Sepideh Pakpour

Assistant Professor

Mechanical

Office: EME3217
Phone: 250.807.9103
Email: sepideh.pakpour@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Engineering the human microbiome; Advanced statistical methods for analysis of big data (health sciences); Biology of built environment

Courses & Teaching

Biotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications; Engineering Human Microbiome; Fundamentals of Healthy Buildings

Biography

Dr. Pakpour joined UBC in 2018 as an Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering. She is a highly accomplished researcher with a track record of academic excellence during her PhD at UBC, followed by her Postdoctoral appointment at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Her fundamental research interest is to better comprehend forces and factors influencing the human microbiome, and how microorganisms interact with their environment, with each other, and with their host. She has also continuously focused on translating basic microbiome discoveries into applications ranging from bioengineering and biomaterials to medicine. Beside her core independent research, Dr. Pakpour has initiated and led a number of joint international projects. Currently, she is the microbiome research lead in the Nurse Engagement and Wellness Study (NEWS) as part of the Hoffman Program on Chemicals at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as well as the lead of Human Virus Project at MIT Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics. Her background and broad expertise in microbiome science, omic technologies and advanced bioinformatics have allowed her to establish the Biomedical Microbiome Research (BMR) laboratory at UBC focusing on advancing microbiome science in health and disease.

Dr. Pakpour is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards from The Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT), as well as Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Websites

Pakpour Lab Website

Degrees

Postdoctoral Fellow - Infectious Disease & Microbiome, Broad Institute of Harvard & Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Postdoctoral Fellow - Biological Engineering, MIT
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
PhD – Biology, University of British Columbia
MSc – Food Science & Agricultural Chemistry, McGill University

Research Interests & Projects

• Human Virome in Health and Disease
• Non-invasive Microbiome Based Diagnostics and Therapies
• Healthy Built Environment

Selected Publications & Presentations

Selected Journal Publications

Mahmoudi, M., Pakpour, S., Perry, G., (2018) “Drug-Abuse Nanotechnology: Opportunities and Challenges”, ACS Chemical Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00127

Pakpour, S., Bhavadia, A., Zue, R., Amarnani, A., Gibbons, S. M., Gurry, T., Martello-Rooney, L., Alm, E. J. (2017) “Identifying predictive features of Clostridium difficile infection recurrence before, during, and after primary antibiotic treatment”, Microbiome, 5: pp 1-10

Crawford, B.*, Pakpour, S.*, Kazemian, N., Klironomos, J., Milani, A.S., (2017) “Effect of fungal deterioration on physical and mechanical properties of hemp and flax natural fiber composites”, Materials, 10:pp 1-14

Pakpour, S., Scott J. A., Turvey S. E., Brook J. R., Takaro T. K., Sears M. R., and Klironomos, J., (2016) “Presence of archaea in the indoor environment and their relationships with housing characteristics”, Microbial Ecology, 72:pp 305-312

Pakpour, S. and Klironomos, J., (2015) “The invasive plant, Brassica nigra, degrades local mycorrhizas across a wide geographic landscape”, Royal Society Open Science, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150300

Ghasemi, F., Behzadi, S., Ghalkhani, M., Ashkarran, A., Akbari, M., Pakpour, S., Hormozi-Nezhad, M.R., Jamshidi, Z., and Mahmoudi, M. (2015) “Determination of Nanoparticles by UV-Vis Spectra”, Nanoscale, 7: pp 5134-5139

Pakpour, S., Li, D. W., Klironomos, J. (2014) “Relationships of fungal spore concentrations in the air and meteorological factors”, Fungal Ecology, 13: pp 130-134

Pakpour, S. (2013) “Towards application of bioactive natural products containing isoprenoids for the regulation of HMG-CoA reductase- A review” American Journal of Plant Science, 4: pp 1116-1126

Pakpour, S., Milani, A.S., Chenier, M.R. (2012) “A multi-criteria decision-making approach for comparing sample preservation and DNA extraction methods from swine feces” American Journal of Molecular Biology, 2: pp 159-169

Pakpour, S., Jabaji, S., Chenier, M.R. (2011) “Frequency of antibiotic resistance in a swine facility 2.5 years after a ban on antibiotics’’ Microbial Ecology, 63: pp 41-50

Media