Meet the Team

Dr. A S M Zisanur Rahman

Bio: Dr. Rahman is a Postdoctoral Fellow specializing in molecular microbiology, chemical genetics, and advanced computational biology. He leads the lab's computational pipelines development for analyzing complex metagenomic and genome-resolved datasets.

Research Focus: Dr. Rahman's research focuses on multiomics integration with metabolic modeling, and artificial intelligence-driven approaches to reduce enteric methane emissions from ruminant livestock.

Nahidur Rahman

Bio: Nahidur is a PhD student, co-supervised by Dr. Nazim Cicek and Dr. Hooman Derakhshani. He holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree (2021) and a Master’s degree in Microbiology (2023) from Sylhet Agricultural University, Bangladesh.

Research Focus: Nahidur's research is situated within a One Health framework and focuses on understanding and tracking the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the dairy industry through microbiome and genomic data. His work aims to develop comprehensive databases and analytical approaches to support AMR surveillance and risk assessment across animal production systems.

Larissa Scott

Bio: Larissa is an MSc student researching the cattle microbiome and its role in enteric methane emissions. She holds a bachelor's degree in Animal Science and has previous experience working in a veterinary clinic, as well as in food safety and inspection. Outside of research, she spends much of her time with her horse and dog, and unapologetically enjoys winter and snow.

Research Focus: Larissa’s research focuses on characterizing the rumen microbiota and fermentation pathways. Her aim is to identify homoacetogenic bacteria and anti-methanogenic natural products to mitigate enteric methane emissions.

Fatemeh Mohammadian

Bio: Fatemeh is an MSc student studying swine gut microbiome. She earned her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from Ferdowsi University, Iran. She also founded and managed a veterinary clinic and pharmacy in Iran before joining the lab.

Research Focus: Fatemeh's research focuses on the culturing and genomic characterization of swine gut bacteria to uncover antimicrobial biosynthetic potential and identify novel strains with promise as next-generation probiotics and therapeutic agents.

Anindita Roy

Bio: Anindita is an MSc student with background in biotechnology and genetic engineering. She has prior research experience in microbial culture (bacteria, bacteriophages, and cyanobacteria), animal disease models, animal cell culture, and gut inflammation, with a particular focus on probiotic and synbiotic regulation of intestinal inflammation and host immune signaling.

Research Focus: Anindita's research evaluates postbiotics as dietary interventions to improve gut health, immune development, and passive immunity transfer from sows to piglets, with the goal of mitigating post-weaning diarrhea (PWD). Her interests include host–microbiome interactions, mucosal immunity, gut barrier function, immune modulation, and translational strategies to improve health and resilience in intensive swine production systems.

Gary Chan

Bio: Gary previously worked as a Research Assistant at the School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong, where he contributed to projects focused on antimicrobial resistance, the human microbiome, and One Health. He is currently an MSc student in Dr. Derakhshani’s research group and is affiliated with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Research Focus: Gary’s research focuses on the transmission of antimicrobial resistance in Canadian agricultural systems and the development of mitigation strategies.