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About Me

Working Towards a Brighter Future

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WIne Turbines

Functioning at the intersection of microbial occupational exposure, genomics, and public health, Hamza Mbareche is a researcher, trainer and consultant who focuses on bolstering the environmental safety of workplaces and public spaces using cutting-edge technologies.

As a postdoctoral researcher of bioaerosols, the microbiome, genomics and bioinformatics, Hamza Mbareche specializes in environmental health. His extensive research encompasses whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of SARS-CoV-2 from patients' swabs and environmental samples (air and surfaces), the WGS of Influenza A virus in bioaerosols collected from swine barns, and the detection and sequencing of Orthobunyaviruses from mosquitoes collected in Southern Ontario.

All of this builds upon his graduate research of High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) technologies to describe the microbial diversity of fungi and bacteria in the air of different environments in the context of occupational exposure.

Hamza Mbareche codes and analyzes data using R and Python to write personalized bioinformatics scripts.  Using cutting-edge bioinformatics tools allows for more depth, breadth and freedom in data analyses.

Hamza Mbareche believes in optimal collaboration and building collective knowledge in the field. With this in mind, Hamza has designed and delivered training about air sampling and sequencing to diverse audiences, including undergraduate and graduate students and hospital staff in Ontario and Quebec. Hamza has also spoken on many occasions on HTS and bioinformatics. This effort includes building and delivering a High-Throughput Sequencing and Bioinformatics for Microbial Studies workshop in Professor Caroline Duchaine's laboratory. Additionally, Hamza spent three years as a graduate teaching assistant in two microbiology labs at Université Laval. 

Testament to his expertise, Hamza Mbareche authored 36 articles for peer-reviewed scientific publications, 17 of which he was the first author and five as the corresponding author (principal investigator). Notable contributions include an article about the airborne viral transmission in a simulated Intensive Care Unit room published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Viewed as an expert in the field, Hamza reviewed 42 publications for 28 peer-reviewed journals, most of which relate to molecular microbiology and bioaerosols studies. He also wrote a chapter in the Encyclopedia of Mycology book about Next-Generation Sequencing in environmental mycology. He is ranked 22nd out of more than 7000 researchers on Expertscape’s “Expertise in Air Microbiology,” placing me in the top 0.25% of experts worldwide in this field.

Hamza Mbareche currently serves as the vice president of the University of Toronto’s Postdoctoral Association after three years serving as vice president of the graduate association of Laval University. Of the six scholarships he received in the quest to better the world, one was a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fond de Recherche Nature et Technologie du Québec. Honours received include the Lab Exchange Visitor Program Award from the Canadian Society of Virology and the roll of honours of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for the excellent quality of his thesis.


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