of enthusiastic scientists
Our Team
Lead Investigator
Dr. Jakob Magolan
Associate Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry and Biomedical Science
Boris Family Chair of Drug Discovery
Associate Member, Dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Member, DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research
BSc (2002) Queen's University, Canada (R. Lemieux)
PhD (2007) Western University, Canada (M. Kerr)
Postdoc (2007-2010) Griffith University, Australia (M. Coster)
2010 - 2017, Assist. & Assoc. Prof., University of Idaho
2017 - present, Assoc Prof., McMaster University
Research Associates
Dr. Jarrod Johnson
Research Associate
BSc & PhD: University of Waterloo (G. Dimitrienko)
Postdoctoral research: Notre Dame (S. Mobashery); McMaster (G. Wright)
Research Focus: Dr. Johnson contributes to the management of all research in our lab with an emphasis on antimicrobial medicinal chemistry projects.

Dr. Mathew Piotrowski
Research Associate
BSc & PhD: Western University, Canada (M. Kerr)
Postdoctoral research: McMaster University (J. Magolan)
Research focus: Dr. Pitrowski develops scalable syntheses of phenolic natural products of biomedical interest. His research is sponsored by a partnership between our lab and Naturally Synthetic Inc.

Dr. Lauren Irwin
Research Associate
BSc & PhD: Western University, Canada (M. Kerr)
Research focus: Dr. Irwin works on the syntheses of phenolic natural products of biomedical interest. Her research is sponsored by a partnership between our lab and Naturally Synthetic Inc.
Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr. Marc Mackinnon
Postdoctoral Fellow
BSc: Wilfrid Laurier University
PhD: Memorial University of Newfoundland (G. Bodwell)
Research focus: Dr. Mackinnon works primarily on antimicrobial medicinal chemistry projects.
Graduate Students - PhD Candidates
Patrick Darveau
PhD Candidate, Chemical Biology
BSc: University of Laval
MSc: University of Laval
Research: antimicrobial medicinal chemistry; natural products synthesis
Meghan Fragis
PhD Candidate, Chemical Biology
BSc: Unviersity of Guelph (W. Tam)
Research: organosulfur synthetic methods; anti-malarial natural products synthesis

Matthew Squazzin
PhD Candidate, Biochemistry
BSc: University of Waterloo (R. Lemieux)
Research: cardiovascular medicinal chemistry; synthetic methods
Graduate Students - MS Candidates

Arnav Kaul
MS Candidate, Biochemistry
BSc: McMaster University (J. Magolan)
Research: antimicrobial medicinal chemistry

Nicole Ritchie
MS Candidate, Chemistry
BSc: University of Waterloo (G. Murphy)
Research: antimicrobial medicinal chemistry

Princeton Luong
MS Candidate, Chemical Biology
BSc: University of Waterloo (M. Chong)
Research: anti-cancer medicinal chemistry

Elizabeth Lach
MS Candidate, Chemical Biology
BSc: McMaster University (A. Rullo)
Research: anti-cancer medicinal chemistry
Visiting Graduate Students

Isabella Romeo
Visiting Graduate Student from Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
Research: synthesis of phenolic natural products of biomedical interest

Valeria Vergine
Visiting Graduate Student from Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
Research: synthesis of phenolic natural products of biomedical interest

Mohammed Salha
Visiting Graduate Student from Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
Research: synthesis of phenolic natural products of biomedical interest
Undergraduate Students



Zheng Zhou
Coop Undergraduate Research Assistant,
Chemical Biology, McMaster University




