University Of Calgary
Meet the Team
Meet our energetic GBM research team!
Dr. Ana Nikolic - MD, PhD, FRCPC
Principal Investigator
Dr. Nikolic is a neuropathologist with an interest in the molecular biology of brain tumours. She completed medical school at the University in Toronto, neuropathology residency at the University of Calgary, and a doctorate in brain tumour epigenetics at the University of Calgary in the lab of Dr. Marco Gallo. She has training and expertise in both wet lab brain tumour biology and bioinformatics and takes a interdisciplinary approach to brain tumour biology.
Michael Van Vliet
Research Technician
Michael joined the Nikolic lab in October 2023 and is mainly responsible for the overall lab space management and cell line generation, among other things. He has been in the molecular biology field for 10+ years, with a BSc in Biology from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He has a strong cellular biology background and a large variety of cutting edge technical expertise.
Dr. Nayantara Govindrajan
Post-Doctorate Fellow
Dr. Govindrajan joined the lab in 2025. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology and completed her PhD at the University of Calgary, where her doctoral research focused on cell fate specification during mammary gland development. She has a strong background in cellular,molecular,and developmental biology. In the Nikolic lab, Nayantara’s research investigates the epigenetic mechanisms underlying glioblastoma cell state plasticity and tumor progression.
Amy Banks
PhD Candidate Student
Amy moved to Calgary from the UK in January 2024 to pursue her PhD in Dr. Nikolic’s lab. She holds a Master of Science in Human Molecular Genetics from Imperial College London and a Bachelor of Science in Forensic Science from the University of South Wales. Her current work at the University of Calgary involves investigating the spatial and temporal evolution of pediatric high-grade glioma through a multi-modal bioinformatic approach.
Amy enjoys drawing, running, reading and birdwatching. She spends a lot of time playing video games and is looking for her next DnD campaign.
Kate Yakubets
MSc Candidate Student
Kate joined the Nikolic lab Summer 2025 after completing her Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Calgary. Her project focuses on studying dormant glioblastoma stem cells and exploring ways to modulate their behavior using wet lab techniques and advanced live-cell imaging
Yexin (Audrey) Li
Co-operative Education Student
Yexin (Audrey) Li is a cooperative education student and a Digital Pathology Research Assistant pursuing her BASc in Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia. With a genuine interest in the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and biology, she works directly with Dr. Nikolic on machine learning and deep learning pipelines, seeking computational accuracy and engineering robustness for spatial images analysis of brain tumors.
Darshdeep Batth
Honour's Student
Darshdeep is a fourth-year undergraduate student in Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. He joined the Nikolic Lab in May 2025 and is currently studying the role of double-stranded RNA in regulating cellular plasticity of glioblastoma stem cells. His work focuses on understanding how these pathways influence tumour phenotype and aims to contribute to the lab’s broader research in brain tumour biology.
Past Team Members
Taha Zeitoun
High School Student
Taha was a high school summer student who contributed to improving the throughput and usability of our image analysis pipeline. His work supported the analysis of immunofluorescence imaging, cell proliferation, and self-renewal assays. He applied bioinformatics and image analysis tools, including Cellpose, ImageJ, and Python, to streamline data processing and facilitate downstream analysis within the lab.