Current Members



COREY NISLOW (Professor)

cn Dr. Corey Nislow completed a bachelors in developmental biology at New College, Florida and Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology at the University of Colorado. He is a co-founder and director of the sequencing bioinformatics consortium, and advisor to the advanced research computing group all at University of British Columbia. He is a co-founder of Genetic Networks LLC. He has served as a senior scientist in two biotechnology companies (MJ Research and Cytokinetics Inc.) in the Bay Area, and at Stanford University. He was also an associate professor at the University of Toronto and director of the Donnelly sequencing center. Dr. Nislow has been involved in a few notable scientific projects; cloning the first human mitotic kinesin, identifying the founding member of the set family of chromatin modifiers, producing the first genome-wide map of nucleosome occupancy in an organism, working towards precision drug therapy in the community pharmacy, and collaborating with NASA to assess effects of cosmic radiation and microgravity. He has >190 peer-reviewed publications and 11 US patents.
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GURI GIAEVER (Professor)

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Dr. Guri Giaever completed a bachelor of science in electrical engineering at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in biophysics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was also a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow, a senior genome scientist at the Stanford Genome Technology Center in Palo Alto, California. In that role, Dr. Giaever started the HIP-HOP chemogenomics laboratory. Prior to joining the University of British Columbia, Dr. Giaever was an associate professor and Tier II CRC chair in chemical biology at the Donnelly Centre at the University of Toronto. Her teaching areas of interest include drug discovery, genetics, medicinal chemistry, and functional genomics. She has contributed to 140 peer-reviewed publications and 2 US patents.
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MARJAN BARAZANDEH (Research Associate)

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I was trained as an evolutionary molecular biologist in my PhD at the University of Alberta, Rich Palmer’s lab, where I combined my undergraduate and master’s trainings as a marine biologist with my love and enthusiasm towards genetics to study mating system and population genetics of barnacles, one of Darwin’s favourite animals. Then, I joined Tim Hughes lab at the University of Toronto as a postdoctoral fellow to study the mechanisms of gene regulation and co-evolution of C2H2 transcription factors and repeat elements in the genomes of different species. In the GGCN lab, I am studying how different factors such as pharmaceutical drugs and cosmic radiation affect the gene expression and genomic interactions in model organisms. When not doing science, I bike and hike, watch movies, read books, and hang out with family and friends.
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NOOPUR SINGH (Post-Doc)

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I have masters in Immunology (AIVI, India, 2012-2014) with molecular neurovirology research experience from Dr. Anirban Basu’s lab (NBRC, India, 2014-2016), where I studied interaction of neurons with JEV virus. I later combined my fascination for CNS and immune cells to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroimmunology from Dr. Luc Vallières’s lab (Université Laval, 2016-2021), where I examined mechanism of recruitment and activation of myeloid antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS). I was introduced to single-cell biology through scRNAseq of APCs as part of my thesis work and became interested in investigating immune cells at individual scale. I joined GGCN lab in 2021 as MITACS postdoctoral research fellow with Amgen Inc. BC as partner organization. Here, my work is to facilitate use of flow-cytometry, microencapsulation, and single-cell screening devices to improve antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) enrichment. This will enable discovery of rare ASC clones against challenging membrane protein targets faster and more efficient. Apart from lab, I serve as board member of CREB, UBC and practice Bharatnatyam, play badminton, swim, hike, and explore my interest in literature.
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HAMID KIAN GAIKANI (PhD Candidate)

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I was trained as a chemist in my undergrad and Master's at the University of Tehran and then became interested in biology. I joined the GGCN lab in January 2020 where I leverage systems and molecular biology to study yeast's genome interaction with foreign genes from other organisms. I have also been involved in our Artemis I project in which we sent baker's yeast to the moon in order to study cell physiology in space. Besides my primary project, I am highly interested in synthetic lethality and drug combination screening. When not doing science, I enjoy sports, books, podcasts, and politics!
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DIVYA KRITI (PhD Candidate)

mb My training in the fields of genomics and bioinformatics started at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India, where I worked on designing inhibitor molecules as drugs against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. I have also worked as a systems engineer to further my understanding of various aspects of computing and application development. Next, I did M.Sc. in bioinformatics and computational biology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I worked on the Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of kinesin motor proteins. Plus, I interned with the Sequencing Core to perform data analysis for exome sequencing, RNA sequencing, and DNA methylation studies. After graduation, I moved to New York to work as a bioinformatician in Dr. Harm van Bakel’s lab. My work involved analyzing data generated from the application of novel genomic technologies to problems in infectious diseases. In 2020, I moved to Vancouver to join the GGCN Lab at UBC to pursue a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Here, I study the genetics of variable drug response and aim to pharmacogenetically assess the contribution of these variants in human drug targets to drug exposure. When not in lab, I play tennis, swim, ice skate and like to do some pottery.
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MINA KHOSHNOODI (PhD Candidate)

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I received my BSc and MSc from the University of Tehran and the Royan institute in Iran, respectively. Then, I joined the GGCN lab in September 2020. My research is focused on 3D cell culture by taking the mammalian cells for spin! We have a new smaller version of the Rotating Wall Vessel (RWV), called Spinpod, which simulates low-shear modeled microgravity. Our goal is to make spheroids from different cell lines using Spinpod and, investigate the effect of low-shear modeled microgravity on gene expression. I love cooking and trying new foods! When not in the lab, I usually hike and bike around Vancouver, but not in rainy days!
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RUTUJA PATTANSHETTI (Master's Student)

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I am currently a master’s student in Genome Science and Technology. I first joined the GGCN lab as a co-op student in 2020, after which I went on to complete my undergrad honors project here as well. Currently I am being co-supervised by Dr. Nislow and Dr. Measday and the focus of my research is Ty-1 retrotransposons in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. When not in the lab, I like to sing, binge-watch TV shows and draw!
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BANAFSHEH TIGHSAZZADEH (Master's Student)

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I received my BSc in biology from Isfahan University in Iran. Currently, I’m a Masters' student in Pharmaceutical Sciences, pursuing my enthusiasm for genomics and biochemistry in the GGCN chemogenomics lab. My research focuses on single cell variation response to drugs to investigate how genetically identical yeast cells respond differently to drugs at the DNA, transcription, and translation level. Our goal is to establish a baseline, by creating a collection of barcoded genetically identical yeast cells, to address fundamental questions about the role of non-genomic factors affecting various responses to drugs and ultimately other environmental stressors.
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Alumni


Imogen Porter | Co-op student, 2021-2023 | LinkedIn
Joseph Ogbede | Ph.D. student, 2017-2022 | LinkedIn
Eleanor Campbell | Co-op student, 2021-2023 | LinkedIn
Credo Casmil | Co-op student 2020-2022 | LinkedIn
Kipling NG | Co-op student, 2020-2021 | LinkedIn
Sam Breaux | Master student, 2018-2021 | ORCID
Nicolas Coutin | Ph.D. student, 2016-2020 | ORCID
Angelo Lanzilotto | MITACS Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2019 | LinkedIn




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