WoW Trainees

Annette Alber

WoW PhD worked with Juergen Ehlting, Biology, University of Victoria, and Danielle Werck, CNRS, Strasbourg.

Project – Characterization of the CYP98A gene family in poplar; Plant secondary metabolites fulfill pivotal functions in plant development and chemical ecology.

Annette’s research focused on a gene family (CYP98A) in poplar that is hypothesized to be involved both in lignin biosynthesis and in formation of numerous soluble phenolics. She characterized this gene family in an evolutionary context within the Populus genus, and tried to characterize proposed species-specific differences of individual family members using both in vitro (reverse biochemistry) and in vivo (reverse genetics) approaches.

Annette works for Vetter Pharma, Ravensburg, Germany as Customer Project Manger.  Prior to that she was Manager of the Pharmaceutical Production Team Manager.

Anika Benske

WoW MSc (Sept 2012 – August 2014) worked with Lacey Samuels, Botany Department, and Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories.

For her MSc research during the WoW program, Anike focused on the role of laccases in the patterning of lignification in woody cells. Through the use of an inducible gene expression system that causes ectopic differentiation of tracheary elements, she used microscopic techniques to analyze trafficking patterns of two specific laccase proteins that have been shown to contribute to lignification.

Anika is currently working as a Research Associate at Calyxt, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  After finishing her WoW training, Anika moved back to Wisconsin to work as a Research Technician in the Blumenthal Lab, Department of Biology, Marquette University. She spent 5 years working in plant-based research labs, and the moved to a Drosophila (fruit fly) research lab! This lab uses the model organism Drosophila melanogaster to study epithelial development and function. She claims that the skills she learned doing plant-based research appear to easily translate into flies.

Albert Cairo

WoW Postdoctoral Fellow (January 2010 – February 2012) worked with Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories, and Leonard Foster, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

During his time with WoW, Albert’s main project was exploration of the proteome of plant cell walls, using an Arabidopsis protoplast system. When plant cell walls are enzymatically removed, using fungal hydrolases, the resulting protoplasts can be maintained in appropriate culture medium and will rapidly re-build their cell wall. This process must involve altered responses from a wide range of genetic and physiological players. Albert conducted global analyses of these changes, using microarray-based transcriptional profiling and ms-based proteomics profiling to follow the molecular changes occurring during this cell wall regeneration process.

After the WoW program, Albert joined the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) in the laboratory of Dr. Albert Boronat at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain (June 2012 – September 2013).  He is currently a Postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Karel Riha, studying the molecular players that promote cell cycle progression during meiosis in plants.

Siyu Cheng

WoW MSc (August 2010 – 2015) worked with Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories, and Geoffrey Wasteneys, Botany Department.

During her Masters, Siyu tried to establish the spatial and temporal pattern of MPK20 gene expression and protein accumulation in Arabidopsis, and to characterize the growth and development phenotypes of mpk20, mpk19, mpk18 and higher order loss-of-function mutants (e.g. mpk18/mpk20 or mpk19/mpk20), and of MPK20 gain-of-function (GOF) over-expression (OX) plants, and to identify potential cellular protein targets of MPK20 through yeast two-hybrid screening.

Orpita Das

WoW MSc (Sept 2012 – 2015) worked with Shawn Mansfield, Faculty of Forestry, and Lacey Samuels, Botany Department.

Orpita is continuing her studies at UBC, now doing a MSc in Biotechnology, UBC.  Post WoW, prior to returning to UBC, she worked as a Biological Technician at StemShock, part of Cotyledon Consulting Inc. (March – Nov 2016), building a programmable herbicide platform based on RNA interference.

Caitlin Donnelly

WoW PhD worked with Geoffrey Wasteneys, Botany Department, and Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories.

During her PhD, Caitlin focused on mutations in Arabidopsis which result in altered responses to the drug propyzamide. Treatment with propyzamide causes the wild type root to skew so that it grows to the left, rather than straight down; in mutants, the direction and/or degree of skewing is altered, depending on the mutation in question. These mutations are in tubulin, MOR1 (a microtubule-associated protein), MAP kinase 18, and PHS1 (a MAP kinase phosphatase).  Some of these proteins have been demonstrated to interact with each other (MOR1 and tubulin, MPK18 and PHS1), so she aimed to clarify the interactions between these and other proteins, and to characterize any phenotypic alterations (particularly of the cytoskeleton and the cell wall) in single and double mutant plants. Her research also tried to elucidate the mechanism of action of propyzamide, which is currently unknown.

Ryan Eng

WoW PhD (Sept 2011 – 2015) worked with Geoffrey Wasteneys, Botany Department.

During his graduate work, Ryan studied how microtubules determine cell shape and growth in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Specifically, Ryan looked at how various microtubule-associated proteins are able to regulate microtubule dynamics.

Currently, Ryan is a postdoctoral fellow in developmental and cell biology at the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam, Germany under the guidance of Dr. Arun Sampathkumar. Ryan will be looking at how microtubules and cell wall components determine the shape of pavement cells in Arabidopsis.

Miki Fujita

WoW Postdoctoral Fellow (Oct 2011 – Sept 2013) worked with Geoffrey Wasteneys, Department of Botany, and in the Bioimaging Facility.

Miki’s was hired as a “teaching” postdoctoral fellowship, with the goal to divide time between research in one of the WoW labs and to develop training workshops and student mentoring. She presented several technical training workshops for the WoW Trainees including: Light and Fluorescence Microscopy (Jan 2012), Confocal Microscopy and Advanced Fluorescence (May 2012), Scanning & Transmission Electron Microscopy (Sept 2012) and Light/Fluorescence Microscopy (Jan 2013).

Miki is the Research Manager at the UBC Bioimaging Facility and is also an instructor for UBC Microscopy course (BIOL 448/548). This course was developed based on the Working on Wall’s Bioimaging workshops and contained practical lab sessions for microscopy.

Etienne Grienenberger

WoW Postdoctoral Fellow (September 2009 – July 2013) worked with Carl Douglas (Botany Department).

During his WoW postdoctoral research training, Etienne’s research focused on the following:

Tight transcriptional regulation is needed to coordinate the molecular events leading to secondary cell wall deposition and xylem differentiation. His research focused on the characterization of transcription factors (TFs) which have previously been shown to regulate xylem formation in Arabidopsis.

His particular interests during his time with WoW were:

  • Identification of genes that are primary and secondary targets of these TFs
  • Phenotypic consequences for xylem differentiation and cell wall formation of mis-expression of such TFs
  • Functional comparison of the Arabidopsis TFs with their putative poplar orthologues.

Following his postdoctoral fellowship at UBC, Etienne became an Associate Specialist at the College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley. He has recently (May 2016) been awarded a Marie Curie Research Fellowship for postdoctoral research at the Centre National de la Recherche (CNRS).

Amanda Johnson

WoW MSc (Sept 2011 – 2015) worked with Shawn Mansfield, Department of Wood Science, and Carl Douglas, Botany Department.

During her Masters, Amanda focused on characterizing differences in cell wall traits of native poplar trees, identifying trees in which those traits (and genotypes) most desirable for bioethanol production are being expressed.

She currently works as a doctoral researcher with Dr. Scott Renneckar in the Department of Wood Science at the University of British Columbia.

Anya (Anna) Kreynes

WoW PhD worked with Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories, and Carl Douglas, Botany Department.

Plant cell wall synthesis and dynamic remodeling is a complex and tightly regulated process. Her main project focused on transcriptional regulation of cell wall synthesis in Arabidopsis. MYB75 is a transcription factor that has been shown to be a key modulator of carbon metabolism, positively regulating anthocyanin accumulation and implicated in the control of cell wall synthesis. The ability of MYB75 to regulate its various target genes depends on interactions with other proteins. The aim of her work was to discover these interacting partners and elucidate the impact of their interaction with Myb75 on target gene expression, cell wall synthesis and plant physiology.

Anna is working as an independent consultant in plant biology for startup companies interested in medical Cannabis, in Roberts Creek, BC.


  • Gabriel Levesque-Tremblay

    WoW PhD (Sept. 2009 – April 2014) worked with George Haughn, Botany Department and Shawn Mansfield, Faculty of Forestry.

    During his PhD research, Gabriel studied pectin methyl esterases and its proteinaceous inhibitor in plant seed development.

    Gabriel worked as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Markus Pauly’s laboratory at the Energy Bioscience Institute at UC Berkeley employing a synthetic biology approach to generating different polysaccharides in heterologous systems.

    In 2016, he was hired by the American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE) as an Engineering specialist, concentrating on public relations and project management for one of the Institute’s organization called the Society for Biological Engineering. Recently, he became the Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneuring Excellence (CIEE: http://www.aiche.org/CIEE) supporting the professional development of chemical engineers and scientists working with and in scientific, applied, and professional entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.

    Yuanyuan (Olivia) Liu

    WoW PhD (Sept 2010 – May 2015) worked with Carl Douglas, Botany Department, and Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories.

    Yuanyuan researched the transcription factor network controlling secondary cell wall synthesis in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. During her PhD, she researched the transcriptional regulation of secondary cell wall formation in xylem and interfascicular fiber cells in the Arabidopsis inflorescence stem by investigating novel transcription factor complexes.

    Yuanyuan completed her postdoctoral fellow supported by a Mitacs fellowship, under the co-supervision of George Haughn, Botany Department, UBC and Dr. Jon Page of Anandia Lab Inc.  Then she joined the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Shanghai, China.

    Grant McNair

    WoW PhD (Sept 2009 – Jan 2015) worked with Shawn Mansfield, Faculty of Forestry, and Lacey Samuels, Botany Department.

    During his PhD research, Grant focused on the identification and characterization of genes involved in wood development in poplar. Of particular interest were genes involved in the remodeling of the cell walls and their potential interactions that facilitate the process of xylem formation. Other research interests included miRNAs and their role in plant development, specifically in wood development and disease resistance.

    Grant is currently working as a Product Specialist at Aurora Biomed Inc. in Vancouver, British Columbia, while completing his post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Allison Kermode in the Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.

    Miranda Meents

    WoW PhD worked with Lacey Samuels, Botany Department, and Shawn Mansfield, Faculty of Forestry.

    While the hemicellulose xylan is a major component of plant secondary cell walls, the enzymes involved in its synthesis have only recently been discovered, and xylan synthesis is not fully understood. Miranda used high resolution microscopy to look at synthesis in the Golgi of xylan by glycosyltransferases like IRX10 in an Arabidopsis line transformed with an inducible ‘switch’ that turns on the master transcription factor, VND7. One of the things turned on with VND7 induction is secondary cell wall, and xylan, synthesis. By localizing both the biosynthetic enzyme(s) and their products within the Golgi we hoped to test the cisternal maturation model, which predicts a maturation of products within Golgi stacks as they move from cis to trans, while glycosyltransferases are recycled ‘backward’ to earlier stacks. This component of the cisternal maturation model has never been directly tested, and the outcome of this research has implications for cell biology in all eukaryotes.

    Miranda is currently working as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr. Ljerka Kunst’s lab, Department of Botany, at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.


  • Adam Mulvihill

    WoW MSc (Jan 2014 – Oct 2016) worked with Geoffrey Wasteneys, Botany Department.

    The degree of crystallinity of the cellulose that comprises the cell walls of Arabidopsis has been shown to be affected in the density of microtubules, but this observation does not fully explain the relationship. The addition of xyloglucans to pea stems (Takeda et al 2002) has been shown to inhibit cell elongation and to reduce cellulose crystallinity. By screening and crossing mutant lines, mor1-1 and any1, with xylotransferase mutants, xxt1 and xxt2, we hoped to discover the role of xyloglucan deposition in regulating the crystallinity of the cell wall, either via direct effects or by interaction with microtubule domains during cell expansion.

    Teagen Quilichini

    WoW PhD (April 2009 – April 2014) worked with Carl Douglas and Lacey Samuels in the Botany Department.

    During her graduate work, Teagen studied how plants form the remarkably durable cell wall that encases pollen grains that is fortified by a poorly understood biopolymer called sporopollenin. Using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, she discovered a transport protein required for the movement of sporopollenin to developing pollen grains and combined genetic and live-cell imaging techniques to study its deposition and chemical nature. She hopes her work will enable new studies into this polymer and its potential manipulation.

    Currently, Teagen is a Research Associate at National Research Council Canada (NRC), Saskatoon under the supervision of Dr. Raju Datla. Prior to this position, she was a postdoctoral fellow working in a joint industry-academic position funded by the MITACS Elevate Program – jointly supervised by Dr. Jonathan Page at Anandia Laboratories, Inc. and Dr. Lacey Samuels in the Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia. Her research focused on understanding the cellular context of metabolite production and accumulation within glandular trichomes of Cannabis sativa.

    Melissa Roach

    WoW postdoctoral teaching fellow (July 2012- May 2014) worked with Shawn Mansfield, Faculty of Forestry.

    During her WoW postdoctoral research training, Melissa’s research focused on the genetic control of biomechanical properties in wood, as well as the regulation of carbohydrate partitioning to cell wall biosynthesis and wood biomass production. As a WoW Teaching Post-Doctoral Fellow, she was responsible for providing training workshops on Cell Wall Chemical Analysis to WoW Trainees.

    Her particular interests during her time in the WoW program were to:

      1) study the role(s) of fasciclin-like arabinogalactan proteins in secondary cell wall deposition and g-fibre formation,
      2) identify key components controlling carbohydrate partitioning to wood formation and cell wall development.
      3) use live cell imaging to localize accessory proteins related to cellulose deposition.

    Currently she is Teaching Staff at the University of Alberta, coordinating the “Principles of Ecology” course.

    Mathias Schuetz

    WoW Postdoctoral Fellow (Sept 2009 – Sept 2011) worked with Brian Ellis, , Michael Smith Laboratories and Lacey Samuels, Department of Botany.

    The formation of the plant secondary cell wall is a developmentally regulated and highly coordinated process that is most evident in woody plants like trees. A prominent feature of xylem vessels is a thick secondary cell wall primarily composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and the waterproof polymer lignin. Mathais’s research interests were to dissect key developmental steps regulating xylem formation in Arabidopsis and poplar and include the following:

      1. To understand the role(s) played by ABC transporter proteins which are expressed in during xylem specification and differentiation.
      2. To elucidate mechanisms of monolignol export during secondary cell wall deposition.
      3. To identify novel proteins interacting with key transcription factors which have previously been shown to regulate xylem formation.

    Currently the Vice President Research and Development at Willow Biosciences Inc, in British Columbia.  Prior to this, he was a Faculty Member at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, BC (September 2016 – 2019).

    Rebecca Smith

    WoW PhD (April 2009 – April 2014) worked with Lacey Samuels, Botany Department, and Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories.

    During her PhD research, Rebecca investigated one aspect of lignification, based on the “good neighbour”, or co-operative, model. This model suggests that xylary parenchyma cells surrounding tracheary elements may be contributing to the lignification of tracheary elements in a co-operative manner. Through cell-specific knockdown of lignin biosynthesis using microRNAs, she was able to demonstrate that xylary parenchyma cells are sufficient for the lignification of neighbouring tracheary elements and xylary fibres. Extraxylary fibres, in contrast, had cell autonomous lignification.

    Rebecca is currently working as postdoctoral fellow with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI) in the laboratory of Dr. John Ralph at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research involves introducing novel lignin pathway enzymes into plants to improve cell wall saccharification.

    Lan Tran

    WoW PhD student worked with Juergen Ehlting, Biology, University of Victoria, and Carl Douglas, Botany Department, UBC.

    Poplar is valued for its wood and fiber properties and is an ideal candidate for use as a non-food crop biofuel feedstock. Extensive genomic tools are available for this model tree including an entire sequenced genome and more recently, information on genetic variations at the level of single nucleotide polymorphisms for some natural populations.

    Gaps still remain in our knowledge of the genes and proteins involved in the biosynthesis of secondary cell walls. Lan aims to functionally characterize a suite of genes identified from a genetic association analysis based on secondary cell wall phenotype variation by using a combination of genomic, molecular and reverse genetics tools.

    Allen Yi-Yun Tsai

    WoW Post-doctoral fellow (Jan. 2013 – Jan. 2015) Allen worked with George Haughn, Botany Department and Brian Ellis, Michael Smith Laboratories.

    During his post-doctoral research, Allen developed a protocol to extract and detect proteins found in the Arabidopsis seed coat mucilage, an emerging model for the primary cell wall. Several enzymes that have previously been shown to be required for mucilage extrusion have indeed been identified in mucilage. Interestingly, other proteins found in the mucilage have not been characterized before, and may contribute to mucilage structure in previously unknown ways.

    Allen is currently working as a Post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Shinichiro Sawa at the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University at Kumamoto, Japan. Allen’s research involves the interaction between seed coat mucilage and phytoparasitic nematodes. Allen has received two awards, a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and from the Postdoctoral Fellowship for Oversea Researchers.

    Michelle von Loessl

    WoW MSc worked with Shawn Mansfield, Department of Wood Science and Lacey Samuels, Department of Botany.

    Michelle’s graduate research project is to identify the gene(s) controlling the production of p-hydroxybenzoate monolignol transferases. These are responsible for generating unique ester groups on the periphery of lignin S-units found in poplar, palms and willow, although focused on poplar. Mis-regulation of this gene could ultimately allow the production of lignin which is easier to process industrially.

    Michelle is currently teaching biology in Switzerland.


  • Shumin Wang

    WoW PhD worked with Carl Douglas, Botany Department, and Shawn Mansfield, Faculty of Forestry

    While many transcription factors involved in regulation of secondary cell wall synthesis in Arabidopsis and poplar have been characterized, large gaps remain in our knowledge of the suite of genes and proteins required for secondary wall formation. Shumin studied the functions of some new candidate genes affecting secondary wall chemistry, which we identified from poplar genomics analyses. In addition, since observing that some Ovate Family Proteins (OFP) can form a functional complex with KNAT7 to regulate aspects of secondary cell wall formation, Shumin used genetic screens to identify possible suppressors of the OFP4 over-expression phenotype (growth and cell wall characteristics).

    Yoshi Watanabe

    WoW MSc student worked with Lacey Samuels, Botany Department and Shawn Mansfield, Faculty of Forestry

    Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer in the world and the main component of plant cell walls. The overall goal is to understand how plant cells synthesize cellulose during secondary cell wall formation by studying the cellulose synthase (CesA) enzymes. In tracheary cells of Arabidopsis thaliana, the secondary cell wall is laid down by CesAs in discrete regions of the cell wall, resulting in spiral or annular wall thickenings. CesA complexes are presumably restricted to the part of the cell membrane adjacent to the thickenings, but there are no obvious constraints on their movement within the fluid cell membrane.

    Through use of an inducible gene expression system that causes constitutive differentiation of all cells towards a tracheary fate, combined with fluorescently-tagged CesA proteins, they hope to directly observe the movement of secondary cell wall CesAs as they synthesize and deposit secondary cell wall cellulose, by employing various microscopy techniques. All this to identify and describe the various factors that control cellulose deposition in the secondary cell wall.

    Yosichiro is now working as a Assistant Professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan.