Griffith Lab
Our latest virus-fighting peptide "GF-19"

Congratulations to our Summer Interns!

This summer, the Griffith Lab welcomed two interns - Anas Abu-Dieh, third-year Medical student at Laval University and Shu Yu Qian, second year Medical student at Université de Sherbrooke.

Shu Yu worked with Master’s student Ines Barrakad on ‘Biomaterials for keratoprosthesis’ and is a recipient of the HMR Foundation Summer Intern Scholarship.

Anas, also a recipient of the HMR Foundation Summer Intern Scholarship, worked with PhD Student Neethi Thathapudi on ‘Investigating Nerves in Regenerated Corneas after treatment with anti-scarring Artificial Cornea’. Anas won the ‘Best Presentation Award’ as well as the ‘People’s Choice’ Award. Congratulations, Anas!


Both our interns did a great job and we wish them good luck as they begin their new school year!

One step closer!

The Griffith Lab is stoked to announce our partnership with Dr. Che Connon from NewCastle, UK. Kerato Limited will be taking forward our LiQD Cornea Technology to Veterinary trials.


Read more at : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7229126228648042496/?midToken=AQFfwtgEs6RVJg&midSig=0-5STRLZrwkHo1&trk=eml-email_notification_single_mentioned_you_in_this_01-hero_notification_cta-0-1ep~cta&trkEmail=eml-email_notification_single_mentioned_you_in_this_01-hero_notification_cta-0-1ep~cta-null-1jxwuu~lzsiitya~bu-null-null&eid=1jxwuu-lzsiitya-bu

Our latest virus-fighting peptide "GF-19"

The Griffith Lab was quite busy during the pandemic, developing a new anti-viral peptide named “GF-19”. GF-19 shows anti-viral activity in Herpes Simplex Viral (HSV-1) models which is a virus that infects about 67% of the global population. Experiments were done and results are now published on corneal cells ( check out article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53662-4 ) and rabbit models (and here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41536-024-00355-1 ).

Our very interesting “Behind-the paper” blog post is out now! Do check it out at : https://communities.springernature.com/posts/inflammation-suppressing-cornea-in-a-syringe-with-anti-viral-gf19-peptide-promotes-regeneration-in-hsv-1-infected-rabbit-corneas

Griffith Lab at the SCN Bioengineering Workshop 2024

The Griffith Lab recently participated in the Canadian Stem Cell Network (SCN) Bioengineering Workshop which was conducted during Feb 20th-22nd, 2024 at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. SCN is Canada’s leading not-for-profit Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Network. One of its aims is to train the nation’s next-generation scientists. SCN’s “Bioengineering for Stem Cell Research Workshop” was a 3 day in-person workshop focused on 3D Printing and Microfluidics. Dr. May Griffith was one of the speakers’ giving talks during the workshop. Mona Moradi, our Master’s student, who attended the workshop said she had a great learning experience.

Dr. May Griffith delivering a great lecture at the Workshop!

Deep Learning Mode!

End of the year holiday party!

After a tough year with COVID-19, and the 5th wave of COVID Omicron virus looming that cancelled the graduate student party and our trip to a restaurant, catering in food for a safe and fun party was just the thing we needed. We said goodbye to Federica Magrelli from Prof. Graziella Pellegrini’s lab in Italy after a 3-month stay in Montreal. We welcomed our new Ph.D. student, Neethi Thathapudi, who was finally able to enter Canada to start her lab work.

2020 and 2021 in a glance

Since our move to the new research building, Pavillon Claudine D’Amours, our lab has welcomed new trainees and collaborators. We also said good-bye to our students who have graduated, post-doctoral fellows and technical staff who have completed their contracts, and summer and exchange students whom we were fortunate enough to interact with.

The current members of our team are the post-doctoral fellows Bijay K. Poudel, Kamal Malhotra, Naoufal Akla; Université de Montréal Doctorate students Natalia Callai da Silva, Mostafa Zamani Roudbaraki and Neethi Thathapudi. Co-supervised trainees include Hamid Goodarzi, Karine Roversi, and Katiane Roversi.

Throughout the COVID pandemic, our team respected the implemented protocols while continuing to focus on the ongoing projects. We are still awaiting several team members to join us as soon as they are able to enter Canada. In the meantime, we are fortunate that Natalia Callai da Silva has taken the initiative to update our lab web page. Thanks, Natalia.