Christopher W. Cairo

  • 2020-present – Professor of Chemistry, University of Alberta
  • 2012 – 2020 – Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Alberta
  • 2006 – 2012 – Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Alberta
  • 2006 – NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard Medical School
  • 2002 – Ph.D. (Chemistry) University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • 1996 – B.Sc. (Chemistry) SUNY-Albany

Chris originally hails from the great state of New York, where he pursued his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the State University of New York-Albany. In 1996, he moved on to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the supervision of Prof. Laura L. Kiessling. After completing his graduate studies in 2002, he was an NIH Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology with Prof. David E. Golan. Chris began his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta in July of 2006, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 (with tenure), and Full Professor in 2020. He was a Principal Investigator in the Alberta Glycomics Centre (formerly known as the  Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Carbohydrate Science (AICCS)) until 2018, and is also a Network Investigator (NI) in GlycoNet. His research interests include carbohydrate chemistry, chemical biology, biophysics, bioorganic and peptide chemistry, and cell biology.

Classes Taught:

  • Chem 261/264 – Introductory Organic Chemistry I
  • Chem 263/265 – Introductory Organic Chemistry II
  • Chem 669 – Carbohydrate Chemistry & Glycobiology
  • Chem 454/554 – Bioconjugate Chemistry

Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Manas Jana, Ph.D.
  • Anand Bandaru, Ph.D.
  • Md. Amran Howlader, Ph.D.

Technicians & Research Assistants

  • R. Blake Zheng, M.Sc.

Graduate Students

  • Hanh-Thuc Tran (Chemical Biology)
  • Mostafa Radwan (Chemical Biology)
  • Fatma Eljabu (Chemical Biology)
  • Princey Raju (Chemical Biology)
  • Nevine Elsayed (Chemical Biology)
  • Hossen Varghaei (Chemical Biology)

Former Graduate Students

  • Naresh Tulsi, M.Sc. 2011 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Analyst, Stryker Co., Australia
  • Chris M. Sadek, M.Sc. 2011 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Instructor, Mount Royal University
  • Njuacha George Ebesoh, M.Sc. 2011 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Alberta Health Services
  • Jessie A. Key, Ph.D 2011 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Professor, Vancouver Island University
  • Ravi S. Loka, Ph.D 2011 (Organic Chemistry) – Current position: Research Assistant, Univ Michigan
  • Yao Zou, M.Sc. 2011 (Organic Chemistry) – Current position: Gilead Pharmaceuticals LLC, Edmonton AB
  • A. Michael Downey, M.Sc. 2012 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: PDF w/ Prof. P. H. Seeberger (Max Planck Inst. Colloids and Interfaces)
  • Feng Jia, M.Sc. 2013 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Lab Analyst, Lab Smart Inc., Edmonton AB
  • Amgad Albohy, Ph.D. 2014 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Assistant Prof., British University in Egypt (BUE) Cairo, Egypt.
  • Neha Khanna, M.Sc. 2014 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Toronto Research Chemicals, Toronto, ON
  • Arpand Dandapat, M.Sc. 2014 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Toronto Research Chemicals, Toronto, ON
  • Daniel Hernandez Armada, M.Sc. 2014 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Core Services Workflow Coordinator, Alberta Glycomics Centre
  • Radhika Chakraberty, M.Sc, 2018 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: Analyst, Lab Smart, Edmonton AB
  • Md. Amran Howlader, Ph.D. 2019 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: East-West University, Bangaledesh.
  • Carmanah Hunter, Ph.D. 2020 (Chemical Biology) – Current position: PDF w/ Prof. L. Willis (Univ Alberta).

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Mahendra Sandbhor, Ph.D. (2007-2011) – Current position: Sussex Research, Ottawa ON
  • Yi Zhang, Ph.D. (2011-2013) – Current position: Research scientist, CanmetENERGY-Devon, Natural Resources Canada
  • Caishun (Carson) Li, Ph.D. (2009-2014) – Current position: Research Associate, 48 Hr Discovery
  • Gour Daskhan, Ph.D. (2018) – Current position: PDF, University of Alberta
  • Tianlin Guo, Ph.D. (2017-2019) – Current position: Research Scientist, NuChem, Montreal Quebec
  • Nahoko Yagami, Ph.D. (2019-2021) – Current position: Research Scientist, AIST, Japan

Former Technicians & Research Assistants

  • Ileana Strelkov, M.Sc.
  • Kieran McGowan
  • Chunxia (Cecilia) Zou, M.Sc.

Former Undergraduate Students & Interns

  • Mitch J. Huot (Chemistry, ’07)
  • Amanda Leong (Biological Sciences & Psychology, ’11)
  • Vicki Lee (Neurobiology)
  • Tete Li (Biochemistry, ’09)
  • Matthew D. Li (Engineering, ’12)
  • A. Michael Downey (Pharmacology, ’09)
  • Soo Hur (Biochemistry, ’12)
  • Katelynne Madill (King’s College, ’13)
  • Brent Andringa (Chemistry, ’14)
  • Jobette Santos (Chemistry, ’15)
  • Hyun Joo (Esther) Yang (Chemistry, ’15)
  • Tyler Ruel (Biological Sciences, ’15)
  • Danyang Liu (Research Intern, Ji Lin University)
  • Dana Boe (Chemistry, ’18)
  • Marina Eckerman (Research Intern, University of Munich)
  • Julia Rode (Research Intern, Technical University of Munich)
  • Elizabeth Porter (Research intern, Univ British Columbia)
  • Karen de Oliveira Cruvinel (Research intern, Unicamp Sao Paulo, Brazil)
  • Miho Mitsubara (Research intern, Gifu Univ, Japan)
  • Rachel Gibbs (Univ of Alberta)