Team

Principal Investigator

Stephen Michnick

Stephen did his bachelors and doctoral studies at the University of Toronto under the direction of Jeremy Carver and did postdoctoral training at Harvard University with Martin Karplus (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2013) and Stuart Schreiber. He trained principally as a biophysical chemist, studying structures and binding of complex cell surface carbohydrate- and protein-protein interactions and mechanism of protein folding. At the heart of all of his work, protein chemistry remains central, but he has developed an eclectic and diverse research program aimed at studying the organization and dynamics of biochemical networks in living cells and how these networks compute cell-fate decisions.

Lab Manager

Philippe Garneau

Philippe is the lab manager and has been a member of the lab since 2017. He holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. in molecular microbiology from Laval University in Québec, and completed graduate studies in Bioinformatics at UQàM. He has extensive work experience in molecular and cellular biology. He is involved in most of the yeast-related projects, particularly on their large-scale PCA aspects. Philippe is the person of contact for all things robotic for the lab.

Lab Technicians

Parastoo Morteza Zadeh

Parastoo currently works at the university of Montreal’s department of biochemistry and molecular medicine as a Research Technician. Before joining us, she graduated from Kharazmi University of Tehran with a Master of Biology degree. The current focus of her research is to determine how proteins are distributed in mammalian cells, and measuring their abundances. She also assists with various other projects in the lab.

Post-Docs

Rini Ravindran

Rini Ravindran earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from LSU Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA, USA studying ubiquitin-dependent regulation of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1). In 2020, Rini joined the Michnick lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow and has been studying the mechanism of protein import into peroxisomes, which are small dynamic organelles performing crucial processes like lipid metabolism. Peroxisome biogenesis is unique in transporting folded and even oligomeric proteins into their lumen. However, to date no pore structure has been visualized on the peroxisome. Rini’s research shows that key peroxisomal membrane proteins form transient transport channels by undergoing liquid-liquid phase separation with a cytosolic carrier and cargo proteins.

Ali Jahanabad

Ali is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the University of Montreal. His research interests focus on the proteome-wide analysis of induced dimerization effects on mammalian cell fitness. Prior to his current position, Ali completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cameco Multiple Sclerosis Neuroscience Research Centre (CMSNRC) and the University of Saskatchewan, where he investigated the molecular pathways involved in demyelination and relevant models in multiple sclerosis. Ali earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Biochemistry from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran. His doctoral research examined the therapeutic potential of oligodendrocytes in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

Doctoral Students

Nasrin Mobasheri

Nasrin did her bachelors and Masters in Microbiology at Azad university in Iran. She performed her masters project at University of Tehran under the direction of Dr. Javad Hamedi to study Electrochemical properties that play role in determining Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of antibiotics against pathogens. She gained results as a novel rapid method for determining MIC as a critical assay in medical microbiology, registered a national patent and published in Springer US. Nasrin is currently a PhD student in Biochemistry, her research focuses on measuring protein-protein interactions in induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPS) and iPS-derived neuroprogenitor cells to map out compositions, spatiotemporal dynamics, and the structural topology of protein-protein interaction networks in human stem cells.

Master Students

Xavier Castellanos-Girouard

Coming to us with a bachelors degree in Biochemistry from Université de Montréal, Xavier is currently pursuing a Master’s in Bioinformatics to expand his knowledge on computational analyses of biological networks. His research project focuses on the topological and thermodynamic properties of biological networks.

Undergraduate Interns

Hailey Nhu

Hailey Nhu is an undergraduate intern from the University of British Columbia, and she is in her fourth year doing a BSc in Combined Major of Biochemistry and Chemistry. Her research project focuses on the biophysical properties of yeast proteins.

Alumni

• Seckin Sinan Isik (MSc, 2012-2018).
• Diala Abd Rabbo (PhD, 2009-2017). Postdoc, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), Toronto, Canada.
• Bram Stynen (Postdoc, 2012-2017).
• Lara Michel Matta (MSc, 2013-2016).
• Alessandra Nurisso (Invited Researcher, 2015-2016) Lecturer in medicinal chemistry at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
• Kevin Stokely (Postdoc, 2015-2016).
• Nozhat Safaee (Postdoc, 2014-2016) Postdoc, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
• Durgajini Sivanesan (Postdoc, 2010-2015).
• Benjamin Matala (Master, 2011-2015) PhD, Institut de Recherche en Immunologie et en Cancérologie (IRIC), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada.
• Benjamin Piette (Master, 2013-2015) PhD, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
• Luz Carrillo (Postdoc, 2011-2015) Chemistry instructor, MiraCosta College & Palomar College, San Diego, USA.
• Abdellali Kelil (Postdoc, 2009-2015) Research associate, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
• Emmanuelle Tchekanda (Postdoc, 2010-2014) Scientific advisor, Institut national d’excellence en santé et en service sociaux (INESSS), Québec, Canada.
• Vincent Messier (PhD, 2004-2012) Postdoc, Toronto University, Toronto, Canada.
• Emmanuel Levy (Postdoc, 2008-2012) Senior Scientist, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
• Benjamin Dubreuil (MSc, 2011-2012) MSc, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
• Po Hien Ear (MSc, PhD, 2003-2011) Postdoc, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
• Mohan Malleshaiah (PhD, 2005-2011) Postdoc, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
• Arturo Papaluca (MSc, 2010-2011) PhD, Institut de Recherche en Immunologie et en Cancérologie (IRIC), Montréal, Québec, Canada.
• Carole Mazurek (Research Assistant, 2007-2009) Research Assistant, USA.
• Christian Landry (Postdoc, 2006-2009) Assistant Professor, Université de Laval, Québec, Canada.
• Kirill Tarassov (PhD, 2004-2009) Head of Bioinformatics Department, Zora Biosciences Oy, Espoo, Finland.
• Michael John Booth (MSc co-supervision, 2008) PhD, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
• Eduard Stefan (Postdoc, 2005-2008) Senior Research Associate, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
• Beat Nyfeler (Visiting Scientist, 2007) Research Investigator, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, USA.
• Alexis Vallée-Bélisle (PhD, 1997-2007) Assistant Professor, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
• François Xavier Campbell-Valois (PhD, 1997-2005) Postdoc, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
• Dimitri Sans (MSc, 1999-2002) MD, Hopital Pierre-Le Gardeur, Terrebonne, Québec, Canada.
• Martin Primeau (MSc, 1999-2002) Scientific Journalist, LaPresse, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
• Nathalie Berger (MSc, 2003-2005) Charles River.
• Ingrid Remy (PhD, 1998-2001) Laboratory Manager, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
• André Galarneau (PhD, 1997-2001) Medical Advisor & MSL Lead, Merck, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
• Geoffroy Denis (MSc, 1998-2001) MD.