Cellular & Molecular Engineering - UBC

About the theme

The continuous rapid evolution of life science has discovered functional genes from diverse species, functional cells in the human body, and their controlling methods. SBME has an exceptional cohort of world-leading genome and cell engineers who together develop new principles and technologies to develop human cells having high-order functions to accelerate fundamental biology and cell-based therapeutics. Harnessing state-of-the-art genome editing, stem cell, organ engineering, and computational technologies, SBME Cellular & Molecular Engineering researchers engineer genetic circuits in the human genome, cellular communication cascades and environments for better understanding and healthy control of the human body.

Faculty in Cellular & Molecular Engineering

Core Faculty

	Anna Blakney Research Interests: Optimization of molecular design and formulation for next-generation RNA vaccines and therapies
	Calvin Roskelley Research Interests: Genes and genetic products involved in regulating tissue architecture in breast and ovarian carcinoma progression
	Carl de Boer Research Interests: Gene regulation; synthetic genomics; autoimmunity; heart disease; machine learning; cancer; complex disease genetics; evolution; personalized medicine
	Carolina Tropini Research Interests: Human gut microbiome; response of microbial communities to perturbations during disease; imaging; microfluidics; computational techniques; inflammatory bowel diseaese
	Connie Eaves Research Interests: Normal and leukemic stem cell characterization & regulation; breast cancer; hematopoietic cells from human embryonic stem cells and IPSCs
	Dena Shahriari Research Interests: Smart biomaterials; neuroal interfaces; biosensors; tissue regeneration; organ augmentation
	Fabio Rossi Research Interests: Cellular systems in muscle regeneration; microglia and macrophages in CNS pathology; epigenetic control of lineage choice and differentiation
	Francis Lynn Research Interests: Islet beta cell formation from pancreatic stem or progenitor cells; cell-based prevention and reversion of beta cell deterioration and loss in diabetes
	Gabrielle Lam Research Interests: tissue engineering; biomaterials and regenerative medicine; cross-disiplinary education; integrating experiential learning in course design; self-regulated and collaborative learning
	Govind Kaigala Research Interests: Microfluidics; lab-on-a-chip; liquid scanning probes; microscale assays; compartmentalization; molecular diagnostics; multi-omic tumour profiling; tumour heterogeneity; personalized medicine
	Ivan Robert Nabi Research Interests: Cell biology of cancer; use of super-resolution microscopy to study cellular domains
	Jenna Usprech Research Interests: Curriculum design; incorporation of cellucar & tissure engineering into undergraduate curriculum; teaching strategies to promote retention of material; critical thought; wellness
	Karen Cheung Research Interests: diagnostic & therapeutic biomedical microsystems; dielectric spectroscopy for flow cytometry; implantable polymer-based microelectrode arrays; integrated cell culter systems
	Kelly McNagny Research Interests: Signalling networks; innate immune response; kidney function and cell-based therapies; transcriptional and signalling networks; surface molecules expressed by HSCs
	Megan Levings Research Interests: Immune cell engineering; immune tolerance in transplantation and autoimmunity; regulatory immune cell therapy
	Michael Underhill Research Interests: Retinoic acid receptor-mediated signalling in chondrogenesis; skeletal development; transcriptional networks for therapeutic bone and cartilage formation; arthritis; osteoporosis
	Nika Shakiba Research Interests: Stem cells; Synthetic biology; Engineered cell therapies; Pluripotency
	Nozomu Yachie Research Interests: genome editing; cell engineering; mouse genetics; high-performance computing to trace molecular & cellular dynamics in high-resolution; DNA event recording; cell lineage tracing; stem cell; synthetic biology
	Pamela Hoodless Research Interests: Stem cells & control of normal development and oncognesis; heart and liver development; genomics; transcription factors; epigenetics; genome editing; cell lineage tracing; differentiation
	Peter Zandstra Research Interests: Multi-scale modelling of complex biology; synthetic stem cells & regenerative medicine; synthetic niches to control stem cell fate; new therapies for blood diseases
	Shernaz Bamji Research Interests: Formation; remodelling; elimination of brain synaptic connections; formation/plasticity disruptions & brain function; normalizing cognitive & functional abilities
	Tim Kieffer Research Interests: Development of novel gene and cell therapies for diabetes; physiological insulin replacement
	Vikramaditya Yadav Research Interests: Tissue engineering; synthetic biology; medical biotechnology; metabolic engineering; drug delivery; infectious disease pathogenesis and drug discover
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Associate Faculty

	Aly Karsan Research Interests: Myeloid malignancies; myelodysplastic syndromes; hematopoietic system development; toll-like receptor (TLR) pathways; Notch signalling pathway
	Cheryl Wellington Research Interests: Genetic and environmental risk factors for dementia; apolipoprotein E (apoE) metabolism; history of traumatic brain injury (TBI); cerebrovascular dysfunction
	Edward Conway Research Interests: Molecular links between coagulation and innate immunity tumour endothelial marker CD248
	Freda Miller Research Interests: Neural stem cells; neurotrophin regulation of neuronal survival; growth and connectivity; p53 family in the nervous system; molecular regulation of neurogenesis
	Hongshen Ma Research Interests: Microfabrication; single cell sequencing and image cytometry; technologies to evaluate blood quality; test immune cell function; personalize cancer therapies and expedite antimalarial drug development
	James Piret Research Interests: Biochemical and biomedical engineering; CHO; hematopoietic cells
	Jane Hill Research Interests: Metabolomics; chromatography; MEMS
	Jay Kizhakkedathu Research Interests: Macromolecular iron sequesters
	Josef Penninger Research Interests: Genetic editing; human iPS cell models of disease; organoid cultures; blood vessel engineering; T cell biology; glycoproteomics in cancer; haploid stem cells
	Lynn Raymond Research Interests: Synaptic function in Huntington disease; NMDA-type glutamate receptor and calcium homeostasis in synaptic function; mouse models & automated assessment
	Mark Cembrowski Research Interests: Anxiety Genetics; Modeling; Neural circuits; Neuroscience; Neuroscience of memory; PTSD; RNAseq
	Peter Lansdorp Research Interests: Stem cell biology
	Sabrina Leslie Research Interests: DNA; single-molecule biophysics; biotechnology; fluorescence microscopy; nucleic acid interactions; nanoscale devices; instrumentation and innovation; oligonucleotide therapeutics; nanoparticle interactions and dynamics; confocal microscopy
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