2022 – 33rd Annual Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) Awards Finalist (health innovation)
2021 – Innovation Excellence Award, Estblished Career, Faculty of Science (innovation and entrepreneurship)
2019 – Parex Resources Innovation Fellowship, Faculty of Science (innovation and entrepreneurship)
2019 – Innovate Calgary Achievement Award (innovation and entrepreneurship)
2009 – Canada Foundation for Innovation, Leaders Opportunity Award (research leadership and innovation)
2004 – C.D. Nelson Award, Canadian Society of Plant Biologists (research exellence)
2002 – Canada Research Chair (research excellence)
1995 – Arthur Neish Young Investigator Award, Phytochemical Society of North America (research excellence)
1995 – Young Investigator Award, Molson Breweries (research excellence)
1992 – NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship (academic excellence)
1989 – NSERC Postdoctoral Scholarship (academic excellence)
1988 - Wilton R. Earle Award, Tissue Culture Association (academic achievement)
Research is aimed at understanding the genetics, biochemistry, cellular biology, and molecular physiology of plant specialized metabolism with a focus on benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in opium poppy. Objectives include biosynthetic and ancillary gene isolation, pathway elucidation, and mechanisms of metabolic regulation, although interests encompass a wide range of competencies from plant genome analysis to protein structural biology. The availability of an extensive toolbox of genes and an increasingly accurate set of assembly instructions has created unprecedented metabolic engineering opportunities in plants and microorganisms. Yeast strains producing a variety of natural and synthetic high-value plant metabolites are engineered and used for both basic research and commercial applications.