masters from Columbia University. He is an active member of the advisory boards of Glyconet, the Global Pandemic Prevention and Biodefense Center, and the BIO AMR working group while serving as an Observer on the Technical Advisory Group on Vaccines and AMR to the WHO.
Mariela is an immunologist and Professor at the University of Montreal. She is known for research in the areas of infectious diseases and the underlying innate and adaptive immune responses, with a particular focus on the interactions of encapsulated streptococci (such as Streptococcus suis and Group B Streptococcus) with the components of the immune system.
Observer
Elizabeth is the CEO of GlycoNet. She was involved in the GlycoNet initiative since the Letter of Intent stage and served as the Associate Director, Business for the Alberta Glycomics Centre from 2007–2015. Prior to her position with the Centre, she worked as a manager of large-scale and multi-institutional projects with Genome Prairie. In addition to her PhD in biochemistry, Elizabeth has an MBA in biotechnology management.
Terms of Reference
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