Emily Chase

Title: Assistant Professor
Phone: 204.786.9448
Office: 2RC050
Building: Richardson College for the Environment and Science Complex
Email: e.chase@uwinnipeg.ca

Research Interests:

The Chase lab is focused on understanding aquatic viruses — their diversity, evolution, and function. A large component of the lab is researching how viruses impact dense algal populations, including harmful algal blooms, and the impact this has on the aquatic environment more broadly. The lab also investigates microbial functions and evolution more broadly in aquatic ecosystems. The lab takes a holistic approach to microbial ecology by assessing genomic potential and function across several groups. To accomplish this: environmental data, in-lab culturing, molecular techniques, and informatics approaches are combined to understand our environment and how it is changing as our climate changes. At present, the lab is primarily focused on a large lake system with reoccurring algal blooms — Lake Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg is a place of importance to Manitobans, Winnipeggers, and Indigenous communities, providing a place of cultural, traditional, recreational, and economic importance. Our goal is to provide more context of microbial interactions for all of those groups, and to understand the microbial rolesin bloom presence and collapse - while also learning about novel viruses and other microbes. 

The Chase lab has graduate student position(s) opening up in Autumn 2026, and is always looking to hear from undergraduate students motivated to gain research skills. The lab provides opportunities for experience in sequencing, bioinformatics, molecular techniques, cruise and other aquatic sampling, and algal culturing. Please contact e.chase@uwinnipeg with a statement of interest, unofficial transcript(s), and a CV or resume for inquiries. For more information see chaselab.ca