Siavash Amon, Ph.D.

Education

PDF., Microbiology, McMaster University.
Ph.D., Neuroscience and Molecular Biology, McMaster University.
M.Sc., Neuroscience and Molecular Biology, McMaster University.
B.Sc., Microbiology, University of Waterloo.

Areas of Specialization

Area of research: Gut Microbiome, Neuroscience, Genetics, Toxicology

My lab works with a small nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, model organism to study how environment impacts health and development. The environmental factors that we focus on are pharmaceutical drugs and gut microbiota. We ask several fundamental questions, such as what makes a gut microbiome ‘healthy’? What are good or bad microbes? Can microbiomes harm or protect the intestine, muscle and the nervous system? We address these questions using interdisciplinary approaches at the intersection of molecular biology, neuroscience, and genetics.

Furthermore, my lab is also interested in using the human microbiome to identify factor(s) that reduce sign and symptoms of several common neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and many others. In addition, we are also studying the toxicological effects of common pharmaceutical drugs on health, especially on the nervous system. Together, my research is purposefully designed to shed some light on the function of the human microbiota and pharmaceutical drugs on overall health.

If you are interested, please contact me for a research opportunity. Students in my lab will gain experience in molecular biology, neuroscience, and microbiology.

Awards and Honors

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2018-2019

Publications

Vera-Cruz, A. G*., Amon, S*., Rashid, S*., & MacNeil, L. T. (2018). wrt-2 expres- sion oscillates during larval development. microPublication Biology. 10.17912/4bw7- ep56.

Amon, S., & Gupta, B. P. (2017). Intron-specific patterns of divergence of lin-11 regulatory function in the C. elegans nervous system. Developmental Biology, 424(1), 90-103. 1/4 Education

2017 Amon, S., & Gupta, B. P. (2017). Multi-species alignments of C. elegans lin-11 intronic sequences and putative transcriptional regulators. Data in Brief, 12, 87-90. 2013

Salam S, Ansari A, Amon S, Rezai P, Selvaganapathy PR, Mishra RK and Gupta BP (2013). A microfluidic phenotype analysis system reveals function of sensory and dopaminergic neuron signaling in C. elegans electrotactic swimming behavior. Worm, 2(3).