WCMC - University of Calgary€¦ · Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. She has been studying how intestinal alterations lead to immune

WCMC

Opening in 2017

$50M ($25M+ secured) basic and translational research center focused on microbiome research

Multi-disciplinary areas of research: human & animal health, agriculture, energy & environment

Opportunities & Services

Dr. Paul Kubes • [email protected] | Dr. Shaunna Huston • [email protected]

Dr. Paul Kubes

Professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

Director, Western Canadian Microbiome Centre

Director, Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases

Canada Research Chair, Leukocyte Recruitment in inflammatory disease

University of Calgary • Alberta • Canada

Imaging the Developing Immunobiome

and Microbiome

As the microbiome seeds a newborn some fun-

damental and critical events occur that ensure

a co-existence between the microbiome and

the immunobiome. If this does not happen

due to antibiotic use, C-section or poor diet the

microbiome and immunobiome may evolve in

an aberrant manner and the host is set up for

chronic inflammatory disease. We can image

the immunobiome in an unprecedented fash-

ion examining all of the immune cells dynami-

cally and seeing their behavior in germ free

mice and mice exposed to different microbi-

omes. We are elucidating the key strains that

can lead to inappropriate immunity.

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECTS

Dr. Kubes is the director of the Snyder Institute for

Chronic Diseases at the University of Calgary. He

holds a Canada Research Chair in Leukocyte Recruit-

ment in Inflammatory Disease, and was named the

2011 Canada Researcher of the year by CIHR. He has

published over 290 peer-reviewed papers exploring

immune response in human disease in journals like

Cell, Science, Nature Immunology and Nature Medi-

cine.

Dr. Kubes lab is committed to understanding complex

immune responses in the context of human clinical

diseases. The primary focus is to directly visualize the

roles of immune cells during Inflammation, Infection

and tissue Injury. Dr. Kubes is leading the way in di-

rectly imaging the immune system using cutting edge

technology, including spinning-disk confocal and mul-

ti-photon microscopy. By imaging complex cellular be-

haviors in real time, both in vitro and in vivo, the lab

is characterizing how immune cells, such as neutro-

phils, monocytes, NKT cells and Kupffer cells function

under physiological and pathological disease states.

The work being done in Dr. Kubes lab sheds new light

on the immune system and new ways to study im-

mune mechanisms that are relevant to human dis-

eases. These diseases include sepsis, cellulitis, hepa-

titis, stroke and lyme disease.

CONTACT

Dr. Paul Kubes | (403)-220-8558 | [email protected]

http://www.ucalgary.ca/paulkubeslab/

SPECIALTIES

Intra-vital in vivo imaging

Spinning-disk confocal microscopy

2-Photon laser scanning fluorescence

Dr. Paul Kubes

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Wang J, Kubes P. A Reservoir of Mature Cavity

Macrophages that Can Rapidly Invade Visceral

Organs to Affect Tissue Repair. Cell. 2016 Apr

21;165(3):668-78

Zeng Z, Surewaard BG, Wong CH, Geoghegan

JA, Jenne CN, Kubes P. CRIg Functions as a

Macrophage Pattern Recognition Receptor to

Directly Bind and Capture Blood-Borne Gram-

Positive Bacteria. Cell Host Microbe. 2016 Jul

13;20(1):99-106.

Kolaczkowska E, Jenne CN, Surewaard BG,

Thanabalasuriar A, Lee WY, Sanz MJ, Mowen

K, Opdenakker G, Kubes P. Molecular mecha-

nisms of NET formation and degradation re-

vealed by intravital imaging in the liver vascu-

lature. Nat Commun. 2015 Mar 26;6:6673.

Wong CH, Jenne CN, Petri B, Chrobok NL,

and Kubes P. Nucleation of platelets with

bloodborne pathogens on Kupffer cell pre-

cedes other innate immunity and contributes

to bacterial clearance. Nature Immunology 14

(8):785-92, 2013.

Yipp BG, Petri B, Salina D, Jenne CN, Scott BN,

Zbytnuik LD, Pittman K, Asaduzzaman M, Wu

K, Meijndert HC, Malawista SE, de Boisfleury

Chevance A, Zhang K, Conly J, Kubes P. Infec-

tion-induced NETosis is a dynamic process in-

volving neutrophil multitasking in vivo. Nat

Med. 2012 Sep;18(9):1386-93.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

Seymour Heisler Memorial Lectureship

Award (2016)

Chair Gairdner Award MAB committees,

Member F1000 (2015)

Canadian Society for Immunology Cinader

Award (2012)

CIHR Researcher of the Year (2011)

Distinguished Scholar Award, Royal Society

of Canada (2009)

Alberta Science and Technology Award for

Outstanding Leadership in Science (2005)

American Physiological Society, Henry Pick-

ering Bowditch Lectureship (2003)

Faculty of Medicine Smith Distinguished

Achievement Award for Senior Faculty

(2001, 2003)

Dr. Kathy McCoy


Director, Germ-Free Facility, Western Canadian Microbiome Centre


Impact of commensal microbiota

on threshold of inflammasome

Impact of microbiota on develop-

ment of immune system in early

life

Maternal microbial imprinting on

neonatal innate immune system

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECT

Dr. Kathy McCoy is interested in the dynamic inter-

play between the gut microbiota and the innate and

adaptive immune systems. Using germ-free and gno-

tobiotic mouse models her research group aims to

understand how exposure to intestinal microbes

early in life educates and regulates the developing

immune system and how this impacts on suscepti-

bility to immune-mediated diseases such as allergy

and autoimmunity.

Dr. McCoy obtained her PhD in Immunology from the

Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Otago Uni-

versity, Wellington, New Zealand. She performed her

postdoctoral studies and was a junior group leader

at the Institute of Experimental Immunology in Zü-

rich, Switzerland. She then held Asst. Professor posi-

tions at McMaster University (2006-2010) and Uni-

versity of Bern, Switzerland (2010-2016).

Dr. McCoy was recently recruited to the University of

Calgary where she continues her research on micro-

biome-immune interactions while directing the new

germ-free/gnotobiotic facility of the Western Canadi-

an Microbiome Centre (WCMC).

SPECIALTIES

Axenic embryo transfer for re-derivation

of germ-free animals

Expertise in gnotobiology & mucosal im-

munology

In vivo animal models

Dr. Kathy McCoy

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Gomez de Agüero M, Ganal-Vonarburg SC,

Fuhrer T, Rupp S, Uchimura Y, Steinert A, Heik-

enwälder M, Hapfelmeier S, Sauer U, McCoy

KD†, Macpherson AJ†. Early postnatal innate

immune development driven by the maternal

microbiota. Science 2016 Mar 18;351

(6279):1296-302. †Equal senior authors

Zaiss MM, Rapin A, Lebon L, Dubey LK, Mosco-

ni I, Sarter K, Piersigilli A, Menin L, Walker AW,

Rougemont J, Paerewijck O, Geldhof P, McCoy

KD, Macpherson AJ, Croese J, Giacomin PR,

Loukas A, Junt T, Marsland BJ, Harris NL. The

Intestinal Microbiota Contributes to the Ability

of Helminths to Modulate Allergic Inflamma-

tion. Immunity. 2015 Nov 17;43(5):998-1010.

Li H, Limenitakis JP, Fuhrer T, Geuking MB,

Lawson MA, Wyss M, Brugiroux S, Keller I,

Macpherson JA, Rupp S, Stolp B, Stein JV,

Stecher B, Sauer U, McCoy KD, Macpherson

AJ. The outer mucus layer hosts a distinct in-

testinal microbial niche. Nat Commun. 2015

Sep 22;6:8292.

Gollwitzer ES, Saglani S, Trompette A, Yadava

K, Sherburn R, McCoy KD, Nicod LP, Lloyd CM,

Marsland BJ. Lung microbiota promotes toler-

ance to allergens in neonates via PD-L1. Nat

Med. 2014 Jun;20(6):642-7.


European Commission-Research and Inno-

vation Action Operating Grant (2016-2020)

Swiss National Science Foundation Operat-

ing Grant (2014-2017)

European Research Council-ERC Starting

Grant (2011-2016)

ERC Consolidator Grant (2011)

Canada Research Chair in Gastrointestinal

Immunology (2008-2010)

CONTACT

Dr. Kathy McCoy | (403) 220-6139 | [email protected]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24813249

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24813249

Dr. Markus Geuking

Assistant Professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

Nominated for Tier II Canada Research Chair


Microbiota-mediated modulation

of antigen-specific CD4+ T helper

cells

Impact of antigen-specific

antimicrobial T helper cell

responses on the function and

composition of the microbiota

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECTS

Dr. Geuking was recruited to the University of Calgary

from the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has over

30-peer reviewed publications in journals such as Sci-

ence and Immunity. The Geuking lab investigates the

interaction between the intestinal microbiota and the

host immune system in health and disease.

The team uses axenic and gnotobiotic in vivo models

in combination with genetically modified commensal

species to interrogate whether and how the microbio-

ta can modulate T helper cell responses. This allows

for controlled and defined experiments to study how

the microbiota modulates T helper cell response, but

also how, in return, T helper cell responses directed

at the microbiota impact the microbiota at the level of

transcriptional or metabolic activity and microbiota

composition. These are important parameters re-

quired for designing therapies where the microbiota

is used as a tool to therapeutically modulate immune

responses in disease.

Dr. Geukings’ lab develops genetically modified mi-

crobes as tools to study antigen-specific T helper cell

responses in gnotobiotic situations using state-of-the-

art technologies including intravital microscopy, next

generation transcriptional profiling of individual sort-

ed species, and immunophenotyping using flow and

mass cytometry as readouts.

CONTACT

Dr. Markus Geuking | (403) 220-6840 | [email protected]

SPECIALTIES

Infrastructure for germ-free and gnotobi-

otic in vivo experiments.

Genetic modification of commensal bac-

teria.

Optimized bioinformatics pipelines for

gnotobiotic conditions.

Dr. Markus Geuking

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Li, H, Limenitakis, JP, Fuhrer, T, Geuking, MB,

Lawson, MA, Wyss, M, Brugiroux, S, Keller, I,

Macpherson, JA, Rupp, S, et al. (2015). The

outer mucus layer hosts a distinct intestinal

microbial niche. Nat Commun. 2015 Sep

22;6:8292

Mosconi I, Geuking MB, Zaiss MM, Massacand

JC, Aschwanden C, Kwong Chung CK, McCoy

KD, and Harris NL. Intestinal bacteria induce

TSLP to promote mutualistic T-cell responses.

Mucosal Immunol. 2013 Nov;6(6):1157-67

Cahenzli J, Köller Y, Wyss M, Geuking MB, and

McCoy KD. Intestinal microbial diversity during

early-life colonization shapes long-term IgE lev-

els. Cell Host Microbe. 2013 Nov 13;14

(5):559-70.

Geuking MB, Cahenzli J, Lawson MA, Ng DC,

Slack E, Hapfelmeier S, McCoy KD, and Mac-

pherson AJ. Intestinal Bacterial Colonization

Induces Mutualistic Regulatory T Cell Respons-

es. Immunity 2011 May 27;34(5):794-806.

Geuking MB, Weber J, Dewannieux M, Gorelik

E, Heidmann T, Hengartner H, Zinkernagel RM,

and Hangartner L. Recombination of re-

trotransposon and exogenous RNA virus re-

sults in nonretroviral cDNA integration. Sci-

ence 2009 Jan 16;323(5912):393-6.


AbbVie IBD Grant (2015)

Lutz Zwillenberg Award (2012)

Swiss National Science Foundation Am-

bizione Grant (2010)

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta



The Alberta Kids At Risk (AKAR)

Study—how microbial inheritance

and early life exposures influence

metabolic and immune

development

Early life bacterial and fungal

signatures predictive of asthma

Role of early-life exposure of

intestinal lipopolysaccharide

(LPS) in lung inflammation

Early-life microbial metabolite-

host interactions in mouse

models

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECTS

Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD is an assistant professor at

the University of Calgary. She has been studying how

intestinal alterations lead to immune diseases since

2007. During her PhD she studied the role of intesti-

nal permeability in the pathogenesis of colitis and di-

abetes. She also worked in Brett Finlay’s lab as a

postdoctoral fellow for five years, where she com-

bined her knowledge of microbes and immunology to

lead a major clinical study on the role of the microbio-

ta in asthma. She played a central role in building the

bioinformatics techniques needed to analyze the mi-

crobiota from these clinical studies and has demon-

strated that certain species of the intestinal microbio-

ta from three-month-old children determine the risk

of that child to succumb to asthma later in life. She

has been published in leading scientific journals such

as Gut, PNAS, and Science Translational Medicine.

She also co-authored a forthcoming book aimed at

parents, “Let Them Eat Dirt”, which explores how the

microbiome influences childhood development and

how a microbial alterations can lead to several im-

mune-mediated diseases. Marie-Claire’s current re-

search interests lie in the role of the intestinal micro-

biota in pediatric health and disease.

CONTACT

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta | (403) 220-4566 | [email protected]

SPECIALTIES

16S and 18S analysis of microbiomes

Metabolomics

Mucosal immunology of the gut and the

lung

Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Stiemsma L, Arrieta MC, Dimitriu P, Cheng J,

Thorson L, Lefebvre D, Azad MB, Subbarao P,

Mandhane P, Becker A, Sears M, Kollmann T,

Mohn W, Finlay B, Turvey S. Shifts in Lachno-

spira and Clostridium sp. in the 3-month

stool microbiome are associated with pre-

school-age asthma. Clin Sci (Lond). 2016 Sep

15

Arrieta MC, Walter J, Finlay BB. 2016. Human

Microbiota-Associated Mice: A Model with

Challenges. Cell Host and Microbe. 19(5):575-

8

Yurist-Doutsch S, Arrieta MC, Tupin A, Valdez Y,

Antunes LC, Yen R, Finlay BB. 2016. Nutrient

Deprivation Affects Salmonella Invasion and

Its Interaction with the Gastrointestinal Micro-

biota. PLoS One. Jul 20;11(7):e0159676

Arrieta MC*, Stiemsma LT*, Dimitriu PA,

Yurist-Doutsch S, Thorson L, Brandt R,

Lefebvre D, Sears M, Kollmann T, Mc.Nagny K,

CHILD Study Investigators, Mohn WW, Turvey

S, and Finlay BB. 2015. Early infancy microbial

and metabolic alterations impact risk of child-

hood asthma. Science Translational Medi-

cine. 2015 Sep 30;7(307):307 * equal contri-

bution.

Arrieta MC, Stiemsma LT, Amenyogbe N,

Brown EM, Finlay B. 2014. The intestinal mi-

crobiome in early life: health and disease.

Front Immunol. Sep 5;5:427


Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta. “Let

Them Eat Dirt: How Our Quest For Clean Is

Making Our Children Sick”. Layperson book

to be published by Algonquin Books (USA)

and Greystone Books (Canada) in Septem-

ber 2016. Translated into 10 languages.

Dr. Laura K. Sycuro



Incident STIs in Kenyan girls: A

prospective cohort spanning

sexual debut

N o n - n u t r i t i v e s w e e t e n e r

consumption during pregnancy:

impact on infant gut microbiome

and metabolism in the CHILD

cohort

Iron acquisition pathways in the

u p p e r r e s p i r a t o r y t r a c t

microbiome: evaluating strategies

to prevent infections

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECTS

Dr. Sycuro leads a highly interdisciplinary research

group with the broad goal of harnessing the maternal

microbiome to promote healthy pregnancies. Her

team aspires to advance the precision with which we

define the composition of the human microbiome and

mechanistically link its species, strains, and genes to

reproductive health outcomes. This work is unfolding

in two directions:

1) Technology development that deepens our under-

standing of the microbiome’s pan-genomic content

and fluidity

2) Identification of important genes that are fun-

neled into interdisciplinary functional studies

Dr. Sycuro’s lab is also working to better define the

microbial communities contributing to pregnancy loss

and preterm delivery. The long-term goal of this re-

search is to identify new diagnostic markers and

treatment strategies that safely correct microbial im-

balances before they trigger early labor.

The Sycuro Lab is advancing understanding of the

human microbiome through state-of-the-art applica-

tions of high throughput sequencing technologies.

Her team is developing methods of detecting and as-

sembling the genomes of uncultivated species and

strains.

CONTACT

Dr. Laura K. Sycuro | (403) 220-4453 | [email protected]

SPECIALTIES

Bacterial & Hi-C metagenomics, compara-

tive and functional genomics and cultiva-

tion of fastidious anaerobes

Software development for NGS microbi-

ome studies

Microfluidic models of biofilms and micro-

bial communities

Dr. Laura K. Sycuro

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Herbst-Kralovetz MM, Pyles RB, Ratner AJ, Sy-

curo LK, and Mitchell C. (2016) New systems

for studying intercellular interactions in bacte-

rial vaginosis. Journal of Infectious Disease.

214 Suppl 1:S6–S13.

Gorgos LM*, Sycuro LK*, Srinivasan S, Fiedler

TL, Morgan MT, Balkus JE, McClelland SR,

Fredricks DN, and Marrazzo JM. (2015) Rela-

tionship of specific bacteria in the cervical and

vaginal microbiotas with cervicitis.

*Contributed equally to this work. Sexually

Transmitted Diseases. 42(9): 475–81.

Sycuro LK, Rule CS, Petersen TW, Wycoff TJ,

Sessler T, Nagarkar DB, Khalid F, Pincus Z,

Biboy J, Vollmer W, and Salama NR. (2013)

Flow cytometry based enrichment for cell

shape mutants identifies multiple genes that

influence Helicobacter pylori morphology. Mo-

lecular Microbiology. 90(4): 869–83.

Sycuro LK, Pincus Z, Gutierrez KD†, Born P,

Stern CA†, Vollmer W, Salama NR. (2010) Pep-

tidoglycan crosslinking relaxation promotes

Helicobacter pylori's helical shape and stom-

ach colonization. Cell. 141(5): 822–33.


University of Calgary Office of the Vice Presi-

dent of Research ( 2016-2019)

Fluxion Biosciences Innovation Award

(2010)

IP Declaration : AnPhIRL: An analytical pipe-

line for identification and evaluation of ge-

nomes obtained from metagenomes; dis-

closed filing date: 2016/06/06

Dr. Mark Swain


Cal Wenzel Family Foundation Chair in Hepatology

Head, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Calgary

Section Head, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Calgary

Zone, Alberta Health Services


Influence of the microbiome on sig-

naling pathways that link peripher-

al inflammation with changes in

behavior (i.e. sickness behaviors

including fatigue, cognitive impair-

ment, mood alterations)

Gut-brain axis as it relates to

the impact of changes in the

gut the microbiome on the brain in

inflammatory bowel disease and

irritable bowel disease

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECTS

Dr. Mark Swain is currently a Professor of Medicine,

Hepatologist and Clinician-Scientist at the University

of Calgary.

Dr. Swain has basic bench research programs funded

by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 2

areas, namely: i) Mechanisms underlying the develop-

ment of fatigue in liver disease, and ii) the innate im-

mune response in the regulation of hepatic inflamma-

tion. Dr. Swain’s clinical research is focused in the

areas of viral hepatitis and autoimmune liver disease.

Dr. Swain has published more than 100 peer-

reviewed papers and book chapters and has served

on the Editorial Boards for the scientific journals Gut,

American Journal of Physiology and Clinical Sciences.

He has won many awards for teaching and research,

including the University of Calgary Watanabe Distin-

guished Achievement Award for Overall Excellence. He

is currently the Cal Wenzel Family Foundation Chair in

Hepatology, and the Head of the Translational Re-

search Core for the Snyder Institute for Chronic Dis-

eases at the University of Calgary.

CONTACT

Dr. Mark Swain | (403) 592-5011 | [email protected]

SPECIALTIES

Animal models of liver and bowel inflam-

mation

Intravital microscopy of the cerebral vas-

culature

Functional MRI

Animal sickness behavior assessment

Microglial isolation and characterization

Dr. Mark Swain

SELECT PUBLICATIONS


Appointed as a Fellow of the American Asso-

ciation for the Study of Liver Diseases

(2014-present)

Elected Executive Committee member, In-

ternational Society for Hepatic Encephalo-

pathy and Nitrogen Metabolism (2014-

present)

Invited member External Advisory Commit-

tee, University of Birmingham Liver Biomedi-

cal Research Unit (2012-present)

Canadian Institutes of Health Research/

Health Canada, Joint Advisory Committee -

Hepatitis C initiative (Expert Fatigue/Quality

of Life) (1999-2004)

Faculty of Medicine Watanabe Distin-

guished Achievement Award for Overall Ex-

cellence, University of Calgary (2003)

D'Mello C, Ronaghan N, Zaheer R, Dicay M,

LeT, MacNaughton WK, Surrette MG, Swain

MG. Probiotics attenuate immune-to-brain sig-

naling and improve sickness behaviors in

mice with experimental liver disease. J Neuro-

sci, 2015 Jul 29;35(30):10821-30

Almishri W, Deans J, Swain MG. Rapid activa-

tion and hepatic recruitment of innate-like reg-

ulatory B cells after invariant NKT cell stimula-

tion in mice. J Hepatol. 2015 Oct;63(4):943-

51.

Pang JX, Zimmer S, Niu S, Crotty P, Tracey J,

Pradhan F, Shaheen AA, Coffin CS, Heitman

SJ, Kaplan GG, Swain MG, Myers RP. Liver

stiffness by transient elastography predicts

liver-related complications and mortality in

patients with chronic liver disease. PLoS One.

2014 Apr 22;9(4)

D’Mello C, Swain MG. Liver-brain interactions

in inflammatory liver diseases: implications for

fatigue and mood disorders. Brain Behav Im-

mun, 2014 Jan; 35:9-20

Swain MG, Lai M-Y, Shiffman ML, Cooksley

WGE, Zeuzem S, Dieterich DT, Abergel A,

Pessôa MG, Lin A, Tietz A, Connell EV, Diago

M. A sustained virologic response is durable in

patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with

peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin. Gastroen-

terology 2010;139:1593-601

Dr. Raylene Reimer

Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary

Full Scientist, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute


Prebiotic fiber supplementation

and gut microbiota in non-alcoholic

fatty liver disease

Dietary manipulation of gut microbi-

ota to manage obesity and insulin

resistance

Effect of Inulin and Other Fiber

Source(s) on the Microbiome in

Healthy Adults

A 12-week Exercise Program for

Adults with Celiac Disease: Effects

on Quality of Life and Gut Microbio-

ta

Nutrition optimization in malnour-

ished patients with Crohn’s disease

is associated with beneficial gut

microbiome changes

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECTS

Dr. Raylene Reimer is a Registered Dietitian and Uni-

versity of Calgary Professor. Her research focuses on

the role of diet in regulating energy intake and gut mi-

crobiota in the context of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and

other chronic diseases such as fatty liver disease and

inflammatory bowel disease.

She has done extensive research in animal models to

study how maternal diet during pregnancy influences

offspring's gut microbiota, satiety hormone production

and ultimately obesity risk. Her studies have identified

prebiotic fibre as a potentially valuable dietary inter-

vention in establishing a new lower set point for energy

intake and adiposity in both obese and non-obese ani-

mal models. Translating findings from animal models

to human clinical studies is a key way in which Reimer

spans bench to bedside discovery and application. Her

research group is also making progress in understand-

ing how modifying the gut microbiota with prebiotics

and probiotics affects behavior in neuropsychiatric dis-

orders including autism-spectrum disorder and obses-

sive-compulsive disorder.

Dr. Reimer holds several industry research contracts

that help take evidence-based findings into applica-

tion. She was honored in May 2012 with the Centrum

New Scientist Award for Outstanding Research

(Canadian Nutrition Society).

CONTACT

Dr. Raylene Reimer | (403) 220-8218 | [email protected]

SPECIALTIES

Dietary manipulation of gut microbiota

Prebiotics and probiotics

Clinical trials

Rodent models of the 'Developmental

Origins of Health and Disease'

Obesity and chronic disease

Dr. Raylene Reimer

SELECT PUBLICATIONS


Strategic Clinical Network Research and In-

novation Advisory Committee (Diabetes,

Obesity and Nutrition) (2014-present)

CIHR Chair and Scientific Officer, Nutrition,

Food & Health Peer Review Committee

(2011; 2012; 2015)

Associate Dean Graduate Education, Facul-

ty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary

(2011-2012)

Researcher of the Month – Canadians for

Health Research (2015)

Fellow of The Obesity Society (2013)

BMO Co-Chair in Healthy Living – Alberta

Children’s Hospital Foundation (2010-

2015)

Abbott Nutrition, Prebiotics Advisory Board

(Abbott Canada, Saint-Laurent, Québec,

2010)

Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Nominee (2009)

Ho J, Reimer RA, Doulla M, Huang C (2016)

Effect of prebiotic intake on gut microbiota,

intestinal permeability and glycemic control in

children with type 1 diabetes: study protocol

for a randomized controlled trial. Trials 17

(1):347

Paul HA, Bomhof MR, Vogel HJ, Reimer RA

(2016) Diet-induced changes in maternal gut

microbiota and serum metabolomic profiles

influence programming of offspring obesity

risk in rats. Scientific Reports, Feb

12;6:20683

Klein MS, Newell C, Bomhof MR, Reimer RA,

Hittel DS, Rho JM, Vogel HJ, Shearer J (2016)

Metabolomic modelling to monitor host re-

sponsiveness to gut microbiota manipulation

in the BTBR mouse. J Proteome Res 15

(4):1143-1150

Nicolucci AC, Reimer RA (2016) Prebiotics as a

modulator of gut microbiota in paediatric obe-

sity. Pediatric Obesity Apr 13. doi: 10.1111/

ijpo.12140.

Lambert JE, Myslicki J, Bomhof MR, Belke DD,

Shearer J, Reimer RA (2015) Exercise training

modifies gut microbiota in normal and diabetic

mice. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 40(7):749-752

Hallam MC, Barile D, Meyrand M, German JB,

Reimer RA (2014) Maternal high protein or

prebiotic fiber diets affect maternal milk com-

position and gut microbiota in rat dams and

their offspring. Obesity 22:2344-2351.

Dr. Joe Harrison

Assistant professor, Faculty of Science, University of Calgary

Canada Research Chair in Biofilm Microbiology and Genomics

Chair, University of Calgary Biofilm Research Group


The Bugs-to-Drugs Initiative

Dr. Harrison is leading a team of researchers

that are establishing the Alberta Microbiota

Repository (ABMR), a unique collection of bac-

teria and fungi that is serving as a platform to

discover bioactive natural products from micro-

biomes. This ambitious collaborative is ena-

bling new lines of discovery-driven investiga-

tion that will advance our fundamental under-

standing of host-microbe interactions in health

and disease, and is driving innovation by iden-

tifying new therapeutic strategies for treating

plant, animal and human diseases important

to Canadians.

PROFILE

MICROBIOME PROJECTS

Biofilms are slime-covered communities of microbes

that stick to surfaces, and biofilm formation is at the

root of many chronic and device-associated human

bacterial infections. The Harrison lab seeks to under-

stand – at a molecular level – how bacteria build bio-

films that resist drugs, evade immunity and cause

infection.

Dr. Harrison studies a process called signal transduc-

tion. All living cells use this process to sense external

stimuli and trigger a chain of chemical events inside

the cell, resulting in physiological adaptation to the

environment. In many bacteria, the signal transduc-

tion process that orchestrates biofilm growth and dis-

persion depends on a key intracellular molecule, cy-

clic diguanylate (c-di-GMP). While a lot is known about

how enzymes “make and break” c-di-GMP, little is

known about the environmental stimuli that activate

and inhibit these enzymes. This is a key research ar-

ea because bacteria must use c-di-GMP signaling to

sense and respond to host stimuli to build biofilms. C-

di-GMP is a promising therapeutic target because it is

absent in mammals.

Dr. Harrison had a lead role in developing the Calgary

Biofilm Device (commercially available as the

MBECTM assay), which is now sold worldwide, serves

as an ASTM method for regulated product claims, and

is used to develop anti-biofilm agents.

CONTACT

Dr. Joe Harrison | (403) 220-7627 | [email protected]

http://contacts.ucalgary.ca/info/bio/profiles/1-4173438

SPECIALTIES

Bacterial Genomics

Gene and protein engineering/synthetic

biology

Bacterial signal transduction; especial-

ly molecular sensory perception

Antimicrobial resistance (antibiotics and

metals)

High-throughput screening; especially as

it pertains to drug-discovery via the Bugs-

to-Drugs collaborative

Biofilm microbiology

Bacterial pathogenesis

Dr. Joe Harrison

SELECT PUBLICATIONS


CIHR Project Scheme Grant (2016-2020)

Gold Medal - Canadian Society for Microbiol-

ogists (CSM) Canadian Graduate Student

Microbiologist of the Year (2008)

Cohen, D, U. Mechold, H. Nevenzala, J. D.

Rich, D. C. Bay, M. R. Parsek, V. Kaever J. J.

Harrison* and E. Banin* (2015) Oligoribonu-

clease is a central feature of cyclic diguanyl-

ate signalling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-

ences USA 112:11359-64. *equal senior au-

thors

Hmelo, L. R., B. R. Borlee, H. Almblad, M. E.

Love, T. E. Randall, B. S. Tseng, C. Lin, Y. Irie,

K. M. Storek, J. J. Yang, R. J. Siehnel, P.L.

Howell, P.K. Singh, T. Tolker-Nielsen, M. R.

Parsek, H. P. Schweizer and J. J. Harrison

(2015) Precision-engineering the Pseudomo-

nas aeruginosa genome with two-step allelic

exchange. Nature Protocols 10(11):1820-41.

Almblad, H., J. J. Harrison, M. T. Rybtke, J.

Groizeleau, M. Givskov, M. R. Parsek and T.

Tolker-Nielsen (2015) The cAMP-Vfr signaling

pathway in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is inhib-

ited by c-di-GMP. Journal of Bacteriology

197:2190-2200.

Harrison, J. J., C. A. Stremick, R. J. Turner, N.

D. Allan, M. E. Olson and H. Ceri (2010). Mi-

crotiter susceptibility testing of microbes

growing on peg lids: A miniaturized biofilm

model for high-throughput screening. Nature

Protocols 5:1236-1254.

Documents

WCMC - University of Calgary€¦ · Marie-Claire Arrieta, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. She has been studying how intestinal alterations lead to immune