Dr. Suzanne M. Budge, Principal Investigator
Since starting my PhD in 1994, I have been fascinated by lipids and their diversity of structures. This characteristic makes them particularly useful as biomarkers of organisms and processes in the marine environment, and I’m interested in refining techniques that use fatty acids and their stable carbon isotopes to estimate animal diets. I’ve recently become very interested in the production of essential fatty acid by marine phytoplankton and have been investigating methods to best assess that. Because of their range of structures, oxidation of lipids gives rise to an enormous array of oxygenated products. A second major focus of my work involves characterizing those lipid products and the development of methods to rapidly and accurately measure them.
Email / Dal Webpage / ResearchGate / Google Scholar
Staff
Carrie Greene, MSc
I am the lab manager of the Marine Lipids lab. I completed my MSc at Dalhousie in 2007 that focused on bacterial degradation of paralytic shellfish toxins. I have worked in the Marine Lipids lab since 2009 and my lab work largely consists of lipid quality control testing for local industry. Sue says I keep the lab running.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Laura Helenius, PhD
I’m working as a postdoctoral fellow in a collaborative project with the Marine Lipids Lab and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, which deals with the production and transfer of essential fatty acids in marine food webs. My role in the project is to examine fatty acid transfer at the plant-animal interface, from primary producers to zooplankton. I’m broadly interested in zooplankton ecology, and my previous research has revolved around feeding, diversity, and predator-prey interactions in coastal zooplankton communities.
Graduate Students
Wei Xia
My PhD research involves the development of analytical methods to determine lipid oxidation products in edible oils, with a special focus on measuring minor oxidation products such as epoxides and alcohols. I am using a number of instrumental techniques to accomplish this, including 1H NMR and GCMS.
Steve Duerksen, MSc
I am interested in northern food web ecology, specifically factors responsible for regime shifts in marine systems. My current research focuses on essential fatty acid production in phytoplankton and their transfer to higher trophic levels. The ultimate goal of my PhD is to develop a method using remote satellite sensing to quantify this production over a large scale.
Reem Abuzaytoun, MSc
I am a PhD student investigating the compositional characteristics and carotenoids, as well as spatial variation, in oil extracted from the viscera of Atlantic sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa). My research is also focusing on the development of methods to determine the oxidative status of highly pigmented oil such as those derived from sea cucumbers.
Hammam Said
My MSc work investigates the production of essential fatty acids within lipid classes in several phytoplankton species. I’m also evaluating the influence of light levels on the lipid class-specific production rates.
Undergraduate Students
Theo Street
I’m a summer undergraduate research assistant and am helping with a variety of projects in the lab. My primary work involves the preparation of samples for fatty acid analysis by GCFID. I am also helping to optimize the procedure for the solid phase extraction of oxygenated fatty acid derivatives.
Visiting Scientists
Marla Reid
My primary role is the evaluation of new natural antioxidants on fish oil stability.
Rose-Marie Hughes
My primary responsibilities are analytical testing of primary and secondary oxidation products and fatty acid profiles of Omega-3 oils.
Chris Barry
I am chiefly responsible for analytical testing of fatty acid profiles of marine oils.
Jenna Sullivan Ritter
I have been working in R&D with marine oils for the last 10 years. I now manage the development of dietary supplements enriched with omega-3 fatty acids, and establish experimental design and stability testing of oil-based nutraceuticals. I also have experience in structure elucidation and quantification with GCMS.
Anna-Jean Reid
I work for a local skin care company focused on development of innovative oral anti-aging and skin health supplements. My time is primarily spent on research and product development. I also ensure that quality and regulatory standards of our products are met. I completed my MSc with Dr. Budge in 2015 and the knowledge gained from this experience is applied to product development.
Alumni
Emily Harris, MSc. 2017
Improving lipid oxidation measurements: Investigating a 1H-NMR alternative to and evaluating the assumptions of standard chemical methods.
Greg Potter, PhD. 2016
Analytical and nanotechnological methods for detection of 3-OH oxylipins and cell ultrastructure in fermenting yeasts.
Kathryn Townsend, MSc. 2015
The influence of dietary fat concentration on fatty acid signatures and stable carbon isotopes in liver of Atlantic pollock (Pollachius sirens).
Anna-Jean Reid, MSc, 2015
Investigating the antioxidant effects of a commercial sunflower derived lecithin and phosphatidylserine.