News - Emery Lab

Recent Publications

The Emery lab's research centers around growth regulating molecules that are known to act as hormones in plants. Some of our work focuses on how those hormones change growth and development in plants and the practical impacts that can result – like increasing seed yields of important crops. In addition, over the last several years, we have teamed up with other Trent labs and discovered that those same molecules exist in many other forms of life including: algae (Euglena), fungi (Ustilago), bacteria (methylotrophs), protists (Dictyostelium, Giardia), insects (many), mammals (dogs) and even human cell lines. It is a mystery why these non-plant systems contain plant hormones and our current work seeks to understand their role in communications among organisms.

Read some of our latest publications here, and see a full publication history below.

Molecules, Cells & Systems Research Symposium

The life sciences are a broad grouping of disciplines that study how organisms function. All organisms, whether unicellular (e.g., bacteria) or multicellular (e.g., humans), require fundamental building blocks. Trent University has a wealth of expertise in various disciplines within the life sciences including cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, developmental biology, physiology, psychology, and neuroscience. To exploit this competitive advantage, the Molecules, Cells & Systems (MCS) Research Group brings together researchers from the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Forensic Science, Kinesiology, and Psychology who work together to apply the Molecules to Systems Approach in research.

At the 1st Annual MCS Research Symposium, the Emery Lab brought home two best talk awards!

International Activity

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Zeynab Azimychetabi for her achievement in being awarded the Mitacs Globalink Research Award (GRA). Zeynab will be travelling to Germany to conduct a research internship and advanced training program at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. During her time in Europe, Zeynab will be working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sarah E. O'Connor, a globally recognized expert in the field of medicinal plants, and a recent recipient of the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Preis for fundamental discoveries in plant natural product biosynthesis.

Read more about Zeynab here.

PhD Candidate Zeynab Azimychetabi in Jena, Germany (2023).

PhD Candidate Emma Kaszecki in Hawaii (2023).

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Emma Kaszecki for a successful trip to Hawaii in 2023 to present her poster "Impact of antibiotics on the growth and cadmium tolerance of a Euglena mutabilis co-culture with natural fungal and bacterial partners" at the Algal Biomass, Biofuels, and Bioproducts international conference. This work highlighted important industrial applications for algal technology, and suggested means for improving implementation and optimization. This project, which is now in preprint, precipitated a new collaboration project between the Emery Laboratory, the Saville Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, with assistance from the Euglena International Network, to sequence the large and complex genome of Euglena.

Access the article preprint here: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3428948/v1

Lab News

July 2022 - Three new students in the Sustainable Guyana Program conduct their research in the Emery Lab to better understand traditional medicinal plants! Read more about M.Sc. student, Malaika Persaud, research here, and Ph.D. student, Ewart Smith, here.

June 2022 - Vedanti Ghatwala, M.Sc. student in the Emery Lab won a prize for the best poster entitled: "Insights into the role of plant growth-regulating cytokinins in the protozoan parasite Giardia intestinalis" at the 'Annual Montreal Parasitology Symposium' - AMPS 2022 in Montreal.
Congratulations, Vedanti!

April 2022 - Dr. Ainsely Lewis and Ph.D. student, Daniel Palberg joined the elite group of Trent Luminaries! Read here how their work on plant beneficial bacteria can help survive the next natural disaster!

April 2022 - Another paper from the Emery Lab was chosen as Editor's Choice Articles for its high quality and high amount of downloads. Find the article discussing The Hulks and the Deadpools of the Cytokinin Universe here.

March 2022 - Our recent review article on the role of phytohormones in plant response to metal stress has been recognized as a top-cited paper in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry!

March 2022 - In our research, Emery Lab uses mass spectrometers housed in Water Quality Centre, a world-class analytical facility at Trent University. Read the full story here.

March 2022 - Our recent article: "The Origins and Roles of Methylthiolated Cytokinins: Evidence From Among Life Kingdoms" published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology was selected for inclusion in Editor’s Pick 2021: Highlights in Cell Growth and Division! This collection highlights the best received spontaneous submissions of the past 2 years to the section, and brings high-quality research into the spotlight.

January 2022 - Emery Lab members, Dr. Ainsely Lewis and Ph.D. student, Daniel Palberg discussed our Lab's contribution to the research on food security in Canadian agriculture in the interview for Ontario Genomics. Watch the video here and read more about their research here.

January, 2022 - Big congratulations to Megan Aoki, PhD student in the Emery Lab for winning the Biomolecules 2021 Best Video Abstract Award! Read Megan's paper and watch the video here.

June, 2021 - Our M.Sc. student, Hai Nguyen, received the CSPB-SCBV Award for an outstanding oral presentation at the On-Line Annual Meeting of The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists! Hai was presenting his research on the role of phytohormones in response of Euglena gracilis to heavy metal exposure. Read more about Hai's research here.

May, 2021 -Emery Lab Ph.D. student, Mark Seegobin, featured on Trent University website! Read about Mark's work on antiviral potential for cytokinins here.

March, 2021 - B.Sc. student in the Emery Lab, Vedanti Ghatwala, presented her work at the 49th SOUSCC virtual meeting, organized by McMaster University. Read about Vedanti research on Giardia, a causative agent of beaver fever here.

February, 2021 - M.Sc. student in the Emery Lab, Hai Nguyen, recognized on Author Profiles: Plant Direct website as a first co-author of the recent paper describing roles of CKX genes in soybean yield formation! Read Hai's profile here.

January, 2021 - Huge congrats to Dr. Erin Morrison and Prof. Neil Emery for winning a 2021 Best Viticulture Paper award! Read their work on grapevine phytohormone metabolism published in American Journal of Enology and Viticulture here and more on the story here and here!

December, 2020 - Megan Aoki’s Ph.D. research on cytokinins in non-plant organisms shows promise in medicine and agriculture. Read more here.

November, 2020 - Two of our graduate students, Megan Aoki and Daniel Palberg are the recipients of the prestigious Ontario Graduate Scholarship program. Congratulations, Megan and Daniel! Read more about Megan's exciting research here.

July, 2020 - Our article "Cytokinin Production by the Rice Blast Fungus Is a Pivotal Requirement for Full Virulence" is among the top 10% most cited PLOS Pathogens papers published in 2016!
CITED 46 TIMES as of July 2020

July, 2020 - Huge congrats to our student, Julia Hubert for the amazing presentation she gave at the 48th Southern Ontario Undergraduate Virtual Chemistry Conference in Toronto! You can watch it here if you want to learn what cytokinins are doing in human parasite, Giardia intestinalis!

May, 2020 - "Can we grow plants on Mars?" Our student, Aaron Dain has the answer. Read his story on RAOG blog.

April, 2020 - "Science is not cancelled! There is so MUSH-room for learning!" Read about our MSc student, Nourhene Grich research project on RAOG website.

February, 2020 - The largest published survey of cytokinin production by insects is out there for you to read! Congratulations, Peter Andreas!

December, 2019 - "Plants, too, need support in times of stress". Read how a new bio-fertilizer project can be the answer.

December, 2019 - Emery Lab is one of the eight successful research teams to be funded across Ontario through a $2M investment by the Agricultural Adaptation Council and Ontario Genomics (through Genome Canada). Read the summary of our project: 'Metabolomic-based strain selection of microbial bioinoculants which alleviate impacts of drought stress in crop production' here.

September, 2019 - Alex Kuhne, MSc student in the Emery Lab, leads delegation at International Arctic Forum.

July, 2019 - Dr. Anna Kisiala featured in the CSPB Bulletin - read more (page 10)

May, 2019 - PhD student, Megan Aoki, and her groundbreaking research featured at Trent University News and Events platform.

May, 2019 - Our PhD student, Megan Aoki, talks all about cytokinins in the interview for Random Acts of Green.

May, 2019 - Prof. Neil Emery is a partner in the research aimed at advancing clean-water technology to make Canada’s mining industry more sustainable. The project funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) will develop a sustainable green biofiltration technology for mineral extraction and mining waste waters.

April, 2019 - Our PhD student, Mark Seegobin became a recipient of a prestigious Alexander Graham Bell NSERC CGS D scholarship to support his research on cytokinin function in mammalian systems.

March, 2019 - Alex Kuhne, MSc student in Environmental & Life Sciences Graduate Program at Trent University presented her research on recycling algae cultures at the first Trent Graduate Students in Science (TGSS) symposium.

February, 2019 - There is more to the cytokinin story than you could ever imagine! Our PhD student, Megan Aoki, research shows cytokinins can be actively metabolized in human cell cultures - read Megan's paper in FASEB Bioadvances.

January, 2019 - Learn about our MSc student Alex Kuhne innovative research on the future of food.

January, 2019 - Check out the Emery Lab coverage from the ACPD 2018 Prague conference in New Phytologist!

July, 2018 - Breaking news! - Our PhD student, Mark Seegobin discovered presence of a range of "plant" hormones cytokinins in mammalian tissues! Check the interview with Mark and read his paper recently published in The FASEB Journal.

June 2018 - "A virulent and resistant strain of fungus, called “Corn Smut Disease” is currently threatening our corn stalks." - Ibraheem Alimi, MSc student, co-supervised by Prof. Neil Emery and Prof. Barry Saville, explains the importance of his research in the interview for Random Acts of Green.

April, 2017 - To branch or not to branch? Shade, ABA and auxin - Dr. Thien Nguyen and Prof. Neil Emery wrote an insight paper that accompanies the groundbreaking research on ABA as the earliest upstream inhibitor of apical dominance, recently published in Journal of Experimental Botany.

December, 2016 - Research at Trent in Prof. Neil Emery’s lab highlighted in exhibition titled “Pulses: The Ideal Partner” on loan from the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum in partnership with Pulse Canada (Trent University News & Events)