Rima Menassa Ph.D.

Current research and/or projects
Mitigate development and Transmission of AMR across the farm to fork to clinic continuum (interdepartmental GRDI) (2022-2026)
Mitigating AMR (AAFC-GRDI) (2018-2024)
Development of an oral intervention method to eliminate shedding of Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 by pigs. (Collaboration with PlantForm Corp.) (2020-2023)
Research and/or project statements
Plants as bioreactors for the production of veterinary vaccines and antibodies as alternatives to antibiotics
Transforming the chloroplast genome for the production of veterinary vaccines
Education and awards
- PhD. in Molecular Genetics, McGill University
- M.Sc. in Plant Pathology, American University of Beirut
- B.Sc. in Agriculture, American University of Beirut
Additional links
Key publications
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Baschieri, S., Menassa, R., Klement, E., Donini, M. (2022). Editorial: Plant-Production Platforms for Veterinary Biopharmaceuticals. Frontiers in Plant Science, [online] 13 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.858043
2022 - View publication details
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Kaplanoglu, E. , Kolotilin, I. , Menassa, R. , Donly, C. Transplastomic Tomato Plants Expressing Insect-Specific Double-Stranded RNAs: A Protocol Based on Biolistic Transformation. Methods in Molecular Biology. Volume 2360, Pages 235 - 252 (2022).
2021 - View publication details
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Scott, I.M., Zhu, H., Schieck, K., Follick, A., Reynolds, L.B., Menassa, R. (2019). Non-target effects of hyperthermostable α-amylase transgenic Nicotiana tabacum in the laboratory and the field. Frontiers in Plant Science, [online] 10 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.00878
2019 - View publication details
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Tran, H.H., Chen, B., Chen, H., Menassa, R., Hao, X., Bernards, M., Hüner, N.P.A., Wang, A. (2019). Development of a cucumber green mottle mosaic virus-based expression vector for the production in cucumber of neutralizing epitopes against a devastating animal virus. Journal of Virological Methods, [online] 269 18-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2019.04.006
2019 - View publication details
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Burke, W.G., Kaplanoglu, E., Kolotilin, I., Menassa, R., Donly, C. (2019). RNA interference in the tobacco hornworm, manduca sexta, using plastid-encoded long double-stranded RNA. Frontiers in Plant Science, [online] 10 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.00313
2019 - View publication details
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Donly, C., Kaplanoglu, E., Ludba, K.K., Kolotilin, I., Menassa, R., and Scott, I.M. (2018) Effects of RNA interference on greenhouse whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum). Insect Biotech Conference, St. Catharines, Ontario.
2018 - View publication details
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Feeney, M., Kittelmann, M., Menassa, R., Hawes, C., Frigerio, L. (2018). Protein storage vacuoles originate from remodeled preexisting vacuoles in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiology, [online] 177(1), 241-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.18.00010
2018 - View publication details
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Ceballo, Y., Tiel, K., López, A., Cabrera, G., Pérez, M., Ramos, O., Rosabal, Y., Montero, C., Menassa, R., Depicker, A., Hernández, A. (2017). High accumulation in tobacco seeds of hemagglutinin antigen from avian (H5N1) influenza. Transgenic Research, [online] 26(6), 775-789. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11248-017-0047-9
2017 - View publication details
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Miletic, S., Hünerberg, M., Kaldis, A., MacDonald, J., Leuthreau, A., McAllister, T., Menassa, R. (2017). A Plant-Produced Candidate Subunit Vaccine Reduces Shedding of Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in Ruminants. Biotechnology Journal, [online] 12(10), http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biot.201700405
2017 - View publication details
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Reuter, L.J., Shahbazi, M.A., Mäkilä, E.M., Salonen, J.J., Saberianfar, R., Menassa, R., Santos, H.A., Joensuu, J.J., Ritala, A. (2017). Coating Nanoparticles with Plant-Produced Transferrin-Hydrophobin Fusion Protein Enhances Their Uptake in Cancer Cells. bioconjugate chemistry, [online] 28(6), 1639-1648. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.7b00075
2017 - View publication details
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Donly, C., Kaplanoglu, E., Ludba, K., Kolotilin, I., Menassa, R., Scott, I. (2017) Insecticidal trap plants incorporating RNA interference technology. Insect Biotech Conference, St. Catharines, Ontario. 14-16 June 2017, oral presentation.
2017 - View publication details
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Saberianfar, R. and Menassa, R. (2017) Protein bodies: how the ER deals with high accumulation of recombinant proteins. Plant Biotechnol J 15, 671-673.
2017 - View publication details
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MacDonald, J., Miletic, S., Gaildry, T., Chin-Fatt, A., Menassa, R. (2017). Co-expression with the type 3 secretion chaperone CesT from enterohemorrhagic E. coli increases accumulation of recombinant Tir in plant chloroplasts. Frontiers in Plant Science, [online] 8 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00283
2017 - View publication details
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Arthur, L.L., Chung, J.J., Jankirama, P., Keefer, K.M., Kolotilin, I., Pavlovic-Djuranovic, S., Chalker, D.L., Grbic, V., Green, R., Menassa, R., True, H.L., Skeath, J.B., Djuranovic, S. (2017). Rapid generation of hypomorphic mutations. Nature Communications, [online] 8 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14112
2017 - View publication details
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Zhu, H., Reynolds, L.B., Menassa, R. (2017). A hyper-thermostable α-amylase from Pyrococcus furiosus accumulates in Nicotiana tabacum as functional aggregates. BMC Biotechnology, [online] 17(1), http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12896-017-0372-3
2017 - View publication details
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Topp, E., Irwin, R., McAllister, T.A., Lessard, M., Joensuu, J.J., Kolotilin, I., Conrad, U., Stöger, E., Mor, T., Warzecha, H., Hall, J.C., McLean, M.D, Cox, E., Devriendt, B., Potter, A., Depicker, A., Virdi, V., Holbrook, L., Doshi, K., Dussault, M., Friendship, R.M., Yarosh, O., Yoo, H.S., MacDonald, J.D., and Menassa, R. (2016). "The case for plant-made veterinary immunotherapeutics.", Biotechnology Advances. doi : 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2016.02.007
2016 - View publication details
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Miletic, S., Simpson, D.J., Szymanski, C.M., Deyholos, M.K., Menassa, R. (2016). A plant-produced bacteriophage tailspike protein for the control of Salmonella. Frontiers in Plant Science, [online] 6(JAN2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.01221
2016 - View publication details
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Menassa, R. (2015). "Protein body biogenesis and utility in recombinant protein production in Nicotiana benthamiana.", Recombinant Protein Production 8, Palma, Mallorca, Spain, April 22-24, 2015.
2015 - View publication details
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Kolotilin, I., Topp, E., Cox, E., Devriendt, B., Conrad, U., Joensuu, J.J., Stöger, E., Warzecha, H., McAllister, T.A., McLean, M.D, Hall, J.C., and Menassa, R. (2015). "Plant-based solutions for veterinary immunotherapeutics and prophylactics.", BMC Veterinary Research, 45(1), pp. 375. (Abstract)
2015 - View publication details
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Menassa, R. (2015). "Producing veterinary vaccines for bacterial diseases in transplastomic plants.", 2015 Chloroplast Biotechnology Gordon Research Conference, Ventura Beach, California, USA.
2015 - View publication details
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Contact
Research facility
Expertise
Affiliations
Communication officer - International Society for Plant Molecular Farming
Past-President - Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology
Secretary - Plant Canada
Adjunct professor, Department of Biology, Western University, London, Ontario
Associate editor, Frontiers in Plant Science