the TAI lab
QuadraIsland

the TAI lab

at the University of Western Ontario

Citizens of the Tai lab

Vera Tai
Dr. Vera Tai - Assistant Professor and Principle Investigator

I am fascinated by the diversity of microorganisms and the dependence of ecosystems on microbial processes. My expertise is in marine microbial ecology, and my research has focused on primary producers, including the biogeography of cyanobacteria and the diversity of viruses infecting harmful bloom forming phytoplankton. My research program has expanded to understanding trophic interactions of the lower food web, particularly protist symbionts of zooplankton, and microbial symbiosis in insect guts. I also have collaborations investigating the effects of climate change on peat bogs and the ecotoxicology of new chemical coatings to prevent corrosion. In my research, I specialize in developing molecular, genomics, metabarcoding, and bioinformatic methods to elucidate the biology and ecology of environmental microbes.

Graduate Students

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Paul Wan

I am currently pursuing my MSc degree. My research focuses on examining the dynamic changes of microbes in the soil microbiome within ginseng gardens over time. Outside of my academic pursuits, I have a keen interest in visiting plant nurseries, driven by my personal passion for collecting various plant species, when I need to unwind after a long day of work.

Cristina_2023
Cristina Turcu

I graduated from Western in 2022 with a B.Sc. in Biology and Genetics, and I am very excited to begin the MSc in collaboration with Dr. Tai and Dr. Lindo. I developed an interest in the effect of climate change on soils through plant, microbiology, and genetic courses I took during undergrad, and personal interest in agriculture and crop production. I also had the opportunity to do computational work using R, UNIX and Python to analyze data from microarrays, made databases for bacteria, and built primers, as a volunteer. In the fall of 2022 I joined the lab to work on a project which involves examining microbial community composition and biomass between ambient and experimentally warmed peatland plots. With my research I hope to capture a snapshot of changes in microbial dynamics in response to experimental warming, and in doing so improve global models by providing baseline estimates of how carbon cycles may change in peatlands under climate change conditions.

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Richard Nguyen

Richard grew up in Toronto and completed his B.Sc in Biology at TMU. He is currently studying the effects of microbial-influenced corrosion on mild steel. Outside of biology, Richard enjoys keeping up with the latest tech, hiking, and being immeasurably disappointed over the Leafs.

Molecular biology in the field
The Tai lab is currently recruiting graduate students.

If you are motivated by microbial ecology, diversity and evolution, genomics, or bioinformatics, this could be the lab for you!

Visit our Research page to learn about current projects and contact Dr. Tai with your CV and university transcript.

Current Undergraduate Students

Jessika Noenchen, Honour's thesis student, co-supervised with Ed Topp, 2022-2023

Tai lab alumni

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Liam Brown, MSc

Co-supervised with Ed Topp, Liam's research used metagenomics to examine the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements in agricultural soils exposed to antibiotic pollution. Currently a Bioinformatician with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

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Rosie Savage, MSc

Rosie's research focused on the use of DNA-based methods to evaluate the diversity and distribution of protist parasites in zooplankton populations. Now a Marine Genomics Lab Technician at the Hakai Institute.

Past Undergraduate Students

Filtering apparatus

Sarah Gowanlock, Honour's thesis student, co-supervised with Jessica Prodger, 2021-2022

Mikhail Salnikov, Work-study student, co-supervised with Ryan Troyer, 2021-2022

Andrew Metcalfe, Honour's thesis student, 2020-2021

Manveer Sangha, Honour's thesis student, 2020-2021

Jaquline Nathaniel, Honour's thesis student, 2020-2021

Alexandra Hicks, Honour's thesis student, 2019-2020

Irina Todoran, Honour's thesis student, 2019-2020

Alexandra Ferrara, Honour's thesis student, 2017-2019

Vivian Ng, Honour's thesis student, 2017-2018

Jonathan Wang, volunteer, 2018