Holyoak Lab for Structural Enzymology

Dr. Fatma Mohammed

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Fatma completed a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and an M.Sc. in Biomedical Chemistry in Egypt. In her M.Sc. thesis, she synthesized 30 novel peptide derivatives, characterized them using spectroscopic analysis (IR, proton NMR, mass spectometry), and investigated their anti-cancer activities on cell lines using growth inhibition assays. She completed her Ph.D. in the Holyoak Lab, where she studied the function and inhibition of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2.

Anna Kandias

Ph.D. Candidate

Anna earned her B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Waterloo. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Holyoak Lab studying a family of uncharacterized enzymes produced from species in the Bacteroides genus to understand their role in the gut microbiome.

Olivia Roscow

Ph.D. Student

Olivia earned a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology at Vancouver Island University before completing an M.Sc. at the University of Guelph. They then transitioned to working as a Lab Manager/Research Technician before beginning their Ph.D. in the Holyoak lab, where they structurally and functionally characterize a novel group of previously misclassified antibody proteases.

Hannah Vujovic

Ph.D. Student

Hannah earned their BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Guelph and travelled abroad to complete their MSc in Oncology from the University of Nottingham. As a PhD student in the Holyoak lab, Hannah is investigating the role that the unusually high cysteine content of the SARS CoV-2 main protease plays in the enzymes interactions with various inhibitors

Felix Tham

M.Sc. Student (joint with Dr. Andrew Doxey)

Marie Babineau

M.Sc. Student

Marie earned her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa. She is currently a M.Sc. student in the Holyoak Lab studying the structure-function relationship of a family of uncharacterized enzymes primarily produced from species in the Legionella genus.

Andrew Giorgi

M.Sc. Student

Sophia Goupinets

Undergraduate Student

Sophia is pursuing a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Biochemistry. She is currently completing her undergraduate thesis in the Holyoak Lab, where her research focuses on understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 main protease’s structure affects its function.

Cassidy McInnis

Undergraduate Student

Cassidy is pursuing a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Psychology at the University of Waterloo. She is currently completing her undergraduate thesis in the Holyoak Lab, where her research aims to inform antifungal development by studying how various inhibitors interact with Candida albicans saccharopine dehydrogenase (CaSDH).

Dr. Carol Tanner

Research Associate (joint with Dr. Gary Dmitrienko)

Dr. Tanner’s work as a part of the Dmitrienko group aims to address the ongoing concern of antimicrobial resistance through testing novel antibiotics, inhibitors of resistance enzymes, and improvement of current assay methods and reagents. Her focus is on combating carbapenem resistance in Gram-negative bacteria caused by the expression of serine- and metallo-β-lactamases with broad substrate specificity.