People
Benjamin Matthews, PhD
Lab Head and Assistant Professor
Ben received a BS in Biology from the California Institute of Technology in 2004 and completed his graduate research at Columbia University in the Laboratory of Wes Grueber where he worked on the phenomenon of ‘self-avoidance’ during the development of sensory neuron dendritic arbors in Drosophila melanogaster. He then completed his postdoctoral training with Leslie Vosshall at Rockefeller University/HHMI, where he focused on genetics, genomics, and behavior in the mosquito Aedes aegypti, a deadly vector of arbivoral pathogens that cause Zika, Dengue fever, Yellow fever, and Chikungunya. He received postdoctoral fellowships from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research and The Rockefeller University, as well as a predoctoral NRSA F31 from the NIH.
At UBC, Ben is an Assistant Professor in the Comparative Physiology Group of the Department of Zoology. He is also a member of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, the Biodiversity Research Centre and the Genome Science and Technology training program. He has received a Sloan Foundation Fellowship in the Neurosciences and a Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.
Postdoctoral researchers and graduate students
Yunusa Garba Mohammed, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-present)
Yunusa has received a long-term Fellowship from HFSP and a three-year Trainee Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research to support his work. He is focused on understanding egg-laying and other behaviours in strains of Aedes aegypti collected from urban and rural environments in sub-Saharan Africa.
Jean-François (Jeff) Doherty, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022-present)
Jeff received his PhD from the University of Otago, where he studied the ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions. He is a joint-appointed postdoctoral fellow with Leonard Foster’s lab and will be working on how parasites can manipulate the behaviour of their host(s) using transcriptomic, proteomic, and quantitative behavioural techniques.
Ian Bouyoucos, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-present)
Ian recently completed postdoctoral training at the University of Manitoba where he researched functional evolution of the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal axis in chondrichthyan fishes. He received his PhD from James Cook University and École Pratique des Hautes Études where he studied ecophysiology in reef sharks in the context of climate change. In the Matthews and Brauner labs, Ian studies the effects of aquatic acidification and habitat on imprinting and homing in Pacific salmon.
Leisl Brewster, Ph.D. Student, Zoology (2020-present)
Leisl received her B.Sc. in Zoology at University College London (UCL) in the UK where she completed a research project looking at the evolution of biomineralization in molluscs. Leisl now continues her work in invertebrate zoology, looking at the genomic and molecular mechanisms behind sensory behaviour in the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Jonathan Chiang, M.Sc. Student, Genome Sciences and Technology (2023-present)
Jonathan was a Biology Co-op Undergraduate Research Assistant in 2021. After graduating from UBC in 2022 with a degree in Biology and a Masters of Management from the Sauder School of Business, he returned to the lab as a M.Sc. student where he is working on genome assembly and annotation.
Eric Reich, M.Sc. Student, Zoology (2024-present);
Eric joined the lab in May 2024 to work on the impact of water acidification on salmon imprinting and olfaction as part of the BCSRIF project led by Ian Bouyoucos. Eric is co-supervised by Colin Brauner.
Ralitza Sevova, M.Sc. Student, Zoology (2024-present);
Ralitza joined the lab in May 2024 to work on the impact of water acidification on salmon imprinting and olfaction as part of the BCSRIF project led by Ian Bouyoucos. Ralitza is co-supervised by Colin Brauner.
Staff
Oleksandr Hulai, Research Associate (2024-present)
Oleksandr holds a Master’s degree in Veterinary Medicine (1997). He received his doctorate in ecology in 2005 for his research on the spirochete Leptospira interrogans, a pathogen for humans and animals, and their ecological relationships in freshwater. His postdoctoral research included the study of the ecology of the pathogenic bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae. For the last year and a half, Oleksandr worked as a visiting researcher in the laboratory of Professor Flaminia Catteruccia at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (USA). There he participated in the study of the interaction between Anopheles gambiae and the malaria pathogen Plasmodium. At UBC, Oleksandr will be working on generating genetic tools to investigate the links between olfaction and immunity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Nicholas Tochor, Laboratory Manager
Nick received his B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and Biology at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus in December 2019. During his undergraduate degree, he worked in several labs specializing in landscape ecology. Past projects include a spatiotemporal analysis of grizzly bear habitat suitability North of Jasper, Alberta; an analysis of mycorrhizal connectivity between understory and canopy forest flora; an analysis of dark diversity patterns in global diatom species richness; and an analysis of the impacts of recreational land use on watersheds within public land in the Okanagan. He is now working as a lab technician in Ben Matthews’ and Doug Altshuler’s labs. When not in either lab, he enjoys hiking, biking, kayaking, surfing, and playing guitar.
Bridget White, Insectary Manager
Bridget joins us after finishing her M.Sc. degree in Entomology at the University of Manitoba in 2023, and brings with her experience in insect rearing at scale from her time working in a Black Solider Fly facility. She is in charge of mosquito strain maintenance and all aspects of our insectary operation, while also supporting a wide variety of scientific projects throughout the lab.
Undergraduate researchers
Alumni, graduate students and postdocs
- Tahnee Ames (M.Sc. student co-supervised with Phil Matthews, 2021-2024)
- Elsa Cyr (M.Sc. student co-supervised with Mike Gordon, 2021-2024)
- Ivan Lo (M.Sc. student, Zoology, 2021-2024) – now Research Technician at Zymeworks, Vancouver.
- Dan Peach (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2022) – now Assistant Professor at University of Georgia
- Orna Phelan, M.Sc. Zoology 2023 – now Wildlife Biologist, Northwest Territories
Alumni, undergraduates and affiliates
- Layla Ali (Biology Directed Studies, 2023)
- Aleksandra Anoshina (NSERC USRA and Biology Honours, 2020-2021)
- Joshua Chen (NSERC USRA and Biology Honours, 2021-2022)
- Nicole Cheng (Undergraduate Directed Studies, 2020)
- Weison Chu (Biology Directed Studies, 2019-2020)
- Hanna Elford (Integrated Science Directed Studies, 2022)
- Britya Ghosh, M.Sc. CELL Program 2020. Lab of Dr. Mike Gordon, UBC Zoology – now Ph.D. student, Kara Marshall Lab, Baylor College of Medicine
- Quinn Kelley (Biology Directed Studies, 2021)
- Cam Kelsey (Psychology Honours, 2022-2023) – incoming PhD student (Fall 2023), University of Arizona
- Phillip Lee (Biology Honours, 2022-2023) – incoming M.Sc. student (Fall 2023), Altshuler Lab, University of British Columbia
- Bing Liu (Biology Directed Studies, 2022-2023) – incoming M.Sc. student (Fall 2023), Richards Lab, University of British Columbia
- Rinky Manivannan (Biodiversity Research Center Fellowship Awardee and Undergraduate Researcher, 2023)
- Cassidy Mark (Biology Co-op Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2022)
- Andrew Oh (Biology Directed Studies, 2021-2022)
- Ana Parra (Biology Honours, 2020-2021)
- Smit Patel (Biology Directed Studies, 2021-2022)
- Kevin Poon (Biology Directed Studies, 2019-2020)
- Kunwar Puri (Biology Directed Studies student, 2019-2021)
- Atbeen Rezazadah (Biology Directed Studies, 2019-2021)
- Maryann Rogers (NSERC USRA and Biology Honours, 2021-2022)
- Ben Roussow (Biology Directed Studies, 2023)
- Dania Samara (Biology Directed Studies, 2022)
- Madhurya Sekhar (Biology Directed Studies, 2019-2020) – now Research Associate I at Spotlight Therapeutics
- Lauren Semkow (Biology Directed Studies and UBC SURE, 2021-2022)
- Parsa Seyfourian (Biology Directed Studies & Honours, 2021-2023; Biodiversity Fellowship Award Winner, 2022)
- Danica Shannon (Biology Honours, 2022-2023) – incoming M.Sc. student (Fall 2023), University of Georgia
- Bhaskar Yechuri (part time electronics technician, 2020-2021)
- Annie Zeng (Biology Directed Studies, 2020-2021)
- Celine Zhang (Biology Directed Studies, 2022)
- Dirk VandePol (Visiting Scientist, 2022-2023)