MEET THE TEAM
Meet the PI: Daniela Quaglia
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Daniela was born in Florence, Italy in 1984. At age six she moved with her family to a small town in the Tuscany countryside until she moved back to Florence for her undergraduate studies where she graduated with a Bachelor in Chemistry (110/110 cum laude). She obtained her Master in Chemistry of Biological Molecules from University of Florence and UCD (Dublin, Ireland). Thanks to the prestigious IRCSET scholarship, she was able to pursue her graduate studies in biocatalysis in the laboratory of Prof. Paradisi in UCD, obtaining her PhD in chemical biology in 2013, After her PhD, Daniela spent six months in Dundalk Institute of Technology (Ireland) as a lecturer and she then moved to the UK where she worked as a research scientist, both in industry (Synthace, London - the first dedicated Synthetic biology start-up in the UK) and academia (postdoc in Prof. Turner's laboratory , MIB, Manchester). In 2015 Daniela moved to Canada and she has been there since. She first did a second postdoc in Prof. Pelletier's laboratory (UdeM, Montréal), and then took a break from research to pursue a Master in Business Administration from Concordia University. Daniela's world was shattered during Covid-19 times when she had to let go of two opportunities to start her research lab first in Nottingham university (Nottingham, UK) and then in Carleton University (Ottawa, CA). Thanks to her persistence and a bit of luck, Daniela found her way back to academia, and she now leads the Quaglia lab in UQAM since September 2023.
Daniela is a seasoned science communicator and she has written for high-reputation websites - such as the Huffington post, Autodesk, Synbiobeta and many more! Outside of the lab, Daniela loves her second (and most important!) job: being a mom of her son William. She also enjoys to tap dance, play golf and tennis (depending on the season!), she is a trained actress and a creative writer. EDUCATION PhD in Chemical Biology - University College Dublin, Ireland MBA (Master of Business Administration) - Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada MSc in Chemistry of Biological Molecules , Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy Hons. Bachelor in Chemistry, Universitá degli Studi di Firenze, Italy Certificate in Creative Writing, Open College of the Arts, United Kingdom You can read an interview with Daniela here. |
Mt. St.Hilaire, Reserve Gault, QC, Canada
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Current graduate students
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Besma Khelaifia - PhD student
Besma joined the Quaglia Lab in January 2025, and she is currently studying cutinases and PETase for the degradation of polyethylene terephthalate. Besma pursued her undergraduate studies in France and completed her Master in the laboratory of Prof. Horchani (au GREB du Rivière du Loup, QC), who is also her co-supervisor during her PhD. Mathilde Auffray - Master student
Mathilde comes from Orléans in France, where she completed a two-year technical degree in biotechnology, allowing her to gain experience in laboratory techniques. There, she did an internship in enzyme production and characterization, at the ICOA (Orléans, France). This experience helped her to find her path in the study of proteins. However, that wasn't enough for her, she had to quench her thirst for knowledge! That's why she went on to complete a Bachelor's, and a Master's degree in Biotechnology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, both obtained from Université d'Orléans. There, she fell in love with structural biology and protein engineering. For her Master's internship, she worked on finding solutions to produce and purify a protein which was insoluble. She found this exercise of problem solving so stimulating that it encouraged her to go over the seas to study at UQAM, where she joined the Quaglia Lab. She is currently working on discovering, and production of new enzymes that could potentially degrade polyurethane. Outside of the lab, Mathilde is also an artist. She enjoys to draw, write and craft. She also enjoy listening to music and to watch paintings in museums. |
Photo to come..
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Current undergraduate students/interns
Louis Moulin - Master student intern from France (summer 2025 till October 2025).
Alumni
2024/2025 - Nauh'a Jean Louis - Undergraduate intern from UQAM and very first student of the Quaglia lab at UQAM.
Nauh'a joined in summer 2024, and remained until (and included) summer 2025. Nauh'a won twice the prestigious NSERC undergraduate scholarship, which allowed him to fund his research in our lab! Nauh'a was central to help Daniela set up her lab. He is one of those rare students that will always be cherished and remembered as key to the success of this lab. Thank you Nauh'a! You will be missed!
Nauh'a joined in summer 2024, and remained until (and included) summer 2025. Nauh'a won twice the prestigious NSERC undergraduate scholarship, which allowed him to fund his research in our lab! Nauh'a was central to help Daniela set up her lab. He is one of those rare students that will always be cherished and remembered as key to the success of this lab. Thank you Nauh'a! You will be missed!
2025 - Antonio Cirstea Calazana - Undergraduate intern from UQAM. (summer 2025)
Antonio joined the Quaglia lab, inspired by the enzymology class that Daniela taught him during the previous year. He worked on an exciting project in which we coupled a fluorescent protein to our plastic-degrading enzymes to better assess their expression. It was delightful to have Antonio onboard!
Antonio joined the Quaglia lab, inspired by the enzymology class that Daniela taught him during the previous year. He worked on an exciting project in which we coupled a fluorescent protein to our plastic-degrading enzymes to better assess their expression. It was delightful to have Antonio onboard!
2025 - Youness Benaziz - Undergraduate intern from France (summer 2025).
Youness est un étudiant en troisième année de licence en double diplôme Biologie-Chimie à l’Université Paris-Saclay. Dans le cadre de sa formation, il a effectué un stage au sein du laboratoire du Pr. Quaglia à l’UQAM. Ce stage lui a permis de finaliser sa formation de premier cycle et a constitué une opportunité d’explorer de manière concrète le travail en laboratoire, tout en découvrant un nouvel environnement académique et culturel.
Youness est un étudiant en troisième année de licence en double diplôme Biologie-Chimie à l’Université Paris-Saclay. Dans le cadre de sa formation, il a effectué un stage au sein du laboratoire du Pr. Quaglia à l’UQAM. Ce stage lui a permis de finaliser sa formation de premier cycle et a constitué une opportunité d’explorer de manière concrète le travail en laboratoire, tout en découvrant un nouvel environnement académique et culturel.
2024 - Tomas St-Pierre - Undergraduate summer intern (and very first student of the Quaglia lab at UQAM!)
