Staff

Core Staff

BioZone Core Staff manage operations, lab space, programs and strategy, helping the centre operate at its full potential.

Jordan Wosnick
Executive Director

Jordan provides oversight of BioZone operations, including strategic management of funding proposals, facilities and finances, relations with other U of T units, and outreach. With BSc and PhD degrees in organic chemistry (McGill University, MIT), he spent most of his career in industrial R&D in the materials and medical devices sectors, and is a named inventor on over 60 US Patents in those areas. He joined BioZone in 2022.

Endang (Susie) Susilawati
Lab Manager

Susie manages daily lab activities in BioZone, including training, equipment maintenance, safety permits, procurement, onboarding for new students, and other aspects of lab operations. She holds a Master's degree in Crop and Soil Sciences from Michigan State University and was a researcher at the Indonesian Oil Palm Research Institute before joining BioZone in 2009.

Robert Flick
Mass Spectrometry Facility Manager

Rob manages and operates BioZone's Mass Spectrometry Facility, providing experimental support, training, and consulting for researchers using MS in projects both inside and external to BioZone. He holds an MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto, and joined BioZone in 2010.

Nancy Bawa
Biomanufacturing Facility Manager

Nancy manages and operates BioZone's Biomanufacturing Facility, providing experimental support and training to researchers and trainees inside and outside of BioZone. She holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, and joined BioZone in 2016.

BioZone Research Associates, Post-doctoral Fellows, and Technicians

(Senior) Research Associates

- Mona Abo-Hashesh (Mahadevan Group)
  Metabolic engineering of bacterial pathways for improved production of value-added chemicals

- Maryam Foumani (Master Group)
  Technoeconomic analysis of enzyme technologies for biomass utilization

- Torsten Meyer (Allen / De Martini Groups)
  Modelling anaerobic digestion of pulp mill waste

- Camilla Nesbø (Edwards Group)
  Bioinformatic analysis of environmental metagenomes

- Juveria Siddiqui (Diosady Group)
  Micronutrient fortification using microencapsulation technologies

- Courtney Toth (Edwards Group)
  Anaerobic biodegradation of environmental contaminants

- Donya Valikhani (Mahadevan Group)
  Rational enzyme design for bioproduct synthesis

- Thu V. Vuong (Master Group)
  Chemoenzymatic transformation of hemicelluloses

- Ivy Yang (Edwards Group)
  Pathogen monitoring in wastewater

Technicians

Shen Guo (Edwards Group)

Line Lomheim (Edwards Group)

Travis Oakes (Saville Group)

Post-doctoral Researchers

- Alan Froese (Mahadevan Group)
  Enzyme and biosensor design for bioproduct synthesis

- Jay Gordon (Mahadevan Group)
  Biological monitoring tools to clarify sulfur pathway expression in nickel bioleaching processes

- Roy Kim (Lawson Group)
  Microbiome engineering for anaerobic biomanufacturing

- Jinhee Lee (Mahadevan Group)
  Metabolic engineering to produce value-added compounds from C1 chemicals

- Xu Chen (Lawson / Moosavi Groups)
  Machine learning accelerated synthetic microbiome design

- Sofia Lemak (Edwards Group)
  Identification and characterization of plastic-degrading enzymes

- Sofia Pimentel (Edwards Group)
  Biodegradation of chlorinated compounds to support bioremediation strategies at contaminated industrial sites

- Blake Lindner (Lawson / Moosavi Groups)
  Machine learning for predictive biology of fermentation systems

- Mohamed Nasr (Mahadevan Group)
  Metabolic and protein engineering for waste valorization

- Annesha Sengupta (Mahadevan Group)
  Strain engineering using synthetic biology for biomining applications

- Celina Tufvegren (Mahadevan Group)
  Lab and project management, bioremediation of mining waste and biobased production of chemicals

- Katherine Picott (Mahadevan Group)
  Scale-up and piloting of a nickel bioleaching process

- Azadeh Vatandoust (Diosady Group)
  Multi-fortification of salt with vitamins