Training and Skills
The Reisner lab provides training in a broad range of experimental, theoretical and data oriented analytical skills that are in high demand in academia and industry. In today’s fast moving job market impacted unpredictably by current events and emerging technological trends such as generative artificial intelligence, we believe that the best career approach is a broad-based training that couples experimental and analytical skill sets in a variety of disciplines. In particular, our bet is that the convergence of novel high-throughput single molecule approaches with machine learning/advanced quantitative modelling and their application to biomedicine will be a particular focus of economic growth/opportunity in the coming years, leading to opportunities in both academia and industry.
Device Fabrication. On the experimental side, in fabricating your nanofluidic device, you will learn nanofabrication techniques such as optical/electron beam lithography, thin materials deposition and reactive ion etching. As many projects involve coupling these processes in novel ways, you will learn how to develop and trouble shoot your own novel nanofabrication process. This skill set considered alone is sufficient to land a job in sectors that require nanofabrication experts.
Device Operation. Once you have fabricated your device, you will operate it using microscopy and electrical sensing setups using a variety of biological samples. In doing so you will learn a variety of skills critical to single-molecule biophysics and micro/nanofluidics, such as nanofluidic transport, fluorescence microscopy and molecular biology protocols for sample preparation/handling.
Data Analysis, Physical Modeling and Machine Learning. Once you have acquired your microscopy and/or electrical data, you will develop customized data analysis routines to process your measurements and perform physical and machine learning based modelling.
Jobs
Reisner lab alumni have gone onto a range of rewarding careers in both academia and industry.
Undergraduate students who conducted research in the Reisner lab went onto graduate programs including, McGill (Quantitative Biology), KU Leuven, University of Chicago (Physics), Perimeter Institute, McGill (Physics) McGill (Digital Health Innovation), Harvard (Physics), Princeton, Oxford (Astrophysics), University of British Columbia (Physics), University of California, Berkley (Molecular & Cell Biology), University of Toronto (Physics).
MSc Students in the Reisner lab went onto PhD programs including McGill (Physics, Reisner Lab), Delft Institute of Technology (lab of Cees Dekker, top nanofluidics/biophysics lab in EU) and jobs including working for nanopore startups and in software development.
PhD Students in the Reisner lab graduated to do postdocs at MIT in single molecule biophysics, John Hopkins in extracelluar vesicle diagnostics, reinforcement learning in McGill's Computer Science program, NXTSENS Microsystems (academic-industry collaboration) and in my group! I have one graduate student who is now an associate professor.
Postdoctoral Fellows in the Reisner lab have gone onto positions in academia (two are now associate professors in engineering oriented fields) and industry, including BGI Genomics (top genomics provider in China).