Biography

I’m a PhD student in the Maurice Lab at McGill University. My research interests include studying bacteirophage-bacteria interactions of the infant gut microbiota and how their dynamics change over time in the contexts of health and disease. To do so, I use single-cell techniques combined with viral and bacterial metagenomics. I also maintain our lab’s HPC-hosted Galaxy server, installing custom tools as needed.

As a side project I developed and now maintain OnePetri, a mobile application to accelerate common microbiology assays!

Interests

  • Infant gut microbiota
  • Bacteriophage-bacteria interactions
  • Microbial ecology

Education

  • PhD in Microbiology & Immunology, 2025

    McGill University

  • BSc in Microbiology & Immunology (Honours), 2020

    McGill University

Skills

Anaerobic
Microbiology

Flow cytometry & bacterial culturing

Metagenomics

Bacterial & viral metagenomics

Bioinformatics

Development of custom scripts &
HPC deployment

Recent Publications

Michael Shamash, Maurice CF (2021). OnePetri: Accelerating Common Bacteriophage Petri Dish Assays with Computer Vision. PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research.

PDF Code Dataset DOI

Mulla Y, Enriquez K, Taslem Mourosi J, Muscat K, Michael Shamash (2021). A Window into Evergreen 2021 from the Next Generation of Phage Researchers. PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research.

PDF DOI

Sinha A, Li Y, Khan Mirzaei M, Michael Shamash, Samadfam R, King IL, Maurice CF (2021). Transplantation of bacteriophages from ulcerative colitis patients shifts the gut bacteriome and exacerbates severity of DSS-colitis. bioRxiv.

PDF DOI

Michael Shamash, Maurice CF (2021). Phages in the infant gut: a framework for virome development during early life. The ISME Journal.

PDF Project DOI

Sutcliffe SG, Michael Shamash, Hynes AP, Maurice CF (2021). Common Oral Medications Lead to Prophage Induction in Bacterial Isolates from the Human Gut. Viruses.

PDF Dataset Project DOI

Relevant Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Teaching Assistant

McGill University

Sep 2020 – Dec 2021
Teaching assistant for undergraduate SEA-PHAGES phage discovery & genome annotation courses (MIMM 390 / MIMM 391)
 
 
 
 
 

Union Representative

Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)

Sep 2020 – Present
Union delegate representing teaching assistants employed in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology
 
 
 
 
 

Private Tutor

McGill University

Sep 2018 – Dec 2018
Tutored students in Physical Chemistry (CHEM 203)
 
 
 
 
 

Private Tutor

Marianopolis College

Aug 2016 – Jan 2017
Tutored students in General Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry I

Awards

Publication Award - Prix Relève étoile Louis-Berlinguet

FRQNT - Fonds de Recherche du Québec: Nature et technologies 2021
Publication award for article entitled ‘Phages in the infant gut: a framework for virome development during early life’

IBD Scholarship

AbbVie & Crohn’s and Colitis Canada 2021
Recognizing post-secondary students living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) who demonstrate academic aspiration, community involvement, and strive to sustain an optimal level of wellness.

Graduate Excellence Fellowship

McGill University, Faculty of Medicine 2021 – 2022

Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s (CGS-M)

NSERC - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2020 – 2021

Master’s Research Scholarship

FRQNT - Fonds de Recherche du Québec: Nature et technologies 2020 – 2022

Graduate Excellence Fellowship

McGill University, Faculty of Medicine 2020 – 2021

E.G.D. Murray Prize in Microbiology

McGill University, Faculty of Science 2020
Established by friends, students, and colleagues of the late Professor E.G.D. Murray to perpetuate his name at McGill. Awarded to a graduating student achieving high academic merit in the Honours program in Microbiology and Immunology.

Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA)

NSERC - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council 2019

Undergraduate Research Award (SURA)

McGill University, Faculty of Science 2019

Projects

*
All Ongoing Previous

Development of the infant gut virome

Studying the active role of bacteriophages in the infant gut microbiome in health and malnutrition.

Xenobiotics as inducers of active prophages

Studied the effects of xenobiotics on inducing putatively active prophages in gut bacteria. This project served as the basis for my Honours thesis.

Bacteriophage tail fibers and host range

Studied bacteriophage tail fibre genetics, morphogenesis, and host range.

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