Latest Lab News
Dec 31, 2023 - Congratulations to lab members, Michelle Thompson and Anuja Shrestha, for successfully defending their PhDs this year, as well as Jake Gregory for defending his MSc.
Jan 2023 - Congratulations to post-doctoral fellow Kamal Khadka on being appointed Assistant Professor Plant Breeding at the University of Idaho, USA, and to post-doctoral fellow Travis Goron on being appointed as Scientist for Biologicals at Corteva Agriscience, Manitoba, Canada.
June 2020 - Congratulations to post-doctoral fellow Travis Goron and his wife Olivia on the birth of their baby daughter!
July 1, 2020 - Manish Raizada has been named as an Honorary Professor of Agriculture (ESAFE) at Mohammed VI PolyTechnic Institute in Morocco, a new elite university that provides graduate scholarships to students from across Africa
July 15, 2020 - Congratulations to post-doctoral fellow Dr. Tejendra Chapagain on being appointed as Soil Fertility Specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This is a permanent senior scientist position with the Ministry involving research, policy and extension. He will be located in Guelph.
July 1, 2020 - Congratulations to former PhD students Amelie Gaudin and Sameh Soliman on being granted tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at the University of California at Davis (Amelie) and at Sharjah University in the United Arab Emirates (Sameh). Well deserved!
July 1, 2020 - Congratulations to co-supervised PhD student Rachana Devkota on the successful defence of her PhD thesis in Rural Planning and Development!
July 1, 2020 - Congratulations to former Raizada Lab undergraduate researcher Sidra Mohammed for winning the University of Guelph Winegard Medal which is the University's highest undergraduate convocation award!
June, 2020 - Congratulations to PhD student Kamal Khadka on the successful defence of his PhD thesis! He is now Dr. Khadka!
May 1, 2020 - Congratulations to former MSc student Chris Dumigan on winning a highly competitive NSERC Doctoral Scholarship! It is well deserved. Chris is currently a Senior Scientist at BioConsortia in Davis, California.
May 1, 2020 - Congratulations to former undergraduate lab researcher Sophia Watts on winning a competitive NSERC graduate scholarship at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia! It is well deserved.
April 17, 2020 - Congratulations to post-doctoral fellow Travis and his wife on the birth of their new baby!
April 1,2020 - Congratulations to MSc student Jake Gregory on winning an OMAFRA HQP Scholarship and to incoming PhD student Angelica Miraples on winning a Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology
Sept 1, 2019 - Congratulations to post-doctoral fellow Dr. Malinda Thilakarathna on being appointed as an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Plant-Microbe Interactions at the University of Alberta
Sept 1, 2019 - Congratulations to new PhD student Roshan Pudasaini on being awarded Guelph's most prestigious graduate scholarship, The Arrell Scholarship, worth $50,000/year x 4 years!!!
Sept 1, 2019 - Congratulations to former PhD student Walaa Mousa on being appointed as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology at Stockton University in New Jersey, USA. Stockton is a relatively new university that is part of the public university system of New Jersey but is already ranked as one of the top public universities in the U.S. Northeast.
May 1, 2019 - Congratulations to PhD student Michelle Thompson on winning a highly competitive NSERC Doctoral Scholarship. Congratulations Michelle!
Jan 1, 2019 - Congratulations to MSc student Jade Muileboom for winning an OMAFRA HQP Scholarship!
March 24, 2019 - Congratulations to PhD student Omar Hewedy and his wife on the birth of their baby daughter!
March 17, 2017 - Manish Raizada was honored to be selected as a Chair's Choice Plenary Speaker at the 29th Fungal Genetics Conference (Genetics Society of America), held at Asilomar, California. The talk was attended by 900 scientists from around the world.
March 15, 2017 - Congratulations to PhD student Travis Goron on being awarded a prestigious Alexander Graham Bell doctoral scholarship from NSERC. We are proud of you!
Sept 17, 2016 - Congratulations to Walaa Mousa (Raizada Lab PhD student) who is lead author on our paper accepted to the prestigious journal Nature Microbiology (as a full Article). She was assisted by Charles Shearer (MSc student, Raizada lab) and invaluable collaborators. The story is really exciting and will be published shortly:
Mousa WK, Shearer C, Limay-Rios V, Ettinger CL, Eisen JA, Raizada MN (2016) Root hair-endophyte stacking (RHESt) in finger millet creates a physico-chemical barrier to trap the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum. Nature Microbiology (Article, In press for September 26, 2016)
Mousa WK, Shearer C, Limay-Rios V, Ettinger CL, Eisen JA, Raizada MN (2016) Root hair-endophyte stacking (RHESt) in finger millet creates a physico-chemical barrier to trap the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum. Nature Microbiology (Article, In press for September 26, 2016)
Sept 15, 2016 -- Manish Raizada was honored to showcase the lab's research on beneficial microbes with seminar invitations at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, USA, and at South Dakota State University
Sept 15, 2016 - I am pleased to announce that efforts to produce a comprehensive teaching picture-based book for subsistence farmers is complete! It is 190 pages, open access and will be available for free downloads online shortly. Users (e.g. governments, farmer organizations, NGOs, charities) will be able to pick and choose lessons to create their own books and booklets. We are targeting (illiterate) female farmers, hence the picture format. We have created 4 versions of the book, adapted to South Asia, SubSaharan Africa, Latin America and East/Southeast Asia. Manish Raizada is the author and Lisa Smith is the illustrator. Lisa Smith has done a remarkable job and we hope her efforts will benefit large numbers of farmers on every continent in the topics and subtropics where almost 2 billion people belong to smallholder farming families. The book has been supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Canadian Department of Global Affairs from a CIFSRF grant. We were assisted by several invaluable collaborators in Canada and Nepal.
Sept 1, 2016 -- The Raizada Lab welcomes new MSc student Chris Dumigan. We wish him much success as he joins our lab!
April 30, 2016 - Congratulations to Dylan Harding for the successful defence of his MSc thesis.
April 30, 2016 - Congratulations to Walaa Mousa for the successful defence of her PhD thesis and for being awarded a highly competitive NSERC postdoctoral fellowship (for studies in human microbiome interactions at McMaster University, Canada)
April 2, 2016 - Congratulations to post-doc Malinda Thilakarathna and his wife on the birth of their new child. We are very happy for you!
Jan 15, 2016 - Congratulations to Hanan Shehata for the successful defence of her PhD thesis!
Sept 12, 2015 - Congratulations to former Raizada Lab PhD student Sameh Soliman on his appointment as an Assistant Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Dept of Medicinal Chemistry at Sharjah University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- next to Dubai. Sameh is originally from Egypt, and his family wanted to return back to the region. Sharjah is a private university with a rich endowment. We are very proud of Sameh and wish him much success as he starts up his own lab!
February 20, 2016 - Congratulations to Sameh Soliman (PhD student Raizada lab). Our recent paper in Current Biology was selected as the Editor's Choice discovery in Plant Biology by the prestigious, popular scientific magazine, The Scientist:
http://mobile.the-scientist.com/article/45115/fungal-security-force
http://mobile.the-scientist.com/article/45115/fungal-security-force
Aug 12, 2015 - Congratulations to Sameh Soliman (PhD student Raizada Lab) who is the lead author on a paper accepted to the prestigious journal Current Biology. Sameh discovered that a microbe helps to defend plants against pathogens using a novel mechanism. Sameh is now a postdoc at UCLA. We are very proud of him:
Soliman SM, Greenwood JS, Bombarely A, Mueller LA, Tsao R, Mosser DD and Raizada MN (2015) An endophyte constructs fungicide-containing extracellular barriers for its host plant. Current Biology 25, 1-7
Soliman SM, Greenwood JS, Bombarely A, Mueller LA, Tsao R, Mosser DD and Raizada MN (2015) An endophyte constructs fungicide-containing extracellular barriers for its host plant. Current Biology 25, 1-7
Aug 5, 2015 - Congratulations to Raizada Lab PhD student Walaa Mousa for winning FIRST PRIZE for the best student presentation at the American Society of Pharmacognosy 2015 Annual Meeting in Colorado (asp2015.org). There were ~1500 participants and 300 posters, so this is a high honour! We are very proud of her.
June 8, 2015 - Manish Raizada appeared on TV Ontario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin to discuss the science behind GMOs. This is TVO's flagship program with an audience of 100,000 viewers. http://feeds.tvo.org/tvo/TxZN
June 1, 2015 - The Raizada Lab welcomes summer students, Myla Manser, Sara Wyngaarden, Sophia Watts and Jaclyn Clark. We thank you in advance for all your hard work!
June 1, 2015 - Congratulations to Raizada Lab PhD student Travis Goron for winning an NSERC doctoral scholarship. This is highly competitive, and we are very proud of him!
June 1, 2015 - Manish Raizada was selected as the Desi Achiever in Desi News, Canada's #1 South Asian Magazine. He was profiled in the June 2015 issue.
June 1, 2015 - Congratulations to Abdulaziz Aldeghaim and his wife on the birth of their baby boy. We wish the new family much happiness.
June 1, 2015 - Members of the SAKNepal team in the Raizada lab, including Manish Raizada, Kamal Khadka and Tejendra Chapagain, have written a report for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, and sent to ~150 global stakeholders including the UN, to provide guidance on relief efforts to assist farmers in rural Nepal following the earthquake. The report can be found at www.SAKNepal.org or www.SAKGlobal.org
June 1, 2015 - We are very proud of Raizada Lab PhD students Walaa Mousa and Hanan Shehata who gave separate talks at the American Society of Microbiology 2015 General Meeting in New Orleans (gm.asm.org). This was highly competitive, and we are very proud of them for being selected.
March 1, 2015 - Former Raizada Lab PhD student Amelie Gaudin has recently started her own lab as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis. Click here for her new lab homepage.
March 1, 2015 - Congratulations to former Raizada PhD student Christophe Liseron-Monfils who has received a staff scientist position at Bayer CropScience in Ghent, Belgium. Christophe recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with Dr. Doreen Ware in bioinformatics We are very proud of him and wish him well in his new career.
March 1, 2015 - The Raizada Lab welcomes Dr. Tejendra Chapagain to the Lab as a Research Associate and the Canadian SAKNepal Project Coordinator. Dr. Chapagain originates from Nepal, and subsequently received a PhD in international agriculture from the University of Tokyo, and a second PhD in plant science from the University of British Columbia. He is an agronomist and brings a wealth of technical expertise in his discipline as well as experience working with subsistence farmers. His research will be supported by a grant from IDRC.
February 15, 2015 - The Raizada Lab welcomes computer graphics illustrator Lisa Smith to the Lab. Lisa will be creating a picture book of best farming practices, targeted to illiterate women farmers in Nepal and other developing nations. This project is supported by a grant from IDRC.
February 15, 2015 - The Raizada Lab congratulates PhD student Kamal Khadka and his wife on the birth of their daughter. We are so happy for you!
January 1, 2015 - The Raizada Lab welcomes MSc student Paul Cote to the Lab. Paul will be undertaking research to test beneficial microbes isolated from corn on turfgrass. Paul received a BSc degree from the University of Waterloo, and his new research is a collaboration with Dr. Michael Brownbridge at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. Welcome to the Lab, Paul!
December 1, 2014 - The Raizada Lab welcomes Kamal Khadka to the Lab from Nepal as a new PhD student, co-supervised with Prof. Ali Navabi. Kamal brings extensive expertise in cereal breeding in addition to participatory research with subsistence farmers. His new research will be funded by an international development grant from IDRC.
September 1, 2014 - The Raizada Lab welcomes two new MSc students, Charles Shearer and Finlay Small. Both Charles and Finlay completed their undergraduate degrees as Guelph. Charles will be working on a maize endophyte project, while Finlay will attempt to help farmers in Nepal locate dry season forage crops capable of biological nitrogen fixation, as part of an international development grant funded by IDRC.
September 1, 2014 - The Raizada Lab welcomes PhD student and Trillium Scholar Jeffrey Rinne to the Lab. Jeffrey comes from the United States and has a PhD from Princeton University in political science, but more recently has earned degrees in biology, as his work in international development with the World Bank in Latin America peaked his interest in agriculture. We are very proud to welcome Jeffrey to the Lab. Jeffrey will be researching potentially beneficial microbes from banana, one of the world's most important crops for subsistence (and commercial) farmers. He will be co-supervised by Prof. Jay Subramanian.
August 1, 2014 - The Raizada Lab welcomes Dr. Malinda Thilakarathna to the Lab as a post-doctoral fellow. Malinda completed his PhD at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He will be working to improve biological nitrogen fixation for farmers in Nepal, in an international development project funded by IDRC.
July 4, 2014 - The Raizada Lab has been awarded a $2.1 million CIFSRF grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), along with collaborators LI-BIRD and Anamolbiu, to develop and study Sustainable Agriculture Kits (SAKs) for subsistence terrace farmers in Nepal.
July 3, 2014 -- Congratulations to former Raizada Lab PhD student Amelie Gaudin who recently accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professorship at the University of California (Davis) in the Dept of Plant Science. She will start her own lab at UC-Davis in 2015. We are very proud of her!
June 30, 2014 - The Raizada Lab has just been awarded several research grants to conduct research on endophytes or nitrogen biosensors, from: NSERC Discovery (2014-2019), the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (2014-2017), two grants from the Grain Farmers of Ontario (2014-2017), and two grants from OTRF (2014-2016). We are very grateful for the trust placed in the Lab by these funding agencies.
June 25, 2014 - Congratulations to Raizada Lab MSc student Travis Goron who has been awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Graduate Scholarship for 2014-2015.
May 30, 2014 - Thank you to everyone for your good wishes on the birth of Manish & Jackie's daughter Eleanor (named after their hero, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt). Both Jackie and I really appreciate your emails and words of wisdom! The Lab has now had 3 births in the last few months, suggesting that our laboratory microbes are truly "beneficial"!!!
May 1, 2014 - The Raizada Lab is happy to welcome summer research students Finlay Small, Charles Shearer, Emily Hill, Myla Manser and Sophia Watts. We hope you have a productive and happy summer!
March 30, 2014 - Congratulations to Jeffrey Rinne who has been awarded a prestigious Trillium Scholarship to conduct PhD studies with Manish Raizada and Jay Subramanian. The Trillium is Ontario's most prestigious scholarship for international students. Jeffrey is a US Citizen who already has a PhD in political science from Princeton University, after which he helped to coordinate projects for the World Bank. We welcome Jeffrey to the Lab as a Trillium Scholar!
March 1, 2014 - The Raizada Lab welcomes visiting scholar Dr. Eman Khalaf to the Lab from Egypt. Eman will be isolating endophytes (potentially beneficial microbes) from the Cucurbit family. Welcome Dr. Khalaf to the Lab!
Feb 15, 2014 - Congratulations to Raizada Lab PhD student Hanan Shehata and her husband on the birth of their son Ahmed! We wish him good health and happiness!
Jan 30, 2014 - Congratulations to Raizada Lab PhD student Walaa Mousa and her husband on the birth of their daughter, Jena! We wish Jena a long and happy life.
January 1, 2014 - The Raizada Lab welcomes a new MSc student Dylan Harding. Dylan completed his BSc at the University of Guelph. He has been awarded an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture HQP Scholarship to work on endophytes as biocontrol agents. We welcome Dylan to the Lab!
January 1, 2014 - The Lab welcomes MSc student Abdulaziz Aldeghaim to the Lab. Abdulaziz has been awarded a full scholarship from the Government of Saudi Arabia. He will be testing a biosensor technology to help improve biological nitrogen fixation in legumes. Welcome to the Lab!
November 5, 2013 - Manish Raizada has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal PLoS ONe.
November 1, 2013 - A few updates on recent lab Alumni:
•former PhD student Christophe Liseron-Monfils is now a post-doctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in New York with Dr. Doreen Ware working on maize bioinformatics
•former PhD student Sameh Soliman is now a post-doctoral fellow in the Dept of Chemical Engineering at UCLA in Los Angeles
•former PhD student David Johnston Monje is now a Staff Scientist at Symbiota, an endophyte company located on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, MA, USA.
•former PhD student Amelie Gaudin completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and is now a Lecturer and Research Associate at the University of Guelph with Prof. Ralph Martin and Prof. Bill Deen
•former PhD student visitor Joseph Nketiah Berchie defended his PhD in Ghana and is now a Senior Research Scientist at the Crops Research Institute (CSIR) in Kumasi, Ghana
•former Research Associate Steve Chatfield is now a Course Instructor and Research Associate at Carleton University in Ottawa
•former lab technician Jan Brazolot has now retired and we wish her much happiness in her new life
•former lab technician Rosalinda Oro is also enjoying retirement
•former MSc student Blair Nameth is now a staff member at Syngenta Canada, a major seed company
•former MSc student Michael Tessaro is a Quality Control Manager at Sheridan Plant Nurseries in Ontario, and no doubt trying to breed the perfect orchid
•former BSc student researcher Sarah McClymont accepted an offer to conduct PhD studies at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA
•former BEng student researcher Arani Kajenthira completed her PhD as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, and is now a Consultant at FSG in Boston solving important, real world problems
•former computer science student researcher Rohit Makhijani completed his MBA at the Ivey School of Business at Western University, and is now a Management Consultant at RMS in New York, and is close to ruling the world as we know it
•former BSc student researcher and lab technician Stephen Dinka completed an MSc in Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto and is now an Ecologist with Halton Region in Ontario
•former BSc student researcher Adam Morris is now a PhD student in the School of Environmental Sciences at Guelph conducting research on the Arctic marine food web
•former BSc student researcher Natalie DiMeo completed her MSc in the Dept of Environmental Biology at Guelph with Prof. Chris Hall
•former BSc student researcher Michael Pautler recently defended his PhD at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in New York where he worked with Dr. David Jackson
•former PhD student Christophe Liseron-Monfils is now a post-doctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in New York with Dr. Doreen Ware working on maize bioinformatics
•former PhD student Sameh Soliman is now a post-doctoral fellow in the Dept of Chemical Engineering at UCLA in Los Angeles
•former PhD student David Johnston Monje is now a Staff Scientist at Symbiota, an endophyte company located on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, MA, USA.
•former PhD student Amelie Gaudin completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and is now a Lecturer and Research Associate at the University of Guelph with Prof. Ralph Martin and Prof. Bill Deen
•former PhD student visitor Joseph Nketiah Berchie defended his PhD in Ghana and is now a Senior Research Scientist at the Crops Research Institute (CSIR) in Kumasi, Ghana
•former Research Associate Steve Chatfield is now a Course Instructor and Research Associate at Carleton University in Ottawa
•former lab technician Jan Brazolot has now retired and we wish her much happiness in her new life
•former lab technician Rosalinda Oro is also enjoying retirement
•former MSc student Blair Nameth is now a staff member at Syngenta Canada, a major seed company
•former MSc student Michael Tessaro is a Quality Control Manager at Sheridan Plant Nurseries in Ontario, and no doubt trying to breed the perfect orchid
•former BSc student researcher Sarah McClymont accepted an offer to conduct PhD studies at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA
•former BEng student researcher Arani Kajenthira completed her PhD as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, and is now a Consultant at FSG in Boston solving important, real world problems
•former computer science student researcher Rohit Makhijani completed his MBA at the Ivey School of Business at Western University, and is now a Management Consultant at RMS in New York, and is close to ruling the world as we know it
•former BSc student researcher and lab technician Stephen Dinka completed an MSc in Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto and is now an Ecologist with Halton Region in Ontario
•former BSc student researcher Adam Morris is now a PhD student in the School of Environmental Sciences at Guelph conducting research on the Arctic marine food web
•former BSc student researcher Natalie DiMeo completed her MSc in the Dept of Environmental Biology at Guelph with Prof. Chris Hall
•former BSc student researcher Michael Pautler recently defended his PhD at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in New York where he worked with Dr. David Jackson
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