Ryder Whittaker Hawkins lab

What is my research direction ?

1. development and immunity.

- Babies' immune system is totally different from adults. How does it work?

- With advanced maternal age, how do we improve fertility for all families?

- How do pregnancy and immunity collide?

- Study how immune cells contribute to the development of tissues.

2. GTPase signaling.

- Everyone wants to study kinases, but GTPases are involved in almost every process.

- Study the genes left unmapped. 

- Innovate tools and probes to study these signaling molecules. 

3. immunity and food.

- We live in a sterile world, and are paranoid about food safety. How does the immune system really react to what we eat? 

- Passed-down knowledge from our grandparents, incorporating traditional practises.     

4. chemical genetics and drinkable medicines.

- Improve the quality of papers incorporating traditional medicine.

 - Is there truth to the idea of "hot" and "cold"-natured food? Can we cluster herbs and spices according to their biological effects? 

- In collaboration with the Toronto School of TCM and MaRS, we aim to start an incubator to study these herbs and principles.  

- Instead of million-dollar drugs, we operate on the principle of developing drinkable therapies that could be consumed by the everyday citizen and help to proactively improve health and ward off aging and disease.    

5. molecular simulations and sequencing.

- Visualize molecules in motion.

- Understand signaling via chemistry.

What will we not do ?

- Repetitive Westerns 

- Outdated and non quantitative methods

- RNAseq without a good reason

- The subjective over the objective e.g. phosphoproteomics.

My target areas of impact:

1. autoinflammation, rare diseases, pediatric immunity.

2. mechanisms of signaling across plants and animals.

3. human fertility and agriculture.

4. new and affordable drinkable therapies, proactive health.

5. integrate siloed fields, interdisciplinary work.