Dr. Langille is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Dalhousie University and co-founder and Director of the (IMR). He has been studying microbial communities since 2009 with his current focus on understanding human–microbial interactions and developing innovative bioinformatic tools to analyze microbiome data. As a Canada Research Chair in Human Microbiomics, Dr. Langille’s work integrates genomics, metagenomics, and bioinformatic analyses to support discoveries in health, disease, and precision medicine. He has led the development of widely used microbiome software tools, contributed extensively to the fields of microbiome bioinformatics and microbial genomics, and authored a large body of highly cited scientific publications. Outside of the lab, you will likely find him on the ice or bench, where he coaches and cheers on his three boys in hockey.

Dr. Comeau is the co-founder and Manager of the IMR. An environmental and medical microbiologist, with a focus on ecology and microbial genome evolution, he completed his studies at Acadia University (BScH) and UBC (PhD), before completing post-docs with the CNRS (Toulouse, FR) and Université Laval (Québec). He participated in oceanographic expeditions along the coast of BC and the Canadian Arctic, and has characterized numerous novel bacteriophage genomes. He implemented NGS pipelines for sequencing and analysis on 454 technology in Québec before making the move to Dalhousie to help establish Illumina and PacBio pipelines at the IMR. Outside the IMR, he enjoys astro- and landscape photography, gaming, digital painting/design, and curling.

Dr. Gohil is a Research Associate at the IMR, having joined in 2023 after a post-doc at the VIDO (Univ. of Sask.), where she focused on the population genomics of pathogens linked to STIs. She earned her PhD from Sardar Patel University (India), where she studied rumen metagenomics in Indian cattle. She also developed a virome enrichment method and gained experience with multiple NGS platforms (GS-FLX 454, Ion Torrent PGM, MiSeq. At the IMR, she oversees long-read sequencing using the Vega (PacBio) platform, leads R&D on complex/problematic samples, and develops SOPs. She is also deeply involved in analyzing clients' data and plays an integral role in testing and validating new bioinformatics tools for PacBio data in collaboration with others in the lab. Her passion for education is reflected in her supervision of students, where she shares her knowledge of NGS methods and techniques. Outside of her research, she enjoys exploring new places, photography, and music.

After completing a PhD in Neuroscience and Physiology, Dylan wanted to explore his interest in sequencing technology and bioinformatics and joined IMR in 2023. In addition to preparing samples for metagenomic sequencing, Dylan focuses on operations and sample throughput at the IMR by streamlining library preparation with liquid handlers, and the design internal business tools to optimize order submission and organization. Outside of the lab, Dylan enjoys the balance of working outdoors, where he runs a wild blueberry farm.

Alessi has been a key part of the IMR team as a Microbiome Sequencing Technician since 2018. Her primary responsibilities are to receive, organize and store samples for microbiome profiling, prepare DNA sequencing libraries, load and monitor sequencing runs and retrieve files for researchers on multiple projects. Her background spans from Agriculture (Bsc.), to Microbiology and Immunology (MPhil), Entomology (Mosquito Research) and Microbiome studies (MSc.).