海角社区

May 7, 2026 - Manoj Jangra听

Seminar + Social Series

Thursday, May 7, 2026 |听4:00-5:00 pm
Hybrid event听|听Registration required

Free In-person:听Meakins Theater, Room 521
海角社区 McIntyre Building
3655 Promenade Sir-William-Osler听
翱苍濒颈苍别:听Zoom link sent to registered participants.

Networking reception post-seminar

Program:

"Discovery of a new antibiotic, Lariocidin: A Knotty Solution to Antimicrobial Resistance"
Manoj Jangra , Ph.D.听
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Gerry Wright鈥檚 lab
McMaster University

础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听

Antibiotics have been an important commodity for treating infections and facilitating major medical surgeries. The rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria renders these drugs ineffective, causing a public health crisis and warranting the discovery of new therapeutics. The untapped microbial diversity still holds promise in discovering novel antibiotics. In this study, we describe a new antibiotic lariocidin (LAR), isolated from a soil microorganism. LAR possesses a unique knot-like structure that belongs to the lasso peptide family of natural products. LAR has broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens and shows efficacy in a murine thigh infection model against multidrug-resistant A. baumannii. Structural, genetic and biochemical data show that LAR binds at a unique site in the small ribosomal subunit, where it inhibits translocation and induces miscoding. Our identification of first ribosome-targeting lasso peptide uncovers new routes towards the discovery of alternative protein-synthesis inhibitors and offers a novel chemical scaffold for antibacterial drug development.

About our speaker:

Dr. Manoj Jangra is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Gerry Wright鈥檚 lab at McMaster University, Canada. He completed his Ph.D. at CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, India, and joined the Wright Lab in 2021. With over 10 years of experience in antibiotic discovery, synthetic biology and microbial fermentation, his work focuses on isolating and characterizing antimicrobial compounds from microbes, particularly against WHO鈥檚 priority pathogens. His impressive publication record includes 18 peer-reviewed articles in reputed journal and one book chapter. At McMaster, Dr. Jangra's most significant contribution is the discovery and characterization of Lariocidin, a novel first-in-class lasso peptide antibiotic active against Gram-negative bacteria, published in Nature last year. This discovery, which garnered significant national and international media attention, represents a breakthrough in addressing the global antibiotic resistance crisis. His work has earned prestigious awards including the IIDR Mildred Gulliver Postdoctoral Award (2023) and Postdoctoral Fellow Impact Award by Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University (2026). Today, he will share the discovery of this new antibiotic.

March 25th - Jim Nicell, Bernhard Lehner, Heloisa Ehalt听Macedo

Seminar + Social Series

Co-hosted with Brace Water Centre

Wednesday, March 25, 2026 | 3:00pm - 5:00 pm听
Hybrid event - registration required

Free In-person:听Mechanical Engineering seminar room 267听()听817 Sherbrooke St West, Montreal
and Online

Discussion panel to follow
Networking Reception听post seminar

笔谤辞驳谤补尘:听

"Modeling the risk of antibiotics in river systems"听
Jim A. Nicell, PhD, (Engineering),听
Bernhard Lehner, PhD and Heloisa Ehalt Macedo, PhD (Geography)听
海角社区听

Panel Discussion:

• Susanne Kraemer PhD, Environment and Climate Change Canada
• Sigrun Kullik PhD, Public Health Agency of Canada
• Jennifer Ronholm, PhD Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, 海角社区

础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听听

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in freshwater systems is an emerging global concern. Because antibiotics act as environmental selective pressures that drive the emergence and spread of AMR, modeling their environmental concentrations is fundamental to understanding AMR pathways and identifying riverine hotspots. This talk presents HydroFATE, a global contaminant fate model designed to simulate contaminant concentrations across river networks worldwide. HydroFATE integrates geospatial datasets, wastewater treatment plants as sources, chemical characteristics, and downstream transport processes to estimate risks to aquatic ecosystems and human population that depend on these waters. As part of an ongoing effort to expand HydroFATE鈥檚 capabilities, this work explores听 preliminary approaches for representing additional AMR鈥憆elated pathways and assessing how human, agricultural, and industrial activities shape antibiotic loads in rivers. Our results highlight hotspots, key data gaps, methodological challenges, and promising directions for advancing the modeling of antibiotic concentrations at large scales. By听 developing tools that generate policy鈥憆elevant, data鈥慸riven insights, this work aims to support efforts to protect freshwater ecosystems and human health from AMR within a One Health context.

About our speakers:

Professor Jim A Nicell joined 海角社区鈥檚 Department of Civil Engineering in 1992 and is a licensed professional engineer specializing in the field of environmental engineering. His areas of research are mainly focused on the development of impact assessment methods for industrial and municipal pollutants, on their mitigation through waste treatment, and their prevention through the design of green chemicals that are renewably sourced. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has directly contributed to the development of regulations and policies at the Canadian and provincial levels. While at 海角社区, he has served in numerous leadership and administrative capacities including six years as 海角社区鈥檚 Associate Vice-Principal (University Services) and a decade as Dean of Engineering. He has served on numerous boards of various industry, scholarly and non-profit organizations. In 2018, he was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and in 2024 as a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers.

Dr Bernhard Lehner joined the Department of Geography at 海角社区 in 2006 as a professor in global hydrology and a faculty member of 海角社区鈥檚 Earth System Science program. His main research themes are large-scale hydrology, hydrographic mapping and modeling, and freshwater conservation. Dr. Lehner鈥檚 research projects include the design and development of novel global databases and maps related to rivers, watersheds, lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands, as well as their environmental and ecological characterizations. The goal of these projects is to generate basic data and information in support of regional and global eco-hydrological modeling, watershed analyses, and freshwater conservation planning at a quality, resolution and extent that have previously been unachievable. His research involves the novel design of Geographic Information Science techniques and interpretation Remote Sensing imagery. Dr. Lehner鈥檚 own applications of these datasets span multiple scales from national to global and cover a broad variety of topics, ranging from global climate and environmental change studies to assessments of the fate of human-caused contaminants in river systems, the eco-hydrological effects of dam constructions, environmental flow requirements, and integrated freshwater management and protection strategies.

Dr Heloisa Ehalt Macedo is an environmental scientist with a PhD in Geography from 海角社区 and a master鈥檚 degree in environmental engineering from Northeastern University. Her research focuses on the fate of emerging contaminants in freshwater systems at the global scale. She integrates geospatial data, environmental modeling, and risk assessment to generate actionable evidence for decision鈥憁akers.

About our panelists:

Dr Susanne Kraemer studied at Westfaelische Wilhelms Universitaet and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. She completed her PhD on the social life of soil bacteria at Indiana University before moving to Canada (University of Ottawa), Scotland (University of Edinburgh) and Canada again (Concordia University and 海角社区) to conduct postdoctoral work on the evolution and ecology of microbes with a special interest in the flow of antibiotic resistance genes in environmental reservoirs. She currently works as a scientist for Environment and Climate Change Canada in the Aquatic Contaminants Research Division.

Dr Sigrun Kullik joined the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in 2022, where she contributes to the Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (CARSS) as the surveillance lead for AMR in built and natural environments. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in Environmental Biology and has contributed to diverse initiatives across the federal government, including integrated risk management, program evaluation, and the environmental assessment of pharmaceuticals and veterinary drugs. Most recently, she led the development of PHAC鈥檚 Environmental Surveillance Strategic Framework (ESSF), which provides guidance on increasing access to data and evidence for the environmental dimensions of AMR.

Dr Jennifer Ronholm is a Canadian academic and researcher specializing in food safety, microbiology, and public health. Her work focuses on antimicrobial resistance, pathogen surveillance, and evidence-based policy. She is dedicated to teaching, mentorship, and advancing One Health approaches that connect human, animal, and environmental health through integrated interdisciplinary research initiatives.