Trevor Moraes, BSc, MSc, PhD

Excellence in Undergraduate Laboratory Teaching in Life Sciences
Undergraduate Teaching Awards in Life Sciences

Biography

Trevor Moraes grew up in the small town of Flin Flon in northern Manitoba. He completed an undergraduate and MSc at Queen’s University in Biochemistry. Moving westward to the University of Alberta, he completed his PhD in 2004 with Drs. Michael Ellison and Mark Glover (both UofT Biochemistry Department graduate student alumni) using crystallography to study the structure of enzymes involved in poly-ubiquitin chain formation. As a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Natalie Strynadka (UBC), he began to investigate the structure of bacterial membrane proteins. Since his recruitment to the Department of Biochemistry at the University in 2009, his research has continued to investigate the structure and function of bacterial surface proteins, particularly those that are involved in immune evasion or protein and ion translocation across bacterial membranes. As a biochemist and a microbiologist, the overarching goal of his research program is to understand the molecular basis of bacterial pathogenesis with the view of discovering new targets for antibiotics or vaccines.