Research technicians

Tom was raised in southern Ontario.  He obtained his B.Sc. (Agr.) with a major in Crop Science in 1984 from the University of Guelph.  Tom first worked in the bean breeding program as a summer student, then as a contract technician and is currently the technician responsible for field experiment organization and implementation.  He also is responsible for dry bean breeder seed production as a CSGA recognized plant breeder.  Tom has been involved in the development of many dry bean varieties, including OAC Rex.  In the winter semester Tom also runs the crossing program, creating hundreds of new bean populations each year.  Tom received his Professional Agrologist designation in 2007.  Tom currently serves as the secretary of the Ontario Pulse Crop Committee.
In his time off Tom enjoys family, backcountry canoe tripping, growing orchids, and cottageing just north of Owen Sound, ON.   

Jan was born and raised in Guelph. She obtained her BSc from the University of Guelph and has been a laboratory technician and lab manager in the Plant Agriculture Department for 33 years.  She brings her research and management expertise to the bean project by training and providing technical assistance to the numerous graduate and undergraduate students, post docs and other technical staff. She manages the inventory of the endless amount of supplies required in the lab, and oversees all aspects of laboratory safety. Jan works with Dr. Pauls and Dr. Navabi in the Crop Science Building at the University.
When she’s not at work Jan likes to travel and enjoys spending time at her cottage located near Parry Sound, Ontario.

Sudhakar holds a Bachelor of Science (2002) in Horticulture from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India and a Master of Science (2006) in Plant Genetic Manipulation from The University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Prior to joining the  Marsolais lab as Research Technician, Sudhakar completed a masters program in Biology at Western University, London, ON, again under the guidance of Dr. Marsolais. Over the past five years, Sudhakar has developed his expertise in the molecular physiology of beans, particularly on asparagine metabolism and the effect of sulphur nutrition on seed and protein yield.
His current research focus is on understanding the molecular basis for the variability in seed storage protein compositions in a set of related lines (SARC1, SMARC1-PN1 and SMARC1N-PN1) that exhibit deficiencies for the major seed storage proteins. He has also been involved in sequencing the above lines.   

Pandurangan, S., Pajak, A., Molnar, S.J., Cober, E.R., Dhaubhadel, S., Hernández-Sebastià, C., Kaiser, W.M., Nelson, R.L., Huber, S.C., and Marsolais, F. (2012). Relationship between asparagine metabolism and protein concentration in soybean seed. Journal of Experimental Botany, 63(8): 3173-3184.

Sudhakar Pandurangan
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada | Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada
1391 Sandford St. | 1391 rue Sandford
London, ON, N5V 4T3
Sudhakar.Pandurangan@agr.gc.ca
Telephone | Téléphone 519-457-1470 ext. | poste 314
Cell | Cellulaire 519-697-2343
Facsimile | Télécopieur 519-457-3997
 

Hailing from Peterborough, Geoff has worked in the Department of Plant Agriculture since 2002.  Starting off as a summer student, he eventually took over the canola breeding programme's field operations, while providing technical assistance to the dry bean programme.  Along with Tom Smith, Geoff helps plant, maintain and harvest the bean field research plots, as well as aiding with the bean breeding programme's crosses during the winter.
Geoff Worthington
Department of Plant Agriculture
Crop Science Building
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON
N1G 2W1
519-824-4120 ext. 58339

Prasanth works with Dr Gale Bozzo as a Research Assistant in the Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph. He is studying the key genes involved in the phenylpropanoid pathway responsible for post-harvest bean darkening. Prasanth was originally raised in Kerala, a beautiful strip of coastal territory in the southern tip of India. After finishing his bachelors’ degree in Agriculture, Prasanth worked for the Vegetable & Fruit Promotion Council Kerala for 5 years as Technical Officer and then moved to Canada in 2005. He received his MSc in Plant Science from Dalhousie University in 2009 and was actively involved in plant biology research at McMaster University before joining the Bean Genomics group in 2011.
In his time off Prasanth likes to be with family, watch classic Indian movies and enjoys traveling.
Publications

• Rayorath P, Benkel B, Hodges MD, Allan-Wojtas P, MacKinnon S, Critchley AT, Prithiviraj B (2009) Lipophilic components of brown seaweed, Ascophyllum nodosum, enhance freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Planta, 230:135-47.
• Khan W, Rayirath UP, Subramanian S, Jithesh N, Rayorath P, Hodges M., Critchley AT,  Craigie J.S., Norrie J., Prithiviraj B. (2009) Seaweed extracts as biostimulants of plant growth & development.  Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, 28:386-399.
• Rayorath P, Khan W, Palanisamy R, MacKinnon SL, Stefanova R, Hankins SD, Critchley AT, Prithiviraj B. (2008) Extracts of the brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum induce gibberellic acid (GA₃)-independent amylase activity in barley. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, 27:370-379. (Featured Article)
• Rayorath P, Narayanan JM, Farid A, Wajahatullah Khan, Palanisamy R, Hankins SD, Critchley AT, Prithiviraj B. (2007) Rapid Bioassays to evaluate the plant growth promoting activity of Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jol. using a model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. Journal of Applied Phycology. 20:423-429.

Patents

• Chung D and Rayorath P. C12 medium chain thioesterases. (2011) United States Patent Application 61509097
• Chung D and Rayorath P. C10 medium chain thioesterases. (2011)  United States Patent Application 61504688
• Chung D and Rayorath P. C8 medium chain thioesterases. (2011) United States Patent Application 61504554

Prasanth Nair
Department of Plant Agriculture
Bovey Building
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON
N1G 2W1
519-824-4120 ext. 56469

BaiLing works with Dr. Alireza Navabi as a Research Technician with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Harrow, Ontario. She develops breeder-friendly molecular markers，such as temperature switch PCR (TS-PCR) and high-resolution melt (HRM) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), for the bean-breeding program and carries out marker-assisted selection of common bean for disease resistance. She also develops reduced representation deep sequencing genomic DNA libraries to characterize the four local Xanthomonas axonopodis pv.phaseoli (Xap) strains, which cause common bacterial blight (CBB) of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). In addition, BaiLing also assists in seed production of bean mapping and breeding populations in the greenhouse, and maintenance of the molecular biology laboratory.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada/Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada
Telephone: (519) 738-1280 or (519) 738-1248
Facsimile: (519) 738-2929
Office Address/Adresse du bureau 2585 County Road 20
City, Province/Ville (Province) Harrow ON
Postal Code (Code postal) N0R 1G0 
zhangb@agr.gc.ca

Ronghua was originally raised in the mountainous city of ChongQing in China. She obtained her BSc and MSc from Sichuan University in China, majoring in Biochemistry. She received her PhD from the University of Guelph and later worked as a research associate studying the interactions between P-glycoprotein and chemotherapeutic drugs. Ronghua then joined Dr. Rong Cao’s research team as a Research Technician with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Guelph.  Her role in the Bean Genomics Project is to train and provide technical assistance to the graduate and undergraduate students, post docs and other technical staff.
In her spare time, Ronghua enjoys spending time with her family, brisk walking in the early mornings, gardening, and reading.

Barb works with Dr. Kangfu Yu as a Research Technician at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada center in Harrow, Ontario. Barb’s work includes the development of molecular markers for disease resistance and quality traits as well as the application of molecular markers in marker-assisted breeding. She is also researching cross pollinations to incorporate disease resistance and quality traits. Plant-microbe interactions and resistance to anthracnose (caused by Colletotrichum lindemuthianum) are others subjects Barb is investigating. Analysing quality traits through quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is also one of Barb’s projects. 

Terry works with Ali Navabi as a Reserch Technician at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada center in Harrow, Ontario.
Terry obtained his BSc. from the U. of Guelph and has worked at AAFC-Harrow since 1980 initially with the soybean program and then in dry bean breeding since 1989. Responsibilities include conducting field trials, generation advancement, selection,  disease screening, crossing, and coordinating evaluations for processing quality. Terry also is responsible for production, maintenance and distribution of breeder seed.  

Aga works with Dr. Frédéric Marsolais as a Research Technician at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada center in London, Ontario. She joined AAFC in 2006 after working for 8 years at University of Western Ontario in London.
She started with AAFC bringing a lot of molecular biology experience using mammalian system -  which was surprisingly easy to apply to plants. Who knew we were so closely related.
Her research now focuses mainly on protein composition of dry bean seed for nutrition as well as metabolism of amino acids in developing seeds in relation to protein content and quality.

Wenqing works with Dr. Krista Power as a Research Technician with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Guelph, Ontario.