What is your favourite enzyme, and why?

An enzyme that was recently identified in mammals called glycerol-3-phosphatase. This enzyme produces glycerol from glycerol-3-phosphate. It was only previously known in simple eukaryotes, but we knew that the process also happened in smelt during winter. We just couldn’t identify the enzyme.

 

What is your favourite book?

It changes! I would say All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr or One Plus One Equals One by John Archibald.

 

What is the most recent book you’ve read?

I am currently reading Decolonizing Education by Marie Battiste.

 

What is your favourite amino acid, and why?

Glycine, because it’s so darn simple!

 

What are some of your hobbies?

Needlework and sewing.

 

What is your dream vacation?

Going to the Torngat Mountains National Park, where Labrador meets Quebec.

 

What is the coolest project you’ve ever worked on?

It was one that we didn’t actually expect to work, and it did. We wanted to see if, when small ice crystals get into fish, there is an immune response. We studied tropical and north temperate fish and found that the northern fish species do actually have anti-ice antibodies!

 

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in lab?

It was my first foray into a research lab and I was proud and eager. We were going to do large plate isoelectric focusing, and my supervisor said to handle the plates very carefully because they were very expensive … and then I dropped a plate.

 

Do you have any advice or anything else you want to say?

When students join our lab, that is a privilege for us - they are young and energetic and we benefit so much from having them on the research team! We hope the students benefit too!