Tanya Dahms

University of Regina, Canada

Talk title: Inside and out: Functional cellular assays using correlative AFM-confocal

Born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, Tanya studied Biology and Chemistry at the University of Waterloo (BSc Co-op 1990), Biophysics (PhD 1996) as a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) scholar at Ottawa University and the National Research Council (NRC), X-ray crystallography at Purdue University as a NSERC postdoctoral fellow, and advanced microscopy at NRC as a NSERC visiting fellow. Starting at the University of Regina (UofR, 1999), Tanya launched the atomic force microscopy (AFM) facility and pioneered techniques to study mechanisms of polarized and non-polarized growth in live fungal and moss cells by AFM. As a Full Professor, her group has studied a variety of mechanisms related to opportunistic fungal pathogens, pathogenic and mutualistic bacteria. The group uses a battery of microscopy techniques including AFM, fluorescence, confocal, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and near-field interferomic infrared AFM (ALS, Berkeley) to complement traditional and modern (metabolomics, proteomics) biochemical approaches.

Of special interest to the group is how xenobiotics, such as herbicides and antifungals, impact nontarget (microbes, human cells) and target (opportunistic pathogens) organisms, respectively. Their correlative AFM-confocal microscopy assays result in multiplexed “cellulomic” response data that they can use to address these environmental and therapeutic health questions. Tanya’s research is supported by NSERC, Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and her various awards include a visiting fellowship to the National Institutes of Health, an AstraZeneca Research Award, Canadian Cancer Society Award and the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award.