Our People

Microbiome and Probiotics
 

Researchers

Core

Gregor Reid, Chair in Human Microbiome and Probiotics

Jeremy Burton, Miriam Burnett Chair in Urological Sciences

Greg Gloor, Biochemistry

Jean Macklaim, Post-doctoral fellow

Muriel Brackstone, Surgery

Peter Cadieux, Fanshawe College

Johan Delport, London Health Sciences

John Denstedt, Urology

Victor Han, Children's Health Research Institute

Shari Hekmat, Brescia College, Western University

Sung Kim, Microbiology and Immunology

John McCormick, Microbiology and Immunology

Hassan Razvi, Urology

Tim Regnault, Obstetrics & Gynecology

Leslie Scott, Surgery

Michael Silverman, Medicine

David Spence, Medicine

Mark Sumarah, Agriculture Canada

Brad Urquhart, Physiology and Pharmacology

Blayne Welk, Urology

Kaiping Yang, Children's Health Research Institute

 

Collaborators

National: Dirk Lange, UBC; Ben Chew, UBC; Deborah Money, UBC; Janet Hill, Saskatoon; Alan Bocking, Toronto; Emma Allen-Vercoe, Guelph;  Elaine Petrov, Queen’s;

International: Dr. Henk Busscher and Dr. Henny van der Mei, Groningen, Netherlands; Dr. Mariya Petrova and Dr. Sarah Lebeer, Leuven/Antwerp, Belgium; Dr. Glenn Gibson, Reading, Dr. Catherine O’Neill, Manchester, and Dr. Jonathan Swann, Imperial College, London, UK; Dr. Benoit Foligne, Pasteur Institute, Lille, France; Jeff Leach, Human Gut Project, and Dr. Rob Knight, UCSF, USA; Mark Tangney, UCC, Ireland; Mara Covarrubias, Mexico; Drs. Michael Schultz, Simon Stebbings, and Murray Thomson, Otago University, New Zealand; Remco Kort and Wilbert Sybesma, Yoba-for-life Netherlands; Pamela Odhiambo, JKUAT, and Nicholas Nduti, Technical University, Kenya; Susan Atyang, Heifer International, Uganda; Lauren Brinkac, J. Craig Venter, USA. 

 

Personnel

Reid Lab

Lesley Carmichael, Research Office Manager
Lesley is the glue that holds the probiotics group together.  Lesley is a long-time employee of Lawson and uses her years of lab and office experience to manage the accounts, all the students and Gregor!
 
Shannon Seney, Research Lab Manager
Shannon has worked at Lawson since 1998 after graduating from the University of Guelph with a B.Sc. (Hon) in Microbiology and Immunology.   She’s worked with the Probiotics and Microbiome group since 2010 even travelling to Tanzania in 2013 to assist on a probiotic yogurt study.
 
Brendan Daisley, Ph.D. Candidate, Western University
Brendan completed an Honours B.Sc. in Biology at Western University. He was awarded the Helen I. Battle Medal and Scholarship for achieving an outstanding academic record during his time as an undergraduate student. He is currently enrolled in the M.Sc. program at Western University, specializing in Microbiology and Immunology where he received the Alexander Graham Bell Graduate Scholarship from NSERC.  His research focuses on how probiotic bacteria can be used to mitigate the negative effects of pesticide toxicity, as it relates to recent declines in global bee populations.
 
Emiley Watson, M.Sc. Candidate, Western University
Emiley completed her Honours B.Sc. in Biology at Nipissing University. She is currently a first year M.Sc. student in the Microbiology and Immunology Department.  
 
Scarlett Puebla Barragan, Ph.D. Candidate, Western University
Scarlett completed her undergraduate degree at Tec de Monterrey in Mexico with a Bachelors of Science specializing in Biotechnology Engineering. She recently finished her Masters of Science degree in Biology at Western University. She is currently a PhD student in the Microbiology & Immunology department at Western University, under the supervision of Dr. Gregor Reid. She is studying the use of probiotics for the development of a product to treat vaginal infections. 
 
Johnny Chmiel, M.Sc. Candidate, Western University
 
 
 

Burton Lab

Liam Brennan. Postdoctoral Fellow, Western University
Liam completed his Bachelors of Science with Honours and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand studying aspects of animal immunological phenotypes. Following this, he completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Rheumatology department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, focusing primarily on plasma cell responses to influenza infection in the lung. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Microbiology & Immunology department at Western University, studying modified biomaterials for the use in stents and catheters in preventing device encrustation.
 
Kaitlin Al, Ph.D. Candidate, Western University
Kait completed her undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Immunology and has recently switched up into the doctoral program in the same department.  She is studying the role of the microbiome in kidney stone disease. 
 
Laura Craven, Ph.D. Candidate, Western University
Laura completed her undergraduate degree at Western University with a Bachelor's of Medical Sciences specializing in Microbiology and Immunology. She is currently a first year Ph.D. student in Microbiology co-supervised by Dr. Jeremy Burton and Dr. Michael Silverman. She is investigating the use of fecal microbiota transplants in treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
 
Behnam Abbasian, M.Sc. Candidate, Western University

Behnam is a first year graduate student in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, under supervision of Dr. Burton and Dr. Reid. Currently, he focuses on the potential role of neuroactive abilities of bacteria in the bladder. Behnam is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a graduate of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Azad University of Shahrekord, Iran. He has done numerous projects during his studies at the School of Veterinary Medicine in intra abdominal adhesion in diabetic male rat, wound healing, subclinical bovine mastitis, ovine herpesvirus-2 in cow and bovine rhinotracheitis virus. He has had several years of experience as a consultant in the meat industry and as CEO in Sargol Mahyar Meat Products Co. 


Sarah Donnelly, MSc Candidate, Western University
Sarah completed her undergraduate degree at Western University in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences. She is currently a Masters student in the Microbiology & Immunology department with the Collaborative Program in Molecular Imaging at Western University, under the supervision of Drs. Jeremy Burton and Donna Goldhawk. She is the recipient of the 2017 Lawson Internal Fund and the FW Luney Entrance Scholarship in Microbiology and Immunology. She is studying the role of magnetic resonance imaging in monitoring bacteria both in the gut microbiome and in urinary infection. 

Kamilah Abdur-Rashid, MSc Candidate, Western University
Kamilah recently completed her undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Immunology at Western University. She is currently doing a one-year Master of Science degree in the same department where she is studying the role of the microbiome in prostate cancer. 
 

Gloor Lab

 

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