News
2024
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 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 Jenna's CGS-M Scholarship, Caden's URDF Award, James' Best Poster Presentation Award, 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.
April 1, 2024
Congratulations to Jenna for receiving the Canada Graduate Scholarships (Master’s Program)!
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!
March 16, 2024
Jeella was recognized as one of the awardees by "The Filipino Champions of Canada", honouring former Filipino international students who have completed their Canadian education, demonstrated exemplary leadership, and have contributed positively to the cultural enrichment and the global education landscape.
Certificates of Recognition were subsequently awarded by the federal and provincial governments of Canada.
Several news outlets featured the awarding ceremony held on Mar 16 and the government recognition event on Apr 7.
TV Patrol (May 13, 2024)
ANC Top Story (May 2, 2024)
ABS-CBN News (May 1, 2024)
Alberta Filipino Journal (April 2024)
The Filipino Channel (TFC) News Alberta (April 30, 2024)
OMNI News Canada (April 15, 2024)
TV Patrol (April 4, 2024)
ANC Top Story (April 3, 2024)
The Filipino Channel (TFC) News Alberta (April 2, 2024)
January 25, 2024
Our NFRF collaborative research project was featured in the MRU Summit Magazine Winter 2024 issue.
2023
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
Jeella received the Petro Canada Emerging Innovator Award. Thank you to the MRU Faculty of Science and Technology!
Oct 20, 2023
Jeella is honoured to receive 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 15, 2023
Welcome to James, Caden, & Micah who are joining the lab this spring.
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.
2022
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.
April 21, 2022
Jeella served as a panelist at the "Elements of Success: Grant Writing Across Funding Agencies" Workshop hosted by ORSCE.
March 3, 2022
Jeella shared an overview of our research program and how students get involved in research at the Undergrad Research Event hosted by the MRU Golden Key International Honor Society. Zafina serves as the organization's Vice President.
February 24, 2022
Jeella served as a panelist at the Grant Writing Scholarship Series hosted by the MRU Faculty Association.
January 10, 2022
Welcome to Zafina who is joining the lab beginning this Winter 2022.
2021
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!
July 29, 2021
Jeella was invited to give a lecture on "Antimicrobials Discovery through Genome Mining" to scholars of the Alberta Innovates Highschool Youth Researcher Summer Program at the University of Calgary.
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 24, 2021
Jeella was invited by the UPLB Chemistry Alumni Association, Inc. to serve as one of the speakers at the Career Talk Webinar for Undergraduate Students, "Xplore Xciting Careers in Chemistry 2.0", at her undergraduate alma mater, the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
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.
2020
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.
2019
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!
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.
