Chemical Society Seminar: Zeinab Hossenidoust - Putting bacteriophages to work through phage-built platforms

Abstract:

Bacteriophages (bacterial viruses, also known as phages) have seen a resurgence in their application following the emergence of antimicrobial resistant superbugs that pose a serious risk to human health and our food supplies. Phages offer numerous advantages over conventional small molecule antibiotics, most notably highly selective bacteria-killing action and low cyto and immunotoxicity towards humans. What makes these biological nanoparticles especially powerful as bioengineering tools is the diversity in shape and size, self-propagating capacity, geometrical consistency, and ease of surface modifications with atomic precision, in addition to tunable specific recognition. In my talk, I will demonstrate why phages are excellent building blocks for the creation of multifunctional bioactive biomaterials and biointerfaces. I will provide an overview of the challenges and promises of bacteriophages as for bioengineering in the context of the research from my lab on phage-built materials, including phage-built gel materials and bioassays, aimed at addressing challenges in biomedical engineering and food safety.

Bio:

I am an associate professor in chemical and biomedical engineering and the Canada Research Chair in Bacteriophage Bioengineering. I obtained my PhD from McGill University with Dr. Nathalie Tufenkji (Tier 1 CRC in biocolloids) and Dr. Theo van de Ven (Sir William C. Macdonald Chair in Chemistry) and completed my postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany with Dr. Metin Sitti as a CIHR fellow. I obtained over 12 scholarships/fellowships and awards during my doctoral and postdoctoral training. I joined the Chemical Engineering Department at McMaster University in July 2016. I am an associate member of the School of Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Infectious Disease Research, David Braley Centre for Antibiotic Discovery, Farncombe Institute for Digestive Health, and the Centre of Excellence for Protective Equipment and Materials. I am also an associate editor for the Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering. My research program focuses on responding to two global biological threats by using bacteriophages (bacterial viruses), namely antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and airborne viral infections. Technologies developed by my team at McMaster have gained recognition from academia, industry, Health Canada, and public media. For the past 2.5 years, and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have laid the foundation of a unique research platform on bio-aerosols, funded by a CIHR project grant. As part of this research, we collaborate closely with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and served a members of the CSA standard development committee Z94.4.1 for developing the first Canadian standard for respirators. I am also a member of the Canadian Committee on Indoor Air Quality (CCIAQ).