Students & Postdocs
Name: Neslihan Donmez University and Department: University of Guelph, Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource EconomicsEmail: ndonmez@uoguelph.ca Neslihan is a Master’s student in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Guelph. She completed her undergraduate degree and first Master’s degree in Economics at Yildiz Technical University in Türkiye. After graduating, she worked for more than four years in the Economics and Social Research Department of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. She enjoys conducting research, and her current Master’s thesis focuses on consumer perceptions of cultured meat in Canada.
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Name: Chang Ge University and Department: McMaster University, School of Biomedical EngineeringEmail: gec@mcmaster.ca Chang Ge is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at McMaster University working in the area of cultivated meat and cellular agriculture. Her research focuses on overcoming metabolic limitations, such as lactate accumulation, that restrict the efficient expansion of bovine muscle satellite cells at high density. She addresses these challenges by combining metabolic regulation strategies with engineered 3D cell culture environments that better support cell growth and function. This work aims to enable sustained proliferation while preserving myogenic potential, with an emphasis on developing culture approaches that are compatible with long-term expansion and translatable to bioreactor-based production systems.
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Name: Gizem Goker University and Department: University of Guelph, Department of Food ScienceEmail: ggoker@uoguelph.ca Gizem is a PhD student in Food Science at the University of Guelph. She earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Food Engineering from Ankara University, Turkey. Her research focuses on developing self-assembled scaffolds for cultivated meat applications. These scaffolds are composed of ceramide matrices designed to support organized cell growth and tissue formation, contributing to sustainable alternative meat production.
Name: Niayesh Namdar University and Department: University and Department: University of Toronto, Department of Chemical EngineeringEmail: niayesh.namdarmehdiabadi@mail.utoronto.ca Niayesh is a first year MASc student working on LCA study of Cultured Meat vs. Conventional Meat Production. She has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from University of Toronto.
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Name: Sruthi Sasidharan University and Department: McMaster University, School of Biomedical EngineeringEmail: sasidhas@mcmaster.ca Sruthi is a PhD candidate in the School of Biomedical Engineering at McMaster University, who joined in September 2024. Since then, she has been working on the Cultivated Meat project. She is currently doing her research on finding ways to reduce the accumulation of toxic cellular metabolites such as Lactate/ Ammonia in the bioreactor spent media, so as to reuse the spent media for continued cell growth and hence, improve the productivity of cultivated meat cost-effectively. She is currently applying enzymatic techniques to achieve this reduction. Her research interests lie in biomaterials, bio-fabrication, scaffold-fabrication, hydrogels, medical device development, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Before her PhD studies, she was working as Project Scientist in Polymeric Biomedical Devices, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Kerala, India. She completed her Master of Science (MSc) in Advanced Chemical Engineering from The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom and her Bachelors (B.Tech) in Chemical Engineering from University of Kerala, India.
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Name: Nicholas L Grzelak University and Department: McMaster University, School of Biomedical EngineeringEmail: grzelakn@mcmaster.ca Nicholas graduated from McMaster University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Management in 2024 with a specialization in smart systems. He is currently pursuing a MASc in Mechanical Engineering at the Intelligent and Cognitive Engineering (ICE) Laboratory. Working with Genome Canada, he is exploring Self Driving Labs (SDLs) to advance cultivated meat research. He has designed and manufactured a robotic platform suitable for autonomously passaging cells. In his work he has investigated AI to aid in data acquisition and control.
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Name: Brett Sicard University and Department: McMaster University, Department of Mechanical EngineeringEmail: sicardb@mcmaster.ca Brett Sicard is a sessional instructor and PhD student in the Intelligent and Cognitive Engineering (ICE) Laboratory. He is working with Genome Canada, where he supports a master’s student who is exploring Self Driving Labs (SDLs) to advance cultivated meat research.
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Name: Alexandra Steele University and Department: McMaster University, Department of Medical SciencesEmail: steela2@mcmaster.ca Alexandra completed her undergraduate degree in Medical Sciences at Western University followed by a Master of Science at McMaster University. She is currently a PhD student in Dr. Thomas Hawke’s lab, where her research focuses on identifying novel satellite cell populations and exploring their translational applications in cellular agriculture and regenerative medicine.
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Name: Anika Syroid University and Department: McMaster University and Department of Pathology and Molecular MedicineEmail: syroida@mcmaster.ca Anika completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at McMaster University. She is now a PhD student in Dr. Thomas Hawke's lab at McMaster University studying muscle satellite cells as potential cell sources for cultivated meat production and regenerative medicine.
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Name: Brooke McCoy University and Department: McMaster University and Department of PhilosophyEmail: mccoyb2@mcmaster.ca Brooke is a Graduate Research Fellow at the Institute on Ethics and Policy for Innovation (IEPI). Currently, Brooke is a master’s student in McMaster University’s philosophy department, under the supervision of Dr. Claudia Emerson. Brooke is interested in bioethics, philosophy of technology, and feminist philosophy. Her research focuses on ethics and cell-cultivated meat, which is conducted in collaboration with Genome Canada’s Omics Guided Technologies for Scalable Production of Cell-Cultivated Meat. Brooke holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Certificate for Applied Ethics and Policy from McMaster University. Brooke’s goal at IEPI is to further her philosophical knowledge, while contributing to meaningful work with hopes to make an impact on the world.
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Name: Jérémy Postat, PhD University and Department: InnovaCité – BIOlabEmail: jposta@lacitec.on.ca Jérémy is a Researcher at the Innovacité BIOlab, where he supervises applied research projects in the fields of health and cultivated meat. He leads the BIOlab Biotechnology of Health axis and guides its scientific direction. He writes grant applications and oversees project advancement to support the R&D progress of his industrial collaborators. Prior to joining BIOlab, Dr. Postat served as a Postdoctoral Researcher and later as a Research Associate at McGill University, where he led academic research in immunology. He earned his PhD in Immunology from the Institut Pasteur and is a professeur agrégé in biochemistry and biotechnology.
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Name: Yan Liu University and Department: University of Guelph and Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource EconomicsEmail: liu21@uoguelph.ca Yan is a second-year graduate student. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics, and currently studying Food, Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of Guelph. Her current research topic is "The Impact of Information on Consumers’ Perception of Cultured Meat".
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Name: Mugil Soorya P M University and Department: McMaster University and School of Biomedical EngineeringEmail: palanism@mcmaster.ca Mugil Soorya P M is a PhD researcher with an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology and a Master’s in Medical Biotechnology. He has a strong interest in tissue engineering and biomaterials, with experience in translational biomedical research. His current work focuses on engineering functional skeletal muscle for cultivated meat applications using biomaterial-based bioinks and 3D bioprinting strategies to develop structured muscle fibers that closely mimic native tissue. His long-term vision is to advance sustainable, animal-free platforms for both protein production and drug testing through innovative bioengineering approaches.
Name: Lauren Rundell University and Department: University and Department: McMaster University and Department of PhilosophyEmail: palanism@mcmaster.ca Lauren is a Graduate Research Fellow at the Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation (IEPI) and a McMaster Ph.D. Philosophy student. Her research focuses on environmental ethics and uses a relational approach to understand what obligations we have towards our environment and communities. Her research intersects with political philosophy, care ethics, place-based knowledge, and public policy. Her current project addresses contemporary food systems and seeks to answer questions such as: How do we, in the West, view our food? Why do we view it this way, and what are the ethical, social, and cultural implications of doing so? Do we have an ethical obligation to change the way we understand food in addressing the climate crisis? And, what role does novel food technology play in creating sustainable food systems? Lauren holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from MacEwan University (Alberta) and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from McMaster University (Ontario). She is currently working towards her Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Claudia Emerson and in collaboration with Genome Canada’s Omics Guided Technologies for Scalable Production of Cell-Cultivated Meat.
Name: Daniel Sim University and Department: McMaster University and School of Biomedical EngineeringEmail: simd4@mcmaster.ca Daniel has a background in toxicology and biomaterials, with a strong focus on the lifecycle of products. Currently, Daniel is working on the development of micro-scaffolds for the scale-up of cell culture in bioreactors with the eventual goal of cultivating meat. Outside of the lab, he enjoys working out, hiking, camping and gardening.
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