Melius MicroBiomics Inc.
Jenna Hastie is an undergraduate student who has been volunteering at the Gibson Lab since September 2025. She has won the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) and will be continuing working with our team this summer.
Congratulations Jenna!
Dr. Emad Yuzbashian is a postdoctoral fellow who joined our team in fall of 2024. He is excellent at research, especially working with large data ranging from diet, meta-analysis, and bioinformatics. Emad has recently received the Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Congratulations Emad!
Our Master student, Madeline has won the Best Poster Presenter Award at Genome BC’s 2026 Annual Genomics Forum. Her research is focused on studying the impact of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup®, on the microbiome of wildlife animals that are in proximate areas where the herbicide is used for forestry and agricultural purposes. Her research is part of the GROW (Glyphosate Research on forest Organisms and Wildlife health) project, which in collaboration with the Swan River First Nation, the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, the British Columbia Wildlife Federation, and the British Columbia and Alberta Trappers Associations, assessing the effects of glyphosate on wildlife health.
Congrats Madeline for her second best presenter award this year!
Congratulations Dr. Andrea Verdugo-Meza for her publication of her new article titled “Bioengineering a Probiotic to Bloom During Colonic Inflammation Promotes Reliable Efficacy in Translational Models of Colitis”. This research article showcases the potential for the EcN::ttr (BioPersistTM) to ameliorate the symptoms and severity of inflammatory bowel diseases such as colitis.
Visit here to access the full article!
Alyssa Colins is our undergraduate Hounors student who has been working with our PhD-candidate Jessica Josephson to elucidate the impact of colitis, diet, and microbiome on the immune, metabolic, and behavioural profiles. Alyssa has demonstrated deep passion for research and great attention to details since she joined our lab as a volunteer in early 2025. In our recent undergraduate honor’s research poster presentation event at UBC Okanagan, Alyssa won the Best Poster Awards in Biochemistry and the People’s Choice Award. Congratulations Alyssa!
Madeline Frazer joined our team as a master student in September of 2025. She is studying the impact of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup®, on the microbiome of wildlife animals that are in proximate areas where the herbicide is used for forestry and agricultural purposes. Her research is part of the GROW (Glyphosate Research on forest Organisms and Wildlife health) project, which in collaboration with the Swan River First Nation, the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, the British Columbia Wildlife Federation, and the British Columbia and Alberta Trappers Associations, assessing the effects of glyphosate on wildlife health.
Congratulations Madeline for winning the best poster presenter award at the Biology and Biochemistry UBCO Graduate Student Symposium!
Watch Madeline’s video explaining her workflow here!
Congratulations Dr. Andrea Verdugo-Meza for winning an abstract award at the Keystone Symposia 2026 at Banff, Alberta. Andrea also successfully defended her PhD in early December of 2025. The conference was also attended by Dr. Deanna Gibson, Jessica Josephson (PhD candidate), and Dr. Jacqueline Barnett (Gibson Lab alumni) who all shared their research at the Gibson Lab.
Congratulations Dr. Andrea Verdugo-Meza and Helen Chiang for their publication of the perspective article, “Not quite a cure yet: unlocking the unfulfilled promise of live biotherapeutics for disease treatment”. In this paper, we highlighted the shortcomings of probiotics and live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) when intestinal inflammation is involved. While probiotics and LBPs have the potential for health benefits, the inflamed intestine is a harsh environment for these beneficial microbes to thrive, therefore they must be tailored to tolerate such condition to exert their benefits. Our EcN:ttr (BioPersistTM) was bio-engineered in our lab to thrive in the inflamed gut and dampen the inflammation.
Read the full article here!
Can glyphosate affect the health animals? The short answer is yes, but perhaps not in the way you have imagined. New research from our lab reveals that prenatal exposure to glyphosate—the active ingredient in the common herbicide Roundup—has a lasting impact. In our latest study, we found that the offspring of mice exposed to glyphosate showed significant changes in:
While glyphosate has long been considered “safe” for animals, our findings suggest that the effects are most prominent not in those directly exposed, but in their children.
Congratulations to Dr. Jacqueline Barnett on the publication of this vital work!
Read the full study here.
Dr. Deanna Gibson was Awarded the Women in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Award by Crohn’s and Colitis Canada. The Crohn’s and Colitis Canada Grants-in-Aid of Research program is intended to support research on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Funds are dedicated for the support of research which is conducted by qualified investigators with an appointment in not-for-profit research or academic facilities located in Canada. This research program helps to advance prevention, treatments, health policy and to ultimately find cures. For more details, visit here.