Group Members

Former Post-Doctoral Fellows



Dr. Angelica Gopal

Angelica joined in September 2011, with a M.Sci.(Hons) with an International Study Year in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham (UK). She completed her Ph.D. in the Wiseman group in Winter 2017, characterizing receptor behaviour linked to cell migration. Her postdoctoral research involved investigating 3D immune cell migration via imaging and analysis, and implementing tissue clearing methodologies.

Ph.D. Thesis: New applications of image correlation spectroscopy to reveal mechanisms of cell membrane receptor regulation (2017)


Dr. Sarah Aufmkolk

Dr. Aufmkolk joined us in Fall 2017 in the Department of Chemistry, after completing her Ph.D. in the University of Wuerzburg, Germany, in the Department of Biotechnology and Biophysics. Her projects included implementation of super-resolution techniques on neuronal cultures, in collaboration with Dr. Ed Ruthazer (Montreal Neurological Institute). She is now a Research Associate in Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Vincent Rouger

Dr. Rouger joined us in Fall 2014 in the Department of Chemistry, after completing his Ph.D. in Immunology at Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille Luminy (CIML) on biophotonics. His projects included the building of custom microscopy systems. He completed his postdoctoral studies with us in Winter 2017, and is now the Advanced Imaging Specialist at Nikon.

Dr. Asmahan Abu-Arish

Dr. Abu-Arish joined us in 2009, under the joint supervision of Professor Paul Wiseman and Professor John Hanrahan (Department of Physiology, McGill University). Her research involves characterizing CFTR and its binding partners via live cell imaging and image correlation spectroscopy.


Dr. Sherdeep Singh

Dr. Singh worked for the group from September 2012 to April 2014, co-supervised by Professor Paul Wiseman and Professor Yves De Koninck (Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of Laval, QC). His projects included extending SpIDA into the 2-colour domain.


Dr. Antoine Godin

Antoine joined the group in 2002 as a PhD Student in Physics, where he investigated intensity histogram analysis studies of receptor cluster formation in synapses, which cultivated a new technique in the group: Spatial Intensity Distribution Analysis (SpIDA). He continued working for the group as a postdoctoral fellow from 2010 to 2012, co-supervised by Professor Paul Wiseman and Professor Yves De Koninck (Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of Laval, QC), where he extended his technique into the two colour domain: two-colour SpIDA.

Ph.D. Thesis: Deciphering synaptic receptor distributions, clustering and stoichiometry using spatial intensity distribution analysis (SpIDA) (2011)


Dr. Umakanta Tripathy

Dr. Tripathy worked in the group from 2008 to 2012, in the Department of Physics. His projects included the detection and imaging of malaria by THG emission from hemozoin crystals.


Dr. Benjamin Rappaz

Dr. Rappaz worked in the group from 2008 to 2012, in the Department of Physics. His projects included image correlation studies of netrin-1 receptors using confocal microscopy and FLIM-FRET, in collaboration with Dr. Tim Kennedy (Montreal Neurological Institute).


Dr. Jody Swift

Dr. Swift worked in the group from 2007 to 2011, as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry. Her projects included image correlation studies of receptor trans-activation.


Dr. Colin Heyes

Dr. Heyes worked in the group from 2007 to 2008, in the Department of Physics and his projects explored quantum dot functionalization for image correlation spectroscopy and single molecule studies in cells.


Dr. Katrin Heinze

Dr. Heinze was an Otto Hahn Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics, who worked in the group from 2004 to 2006. Her projects investigated mechanisms of receptor interactions in synapses.

Dr. Santiago Costantino

Dr. Costantino worked in the group from 2003 to 2007, in the Department of Physics. His projects included nonlinear optical lithography for protein patterning.

 

Former Ph.D. Students


Simon Sehayek

Simon joined in September 2013 in the Department of Physics after completing his B.Sc. in Honours Mathematics and Physics (McGill University). His current projects involve analyzing cytoskeletal dynamics using kICS and Super-Resolution Optical Fluctuation Imaging (SOFI) through simulations, and investigating statistics of correlation spectroscopy techniques.

M.Sc. Thesis: Refinements and extensions of correlation techniques applied to fluorescence microscopy (2015)


Alexei Kazarine

Alexei joined in January 2014, after completing his M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Eric Salin (Department of Chemistry, McGill University). He completed his Ph.D. in Winter 2019, where he focused on using multiphoton microscopy in a variety of biomedical applications.

Ph.D. Thesis: Nonlinear Microscopy as a Tool for Histological Examinations (2019)


Jean-François Desjardins

J.F. joined the group in January 2009 in the Department of Physics. He collaborated with neuroscientists (Ruthazer Lab, Montreal Neurological Institute) and chemists (Cosa Lab, McGill University) to develop biophysical models, methods of characterization and statistical tools to study a variety of biological systems. His projects included studies of an intact brain using in-vivo calcium imaging, the characterization of synthetic DNA nanorods, investigating the structure of clustering membrane proteins, and opto-motor behavioural analysis of a subject submitted to visual stimuli.


Elvis Pandzic

Elvis joined the group in 2004 in the Department of Physics, where he researched the mapping of membrane domains with kICS.

Ph.D. Thesis: Measurement of protein transport and confinement in heterogeneous membranes by k-space image correlation spectroscopy (2013)


David Kolin

David joined the group in 2003, as an NSERC Ph.D. student (Department of Chemistry). He pioneered kICS and investigated cellular adhesion on nanopatterned substrates.

Ph.D. Thesis: k-Space Image Correlation Spectroscopy: Theory, Verification, and Applications (2008)


Benedict Herbert

Ben joined the group in 2002 as an NSERC Ph.D. student (Department of Physics). He developed and implemented Spatio-Temporal image correlation spectroscopy (STICS) in living cells.

Ph.D. Thesis: Spatio-Temporal Image Correlation Spectroscopy: Development and Implementation in Living Cells (2006)


Mikhail Sergeev

Mikhail joined the group as an M.Sc. student in the Department of Physics from 2002 to 2004. He stayed on as a Ph.D. student in 2004, working on higher order autocorrelation analysis.

Ph.D. Thesis: Measurement of oligomerization states of membrane proteins via spatial fluorescence intensity fluctuation analysis (2011)
M.Sc. Thesis: High Order Autocorrelation Analysis in Image Correlation Spectroscopy (2004)


Alexia Bachir

Alexia joined the group in 2001 through the Department of Chemistry. She investigated the bio-conjugation of quantum dots for correlation spectroscopy.

Ph.D. Thesis: Characterization of Quantum Dot Blinking and Steric Effects on Fluorescence-Based Biophysical Techniques (2007)


Jonathan Comeau

Jonathan joined the group in 2001, as an NSERC Ph.D. student (Department of Chemistry), where he pioneered Image Cross Correlation Spectroscopy (ICCS), using two photon microscopy in live cell adhesion studies.

Ph.D. Thesis: Measuring Interactions in Cells with Spatial Image Cross-Correlation Spectroscopy: Characterization, Application and Advances (2008)

Nela Durisic

Nela joined the group in 2000, co-supervised by Professor Paul Wiseman and Professor Peter Grutter (Department of Physics, McGill University), where she used AFM and TIRF microscopy for single molecule studies of quantum dots.

Ph.D. Thesis: Can we Understand, Control and Use the Blinking of Quantum Dots in Biological Surroundings? (2009)

 

Former M.Sc. Students


Thomas Mosher

Thomas completed his BS in Physics at Queen's University in 2019 and joined the department of Physics the same fall. His research focused on STICS analysis of images taken using traction force microscopy.



Sebastian Morales

Sebastian joined the group after finishing his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at McGill. His research focused on quantitative analysis of surface protein structures imaged using TIRF microscopy.


David MacFarquhar

David joined the group in September 2018. He had previously completed a BEng in Engineering Materials Physics at Queen's University and currently works for agtech startup Sollum Technologies in Montreal.



Thesis: Multimodal harmonic generation imaging of highly scattering biological tissues(2022)


Ksenia Kolosova

Ksenia joined the group in January 2017, after completing her B.Sc. in Honours Biology (Quantitative Biology option) at McGill University. Her projects involved second harmonic generation imaging of collagen.


Yanning Liu

Yanning joined in September 2016, after completing her B.Sc. in Honours Bio-organic Chemistry (McGill University). Her projects involved using SpIDA to measure the oligomerization of membrane receptors.


John Ross

John joined the group in September 2015, in the Department of Physics, under the joint supervision of Professor Paul Wiseman and Dr. Sabrina Leslie (Department of Physics, McGill University). He graduated with a B.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Queen's University (Ontario, Canada).


Christopher Kicak-Deroy

Chris joined in September 2013 in the Department of Physics. His research involved using STICS and single particle tracking to characterize focal adhesions.

M.Sc. Thesis: Measurement of cellular adhesion and adhesion protein dynamics using tracking paired with spatio-temporal image correlation spectroscopy(2016)


Hugo Brandao

Hugo joined the group as an NSERC M.Sc. student (Department of Physics) after completing his B.Sc. in Honours Physics and Chemistry (McGill). His research includes extending k-space Image Correlation Spectroscopy (kICS) to measure binding kinetics.

M.Sc. Thesis: Statistical accuracy of image correlation spectroscopy: applications to ligand-receptor binding, flow and molecular diffusion (2014)


Laurent Potvin-Trottier

Laurent joined the group as an NSERC M.Sc. student (Department of Physics). He generated a new theoretical framework for ICS, in time-frequency space, to map the dynamics of proteins in living cells.

M.Sc. Thesis: Temporal frequency image correlation techniques: development and characterization (2012)


Dominique Guillet

Dominique joined the group in 2009 via the Deparment of Physics. Her research includes the measurement of vesicle dynamics in living cells using STICS.

M.Sc. Thesis: Spatio-temporal image correlation spectroscopy: Extension to three dimensions and application to biological systems (2012)


Jeremy Schwartzentruber

Jeremy joined the group as an NSERC M.Sc. student (Department of Chemistry) in 2008, where he characterised kICS and investigated dynamics using kICS.

M.Sc. Thesis: k Space Image Correlation Spectroscopy (kICS): Accuracy and Precision, Capabilities and Limitations (2010)


Benoit Vaillancourt

Benoit joined the group in 2006 via the Department of Chemistry, where he researched velocity mapping of flow in living cells.

M.Sc. Thesis: Velocity mapping of fluid flow in living cells (2008)


Chris McQuinn

Chris joined the group in 2005 via the Department of Chemistry. He investigated directing cellular adhesion with protein gradients.

M.Sc. Thesis: Design of a mechanical device for fabricating protein concentration gradients to study cell adhesion (2007)


Jonathan Belisle

Jonathan joined the group as an NSERC M.Sc. student (Department of Physics) in 2004. His research focused on the design and development of a SHG/THG nonlinear microscope set-up.

M.Sc. Thesis: Design and Assembly of a Multimodal Nonlinear Laser Scanning Microscope (2006)


Richard Naud

Richard joined the group via the Department of Physics in 2004, where he researched particle tracking of quantum dot/ receptor complexes in neurons.

M.Sc. Thesis: Particle Tracking with Application to the Trafficking of Synaptic Receptors (2006)