Tatiana Zaraiskaya

Hi There And Welcome To My Corner! 

I a STEM librarian at Harriet Irving Library. Previously, I worked in the Engineering & Science Library at Queen's University in Kingston ON.  My background is interdisciplinary and my academic portfolio contains multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals. As a liaison librarian at the UNB Libraries, I oversee science departments including Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Earth Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics, as well as the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Management.

I am interested in research data curation, which includes many different aspects such as data repositories, data documentation, data management plan writing, data sharing, and data ethics.

EDUCATION

MLIS 2015 - Western University, London ON 

Ph.D. Biophysics 2004 - University of Guelph, Guelph ON

MSc Biophysics 1999 - Brock University, St.Catharines ON

TEACHING

2015-2017 Information literacy classes at Queen's Univerity Library, Kingston ON

2010-2014 BCHM/BIOL 4P03/5P03 'Current Topics in Photobiology' Department of Biological Sciences, Brock University, St.Catharines ON

2008-2009 PHYS 4D06 'Digital Logic and Computer Systems', Medical Physics Department, McMaster University, Hamilton ON 

RESEARCH INTERESTS 

• Research Data Management
• Big Data
• Semantic Web
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data Discovery and Reuse
• Information Literacy for Science Students
• Portage Network

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 

Computational Biophysics. In 2012 I joined the photobiology group at Brock University to participate in a project aimed to understand the mechanism of substrate permeation in Photosystem II (PSII). Our approach was to use Molecular Dynamics simulations in solving the mysteries of substrate permeation. This approach required outstanding computer power such as SHARCNET High Performace Computers (HPC) to perform massive computer simulations and modeling. Photosystem II (PSII) is the enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of water (2H20+light->O2+4H) in oxygenic photosynthesis. It has the remarkable ability to tap into an abundant energy supply, sunlight, and water, to ultimately power most forms of life. The efficiency and rate of water oxidation in PSII are unmatched by any artificial system, yet, the mechanistic details are not well understood. The large size and complexity of PSII are the factors that have slowed down progress towards an understanding of this fundamentally important process. The active site of water splitting is protected and stabilized by being buried deep within PSII. Although previous studies have identified several channels within PSII, it is unknown how substrate and products move within those channels. By using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations we calculated free energies of permeation of the substrate, and several inhibitors through PSII.  Two MD techniques were applied: steered molecular dynamics (SMD) and umbrella sampling. This work revealed how PSII optimizes the binding and orientation of the substrate (water) and restricts the access of unwanted inhibitors.

Medical Imaging. In 2004-2006 I have been working as a post-doctoral fellow at Brain and Body Institute (BBI), St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (lab of Dr. Michael Noseworthy). BBI at SJH has a state of the art Imaging Center with 3Tesla 8 channel GE MRI system. My work was aimed at developing imaging methods for diagnosis of the sport-related musculoskeletal injuries. One of the techniques I used was diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI). In fibrous tissue, such as muscle, diffusion MRI provides estimates of fiber orientations in each image voxel and thus allows post-processing algorithms to reconstruct global fiber trajectories and infer global connectivity. I used DT-MRI and the fiber tracking algorithm to demonstrate the extent of the injury within the muscle tissues. Another project at BBI was aimed at a characterization of the temporal changes in the musculoskeletal structure after acute muscle injury by means of DT-MRI. In this project, imaging results were compared with the standard clinical test, based on the measurements of blood serum creatine kinase. Patients with acute muscle injuries were recruited from the local Rehabilitation Center. Projects were conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Dinesh Kumbhare (McMaster Rehabilitation).