John Rubinstein - Senior Scientist
BSc (Guelph, 1998), PhD (Cambridge/MRC, 2002)
Canada Research Chair in Electron Cryomicroscopy
email: john.rubinstein(at)utoronto.ca
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Following a BSc in Physical Sciences, John moved to the UK for both his PhD and a postdoctoral fellowship with Sir John Walker and Richard Henderson at the Medical Research Council laboratories in Cambridge. He returned to Canada for a second short postdoctoral fellowship at U of T before joining the Molecular Medicine program at SickKids in 2006. He is a Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Rana Abdelaziz - Postdoctoral Fellow
BSc (German University Cairo, 2016, MSc (German University Cairo, 2018)
Dr. rer. nat. (Martin Luther University, 2023)
email: rana.abdelaziz(at)sickkids.ca
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Rana joined the research group in January 2024. She completed her BSc in Pharmacy and MSc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Germany University in Cairo. She then moved to Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, where she completed her Dr. rer. nat. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry with Prof. Peter Imming. During her PhD she spent four months in the lab learning about biochemistry and cryo-EM.
Samir Benlekbir - Cryo-EM facility manager
BSc (Jean Monnet University, 2003), MSc (Jean Monnet University, 2005), PhD (INSA de Lyon, 2009)
email: sb(at)sickkids.ca
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Samir joined the group in June 2009. He holds a BSc in Applied Physics, an MSc in Optics, Imaging and Vision, and a PhD in Materials Science.
Stephanie Bueler - Research Project Coordinator
BSc (McGill, 2002), MSc (McGill, 2006)
email: stephanie.bueler(at)sickkids.ca
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Stephanie joined the research group in January 2006 after completing her MSc in Biochemistry. Stephanie runs the group’s biochemistry laboratory.
Claire Coupland - Postdoctoral Fellow
BSc (University of York, 2016), DPhil (Oxford, 2022)
email: claire.coupland(at)sickkids.ca
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Claire joined the group in December 2022. She holds a BSc and DPhil in Biochemistry, the latter earned for structural studies in the laboratory of Prof. Christian Siebold.
Gautier Courbon - Graduate Student
BSc (McGill, 2019)
email: gautier.courbon(at)gmail.com
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Gautier joined the group in January 2020 after a summer project and a rotation in the laboratory in 2019. He did his BSc in Biochemistry.
Ryan Karimi - Graduate Student
BSc (UBC, 2021)
email: ryan.karimi(at)mail.utoronto.ca
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Ryan obtained his BSc in Physics and Chemistry. He joined the MD/PhD program at the University of Toronto in 2021 and started working part time in the laboratory in January 2023. He stayed in the laboratory as a summer student for the summer of 2023 before joining as a graduate student in September 2023.
Mariia Khamina - Graduate Student
BSc (McMaster, 2021)
MSc (McMaster, 2023)
email: mariia.khamina(at)mail.utoronto.ca
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Mariia completed her HBSc in Biochemistry with a Biomedical Research Specialization and a minor in Chemical Biology at McMaster University. She then obtained an MSc from McMaster University for work done with Prof. Giuseppe Melacini where she used NMR spectroscopy to study protein structure. She rotated in the laboratory in January 2024 before joining the laboratory in April 2024.
Wayne Law - Postdoctoral Fellow
BSc (McMaster, 2017), PhD (Toronto, 2024)
email: wayne.law(at)sickkids.ca
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Wayne completed his BSc in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster University. He then joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto where he did his PhD research with Profs. Deborah Zamble and Voula Kanelis.
Zhijie Li - Cryo-EM Facility Manager
BSc (Wuhan, 2001), MSc (Wuhan, 2004), PhD (Toronto, 2015)
email: zhijie.li(at)sickkids.ca
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Zhijhie joined the cryo-EM facility in 2022. He completed his BSc, MSc, and PhD in Biochemistry. For his PhD he worked with Prof. James Rini using X-ray crystallography and other biophysical tools. As a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Rini he learned how to use cryo-EM and became interested in cryo-EM method development.
Yingke Liang - Graduate Student
BSc (McGill, 2020)
email: yingke.liang(at)mail.utoronto.ca
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Yingke joined the laboratory in September 2020. She did an Honours Biochemistry BSc at McGill.
Karen O'Brien – Administrative Coordinator
Theatre Production (Sheridan College 1995)
Public Administration (Ryerson 2007)
email: karen.obrien(at)sickkids.ca
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Karen joined the group in June 2019 after a career in the arts. She assists with our administrative tasks and provides administrative service to two other groups.
Hanlin Wang - Graduate Student
BSc (UBC, 2020)
email: hanlin.wang(at)mail.utoronto.ca
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Hanlin joined the laboratory in January of 2021. She completed her BSc at The University of British Columbia with a major in Biochemistry and a minor in Chemistry.
Jason Yu - Graduate Student
BSc (Toronto, 2023)
email: jiacheng.yu(at)mail.utoronto.ca
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Jason joined the research group in January 2024. He completed his HBSc at The University of Toronto as a specialist in Biochemistry.
Lab Alumni (PhD and Postdoctoral)
Dr. Yazan Abbas
Postdoctoral Fellow (October 2017 to August 2022). CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship. Currently: Amgen Inc.
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Prof. Lindsay Baker (website)
PhD Candidate (January 2007 to April 2012). NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Currently: Associate Professor at Oxford University, Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery.
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Dr. Sarah Bickers
PhD Candidate (Sept 2018 to April 2024) with Prof. Voula Kanelis. Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, David Farrar Graduate Scholarship in Chemistry.
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Prof. Justin Di Trani (website)
Postdoctoral Fellow (October 2018 to February 2024). CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship: Currently: Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta.
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Dr. Hui Guo
PhD Candidate (January 2016 to April 2022). WP Caven Memorial Fellowship, MBP Excellence Award, OGS International Award, Medical Biophysics PhD Achievement Award 2022. Currently: Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsreid, Germany.
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Dr. Kate Huang
Postdoctoral Fellow (April 2022 to November 2023, jointly with Prof. Lewis Kay). CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship. Currently: Point Biosciences.
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Dr. Jason Koo
Postdoctoral Fellow (December 2012 to December 2015, jointly with Prof. Lynne Howell). Currently: Therapure Biopharma.
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Prof. Wilson Lau (website)
PhD Candidate (September 2006 to December 2011). Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Currently: Associate Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
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Prof. Michael Latham (website)
Postdoctoral Fellow (July 2008 to November 2014, jointly with Prof. Lewis Kay) NSF and CIHR Fellowships. Currently: Associate Professor, University of Minnesota.
Prof. Mohammad Mazhab-Jafari (website)
Postdoctoral Fellow (September 2014 to September 2017). CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship. Currently: Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Associate Professor, University of Toronto.
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Prof. Zev Ripstein (website)
PhD Candidate (January 2015 to October 2020) Postdoctoral Fellow October 2020 to July 2021). CIHR Doctoral Research Award, NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Currently: Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba.
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Dr. Martin Smith
Postdoctoral Fellow (January 2013 to December 2015). CIHR Fellowship. Currently: Ontario Brain Institute.
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Dr. Thamiya Vasanthakumar
PhD Candidate (September 2015 to March 2022). Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Currently: Postdoctoral Fellow, Fred Hutchinson Research Cancer Center, Seattle USA,
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Prof. Yong Zi Tan (website)
Postdoctoral Fellow (August 2019 to June 2021). CIHR Fellowship. Currently: Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore.
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Prof. Jianhua Zhao (website)
PhD Candidate (January 2011 to January 2016). NSERC Scholarship, Medical Biophysics Excellence Award. Currently: Assistant Professor, Sandford Burnham Prebys Institute, California, USA.
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