Vanina Zaremberg

I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am a proud graduate of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). My background is in biology and biochemistry. After obtaining my PhD I moved in 2000 to Canada to initiate postdoctoral studies in Dr CR McMaster's lab, at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Five years later I moved to Calgary to open my own research group to study lipid metabolism, supported by a University Faculty Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary.

Research Area:  Lipid metabolism and signaling in eukaryotes

Research Interests:

Biotechnological and medical applications, from biofuel production to vaccine development, rely on the knowledge provided by fundamental lipid research.

Lipids are key components of cellular membranes playing structural and signalling roles. Cells also use lipids as an efficient and safe way to store energy.

We use budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as a model organism and a combination of approaches from the fields of Biochemistry, Cell Biology and Genetics to investigate:

• how lipid biosynthesis is regulated
• how lipid pools are distributed in eukaryotic cell
• how lipid drugs that target cellular membranes impact lipid production, distribution and signalling

Our research program focuses on 

1. Phosphatidic acid biosynthesis
2. Phosphatidic acid and diacylglycerol pools
3. Targeting membranes by ether lipid drugs
4. Ether lipids biosynthesis

• Maria Laura Sosa Ponce (PhD student)
• Mayrene Horta Remedios (MSc student)
• Victoria Li (MSc student)
• Andrew Henderson (MSc student)
• Dr. Suria Ganesan (PDF)

• Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

• Discovery Accelerator Supplement , Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. 2016
• Great Supervisor Award, Faculty of Graduate Studies, U of C. 2015
• University Faculty Award, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. 2006
• Post-doctoral Fellowship, Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation . 2003
• Post-doctoral Fellowship, CaRE Nova Scotia- Cancer Research Training Program. 2001
• Doctoral Research Fellowship, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1995

• Courses