Personnel
Dr. David Goodlett
Director
Prof. David R. Goodlett has spent his career using mass spectrometry to solve biomedical problems via novel technology and software developments. His Ph.D. training with Prof. Richard B. van Breemen on protein adducts concluded in 1991 and his postdoctoral work with Dr. Richard D. Smith on Native MS and ESI fundamentals in 1993. He has been active in a variety of fields including medicine, oceanography, pharmacy, microbiology, proteomics (including clinical applications), lipidomics, and protein & glycolipid structure-function relationships publishing over 280 papers generating an H-index of 80. His current research interests lie in developing a better understanding of the lipid A structure-activity relationship (SAR) with a goal to elucidate the molecular basis by which lipid A can act as agonist or antagonist on binding to the MD2/TLR4 receptor complex. Having a better understanding of the lipid A SAR will allow more rational design of novel lipid A mimetics that can act as a better vaccine adjuvant than currently used monophosphorylated lipid A and a better anti-septic therapeutic than previously developed, but failed, drug Eritoran.
Currently, Dr. Goodlett is a Professor at the University of Victoria where he holds the Don and Eleanor Rix BC Leadership Chair in Biomedical & Environmental Proteomics and is Director of their Proteomics Centre. Prior to that he was Professor at the Universities of Washington (2004-2012) and Maryland-Baltimore (2013-2020) as well as first Director of Proteomics at the Institute for Systems Biology (2000-2003). From 2012-2016 he was a Finland Distinguished Professor studying pediatric type 1 diabetes during which time they prepared the following video interview noting work – life balance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfOOMNJivvY. For the last dozen years he has been an Editor at Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry for Wiley-Blackwell publishing who have recently produced a 'Meet the Editors' series of interviews found here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rcm.8187 where he answers a series of questions related to how he came into science.
Dr. Goodlett has founded two companies based on his patents: Deurion of Seattle, WA (http://deurion.com) who are developing mass spectrometry ion sources and Pataigin of Baltimore, MD (https://pataigin.com) who are focused on microbial diagnostics. Since 2007 he has been a co-organizer of the Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine summer school (www.msbm.org) held annually in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Recently, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the International Centre for Cancer Vaccine Science (ICCVS) at the University of Gdansk where he is helping his long-time colleague Prof Ted Hupp of Edinburgh University with efforts in neoantigen sequencing. His biological focus on understanding the lipid SAR is derived from a decades long collaboration with Prof Bob Ernst of University of Maryland-Baltimore. He is active on twitter as https://twitter.com/goodlettlab1.
Dr. David Schibli
Associate Director
After graduating from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Science from the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, David went on to obtain his PhD from the University of Calgary in Protein Biochemistry and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Grenoble, France.
Following this, he was a Project Manager at the University of Western Ontario, where established a new high-throughput proteomics facility. David then went on to obtain his MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, with a specialty in Health Sciences. Since then, David worked at the Ontario Genomics Institute, where he managed the progress and financial performance of large-scale research projects. Following his time at OGI, David was the General Manager of BIG Funding Inc. (BFI), a consulting firm that supports companies in accessing government funding programs.
David most recently joined the Uvic-Genome BC Proteomics Centre (PC) as the Associate Director of the Centre in 2015, where he is responsible for the Centre’s operations, administration and finance.
Dr. Jun Han
Lead Scientist - Metabolomics
Dr. Han received his M.S. degree and PhD from China Pharmaceutical University and has 8 years of experience in GLP-compliant analytical method development and validation for regulatory pharmaceutical analysis. Since 2001, Dr. Han received his postdoctoral training at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and Medical University of South Carolina, and has acquired extensive research skills and expertise in proteomics and metabolomics.
Dr. Han joined the UVic-Genone BC Proteomics Centre in February 2007 and is now a senior scientist and the group leader of metabolomics at the Centre. Dr. Han is also an adjunct assistant professor at the Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria. He stays current with new developments in the field of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and plays a key role in technical support and method development of untargeted and targeted metabolomics using diversified LC-MS and MADLI-MS techniques at the Victoria node of The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC).
Since 2009, Dr. Han’s research focus has been on technological development of new UPLC-MRM/MS and UPLC-high-resolution MS methods for high-throughput and full-profile analysis of endogenous metabolites in different metabolic pathways. Dr. Han has published nearly 90 peer-reviewed research and review papers thus far.
Dr. Helena Petrosova
Senior Scientist - MS Imaging
Helena received her MSc and PhD degrees from the Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Her research training comprised fellowships at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, and the University of Toronto. Helena’s training is in molecular biology of bacterial pathogens, with a specific focus on spirochetes. Over the course of her studies, she used comparative genomics and genetic manipulation techniques to explore antibiotic resistance and mechanisms of pathogenicity in these bacteria. Helena joined UVic Genome BC Proteomics centre in 2017 to aid development of Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) assays for protein quantification in mouse tissues.
Presently, Helena utilizes Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI), MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MALDI-MSI) and Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to study bacterial lipids. Lipids form the interface between the bacterial cell and its environment and have various biological activities that are structure dependent. For example, certain structural modifications to lipids confer antibiotic resistance or allow bacteria to escape recognition by the host immune system. Understanding how these structural changes allow bacteria to adapt to the host environment is essential for targeted treatment and prevention of bacterial infections.
Dr. John Burke
PhD, Principle Investigator, Professor (UVic, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology) and Scientific Leader of the UVic-PC HDX core facility
John is originally from Oregon, USA, and received his undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California (Berkeley). He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of California (San Diego) under the supervision of Dr. Edward Dennis. He then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology under the supervision of Dr Roger Williams (funded by EMBO and the British Heart Foundation). In March 2014, he started as an Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria, with promotion to an Associate Professor in 2020 and to a full Professor in 2022. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars in 2021. The laboratory is currently funded by grants from CIHR, NSERC, and CRS, with multiple ongoing collaborations with industry partners.
Dr. Burke’s research program is focused on providing molecular insight into biological processes that apply to human health. Critical to this work has been the design and implementation of a world-leading structural mass spectrometry facility at the University of Victoria, with additional extensive infrastructure for X-ray crystallography, and Cryo Electron Microscopy. The Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange (HDX) services offered through the Burke group, are built on a >20-year history of using this technique with >80 high-impact publications using HDX-MS to study almost all aspects of protein dynamics. Dr. Burke has an extensive collaborative network with both academic, pharma, and biotech researchers all over the world (>30 collaborations in Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa and the USA), and since 2022 he has been providing his HDX services to interested academic and industrial partners through the UVic-PC.
Derek Smith
Lab Manager
Grumpy, temperamental, devastatingly handsome. These are just a few of the ways coworkers describe this invaluable member of our team. Derek is truly a joy to be around and makes it a pleasure to come to work every single day.