Siyun Wang, PhD, Principal Investigator

Dr. Siyun Wang is an Assistant Professor of Food Safety Engineering at the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, where she conducts research on microbial safety in the Ulrich Freybe Food Safety Laboratory.

Siyun received her B.S. degree in Pharmacy from Fudan University (2005) and Ph.D. degree in Biology from the Institute for Food Safety and Health at Illinois Tech (2010). Prior to joining UBC in 2013, she was a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University.

Aljosa Trmcic, PhD, Research Associate

PhD in Biotechnology, University of Ljubljana, 2011
BS in Food Science & Technology, University of Ljubljana, 2005

Dr. Aljosa Trmcic has a lot of experience with beneficial, spoilage and pathogenic microbes relevant to the dairy industry, but likes to emphasize he’s interested in all aspects of food microbiology and technology. Before joining UBC, Aljosa was a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University. Currently, he is working on L. monocytogenes and biofilm formation, as well as on microbiology of sourdoughs.

Karen Fong, PhD Candidate

BSc in Microbiology, UBC Okanagan, 2012

MSc in Food Science, UBC, 2015 

Karen was born and raised in the Okanagan region of BC. She completed her MSc thesis in our laboratory in 2015, titled “Environmental adaptation and stress response of Salmonella enterica in peanut oil, peanuts and chia seeds”. Her PhD research is focused on isolation and characterization of bacteriophages from BC agricultural environment. Karen is a recipient of Canadian Dairy Commission & NSERC PGS-D scholarship.

Patricia Hingston, PhD Candidate

BSc in Food Science, Dalhousie University, 2010

MSc in Food Science, Dalhousie University, 2013

Patricia (Trish) is originally from Ontario but also lived in Halifax, NS for 7 years while she completed her Bachelors and Masters in Food Science. She has now come to Vancouver for her PhD. Most of Trish’s past and current research is focused on elucidating stress survival mechanisms used by the human foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, to survive in food and food processing environments. Research areas which have been investigated include L. monocytogenes‘ cold, salt, acid, and desiccation stress survival as well as its ability to form a biofilm on food processing surfaces. Trish is a recipient of NSERC CGS-D scholarship.

Justin Falardeau, PhD Student

BSc in Food Science, Carleton University, 2014

MSc in Food Science, UBC, 2017 

Justin came to UBC from Carleton University where he spent his undergraduate studying antifungal lipopeptides produced by particular strains of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. His current research involves monitoring the occurrence of VTEC, Salmonella & Listeria monocytogenes in the irrigation water of produce farms around the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Justin is a recipient of NSERC CGS-M scholarship.

Huihui (Hanna) Chen, MSc Student

BSc in Environmental Science, Zhejiang University, 2015

Hanna was born and raised in Zhejiang Province, China. Her MSc project is focused on characterizing the Salmonella strains that are important to fresh produce safety in BC.

Catherine Wong, MSc student

BSc in Food Science, UBC, 2016 

Catherine was raised in Vancouver, BC and completed her Bachelor in Food Science in 2016.

For her MSc study, the focus is on reducing Salmonella contamination during pre-harvest of lettuce and tomatoes.

Yue (Cindy) Dai, MSc student

BSc in Food Science, UBC, 2016

Born and raised in China, Cindy came to Vancouver in 2012 and obtained her Bachelor of Food Science degree from UBC in 2016.

Her current area of research is on developing mitigation strategies for reducing pathogen contamination on sprouted vegetables

Undergraduate Students

Yvonne Ma 

BSc in Microbiology and Immunology, UBC, expected in 2017

Yvonne is working on improving the survival, health, quality and food safety of post-transported fish.

Zheqing (Ula) Zhu

BSc in Food Science, UBC, expected in 2018

Ula has started her bachelor’s degree in Vancouver since 2013. Her BSc thesis studies the biofilm-forming abilities of Listeria monocytogenes with different virulence gene profiles, with the focus mainly on the comparison of truncated Internalin A and full-length InlA in L. monocytogenes.

Gwendolyn Ge

BSc in Food Science, UBC, expected in 2018

Gwendolyn is working on her undergraduate thesis project in our lab, which is about exploring the bacteria species involved in spontaneous cassava sourdough fermentation. In her spare time she enjoy reading, cooking, traveling and music, as well as meeting new friends.

Brett LaBossiere

BSc in Biochemistry, University of Victoria, expected in 2018

Brett was raised in the Cariboo region of central BC. He is a visiting co-op student from the University of Victoria, and is assisting Karen Fong in characterizing Salmonella phages.

Lab Alumni

Graduate Students

Maxime Haure, Visiting MSc student (2015)

Maxime is pursuing his MSc in Food Engineering at AgroSup Dijon, France. His project at UBC was focused on understanding the survival of Listeria monocytogenes in soil.

Maram Garout (2014-15)

BSc in Microbiology, King Abdulaziz University, 2010

Maram has completed her graduate study on Master of Food Science (MFS) at UBC. When in our lab, Maram investigated the effects of Millard Reaction products on Verocytotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC).

Anna Cheng (2013)

BSc in Food Science, UBC, 2013

Anna completed her BSc thesis in our lab in 2013, titled “Real-time PCR vs. Traditional methods on the detection of Salmonella enterica in chocolates”.

Anna is currently working as a Quality Assurance professional in food industry.

Yining Mao (2013-14)

BSc in Biochemistry, UBC, 2014

Yining worked with Karen in our lab from September 2013 to April 2014, when he was a 4th year Biochemistry student at UBC.

Hyun Soo Seo (2014-15)

BSc in Food and Nutritional Sciences, UBC, 2015

Hyun Soo completed her BSc thesis in our lab in 2015, titled “Antimicrobial effect of crude MRP on Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium under acidic and thermal stress conditions”.

Hyun Soo is currently pursuing her MSc in Food Microbiology at Seoul National University.

Jesline Rahardjo (2015)

BSc in Food Science, UBC, 2016

Jesline investigated the antimicrobial effects of Millard Reaction products on Salmonella.

She will continue to pursue a Master’s in Management at UBC.

Shinnie Zhou (2015-16)

BSc in Food Science, UBC, 2016

Shinnie’s BSc thesis project is on isolation and characterization of Salmonella phages from the BC agricultural environment.

She is currently working as a consultant in a Vancouver-based company.

Donna Lau (2015)

BSc in Biology studies, UBC, expected in 2016

As a summer work-learn student, Donna worked with Justin on the enumeration of E.coli/Coliform in irrigation water.

Monika Trząskowska, PhD

Faculty of Human Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Poland

Dr. Monika Trząskowska was a Dekaban Foundation Scholar. She investigated effective mitigation strategies for producing safety mung bean sprouts in our laboratory.