Past Members 

Nikki Sivakumar, Clinical Research Assistant

BIO:

Nikki got her bachelor of science honors degree with a major in life sciences at Queen’s University. During her time there, she developed a strong passion for immunology and physiology, specifically in exploring the disease development of certain immunologic conditions. This led her to work at an asthma and allergy clinic, where Nikki got to observe these clinical manifestations in real life. She also applied her passion for research development working as a summer student in the community health sciences department at the University of Calgary, where she got to explore novel interventions that may help improve long-term health outcomes of those suffering from diabetes and food insecurity. Nikki hobbies include swimming, traveling, and spending time with my friends and family. Nikki is now pursuing Med. school in Europe.

Kristen Kalbfleisch

BIO:

Kristen Kalbfleisch was a brillant Lab Manager. She applied her dedication to integrity, HSE and her inquisitive mind to help the Arrieta Lab achieved its expanding research goals.  In 2021, Kristen completed her Occupational Health and Safety Fundamentals certificate through the University of Calgary, and is continuing to pursue further HSE and Project Management certifications. Kristen obtained her B.Sc. in Honors Biology from the University of Waterloo (2011), and returned for post-degree studies and a Teaching Assistant position centered in her passion - disease and microbiology - after spending some time teaching in Ilsan, South Korea.  In 2017, she worked in R&D at Sanofi Pasteur in Toronto, Ontario (through Seneca College) where she helped develop novel characterization methods and the teams first GMP protocol, within Analytical R&D.  

In 2018, Kristen made the difficult, but rewarding decision to move to Calgary, Alberta and now she calls the city - home, applying her love of science to all aspects of her life including gardening, baking, fermenting, staying present in nature and living life to the fullest.  

Time in the Arrieta lab: 2019-FEB2021

Tahsin Ferdous, M.Sc

BIO:

Tahsin Ferdous was a data analyst in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the University of Calgary. In March 2020, she joined Dr. Marie-Claire Arrieta’s lab as a Biostatistician. There, Tahsin Ferdous is applying her expertise to perform statistical analysis of microbiome data and write supporting documents. She graduated from the University of Calgary with a Master of Science in Biostatistics. She received BSc (Hons) and another MSc degree in Statistics from Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh. She has applied statistical packages for simulated health data representing infectious persons in a sequence of hypothetical cities as well as RNA-sequencing data and probiotic data sets.  She has two publications. The name of one publication is “Estimating parameters of two-level individual level models of COVID-19 Epidemic Using Ensemble Learning Classifiers” which is published in Frontiers of Physics. Where she conceived and designed the experiments. She has another publication named : “An overview of RNA-seq data analysis” in the Journal of Biology and Life Science. She got “Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship” and “Research scholarship at University of Calgary” in 2017. Tahsin Ferdous has great enthusiasm for working with microbiome data and in the field of Bioinformatics.

Time in the Arrieta lab: APR2020-DEC2021

Julia Gorospe

BIO:

Julia joined the Arrieta Lab in the summer as a recipient of an Alberta Innovates Summer Studentship. Once she has completed her summer student placement, she worked on an independent thesis project focusing on the effects of preterm infant early nutrition on microbial composition. In the future, Julia hopes to study the connection between nutrition, the microbiome, and autoimmune disorders. 

Time in the Arrieta lab: MAY2020-AUG2021

Kate Plechkova

BIO:

Kate is a Research Assistant who provides technical and clinical research support in the Arrieta lab. She completed her Bachelor of Science at Mount Royal University in Calgary. With her keen interest in microbiology and previous work experience in a specialized immunology diagnostics and research lab at the University of Calgary, Kate plans to make the most of her aspirations and skills to optimize meeting the team’s collaborative microbiome research goals. In addition to lab work, Kate enjoys rollerblading, drawing and hiking with family and friends. 

Time in the Arrieta lab: JAN2021-MAY2021

Jumana Samara, M.D

Website: ResearchGate

BIO:

Jumana graduated from Medical School with a specialization in paediatrics after a residency-training program in Syria. Since 2015, she has been participating in a neonatal perinatal medicine program, taking care of sick newborn infants including preterm and low birth weight babies. She followed additional training in epidemiology at the University of Manitoba (2012-2013), and attended successfully the course of Quality Improvement and Patients Safety at the University of Calgary (2016-2017). One of the greatest challenges in her career is the infectious diseases targeting infants with weakened immune system. Her commitment toward her patients is to provide the best care, even beyond the discharge from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She recently started a Masters degree in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases with Dr. Arrieta. Her project aims to study the gut physiology and microbiome dynamics in preterm infants as well as the role of probiotics and how it contributes to childhood wellbeing.

Time in the Arrieta lab: SEP2017 - FALL 2020

Hana Osman

BIO

Hana is a recent graduate from the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) program at the Cumming School of Medicine with a degree in Biomedical Sciences. She completed her honours thesis in the Arrieta Lab due to her interest in immunology and autoimmune diseases.  

FEEDBACK 

"Through my time in the Arrieta Lab, I was fortunate to experience a sense of community.   I am immensely thankful for their mentorship, patience and love of science that produced an environment saturated with determination, hard work, communication and most importantly for me, an environment that promoted learning. They enabled the lab to be a safe place for me to grow. I was able to be both independent and increase my scholarly inquiry while at the same time, feel like I belonged in this lab community. "

Time in the Arrieta lab: SEP2019 - APR2020

Kaiden Jobin

BIO

Kaiden is a 3rd year Health Sciences student who is majoring in biomedical sciences. Starting in high school, Kaiden began working on a variety of projects in the microbiology field which were focused on bacterial diversity in the Canadian Arctic with a special interest in hydrocarbon degrading bacteria. Using his experience in metagenomics Kaiden is now interested in exploring fungal diversity within the gut microbiome and is specifically interested in the interplay between fungal diversity and the composition of the immune system. Outside of research, Kaiden loves to ski, hike and spend time with his family.

FEEDBACK:

"Surrounding myself with such a positive learning environment has been beneficial for my growth as an undergraduate student. I was able to learn a number of new processes and ways of thinking due to the support all of the lab members provided. There was a great deal of independence given to me and a level of trust I did not expect a lab to provide to an undergrad student. This helped me flourish and learn from my errors. All of the lab members were very supportive and I felt comfortable in the lab due to the positivity everyone showed up with as well as the synergistic nature of the team. I appreciate the opportunity I’ve had to do research with the Arrieta lab as I have benefited a great deal from my time there." 

Time in the Arrieta lab: JUL2018 - APR2019; 2020-2021

Joseph Girgis

BIO:

While working in the Arrieta lab, Joseph was a Senior at St. Francis high school. His interests in microbiology and immunology led him to volunteer at the Arrieta Lab to obtain a greater understanding of the fields. He has now moved to Ireland, joining the Medicine program at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).

FEEDBACK:

"My time at the Arrieta Lab was a remarkable experience in which I had the chance to improve my knowledge upon a wide array of skills including microbiology and immunology techniques, as well as experimental design. Starting in the lab as a high school student, I had limited research experience but I never felt as though that hindered me because of the level of training I received. The lab atmosphere was welcoming, which helped contribute to a productive working environment. The experience I gained during my time in the Arrieta Lab was invaluable, and I am appreciative that I had the opportunity to work with such a fantastic group of people!"

Time in the Arrieta lab: SEP2017 - AUG2018

Shen Yen Tsou

BIO:

Shen Yen is an undergraduate student of Biomedical Science in the BHSc program at the University of Calgary. She completed her honors thesis in the Arrieta lab as a result of her rekindled interest in microbiology and longtime curiosity with atopic disease.

FEEDBACK:

"While I was a part of the Arrieta Lab I truly felt like I was on the frontier of research in the microbiome and asthma. The cooperation between lab members allowed me to get experience in multiple different kinds of projects, and I gained lots of experience in lab techniques in immunology and microbiology. Training was thorough and there was always someone willing to answer my questions. Everyone in lab was respectful and appreciative of each other. The cohesive group really made me feel like a part of a team. I know I will be taking everything I've learned with me into my future studies."

Time in the Arrieta lab: SEP2017 - APR2018