About Us
Welcome to the Alberta Node of the Canadian Bioinformatics Hub–Canada’s platform for Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Data Science skills and community development. The national CBH network consists of six Regional Nodes hosted by partner institutions in strategic regions: Atlantic, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, the Prairies, and British Columbia. Each node plays a crucial role in CBH’s mission by offering localized training programs, building partnerships with regional stakeholders, and providing opportunities for active involvement of community members in their initiatives.
The CBH Alberta Node is based at University of Alberta, representing all of Alberta. This regional team is responsible for representing your bioinformatics and computational biology interests at the national level.
Our resources are structured around the platform’s two main pillars: training and community. The Training Portal will serve as a central hub for all partner-led bioinformatics and professional development training programs aligned with competency-based learning paths. It will also host our training awards program. The Community portal will extend the trainee experience with valuable resources and activities, including career recognition awards, mentorship opportunities, networking events, a national conference, and regional bioinformatics user groups.
CBH Alberta Team
David Wishart, PhD
Director, CBH Alberta
Distinguished University Professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science, adjunct professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Dr. David S. Wishart (PhD Yale, 1991) was born and raised in Edmonton and identifies as Metis. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Since 1995, he has been a professor at the University of Alberta. Currently, he is a Distinguished University Professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science with adjunct appointments in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. His research interests are broad and include metabolomics, analytical chemistry, food chemistry, natural product chemistry, molecular biology, protein chemistry and neuroscience. He has developed several widely used techniques using NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography and gas chromatography to characterize the structures of both large and small molecules. He has led the “Human Metabolome Project” (HMP), a multi-university, multi-investigator project that catalogued >250,000 human metabolites in human tissues and biofluids.
Mark Berjanskii
Regional Coordinator, CBH Alberta
Mark received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, in 2002, where he studied the structure and dynamics of oncoviral proteins with high-resolution NMR methods. Mark conducted his post-doctoral research of protein structural biology in University of Michigan, USA, and then joined Dr. Wishart’s group at University of Alberta, Canada, to work on data analysis and software development in the fields of metabolomics, NMR, and protein structure and dynamics.
Robyn Woudstra
Regional Coordinator Assistant, CBH Alberta
Robyn is a research assistant at the University of Alberta’s Wishart Lab, where she combines her diverse skill set in computing science, bioinformatics, and creative design to contribute to research projects. She received a BSc. in Computing Science with a minor in Bioinformatics from the University of Alberta in 2024, following her earlier education in graphic design and advertising at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 2017. Passionate about community engagement and scientific literacy, she holds volunteer positions with a variety of local organizations.
Contact
To contact CBH Alberta, email alberta@bioinformatics.ca or use our contact form. For general inquiries about CBH, contact our Platform Leadership Unit at info@bioinformatics.ca.
Additionally, visit our LinkedIn page for regional updates.