UNews - Justin Vigar

Path of learning has taken Justin Vigar around the world

caroline.zentner — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 17:46:46 +0000

A love of all things outdoors — mountain biking, skiing and fly fishing — led Justin Vigar (BSc ’12) to the town of Whistler, British Columbia after he graduated from Lethbridge Collegiate Institute.

There he found the good life, surrounded by a beautiful environment and happy, fit, excited people doing what they loved. The fly in the ointment? Most people in Whistler were under the age of 25 and couldn’t afford to sustainably live there.

“I thought ‘I’m going to be a dentist,’ so I applied to U of A and U of L,” he says. “As a dentist I could probably work four days a week and afford to live in Whistler.”

He chose the U of L and found molecular biology particularly enjoyable in his first year of studies. His enjoyment turned into an excitement for science that continued to build throughout his undergraduate studies. He found the sciences meshed with his own concerns. Like many youth growing up, Vigar had heard a lot about problems facing our world, including climate change, the global food crises, mass extinctions, pollution and pandemics.

“As I was learning about curiosity-driven research and getting more excited about discovery and the inherent beauty of the natural world, I was also seeing how innovations in science were directly tackling critical global problems,” he says. “If I was going to have a meaningful career able to contribute to solving some of these problems, I thought science would be the way to go. Part of me still wanted to be a dentist though. In order to build my resume to be competitive for professional school I volunteered a lot and joined iGEM.”

Participating in iGEM proved to be both a foundation and a launching pad. Vigar credits iGEM with giving him a solid work ethic and the opportunity to gain skills in lab work.

“In addition to working in the lab; we were collaborating with industry partners, community leaders and artists towards reducing environmental degradation caused by oilsands development,” he says. “The iGEM program at the U of L gives you a lot of different experiences, like going to conferences and working with industry. Most importantly, you must consider the broader social, environmental, and economic implications of your project—the human practices aspect.

“One thing iGEM really focuses on is that discovery and science are only part of the story. If you want to solve global issues, science isn’t always enough. You really need partnership and understanding between scientists, bioethicists, industry, government, and involvement from your community — there’s so much that needs to come together to make these solutions precipitate into something that makes a tangible change in the world. iGEM really helped me understand that and it got me even more excited that biology could be leveraged help people and the planet.”

Searching for a different experience, Vigar left his studies to work with an NGO in Uganda. The project involved bringing together infrastructure for solar panels, batteries and electricity to build computer labs in rural areas of Uganda and then train computer teachers so they could carry out computer lessons. When he returned to Canada and the U of L, he started working with Dr. Hans-Joachim (H-J) Wieden (chemistry & biochemistry) at the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI). That got him involved in an international project to understand how bacterial cells regulate protein production — a project that would ultimately make biology easier to engineer. He moved to Germany to work in Dr. Jörg Vogel’s lab at the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology to carry out experiments. This project also involves a biophysics component; he carries out those experiments at the Diamond Particle Accelerator in Oxford, UK.

In addition, Vigar is a delegate to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (UNCBD) with iGEM. He represents iGEM at Conference of the Parties meetings, the last of which was in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. He’s also a Bio-Belt ambassador through SynBioBeta innovation network in San Francisco, USA. As a representative of Alberta, he works to attract economic development and investment in biotechnology to southern Alberta.

Vigar plans to pursue doctoral studies and is considering a school in the U.S. Until then, he’ll be working on finishing the projects he’s involved with now.

“My experience at the U of L has been very transformative,” he says. “As a scientist, the liberal education philosophy has really enhanced my degree by not just learning how to do great science but learning how to being a scientist. So much more goes into that than lab work. It’s important the liberal education philosophy be carried over to grad school, too. H-J really focuses on providing a well-rounded graduate experience. Most of his students are involved in some other venture apart from their lab work.”

Chinook Symposium winners announced

caroline.zentner — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 16:54:52 +0000

With 39 competitors at this year's Chinook Symposium in Chemistry and Biochemistry, judges had a difficult task. After a full afternoon of judging, a slate of winners was chosen.

Top row from left to right — Doug Turnbull, Brooke Mackay, Jalyce Heller, Connor MacNeil and Doug Kiss. On the bottom row from left to right are Justin Vigar, Katherine Gzyl, Dylan Girodat, Katie Wilson and Anileen Pageni.

Lesley Brown, vice-provost and associate vice-president (academic), was on hand to congratulate the winners.

In the undergraduate chemistry category, Doug Turnbull was awarded first place and Brooke Mackay was awarded second place. In the undergraduate biochemistry category, Colyn Cleland (photo unavailable) received first place and Jalyce Heller received second place.

In the master's chemistry section, Connor MacNeil took first place and Doug Kiss took second place. In the master's biochemistry group, Justin Vigar took first place and Katherine Gzyl took second place.

In the doctoral category, Dylan Girodat took first place and Katie Wilson took second place.

Devaney Holland (photo unavailable) was named rookie of the year and Anileen Pageni, a high school student, received an honourable mention and made department history by doing research in the same department at the same time as her father, Binod, a post-doctoral fellow.

Chinook Symposium winners announced

caroline.zentner — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 17:32:53 +0000

Winners in the recent Chinook Symposium student conference and poster competition held by the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry received both recognition and cash for their hard work.

In the undergraduate biochemistry category, Dominic Czekay took first place and Ian Andrews took second. In the undergraduate chemistry category, first place went to Jackson Knott and second place went to Nathan Kostiuk.

In the graduate biochemistry category, Justin Vigar took first place while Dylan Girodat took second place. In the graduate chemistry category, first place went to Stefan Lenz and second place to Katie Wilson.

Laura Keffer-Wilkes received the Loren Helpler Gold Medal for PhD Research Excellence for her research presentation. Dr. Purshotam Sharma received the inaugural Christopher Owen Bender award for the best presentation by a post-doctoral fellow.

The panel of judges included Dr. Raja Kamalampeta, Dr. Nehal Thakor, Dr. Binod Pageni, David Hill, Dr. Tony Russell, Dr. Senthil Kumar, Tony Montina, Dr. Rene Boere and Dr. Chris Bender.

The department extends its thanks to the judges and congratulations to all the participants.

Thirty-five students, including post-doctoral fellows, doctoral candidates, master’s and undergraduate students and a high school student participated this year. First-place winners received $300 and second-place winners received $100.

iGEM team claims gold

trevor.kenney — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:18:04 +0000

A group of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge undergraduate chemistry, biochemistry, biology and neuroscience students has been rewarded with Gold Standing at the 2010 International Genetically Engineered Machines competition (iGEM).

This is the third gold-level victory for the 18-person synthetic biology research group, which competed against 128 teams at an event held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston, Mass.

The U of L team's project involved the design of a petrochemical-eating bacteria, which they proved could be used to help clean up water in oil sands tailings ponds. Their effort, which was supported by a $20,000 grant from the Oil Sands initiative, furthers a biological solution to improve the environmental sustainability of Alberta's oil sands bitumen extraction, upgrading and refining.

"The iGEM jamboree was the perfect conclusion to our six months of hard work," says team member and lab supervisor Justin Vigar. "It was a life-changing experience to be able to present our results on a world-class stage at one of the most prestigious, innovative universities in the world. To compete in the iGEM competition is an honour in itself, but to achieve a gold medal standing while working on a project that is very relevant to our province and country is indescribable."

"To even get into the iGEM competition is tough, but to further ensure that the team project is proven to work and has promise for further research, is even more difficult," says Dr. Hans-Joachim Wieden, the team advisor and a researcher in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

A $34,000 undergraduate research grant from Alberta Innovates Future Technologies played a major role in allowing the team to participate in the competition. Still, it was incumbent upon team members to raise further funds to support the project.

"Motivated by their research objective, the students raised more then $62,000," says Wieden. "They also had the opportunity to run their own research lab, with all the problems and rewards associated with it."

Wieden, who was also nominated by his fellow researchers to judge at the competition, says the team went above and beyond the event's requirements. Not only did they excel in designing and executing the project, but their production of documentation on the ethics, public awareness, business potential and social implications of their research was very well received. The team also worked with an artist to produce a unique four-chapter DVD of music based on the data, which brought their research into the creative world.

With the co-operation of Dr. Will Smith in the Faculty of Fine Arts (New Media), who created musical phrases and sounds based on the graphs, data and photographs of the group at work, the team produced a giveaway DVD representing the four phases of their research. No team had ever done this before, and it was played for about 1,300 people at the final meeting.

Vigar says the team left the jamboree with many friends from around the globe, which in the future he hopes will spark international collaborations.

"The synthetic biology/iGEM community is one of the most exciting and rewarding communities to be involved in," says Vigar. "Participating in iGEM has given me more experiences than I could have imagined, and I hope that iGEM continues so that future students can have the same experiences that I, and others in our group, had."

Cleaning up the oil sands

trevor.kenney — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:36:00 +0000

A group of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge undergraduate chemistry, biochemistry and neuroscience students is taking on the challenge of trying to help clean up toxins in oil sands tailings ponds.

The 11-member group has been awarded a $20,000 international research grant to help solve a challenge posed by a consortium of leading energy companies – find a biological solution to improve the environmental sustainability of Alberta's oil sands bitumen extraction, upgrading and refining.

"As a team from Alberta, we know of the economic benefit that the oil sands have brought to the province," says team spokesperson Justin Vigar. "Many members on our team have friends and family employed around the province in the energy industry.
"However, we are also aware of the environmental impact of the oil sands, specifically the tailings ponds. We feel it is important not only to clean the tailings ponds, but be able to extract the potential energy of the residue bitumen at the same time."

The students are members of the multiple-award-winning International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) team at the U of L. Each year, the iGEM team takes on a synthetic biology research project, which is then presented at an international competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Mass.

The group was the only team in the iGEM worldwide membership to receive $20,000 from the Oil Sands Initiative to study how petrochemical-eating bacteria could be used to help clean up water in tailings ponds. The ponds are a byproduct of the bitumen refining process in which water that cannot be recycled is deposited into large ponds to settle.

Vigar adds that the iGEM team has previously worked on related projects, giving them a significant advantage when facing this new challenge.

"Our iGEM teams have designed a variety of synthetic biology components that all relate to this new project," he says. "One year, the team created a biological 'switch' that directed bacteria to move toward certain types of contaminants. The next year, we refined that to make the bacteria consume a specific chemical compound, and then stop reproducing – we called it a 'bacuum cleaner.' Last year, we designed what we called 'bio-batteries' that use bacteria with photosynthetic properties to generate electrical currents."

Vigar says the group hopes to accomplish several things with its research.

"We intend to create and characterize biological parts that can be used in the efforts of cleaning the tailings ponds, and those parts will be available to the general public for use in the future through the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, housed at MIT."

The other benefit will be to the team members as they progress in their academic and post-university careers.

"This experience will be extremely beneficial to enhance team members independent and critical thinking," says Vigar.
"As well, we learn how classroom knowledge can be directly applied in helping to solve everyday issues – specifically the application of synthetic biology to engineer solutions. iGEM has spurred our scientific creativity in what we can and cannot do, and has opened our eyes to not only the field of synthetic biology, but made us more aware of the research community in general."

UNews - Justin Vigar

Path of learning has taken Justin Vigar around the world

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