LAB MEMBERS

I currently have four graduate students working in my lab: Drayson Graves, Nik Akkerman, Scott Bachus, and Lauren Fulham, and a co-op student Veronica Carroll. To learn more about their particular research focus, please see below.

Drayson Graves

Adenovirus is an oncogenic virus that infects terminally differentiated human cells of the respiratory tract, eyes, intestines, urinary tract and nervous system. Adenovirus E1A gene products transform primary human and rodent cells to tumorigenic cells by remodeling the infected cells through associating with several cellular proteins and the induction of S-phase.

My focus is RuvBL1, which affects many cellular processes. We have discovered that RuvBL1 affects the interferon pathway and E1A blocks that activity. My objective is to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern this E1A mediated interference. In addition, I have been studying how the highly pathogenic strains of adenovirus are able to repress the immune system during infection and how this contributes to their high virulence.

Nik Akkerman

I am the junior MSc student in the lab, joining Planet Pelka in September 2019 as a full-time graduate student.

My project involves studying the interaction between the transcriptional regulator DREF and E1A. In particular, recent work has shown that DREF may play a role in innate immunity and my project involves understanding how DREF contributes to this and how E1A alters its function in order to enhance virus replication.

Scott Bachus

I am Master's student in the lab. My project involves studying the interactions between known cellular targets of adenovirus 5 E1A and E1A proteins from highly pathogenic adenovirus strains. I am also interested in identifying new interactions between cellular proteins and E1A from the highly pathogenic strains. The last few months I've been working with an industrial partner on projects related to COVID-19.

Lauren Fulham

My project focuses on the characterization of new E1A binding proteins that affect the cell cycle and virus replication.

Past lab members:

Photos Courtesy of J. Davies or Peter Pelka

Sandi Radko - MSc student. Presently at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Dr. Charles Roberts' lab as a research associate.
Richard Jung - Undergraduate. Presently an MD/PhD student at the University of Ottawa, Richard was awarded the highly prestigious Vanier Scholarship in 2017!
Maria Koleva - Undergraduate. Presently an MD student at the University of Manitoba.
Oladunni Olanubi - MSc student. PhD student at the University of Ottawa.
Alennie Lopez - Undergraduate. Presently an MD student at the University of Manitoba.
Braden Arbuckle - Undergraduate. Presently an MD student at the University of Manitoba.
Michael Wu - Undergraduate. Presently a Dentistry student at the University of Manitoba.
David Dai - Undergraduate. Presently a student at McGill University.
Breann Recksidler - Undergraduate. Presently a student at the University of Manitoba.
Stephen Cheng - High-school student. Presently a high-school student.
Jasmine Frost - MSc student. Presently a PhD student at the University of Manitoba.
Rania Hamzeh - Undergraduate. Recently graduated from the University of Manitoba.
Andrea Soriano - MSc student. Presently an MD/PhD student at the University of Manitoba.
Megan Mendez - Lab technician and manager. Current position is a research technician at the National Microbiology Labs in Winnipeg.
Rita Costa - Undergraduate and project student. Presently an MD student at the University of Manitoba.
Derek Fisk - Lab assistant. Presently MD student at the University of Manitoba.
Leandro Crisostomo - PhD graduate.
Harram Memon - MD student at the University of Manitoba.
Teilo Siemens - 4th year student at the University of Manitoba.
Ivona Pujic - 4th year project student at the University of Manitoba.
Caelan Stephanson - MD student at the University of Manitoba.
Jordan Rempel - Co-op student at the University of Manitoba.