Nora defended her MSc thesis, “Intraspecies Antagonistic Interactions Driven by the Type VI Secretion System in Vibrio cholerae,” from the comfort of her own home. As the defence was remotely done in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people from all around the world attended her public seminar. This was a nice surprise, and replaced the fact she was unable to bake her science-themed cookies she would have shared during an in-person defence.
Congrats, Nora!
Nora’s defence seminar via Zoom.
Our morning defence resulted in a MSc degree by lunchtime. Congrats on your successful thesis defence on “Bacterial Taxonomy in the Genomic Era”, Kevin!
Yann introducing Kevin before his seminar.
The entire lab attended the 2019 International Vibrio conference hosted at McGill University, in Quebec. Despite it being in the middle of winter, the weather was much nicer than back in Edmonton.
Yann was involved in the local organization committee for the meeting. Kevin and Tareq showcased posters on “Establishing a core genome multilocus sequence typing scheme for Vibrio cholerae in the epidemiology of cholera outbreaks” and “Intra-species diversity in geographically distinct V. cholerae populations,” respectively. Nora presented a talk on “Horizontally transferred type VI secretion systems effector-immunity gene arrays determine life and death in a diverse Vibrio cholerae population”. Both Nora and Kevin’s submissions were presented during the sessions sponsored by the Canadian Society of Microbiology. The entire lab enjoyed meeting new people, seeing familiar faces in the group, and exchanging ideas in the Vibrio field.
Attendees from the 2019 Vibrio conference. Photo credit: Cyrielle Noël.
Tania started her PhD journey in September 2012, and successfully defended her thesis work, “Quantitative evaluation of environmental Vibrio cholerae population dynamics over temporal and spatial scales” today. She will now be working as a Research Associate in Dr. Nicholas Ashbolt’s lab (Department of Public Health) here at the University of Alberta. Congrats, Tania!
Fabini, who joined the Boucher lab in September 2012, has successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Taxonomy of bacteria in the genomic era." After publishing 11 authored and co-authored papers (plus 4 more in the pipeline), he is off to be a Postdoc in the labs of Dr. Dominic Sauvageau (Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering) and Dr. Lisa Stein (Department of Biological Sciences) at the University of Alberta. Congrats, Fabini!
After almost five years to the day, Paul successfully defended his thesis "Population dynamics of Vibrio cholerae and its close relative Vibrio metoecus in an aquatic ecosystem" and is now just a few thesis edits away from officially becoming a doctor! Paul was Yan's first grad student and is moving on to do a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Howard Ochman at the University of Texas at Austin. For the time being, he will still remain in Edmonton over the summer to wrap up various projects from his Ph.D.
Congrats Paul!
The Integrated Microbial Biodiversity (IMB) Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) held its annual conference for members (and their students) at the Intercontinental Hotel, Toronto, Ontario on June 1-4, 2016. The conference was remarkable, with amazing talks from distinguished scientists from different parts of the world, lively scientific discussions, and sharing of innovative ideas.
Yan was accompanied by Tareq this year. Yan gave a talk entitled "Relatives of Vibrio cholerae pandemic strains can be found in non-endemic areas using a novel culture-independent method," and Tareq presented a poster of his current work entitled "The elusive descendants of the pandemic Vibrio cholerae ancestor: a diverse and dangerous bunch."
Toronto skyline
Greetings from Roscoff!
The VIBRIO2016 Conference concluded today. This conference is the biggest gathering of scientists with one thing in common – their love for vibrios. Current researches on Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio fischeri, and other vibrios were presented. Great French wine and Vibrio-free seafood were also very abundant at the conference.
Yan presented a talk about work in the lab on the population structure of natural populations of V. cholerae. Fabini's poster presentation was on a newly characterized Vibrio species, Vibrio cidicii, work he and Yan did with collaborators from the University of Alberta, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC... cidicii. Get it?).
The conference was organized by Dr. Frédérique Le Roux and her lab team from the Station Biologique Roscoff. VIBRIO2017 will (possibly) be held in Chicago, USA.
Vibrio2016 attendees
The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) held its annual conference for members (and their students) of the Integrated Microbial Biodiversity (IMB) Program at the Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort & Spa, Victoria, British Columbia on May 27-29, 2015.
Yan was accompanied by Paul. Yan gave a talk entitled "Interspecies genetic interaction in bacteria," and Paul presented a poster of his current work entitled "Ecological differentiation of Vibrio cholerae clonal complexes."
Tania will present her current work at the seventh installment of the Bacterial Pathogens Club (BacPac) meeting for the 2014/2015 season.
BacPac is held every first Thursday of the month from (except January) during the fall and winter terms. It is organized by Dr. Stefan Pukatzki (Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology).
