Herb Schellhorn - Department of Biology

All courses for every first-year Science student will be delivered online this fall. A limited number of students in their second, third and fourth years will return to campus for part of the semester.

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Research in the area of ‘bioinformatics and functional genomics’ leverages the power of genomic and post-genomic technologies, to address fundamentally important biological questions in a wide range of organisms, from a molecular level, through to a population perspective. Our laboratories provide a superb training environment for motivated post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates.

Relevant Graduate Courses

BIOL 6DD3 / Molecular Evolution
BIOL 708 / Quantitative Methods in Ecology and Evolution
BIOL 709 / Special Topics in Biology
BIOL 715 / Topics in Evolutionary Genetics
BIOL 720 / Bioinformatics
BIOL 721 / Topics in Molecular Evolution
BIOL 724 / Molecular Ecology
BIOL 742 / Molecular and Metabolomic Responses of Plants to Environmental Perturbations
BIOL 775 / Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Genomics
Education *750 / Principles and Practices of University Teaching

Explore the Graduate Courses page for more information

Research Highlights

3.5 million dollar Ontario Research Fund grant awarded to Dr. Weretilnyk to use next generation sequencing to reveal the incredible stress tolerance mechanisms of the Yukon native plant Thellungiella. The long term goal is use this knowledge to improve crop stress tolerance and sustainability.
2.8 million dollar ORF grant awarded to Dr. Herb Schellhorn and colleagues, to fund studies into water contamination by E. coli bacteria
Infection modelling by the Dushoff lab has provided key insights into the spread of HIV and influenza infections (as published in PLoS Biology and PNAS)
Recent work by the Evans lab has uncovered new amphibian species (as profiled on CBC), revealed variation in the genetic mechanisms for sex determination in frogs, and explored how social systems affect gene evolution in primates
Functional genomic analyses by the Finan lab (funded by Genome Canada) have significantly advanced our understanding of bacterial-plant symbiosis
The Golding lab is a national leader in understanding molecular evolution, and has provided important analyses into antibiotic resistance (Nature, 2011), and the bubonic plague (Nature, 2011)
Discoveries in the Elliot lab have revealed novel mechanisms governing bacterial development (PNAS, 2011), and led to the development of new strategies to stimulate antibiotic production (mBio, 2012)
Work in the Stone laboratory focuses on ‘big picture’ questions, as befits the Associate Director of the Origins Institute here at McMaster

Herb Schellhorn

Contact Info

Title:

Professor

Office:

LSB 433

Phone:

(905) 525-9140 ext. 27316

Email:

...

Website:

Website

Research

We study gene regulation and physiological adaptation in E. coli and other bacteria to better understand how bacteria cause disease and persist in the environment. We also have many collaborative projects with biochemists, engineers, industry and government agencies to develop new tools for monitoring water quality and understanding waste treatment processes from a microbiological perspective. We are using new DNA sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis tools to track microorganisms, characterize composition of complex microbial communities and conduct comprehensive studies of gene expression.

Research Interests:

Bioinformatics & Functional Genomics; Genetics & Molecular Biology

Publications

Publications

Mohiuddin, MM and H.E. Schellhhorn. (2019). Epidemiology and ecology of emerging viruses in two freshwater lakes of the northern hemisphere. In Emerging and Reemerging Viral Pathogens. 1st Edition Volume 2: Applied Virology Approaches Related to Human, Animal and Environmental Pathogens. Moulay Ennaji (ed.) Academic Press. New York.

Chan, A., J. Naphtali and H.E. Schellhorn. (2019). Implementation of Massively Parallel DNA Sequencing Technologies: Strategies for Water and Wastewater Analysis. In press Science Progress

Mohiuddin M., S.A. Botts, A. Paschos. and H.E. Schellhorn. (2018). Temporal and Spatial Changes in Bacterial Diversity in Mixed Use Watersheds of the Great Lakes Region. Journal of Great Lakes Research 10:109-118

Cao CR Kelly R Igdoura SA Schellhorn HE. (2018). Ectopic Gene Expression to Restore the Ascorbate Biosynthesis Pathway in Vertebrates Lacking Functional Gulo. Genomics & Gene Therapy International Journal. 2(1): 000108

Goh, Sharon; Luan, Yafei; Wang, Xiaojing; Du, Hui; Chau, Colleen; Schellhorn, Herbert; Brash, John L; Chen, Hong; Fang, Qiyin. (2018). Polydopamine-polyethylene glycol-albumin antifouling coatings on multiple substrates: variations. Journal of Materials Chemistry B: 2018,6, 940-949.

Naphtali P, Mohiuddin MM, Paschos A, Schellhorn HE. (2019). Application of high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing to identify fecal contamination sources and to complement the detection of fecal indicator bacteria in rural groundwater. J Water Health. 2019 Jun;17(3):393-403. doi: 10.2166/wh.2019.295.

Mohiuddin MM, Salama Y, Schellhorn HE, Golding GB. (2017). Shotgun metagenomic sequencing reveals freshwater beach sands as reservoir of bacterial pathogens. Water Res. 2017 May 15;115:360-369. doi: 10.1016/

Schellhorn, H.E., Mohammad Mohiuddin, Sarah M. Hammond, and Steven Botts. (2016). Regulators of oxidative stress response genes in Escherichia coli and their functional conservation in bacteria. Frans deBruin. Stress and Environmental control of Gene Expression in Bacteria. 1(1): 632-638. Published, Wiley Blackwell

Mohiuddin M, Schellhorn HE. (2015). Spatial and temporal dynamics of virus occurrence in two freshwater lakes captured through metagenomic analysis. Frontiers in Microbiology. 6: 960.

Wong, Shirley, Paschos, Athanasios; Gupta, Radhey; Schellhorn, H.E. (2014). Insertion/deletion (indel) based approach for the detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in freshwater environments. Environmental Science & Technology. 48(19): 11462-70.

Naushad, Sohail, Mobolaji Adeolu, Shirley Wong, Misbah Sohail, Herb E. Schellhorn, and Radhey S. Gupta. (2014) A phylogenomic and molecular marker based taxonomic framework for the order Xanthomonadales: proposal to transfer the families Algiphilaceae and Solimonadaceae to the order Nevskiales ord. nov. and to create a new family within the order Xanthomonadales, the family Rhodanobacteraceae fam. nov., containing the genus Rhodanobacter and its closest relatives. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 2014 Dec 7.

Schellhorn HE. (2014). Elucidating the function of the RpoS regulon. Future Microbiology. 9(4):497-507.

Howard-Azzeh, M., Shamseer, L., Schellhorn, H.E. and Gupta, R.S. (2014). Phylogenetic analysis and molecular signatures defining a monophyletic clade of heterocystous cyanobacteria and identifying its closest relatives. Photosynthesis Research. 122(2): 171-185.

Yu, R. and H.E. Schellhorn. 2013. Recent applications of engineered animal antioxidant deficiency models in human nutrition and chronic disease. Journal of Nutrition 143(1) 1-11.

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Mailing Address

Department of Biology
McMaster University
Life Sciences Building, Room 218
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
L8S 4K1

Contact Information

Office Hours:
8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Telephone:
+1 (905) 525-9140 ext.24400
Email:
biology@mcmaster.ca

Mailing Address

Department of Biology
McMaster University
Life Sciences Building, Room 215
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
L8S 4K1

Contact Information

Office Hours:
8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Telephone:
+1 (905) 525-9140 ext.24400
Email:
biology@mcmaster.ca