Meet The Team
Current Lab members
The Boss
Dirk Weihrauch
This is your Team Member description. Use this space to write a brief description of this person’s role and responsibilities, or add a short bio.
Ph.D. Student
Baoyue Zhang (Beryl)
Project: Cellular regulation of epithelial ammonia transports
M.Sc. Student
Mina Amiri
Project: Characterization of Tight Junction and Septate Junction complex in the crustacean gill.
M.Sc. student
Holly Whiting
Project: Cellular regulation of the ammonia transport and the transepithelial short circuit current (Isc) in the median midgut of the Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta)
M.Sc. student
Fatiha Rashid Sharmi
Project: Identification of 4 Septate Junction (SJ) genes and their response to 3 environmental stress conditions (salinity, ammonia, and pH) in the local freshwater Northern Crayfish, Faxonius virilis
Lab member
Anna McLeod
Project: Mechanism and cellular regulation of branchial ammonia excretion in the commercially relevant American Lobster, Homarus americanus.
Former Lab Members
B.Sc./M.Sc./Ph.D Student (2011 - 2023)
Dr. Alex R. Quijada-Rodriguez
Thesis title:
Acid-Base Regulation and Physiological Responses to Aquaculture and Global Change Stressors in Euryhaline Crustaceans
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Recipient of NSERC Graduate Fellowship
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Finalist of the William S. Hoar Award (Canadian Society of Zoologists) (2017)
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Nominated for Bioscience Association Manitoba “Most Promising Bioscience Student Award” (2022)
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M.Sc./Ph.D. Student (2015 - 2022)
Dr. Garett J.P. Allen
Thesis title:
Relating the Acid-Base Compensatory Strategies of Brachyuran Crabs to their Environments and Life Histories
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NSERC CGS-M, Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement ($ 6,500$) (2016)
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Nominated as the single nominee by the Depart of Biological Science for the Dean of Graduate Studies Student Achievement Award
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Nominated for the CCUBC Graduate Student Research Prize by the Department of Biological Science, UoM 2023.
Lab member/M.Sc. Student (2019 - 2022)
Mikyla Nash
Thesis title:
Potential Role of a Recently Identified Crustacean Aquaporin in Branchial Ammonia Excretion of the European Green Crab, Carcinus maenas.
Lab member/M.Sc. Student (2019 - 2022)
Maria Sachs
Thesis title:
Characterization of two isoforms of a novel ammonia transporter, LpHIAT1α and LpHIAT1β, in the American horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus.
Ph.D. Student (2017 - 2022)
(Co-supervised with Dr. Peter Eck)
Dr. Haonan Zhouyao
Thesis title:
The functional characterization of two unknown gene: SLCA14 and MFSD14A.
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Recipient of James Gordon Fletcher Ph.D. Fellowship for Research in Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals
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Recipient of Katharine M.S. Middleton Scholarship
B.Sc./M.Sc. Student (2018 - 2021)
Aaron K. Klymasz-Schwarz
Thesis title:
Investigating the metabolism and thermal physiology of Northern Crayfish (Faxonius virilis) exposed to ecologically relevant temperatures found within the central prairies of North America.
Recipient of NSERC Graduate Fellowship
B.Sc. Honours Student (2020- 2021)
Natalie Nash
Thesis title:
Physiological response of the common water flea, Daphnia magna, to environmentally relevant elevations in isolated and combined temperature and ammonia levels.
Recipient of NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (2020)
Ph.D. Student (2011 - 2015)
Visiting Post-doc (2019-2022)
Dr. Sandra Fehsenfeld
Thesis title:
Linking Acid-base balance with nitrogen regulation in the decapod crustacean,
Carcinus maenas
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Recipient of the CCUBC Graduate Student Research Prize (2016)
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Nominated for the Distinguished Dissertation Award by Departmetnt of Biological Sciecnes and Faculty of Science, U of Manitoba (2016)
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Recipient of NSERC-Postdoctoral Fellowship (2019-2022)
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Ph.D. Student (2010 - 2015)
Dr. Aida Adlimogaddam
Thesis title:
Molecular and Physiological Characterization of the Nitrogen Transport System in Caenorhabditis elegans
Summer Students
Holly Simpson (2022)
Project: Expression of AMTs in branchial cilia in Limulus Polyphemus
Molly Crandall (2022)
Project: Osmoregulation in the American horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus.
Joseph Bui (2022)
Project: Identification of tight junction proteins in gills of the green crab
Emily Slice (2022)
Project: Transcriptional response of branchial 4 tight junction proteins in Carcinus maenas after transfer from full strength salinity to brackish water.
Hayley Bowley (2022)
Project: Expression of AMTs in the gills of Horseshoe crabs upon acute exposure to HEA.
Interested in becoming a member of the Crab Lab?
Let's talk!
+1 (204) 474 - 6310