News

August 21, 2025

Allen gave an excellent research presentation at the Alberta Innovates Summer Research Studentships - Closing Event.

July 16, 2025

Jeella joined field work in Inuvik with Dr. Nwaishi, Dr. Weisener (University of Windsor), and Greg (Aurora Research Institute). This trip was part of our NFRF project which integrates Indigenous knowledge with Western science to understand how environmental changes in the Arctic shape microbial communities and influence the evolution of novel antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance.

June 20, 2025

It's conference season and Jeella, Caden and James attended the Canadian Chemistry Conference (CSC) in Ottawa, while Jenna was at the Canadian Society of Microbiologists Conference (CSM) in Montréal.

Congratulations to James for receiving one of the 'Top Ten' Student Poster Presentation Prize at the CSC!

June 12, 2025

Congratulations to Caden on graduating and being featured as one of this year's outstanding graduates!  Read about Caden here. 

May 15, 2025

The group held the annual Research Group Spring Mini-Symposium last May 15, 2025. 

April 24, 2025

The Alberta Innovates Summer Research Studentship (AI-SRS) program has officially launched for its 2nd year at Mount Royal University.

Our group welcomes Allen Magpusao, one of the AI-SRS student awardees.

April 11, 2025

Congratulations to Caden for receiving an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award and the MRU Undergraduate Research Dissemination Fund, and for winning a Best Poster Award for the University-wide Poster Presentations Event during the 2025 MRU Research and Scholarship Days! 

April 5, 2025

Jeella received the SAMRU Teaching Excellence Award!

"The fact that this was a recognition from students, by students, made this especially meaningful to me. I’m grateful to the students who nominated me and to those who joined the celebration!" -  Jeella

April 4, 2025

Our research was featured in the Calgary Herald and MRU News

March 17, 2025

Jeella, Jenna and James were at the One Health: AMR & Emerging Zoonoses Conference, where experts from academia, industry, private sectors, and government came together to tackle AMR and emerging zoonotic diseases.  

A standout feature of the event was the trainee and mentor pre-conference workshops, a signature component of the One Health AMR and One Health Emerging Zoonoses, CIHR-funded Training Platforms, fostering collaboration and skill development.

February 12, 2025

Jeella and Caden were featured in the Research/Science Video Shoot for MRU's 2025 Branding Campaign - "Grow Beyond".

January 16, 2025

We are thrilled to share that our genome mining paper was the Top Read Paper in the Canadian Journal of Chemistry in 2024.

January 1, 2025

Welcome to Amal Jeilani who is joining the team this Winter!

September 16, 2024

Our CIHR Health Research Training Platform Funding application, led by the University of Calgary, successfully secured $2.7 million over six years to support a pan-Canadian, pan-One-Health Antimicrobial Resistance research training platform.

September 1, 2024

Congratulations to Jenna for receiving an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (MSc Program).

August 22, 2024

Congratulations to Shayne for winning the 3rd Place Oral Presentation award for her research talk at the 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Research Day on August 22nd. She also presented her poster at the 2024 Snyder Summer Student Research Day on August 20th. 

June 6, 2024

Caden presented his undergraduate research at the Canadian Chemistry Conference in Winnipeg. 

May 15, 2024

The group held the Research Group Spring Mini-Symposium last May 15, 2024. 

May 14, 2024

Jeella received the Research Recognition Award for Undergraduate Research Supervision! 

"I’m incredibly grateful to have received the Research Recognition Award for Undergrad Research Supervision. It’s a privilege to work with such dedicated students and supportive colleagues. A special thanks to my past and current students for the nomination and support, and to the adjudication committee for the favorable consideration. The endorsement from students makes this recognition even more meaningful and rewarding." - Jeella

May 3, 2024

New Paper: Congratulations to Daniah and the team on publishing our genome mining work in the Canadian Journal of Chemistry. Check it here.

May 1, 2024

Welcome to Shayne who will be working with Jenna at the University of Calgary (co-supervised by Dr. de Buck) on the characterization of the bawcin bacteriocin. Shayne is a recipient of the O'Brien Center Summer Studentship at the University of Calgary. Congratulations Shayne.

April 25, 2024

Our group had a joint celebratory graduation dinner with Dr. Kristian Caldo's research team from Ambrose University. 

Congratulations to James, Micah and Tejas for their upcoming graduation. Special congratulations to Tejas for receiving the 2024 Governor General’s Silver Medal for achieving the highest academic standing of all graduates in a degree program. 

The group also celebrated recent achievements of current members including Caden's URDF Award, James' Best Poster Presentation Award, Jenna's CGS-M Scholarship, and Jeella's Research Recognition Award for Undergrad Research Supervision. 

Congratulations to everyone!

April 12, 2024

Congratulations to Caden for receiving the MRU Undergraduate Research Dissemination Fund to attend the Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Winnipeg this June.

Mar 27, 2024

Our research team was at the 2024 MRU Research Days. Micah, Caden and James presented posters on their respective bacteriocin research projects. Thanks to Jenna for coming to help with judging undergraduate research posters.

Congratulations to James for the FST Best Poster Presentation Award.

January 25, 2024

Our NFRF collaborative research project was featured in the MRU Summit Magazine Winter 2024 issue. 

Nov 30, 2023

New Paper: Congratulations to Zafina, Jenna and Jen on publishing their work in Int J Mol Sci. Check it here. Thank you to the MRU Library for the Open Access Fund. 

Nov 17, 2023

Thank you to the MRU Faculty of Science and Technology for awarding Jeella with the Petro Canada Emerging Innovator Award. 

Oct 20, 2023

Jeella received the 2023 MRU Faculty Association Teaching Excellence Award! 

"Thank you to my students & colleagues who have been part of this journey, especially to those who took the time & effort to nominate me. I appreciate everyone for their support and the inspiration they've provided. My heartfelt thanks to MRFA for this recognition!" - Jeella

Sept 27, 2023

The MRU NFRF research team was at the Alberta AMR Summit.

Sept 21, 2023

Jenna presented her research at the Joint Symposium on the Molecular Mechanisms of Infectious Disease, University of Calgary.

September 1, 2023

Welcome to Tejas Gill who is joining the team this Fall.

June 16, 2023

Our research was featured among the research snapshots in the MRU Summit Magazine Spring/Summer 2023 issue. 

June 8, 2023

The team was at the Canadian Chemistry Conference 2023 in Vancouver with Jenna, Zafina, Daniah and Julia presenting their work as posters at the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry session.

Thank you to MRU for the Faculty Research and Scholarship Dissemination Fund, FST Faculty Development Fund, and Undergraduate Research Dissemination Funds for the financial support.

June 2, 2023

Congratulations to Jenna, Zafina and Julia on their graduation. It was also wonderful seeing Daniel (one of the first students of our group) again who served as the convocation alumni speaker.

June 2, 2023

Congratulations to Zafina for receiving the Centennial Gold Medal for the Faculty of Science and Technology. Here's a feature article about Zafina where she talks about making the most of research and mentorship opportunities at MRU. 

April 29, 2023

Congratulations to Julia & Daniah for winning second place in their session at the 9th Undergraduate Research in Science Conference of Alberta (URSCA). Zafina also gave an outstanding talk on our research at URSCA. Jenna presented her independent project with Dr. Atkinson and won 1st place for her session. Congratulations everybody! 

April 25, 2023

Thank you to New Frontiers in Research Fund for awarding our team with Dr. Nwaishi, Dr. Richardson, Dr. Datta, Dr. Weisener, and collaborators an Exploration grant for our arctic environmental change and AMR project.

April 4, 2023

Congratulations to Zafina for the poster award at the FST Research Day. Great job also to Julia & Jenna on their poster presentations at the MRU and FST research events. 

March 24, 2023

Congratulations to Jenna for receiving an NSERC USRA award.

March 18, 2023

Congratulations to Zafina & Jenna (Team Category) and Julia (Individual Category) for receiving the MRU Undergraduate Research Dissemination Fund to attend the Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Vancouver this June.

March 15, 2023

Thanks to Alberta Innovates for funding our collaborative project led by Dr. Nwaishi and together with Dr. Richardson, Dr. Swallow and other collaborators.

February 10, 2023

Thanks to the MRU Office of Research, Scholarship, and Community Engagement for the Internal Research Grant Fund.

October 14, 2022

Jeella was inducted as an Associate Member of the Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering (PAASE) and served as an invited speaker at the 2022 Annual PAASE Meeting and Symposium, Chemistry and Biochemistry Cluster.

September 12, 2022

Welcome to Julia & Daniah. Julia is a new member of the group while Daniah is back after her graduation last spring to work as the group lab technician.

June 16, 2022

Carly & Jeella were at the Canadian Chemistry Conference 2022 along with several other MRU delegates who were recipients of the MRU FST CCCE Student Conference Awards.

June 2, 2022

Congratulations to Carly, Daniah, & Leah on their graduation.

May 30, 2022

Congratulations to Zafina for being one of the 18 students selected from all over Canada for the premier summer program - the Amgen Scholars Program hosted by the University of Toronto. 

May 26, 2022

Daniah & Zafina attended the MRU Board of Governors Meeting to share their research experience at MRU. Jeella had COVID-19 and joined the event virtually.

May 25, 2022

Welcome to Jenna & Jen who are joining the lab as recipients of the inaugural Faculty of Science and Technology Student Research Awards.

May 6, 2022

Congratulations to Daniah for the Second Place Award in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Session at the 8th Undergraduate Research in Science Conference of Alberta (URSCA). Zafina & Carly also gave an excellent presentation on their project. Great job to everyone!

April 11, 2022

Congratulations to Carly & Zafina for the Student Research Runner up Award at both the MRU University-wide Research and Scholarship Days and the Faculty-level Research Day events. Daniah & Lara also presented their projects at both research events.

March 30, 2022

New paper: New lanthipeptide stereochemistry paper from Jeella's postdoc group was just published in JACS. Read about our work here. 

January 10, 2022

Welcome to Zafina who is joining the lab beginning this Winter 2022.

December 9, 2021

Congratulations to Carly for receiving the Academic All-Canadian Award. Way to go for our outstanding student-athlete-researcher!

November 28, 2021

New paper: Our first paper from MRU was published in Molecules. Read about our genome mining work to search for head-to-tail cyclized bacteriocins here. This was one of our "COVID-19 lockdown" projects that we started working on virtually in Spring/Summer 2020. Congratulations to everyone!

June 15, 2021

Thank you to NSERC for the Discovery Grant and the Discovery Launch Supplement (2021-2026), the first DG grant for the Department of Chemistry and Physics at MRU.

June 7, 2021

Congratulations to Daniel on graduating with a BSc degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology and for being accepted to the University of Alberta's Doctor of Medicine Program, Class of 2025. Dan will be wrapping up his mutagenesis experiments this summer and will then be off to Edmonton. 

June 1, 2021

Welcome to Carly who is joining Leah and Dan in the lab beginning this summer. 

May 4, 2021

Congratulations to Leah for the First Place Award in the Biochemistry Session at the 7th Undergraduate Research in Science Conference of Alberta (URSCA). Leah gave an oral presentation on her and Daniel's projects. Great job also to Lara for her poster presentation at URSCA.

April 20, 2021

Congratulations to Daniel & Leah for the Student Research Presentation Runner up Award for the Faculty of Science and Technology during the MRU University-wide Research and Scholarship Days. Daniel, Leah, & Lara also presented research posters at the Faculty of Science and Technology Research Day 2021.

March 10, 2021

Daniel and Leah jointly presented their research at the One Health Antimicrobial Stewardship Virtual Conference and were the only undergraduate presenting authors out of the 74 abstract submissions.

March 2, 2021

Thanks to the MRU Office of Research, Scholarship, and Community Engagement for the Internal Research Grant Fund.

January 23, 2021

Lara & Leah attended the 2021 Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) National Conference, where Leah participated in the 3-Minute Thesis Presentation.

June 25, 2020

New paper: Congratulations to Silvia for publishing a new article in Chemical Science. Check our paper here. 

May 1, 2020

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we are moving all our research activities online. Welcome to Daniel, Daniah, Lara, & Leah to our Spring-Summer Online Research Program on the Genome Mining for Antimicrobial Peptides. 

April 15, 2020

New paper: Congratulations to Imran for publishing a new article in ACS Chem Bio. Check our paper here. 

Mar 4, 2020

Jeella presented a Departmental Colloquium on the overview of her MRU Research Program to commence in Spring 2020.

October 24, 2019

Thanks to the MRU Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) for the FST Research Grant.

September 30, 2019

New paper: Our work on a novel O-methyltransferase is finally out in JACS. Check here.

September 18, 2019

New paper: Our ChemBioChem paper is now available. Check here.

August 22, 2019

New paper: Our collaborative JBC paper with Kristian is now out and was recommended in F1000 Prime as being of special significance in its field. Check it here. 

July 1, 2019 

Jeella officially begins her position at MRU and will be teaching 2 BCEM courses this fall.