MSc Position to Study Erythrocyte Fatty Acid Signatures Associated with Dairy Intakes and Cardiometabolic Disease Risk Factors in a Canadian Population

Dr. David M Mutch (Human Health and Nutritional Sciences)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Dairy foods and beverages provide various nutrients that are important for health and development, including vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, and fatty acids. Despite this, many Canadians are eating less dairy due to contradictory messaging about its effect on health. The relationship between dairy and health is complex, and may depend on the amount of dairy consumed, the type of dairy consumed, and the overall fat content of the dairy consumed. These differences may be due to the varying fatty acid compositions of different dairy products that can then modify blood fatty acid profiles in distinct ways. This is particularly important because blood fatty acid profiles are now considered markers of disease risk. The overall goal of this research project is to apply supervised and unsupervised clustering methods to investigate the relationships between dairy intakes, blood fatty acids, and risk factors for common diseases in a representative Canadian population using data collected in the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) study by Stats Canada.

The successful candidate will use supervised and unsupervised clustering techniques, as well as multiple linear regression, to explore the relationship between blood fatty acid profiles in different dairy intake groups and their associations with quantitative cardiometabolic risk markers in ~4,000 Canadians. The data used was collected as part of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) study by Statistics Canada and will be accessed through a secure Stats Canada facility at the University of Guelph main campus.

HOW TO APPLY: Interested candidates should send a CV, a copy of undergraduate transcripts, names of three references, and a cover letter stating interest in the above-mentioned research topic to Dr. David M Mutch at dmutch@uoguelph.ca [1].

Selection of the successful candidate is based on a combination of academic criteria, relevant experience, and referees’ evaluations. Previous experience in programming (e.g., R ) and knowledge of statistical methods such as clustering analysis and regression models will be considered an asset. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

MSc position to study the relationship between host genetics and pig gut microbiome  

Dr. Brandon Lillie (Pathobiology), Dr. Khurram Nadeem (Mathematics and Statistics), Dr. Vahab Farzan (Pathobiology and Population Medicine) 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The microbial colonization of the neonatal and adult gut plays a key role in function of immunological and metabolic pathways that influence disease resistance, health, and performance of pigs. Indeed, the mechanism-of-action of many commercially available intervention strategies and products designed to promote health and performance in pigs and replace antibiotics, is associated with their demonstrated ability to modify the composition of the gut microbiome. The application of molecular and bioinformatics methods has demonstrated that the gut microbiome is abundant, complex, and highly dynamic, partly influenced by host genetics.  The overall goal of this MSc project is to investigate the relationship between host genetics and the swine gut microbiome. The project is specifically aiming to identify the single nucleotide variants with known roles in innate immunity and host resistance to microbes, as well as SNPs spaced across the entire genome, using a genome wide association study (GWAS) approach.   

JOB DESCRIPTION: The successful candidate will develop and utilize bioinformatics pipelines to model various outcomes related to microbiome (Ex. alpha and beta diversity, microbiome composition) against single nucleotide variants through statistical modeling and genome wide association study.  

Selection of the successful candidate is based on a combination of academic criteria, relevant experience, and referees’ evaluations. Previous experience in programming (e.g., R or Python) and knowledge of statistical methods such as regression analysis will be considered an asset. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. The interested candidates should send a CV, a copy of undergraduate transcripts, a code example, a writing sample, names of three references, and a cover letter stating interest in the above-mentioned research topic to Dr. Vahab Farzan at afarzan@uoguelph.ca [2].   

The University of Guelph is committed to an Employment Equity Program that includes special measures to achieve diversity among its faculty and staff. We therefore particularly encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups.  

Browse previous M.Sc./Ph.D. opportunities [3] that have been filled.