11:00 am – 11:40 am MT:
Improving the efficacy of modern cellular therapies
Dr. Robert Ben
Professor, University of Ottawa
Professor Ben obtained his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Laurentian University in 1990. He then pursed graduate studies in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Professor Tony Durst and obtained his Ph.D in 1994. After a postdoctoral position at the University of Toronto from 1994-1996 under the supervision of Professor Mark Lautens, he accepted a Research Associate position at the Steacie Institute of Molecular Sciences (SIMS) at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. In 1998, he started his independent research career as an Assistant Professor in the department of chemistry at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton. During the summer of 2003, he was recruited back to Canada and joined the Chemistry department at the University of Ottawa. In 2009, he was the associate director for the Biopharmaceutical Sciences (BPS) Program in the Faculty of Science at the University of Ottawa. In 2012 he was appointed as Director for the BPS and Biomedical Sciences (BMS) programs at the University of Ottawa. Professor Ben’s research interests are interdisciplinary in nature and center on the rational design and synthesis of carbon-linked antifreeze glycoprotein analogues and carbohydrate-based inhibitors of ice recrystallization for cryopreservation applications.
11:40 am – 12:00 pm MT:
Structural and biochemical characterization of the exopolysaccharide deacetylase Agd3 required for Aspergillus fumigatus biofilm formation
Dr. François Le Mauff,
Post-Doctoral Fellow, McGill University
François obtained his Ph.D in Biochemistry from the University of Rouen, France in 2015 studying the glycosylation processes of microalgae producing recombinant antibodies and the cell wall of plants secreting Influenza virus-like particles. He then joined the laboratory of Dr Don Sheppard at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center in Montreal where he made his postdoctoral fellowship and was recently appointed Research Associate. His main research focus is the investigation of the structure and synthesis of the galactosaminogalactan, integral polysaccharide of the biofilm of the fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.
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