Our Team: Expertise and Leadership
Meet the people who advance our science, strengthen our research capabilities, and grow alongside the lab.
From Environmental Challenge to Molecular Mechanism
We use Drosophila as a discovery platform to investigate how nutrition and environmental contaminants affect physiology, behaviour, and reproduction.
Fly genetic tools allow us to move from observing these effects to identifying the cells, genes, and molecular pathways that mediate them. For selected molecular targets, we integrate protein biochemistry and structural biology to understand how the relevant molecules function.
By connecting environmental exposures with organismal outcomes and molecular mechanisms, we aim to build the knowledge needed to inform future strategies for detecting, modifying, or reducing harmful biological effects.
Adelaine Leung, PhD
Principal Investigator
I believe integrative science grows through connections - between biological scales, disciplines, institutions, and people. My goal is to build a laboratory where these connections generate rigorous research and meaningful opportunities for people to grow as scientists.
Dr. Adelaine Leung is an Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. She is also a member of the Molecular Design research cluster in the College of Medicine.
Her interdisciplinary research program investigates how nutritional state influences physiology, behaviour, and reproduction. The Leung Lab uses Drosophila as a discovery platform, integrating whole-animal experiments and fly genetics with protein biochemistry and structure-informed approaches. By connecting evidence across biological scales, the lab seeks to move from observing physiological and behavioural effects to identifying the cells, genes, pathways, and molecular mechanisms involved. The lab is also beginning to investigate how environmental contaminants affect physiology, behaviour, and reproduction.
Developing scientists is central to Dr. Leung’s work. She is building a competency-based approach that helps trainees strengthen scientific thinking, technical excellence, research management, and professional development. She also uses her international research connections to create opportunities beyond her own laboratory. In 2026, with support from the WCVM Interprovincial Undergraduate Summer Research Program-funded by British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba-she initiated a pilot through which a DVM student is currently conducting research with scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. The pilot explores how veterinary trainees can gain meaningful research experience in specialized international environments.
Her commitment to integrative science extends beyond her laboratory. Since 2019, Dr. Leung has helped organize multiple editions of the regional Protein Structure, Function and Malfunction (PSFaM) Symposium. PSFaM brings together scientists and trainees from across the Prairie region for cross-disciplinary discussion, informal networking, and the development of new collaborations.
Dr. Leung’s integrative perspective reflects her own multidisciplinary training. She studied biochemistry and structural biology at McMaster University and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, followed by postdoctoral training in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.
How Our Expertise Connects
Each research program is supported by experimental, computational, and operational contributors across the Leung Lab. Explore the team profiles below to learn how each person contributes.
Scientific Leads
Scientific Lead
Narsimha Pujari
Metabolism and Reproduction
- Area of Expertise
- Quantitative enzymatic assays for metabolic phenotyping
- Microdissection of adult Drosophila organs
- Confocal fluorescence microscopy and quantitative image analysis
- Molecular gene-expression profiling
- Drosophila functional genetics
- Feeding-behaviour and nutrient-preference assays in Drosophila
- Recombinant protein expression and chromatographic purification
- Biochemical and molecular characterization of protein function
- Protein crystallization and structural biology workflows
- Mammalian neuronal cell culture
- Research training, technical mentorship, and supervision of undergraduate trainees
- Current Development
- Optimizing genetically encoded calcium-reporter systems for in vivo monitoring of neuronal activity in Drosophila.
- Learning the art, strategy, and occasional chaos of Magic: The Gathering.
- Broader Professional Interests
What keeps me up at night is understanding how the molecular and structural properties of proteins within a small number of specialized neurons can shape whole-animal physiology and behaviour. I am particularly interested in how neurons use their molecular machinery to sense changes in internal and external environments and coordinate the trade-off between survival and reproduction. In the future, I hope to lead and mentor a research group that investigates these questions by integrating molecular, structural, neuroendocrine, and behavioural approaches.
- Personal Statement
Behaviour is often shaped by subtle molecular changes in proteins that influence neuronal function. I am motivated to understand how these largely invisible structural and biochemical properties of molecules are translated into complex physiological and behavioural outcomes.
- Independent Professional Activity
Research, Education, and Technical Specialists
