Congratulations to Rachel Courtice on her defense! Rachel's graduate research focused on the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in E. coli and Staphylococcus pseudintermedius causing canine urinary tract infections over a 4 year period. For the most part Rachel's results are a good news story, resistance is still remarkably rare in our region; but she did identify a number of ESBL producing E. coli and even strain belonging to ST131 which possessed the aac6-Ib-cr quinolone

Once again the Department of Veterinary Microbiology had a great showing at the Canadian Society of Microbiologists annual conference, this time in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Always enjoy the chance to meet up with old friends and make some new ones at CSM! Kezia Fourie had the opportunity to give a talk on her study looking at how selective media change our view of antimicrobial resistance surveillance by using quantitative culture methods, such a proud supervisor moment! Rachel Co

As the human animal bond is increasingly recognized to contribute to people’s wellbeing, the therapeutic role of companion animals is increasingly exploited in healthcare, long term care and community settings. But… concerns related to theoretical zoonotic risks associated with dogs in health care settings often limit the therapy dog visits. Today Bev presented some of her post-doctoral work exploring the frequency of carriage of microbial hazards among therapy dogs in Saskat

Congratulations Bev on the defense of your thesis! Bev joined theRubinlab as a summer student in 2014, and went on to become the first DVM/MSc student in both my lab and the Department of Veterinary Microbiology. Bev’s research focused on the identification of antimicrobial resistant bacteria from imported niche market meats; for her MSc she studied reptile and amphibian meats. She found that these products are an underappreciated source of resistant bacteria including ESBL p

Communicating science is a critical part of what we do as faculty members, whether it’s to our students in the class room or through public outreach. So when CBC Marketplace got in touch about helping them with a story about antibiotic resistant bacteria in shrimp how could I say no? Since this is CBC’s story to tell, follow the link to learn more about what we found. Updates or additional coverage the story receives will also be posted here. Episode preview here Read the CBC

Congratulations to Dongyun Jung for defending his MSc! Dongyun joined theRubinlab back in January, 2017 and has been exceptionally productive over the last two years. Dongyun’s thesis focused on describing the presence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in imported plant-based foods (vegetables and spices). In addition to his research, Dongyun has also honed his talents as an "agar artist", making some incredible creations and entering national and international competitions

Last week Yenuki Rajapaksha (Rubin lab summer student alumni, and future dentistry student), had the opportunity to attend the annual CACMID conference in Vancouver. CACMID (Canadian Association for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) is always a great opportunity to interact with physicians, diagnostic microbiologists and infectious disease specialists and learn about the latest advances in human infectious diseases. This year we presented the results of two colla

I’m pleased to welcome Moses Ikechukwu as a visiting student to the RubinLab and Department of Veterinary Microbiology for the next 6 months. Moses is currently pursuing his PhD in Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Nigeria. Moses’s project involves the characterization of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius from dogs and people. During his time at the RubinLab, Moses will be doing antimicr

Congratulations to Roshan Priyantha for successfully defending his PhD! Roshan was a founding member of theRubinlab, joining in September 2013. Roshan’s thesis focused on antimicrobial resistance in Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, an important pathogen of dogs. Throughout his research Roshan addressed questions relating to the emergence of resistance in the Saskatoon area, comparing isolates from different types of infections and identifying the molecular basis for tetracycl

We have a winner! For their laboratory assignment in VTMC 347 (Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology), the WCVM class of 2020 was sent out with swabs on a mission to find a superbug which they then characterized. This a great way for the students to take a walk through the diagnostic process (culture, organism identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing); because everything is more fun when there’s a prize, there was a one-of-a-kind reward for the group which found