Metabolomics Toolbox

Alumni

Principle Investigators

	FIONA BAMFORTH is Director of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Associate Professor of Pathology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. She is also a Pediatric Medical Biochemist in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta Hospitals. Her research interests are in biochemical genetics and newborn screening for metabolic disease, causes and consequences of monozygotic twinning, and Molecular anthropology in examining Neolithic human remains from Siberia as part of a large study exploring two distinct hunter-gatherer populations in the Lake Baikal region. She is responsible for running the newborn screening/inborn errors of metabolism laboratory for the Capital Health Authority.
	DERRICK CLIVE is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. Dr. Clive's research into natural product chemistry, synthetic organic methods, and medicinal chemistry have brought him considerable attention and acclaim. Since completing his studies with the incomparable R.B. Woodward at Harvard, Dr. Clive has published more than 150 papers in many areas of organic and synthetic organic chemistry and has received numerous awards including the Alfred Bader award in Organic Chemistry (2002) and the University of Helsinki Medal (1989). Dr. Clive will primarily be responsible for supervising the synthesis, characterization and purification of many metabolites in the human metabolome project. He runs a large and active organic chemistry lab and so the team will benefit from his extensive managerial experience.
	BRIAN SYKES is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta. Dr. Sykes is internationally recognized as one of the pioneers in biomolecular NMR and continues to lead Canada in the development and application of new NMR technologies in biology and biochemistry. After becoming an associate professor at Harvard, Dr. Sykes was recruited to the University of Alberta in 1975. He has published nearly 400 papers and book chapters in NMR spectroscopy, NMR techniques and protein chemistry. He holds numerous honours and awards including a University Professorship (1997), a Canada Research Chair (2001); a Gerhard Herzberg award (1998) and a Steacie Prize (1982). Dr. Sykes is the director of NANUC which houses one of Canada's largest NMR instruments. Dr. Sykes will be involved in characterizing the human metabolome via NMR and in designing and testing software. He will also be responsible for sample facilitation with many academic laboratory clinicians and in liaison work with Varian Inc. and Chenomx Inc.

Project Management

	IAN FORSYTHE (Project Manager) has over 20 years experience in Biotechnology. He received his double AB in Molecular Biology and French from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MSc in Zoology from the University of British Columbia in 1997. He has worked for several prominent Biotechnology companies, including Genentech, Chiron, Syntex Research (now Roche Palo Alto), Gilead Sciences, ZymoGenetics, DNAX Research Institute, and Incyte Genomics. Ian comes to this project after several years of experience co-managing the Canadian Bioinformatics Help Desk at the University of Alberta. In 2006, Ian served as a member of the Canadian Proteomics Initiative Conference organizing committee.
	TREENA NEUFELD (Faculty Assistant) received her BEd degree in April of 1998 from the University of Alberta. She has been working at the University of Alberta for approximately 6 years and has over 8 years of administrative experience. She previously worked in the School of Business where she partook in many roles from Office Manager to Executive Assistant to Financial Assistant.
	Ann O'Neill (Platform Manager) joins the University of Alberta's Metabolomics Platform with over 10 years experience in academic research. She has worked as a Project Coordinator for the past 4 years both with the University of Alberta and more recently with Capital Health. She received her BA with First Class Honors in Anthropology from the University of Alberta in 1996 and her MA in Anthropology from the University of Alberta in 2000.

Bioinformatics

KEVIN JEWELL (Senior Programmer Analyst, AICML) has over ten years of experience in computer programming. He received multiple BSc degrees in Cell Biotechnology, Biochemistry, and Computing Science from the University of Alberta. Kevin also completed an MSc in Cancer Cell Biology at the University of Toronto. He has worked in IBM's E-Commerce division and is comfortable programming in Perl, Java, C, C++, PHP, and MySQL. In addition to his role as a Researcher on the Metabolomics project, he also works as a Senior Programmer Analyst for the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Machine Learning (AICML). He was part of the WebIC development team.

DAN TZUR (Director of Metabolite Acquisitions) was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. He received a Degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Universidad de Santiago. Currently, Dan is working with Dr. Wishart on the Human Metabolome Project (as a member of the bioinformatics and NMR teams). Over the past thirteen years, he has worked in diverse scientific research settings at the University of Alberta. Dan plays an active role in the curation and validation of the Human Metabolome Database (hmdb.ca). He also manages the acquisition of metabolites and their distribution for analysis.

Clinical Research

FIONA BAMFORTH (Principal Investigator) is Director of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Associate Professor of Pathology in the Faculty of Medicine. She is also a Pediatric Medical Biochemist in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta Hospitals. Her research interests are in biochemical genetics and newborn screening for metabolic disease, causes and consequences of monozygotic twinning, and Molecular anthropology in examining Neolithic human remains from Siberia as part of a large study exploring two distinct hunter-gatherer populations in the Lake Baikal region. She is responsible for running the newborn screening/inborn errors of metabolism laboratory for the Capital Health Authority.

CONNIE CHEUNG (Researcher) is currently working on a BSc degree in Medical Laboratory Science at the University of Alberta. She has experience in clinical chemistry, blood banking, and hematology from her work in the University of Alberta's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.

Mass Spectrometry

	MELISA CLEMENTS (Graduate Student) worked for Terry McMahon at the University of Waterloo, where she investigated the structure, energetic and reaction dynamics of gaseous cluster ions using a high-pressure mass spectrometer. She also worked for G.N.R. Tripathi at the University of Notre Dame in the Radiation Laboratory, where she investigated interactions between 2-mercaptopyrimidine and silver nanoparticles using Raman Spectroscopy.
	MULU GEBREMEDHIN (Researcher) received his BSc degree in Chemistry in 1996 and an MSc degree in Inorganic Chemistry in 2000 from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. After teaching for six years in the same university, he joined Dr. Liang Li's group at the University of Alberta in 2002 and received an MSc degree in analytical chemistry in 2005. Mulu has experience in extraction, separation and identification of proteins from biological samples such as human heart tissues and squamous carcinoma cell lines and also relative quantification and identification of proteins among biological samples using stable isotope methods. Most of the projects he has done recently require multidimensional high performance HPLC systems such as strong-cation exchange chromatography coupled off-line with reversed phase chromatography and mass spectrometry instruments (LC-ESI ion trap and MALDI QqTOF).
	NATALIE GUO (Graduate Student) started her MSc program in January 2003. Her research focuses on MS method development for protein characterization and on the application of LC/MS/MS to metabolome analysis.
	YEPING XIONG (Graduate Student) obtained his BE in 1992 from Tianjin Institute of Light Industry and his MSc in 2001 from Oregon State University. After working on projects related to drug discovery and process development in both academic and pharmaceutical industrial settings, Yeping gained experience in Natural Products Chemistry and modern analytical biotechnologies. As a new member of Dr. Li's group (Fall 2006), he will be working on the Human Metabolome Project focusing on the development and application of mass spectrometry for metabolome characterization.
	YING ZHANG (Research Associate) obtained her PhD in 1999 from Wuhan University (China), and has been working in Dr. Li's lab on the development of separation and mass spectrometric tools for proteomics and metabolomics applications since 2002 as a Research Associate. For this project, she is responsible for developing and applying new separation techniques combined with FT-MS for metabolite identification and metabolite MS-database creation.

Separations

	FIONA BAMFORTH (Principal Investigator) is Director of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Associate Professor of Pathology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. She is also a Pediatric Medical Biochemist in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta Hospitals. Her research interests are in biochemical genetics and newborn screening for metabolic disease, causes and consequences of monozygotic twinning, and Molecular anthropology in examining Neolithic human remains from Siberia as part of a large study exploring two distinct hunter-gatherer populations in the Lake Baikal region. She is responsible for running the newborn screening/inborn errors of metabolism laboratory for the Capital Health Authority.
	MULU GEBREMEDHIN (Researcher) received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry in 1996 and an M.Sc. degree in Inorganic Chemistry in 2000 from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. After teaching for six years in the same university, he joined Dr. Liang Li's group at the University of Alberta in 2002 and received an MSc degree in analytical chemistry in 2005. Mulu has experience in extraction, separation and identification of proteins from biological samples such as human heart tissues and squamous carcinoma cell lines and also relative quantification and identification of proteins among biological samples using stable isotope methods. Most of the projects he has done recently require multidimensional high performance HPLC systems such as strong-cation exchange chromatography coupled off-line with reversed phase chromatography and mass spectrometry instruments (LC-ESI ion trap and MALDI QqTOF).
	LISA NIKOLAI (Researcher) was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2002 and will complete her M.Sc. in Environmental Analytical Chemistry in 2005 from Dr. Charles Wong's research group at the University of Alberta. Lisa has experience in the extraction, separation and quantification of chiral and achiral pharmaceuticals from environmental water samples and wastewater treatment plant samples. Her analytical chemistry background includes HPLC, LC-MS/MS, GC/MS, solid phase extraction and the chiral separation of small molecular weight pharmaceuticals.
	DAN TZUR (Director of Metabolite Acquisitions) was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. He received a Degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Universidad de Santiago. Currently, Dan is working with Dr. Wishart on the Human Metabolome Project (as a member of the bioinformatics and NMR teams). Over the past thirteen years, he has worked in diverse scientific research settings at the University of Alberta. Dan plays an active role in the curation and validation of the Human Metabolome Database (hmdb.ca). He also manages the acquisition of metabolites and their distribution for analysis.
	ZHIHUI WEN (Graduate Student) received his B.Sc. in 1992 from Wuhan University (China) and his M.Sc. in 2001 from California State University, Los Angeles. As a member of Dr. Li's research group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta, Zhihui is currently working on the development of HPLC-based novel separation methods and on the application of LC-MS for human serum samples.

NMR

	BRIAN SYKES (Principal Investigator) is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta. Dr. Sykes is internationally recognized as one of the pioneers in biomolecular NMR and continues to lead Canada in the development and application of new NMR technologies in biology and biochemistry. After becoming an associate professor at Harvard, Dr. Sykes was recruited to the UofA in 1975. He has published nearly 400 papers and book chapters in NMR spectroscopy, NMR techniques and protein chemistry. He holds numerous honours and awards including a University Professorship (1997), a Canada Research Chair (2001); a Gerhard Herzberg award (1998) and a Steacie Prize (1982). Dr. Sykes is the director of NANUC which houses one of Canada's largest NMR instruments. Dr. Sykes will be involved in characterizing the human metabolome via NMR and in designing and testing software. He will also be responsible for sample facilitation with many academic laboratory clinicians and in liaison work with Varian Inc. and Chenomx Inc.
	GLENN MACINNIS (Research Chemist) obtained a Master of Science degree in organometallic chemistry from the University of Calgary in 2005 and is currently working under Dr. Hans Vogel. Glen has worked as a research assistant and lab technician for several notable chemical companies, such as Nova Chemicals, and has extensive experience in elucidating structures of complex molecules using NMR techniques. Currently, he is working on expanding the Human Metabolome Database to include carbon spectra.
	JESSICA MINIACI (NMR Technician) is currently working as a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Technician under Dr. Brian Sykes. She received a Biological Science diploma specializing in laboratory research and biotechnology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Alberta in April 2005. She has experience using gas and high performance liquid chromatography as well as different spectroscopy techniques. Jessica also has some experience in microbiology and immunology.
	ERIK SAUDE (Graduate Student) is currently working on optimizing NMR acquisition and analysis techniques of metabolites under Dr. Brian Sykes. He received his B.Sc. in Biology and Chemistry from Augustana University in May 2000. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta. Erik helped form the Magnetic Resonance Diagnostics Centre (MRDC) and has worked with numerous researchers at the University of Alberta including Drs. Tom Marrie (pneumonia), Brian Rowe (acute asthmatic patients), and Darryl Adamko (Pediatric Pulmonology).
	RUSTEM SHAYKHUTDINOV (Postdoctoral Fellow) works in the Metabolomics group of Dr. Hans Vogel at the University of Calgary. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Faculty of Physics at Kazan State University, Russia, in 1998. His research interests are in the application of NMR spectroscopy to conformation and conformational dynamic studies of small molecular heterocyclic compounds. Over the last three years he has worked on protein structure determination and protein/peptide interactions using multidimensional NMR spectroscopy in the group of Dr. Feng Ni at the Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council of Canada, in Montreal.
	DAN TZUR (Director of Metabolite Acquisitions) was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. He received a Degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Universidad de Santiago. Currently, Dan is working with Dr. Wishart on the Human Metabolome Project (as a member of the bioinformatics and NMR teams). Over the past thirteen years, he has worked in diverse scientific research settings at the University of Alberta. Dan plays an active role in the curation and validation of the Human Metabolome Database (hmdb.ca). He also manages the acquisition of metabolites and their distribution for analysis.
	PING ZHANG (Research Chemist) obtained her Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the Université de Paris Sud, France and is currently working under Dr. Hans Vogel on expanding the Human Metabolome Database to include carbon spectra. Previously, Ping has spent several years working as a Research Associate with Dr. David R. Bundle in carbohydrate chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta. She synthesized many complex oligosaccharides with interesting chemical and biological properties and NMR was one of her primary tools in the characterization of novel compounds.