My primary research interest concerns the splendid array of compounds that are made by plants and the underlying molecular and biochemical basis of their biosynthesis. I first developed this passion during my M.Sc. degree where I investigated the molecular mechanism by which various environmental cues cause plants to accumulate flavonoids, a well known class of secondary metabolites that posses both physiological and nutritional importance. Based on this work I was awarded the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) post graduate scholarship to pursue my PhD. I completed my doctorate under the mentorship of Dr. Andrew Hanson at the University of Florida where I contributed to a viable and cost-effective way to overcome global folate malnutrition through plant 'biofortification'. My research specifically addressed the issue of folate breakdown and storage and demonstrated a central role for polyglutamylation in the homeostasis of this plant-derived vitamin. I followed my interest in plant biochemistry to the laboratory of Dr. Eran Pichersky at the University of Michigan where I was engrossed in two main projects. In the first project I utilized a stable isotope-assisted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics platform to discover a novel breakdown and recycling pathway for the plant hormone, salicylic acid. The second project builds on my recently published work describing the plant enzymes that synthesize polyisoprenoids and dolichols. Here I used a genomics approach to identify a novel class of cis-prenyltransferases that appear to be widespread among different plant lineages. I recently joined the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at Guelph and my research continues to investigate the biochemical pathways that operate at the interface of plant primary and secondary metabolism.
