About The COBRA Lab

---

Hosna Jabbari is an Associate Professor of computational biology at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta. 

She is interested in finding the underlying mechanisms of human diseases with a transcriptomic lens. She has an extensive background in predicting complex structure of RNA and utilizing it for therapeutics. Her past projects include breast cancer luminal type identification using RNA-seq, identification of optimal oligonucleotide for exon skipping treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and differential gene expression analysis for stem cell to endothelial vs. neuronal cells. She is currently interested in RNA-binding-protein-RNA interaction mechanism and its implication on human diseases, as well as understanding the process of aging.​

Lacey Haddon (PhD) is a research associate in the COBRA Lab. Her main research interests are in analysis of genomics and transcriptomics data to help cure human diseases such as cancer. Lacey joined the COBRA Lab in January 2024. 

Ivan Martell (MSc) is interested in applying machine learning techniques, as well as mathematical modelling, to genetic and epigenetic data. He is completing his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Victoria. The focus of his thesis is predicting change of structure in proteins due to single amino acid mutation; something that is not easily predicted using existing methods.

Alison Ziesel (MSc) is a PhD student at the University of Alberta. She completed her undergraduate degree in molecular genetics at the University of Alberta and then worked in academic research focussing on gene expression and retinal disease. She completed her M.Sc. thesis in the COBRA lab and is continuing with a Ph.D. starting in September 2022. Alison’s interests include epigenetics and metabolomics, with a current focus on changes in those systems observed in healthy and pathological aging.

Mateo Gray (MSc) received his M.Sc. in computer science with a focus on computational biology at the University of Victoria in Summer 2021. Mateo joined the lab in September 2023 as a PhD student. His main interest is in making improved computational tools to make bioinformatics accessible to everyone.

Michael Amiss (MSc)  completed his BSc in biochemistry and math, and MSc in computer science at the University of Victoria. Michael joined the lab as a PhD student in Fall 2023. Michael's focus is on RNA 3D structure prediction.

Finn Archinuk (BSc) holds an undergraduate degree in Microbiology, from the University of Victoria. Courses in his undergrad lead him to machine learning through the astrophysics department. He is now interested in learning to apply machine learning techniques to bioinformatics problems.

Stephani visited the lab from São Paulo, Brazil as a University of Alberta Research Experience (UARE) student over the winter 2024. 

Maria visited the lab from São Paulo, Brazil as a University of Alberta Research Experience (UARE) student over the winter 2024. 

Marwa joined the lab in Summer 2023 as a Mitacs Globalink student from Paris, France. She helped us with our RNA structure-function prediction project.

Lea joined the lab in Summer 2023 as a Mitacs Globalink student from Germany. She helped us with our RNA structure-function prediction and aging projects.

Myfanwy's interests include reading, listening to all genres of music, and rowing on the ocean.

Rob completed his BSc in Computer Science at the University of Victoria. His academic interests lie in the intersection of computer science with other sciences such as linguistics and biology.

Hans received his B.Sc. from the University of Victoria in Computer Science and Psychology. He worked on an interdisciplinary project on High-throughput methods and Neurodegenerative diseases under the guidance of Prof. Jabbari. On top of his studies, Hans also participated in WECs as an executive member helping first-years through their exams. Fun fact about Hans: he used to be a trained vocalist.

Andrew received his undergraduate degree in computer science in his home state at the University of Vermont. His research areas of interest include a wide array of topics within bioinformatics.