Rima Menassa Ph.D.

Current research and/or projects
Technology development of alternatives to subtherapeutic and metaphylactic antimicrobials used in the beef industry (2016-2022)
RNAi trap plants for horticulture (2018-2021)
Mitigating AMR (AAFC-GRDI) (2018-2023)
Development of an oral intervention method to eliminate shedding of Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 by pigs. (Collaboration with PlantForm Corp.) (2020-2022)
Plant-based oral vaccine for PEDv disease. (AAFC AgriScience project) (2019-2022)
Research and/or project statements
Plants as bioreactors for the production of veterinary vaccines and antibodies as alternatives to antibiotics
Transforming the chloroplast genome of various plant species for the production of dsRNA for insect pest control, and 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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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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Menassa, R. (2015). "Production and testing of plant-made subunit vaccine candidates for porcine epidemic diarrhea and enterotoxigenic E. coli.", Plant-Based Vaccines, Antibodies and Biologicals 2015, Lausanne, June 8-10, 2015.
2015 - View publication details
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Contact
Research facility
Expertise
Affiliations
Member of the International Society for Plant Molecular Farming
President of the Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology
Secretary for Plant Canada
Adjunct professor, Department of Biology, Western University, London, Ontario
Associate editor, Frontiers in Plant Science