UNews - Steven Mosimann

Faculty and student researchers buoyed by NSERC funding

trevor.kenney — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 18:07:49 +0000

A diverse and comprehensive group of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers was awarded $1.98 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) this week, part of $558 million in total funding to post-secondary researchers and students, the largest investment in research from NSERC this year.

Projects in chemistry & biochemistry, neuroscience, kinesiology & physical education, mathematics & computer science, environmental science, biology and psychology all received funding support.

In addition, eight graduate students received $336,000 in funding, further broadening the impact of the federal government’s investment in research activities at the U of L.

“Canada supports science and our talented researchers. We are delivering on our historic investment in research and in the next generation of scientists. These remarkable researchers and students we are celebrating are working to make the world a better place and to secure a brighter future for all Canadians,” says The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport.

Dr. Erasmus Okine, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s vice-president (research) says he is impressed with the breadth of research being funded.

“It speaks to the level of activity we have going on throughout the institution, and the variety of issues our researchers and students are tackling,” says Okine. “This level of funding is a recognition by NSERC that our people are making a real difference through their research work and will continue to do so.”

Projects in chemistry & biochemistry, neuroscience, kinesiology & physical education, mathematics & computer science, environmental science, biology and psychology all received funding support. Dr. Robert Sutherland’s study in the Department of Neuroscience, Hippocampus and memory: A systems level approach, earned $285,000 over five years, the largest award of the funded projects.

Sutherland describes the hippocampus as being situated at the hub of a set of distributed cortical networks that represent movement and perceptual information. Amnesia is the most prominent effect of damage to or dysfunction of the hippocampus and most forms of human memory disorder involve the hippocampus.

“The current proposal examines, in detail, how the interactions between the hippocampus and other cortical networks establish long-term memories,” says Sutherland, director of the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience. “We will discover exactly which types of information depend on the hippocampus and how the hippocampus modifies the functioning of the cortex through long-term interactions.”

Dr. Louise Barrett, Canada Research Chair in Cognition, Evolution and Behaviour and member of the U of L’s Department of Psychology, will receive $200,000 over five years (plus an accelerator supplement of $120,000 over three years) for her project, Behavioural Flexibility, Fertility and Social Network Influences in Human and Non-Human Primates.

In her work, Barrett aims to understand how evolutionary processes influence the behaviour of human and non-human primates.

“More specifically, I am interested in exploring those aspects that we share with other primate species, and those that make us different,” she says.

Other funded researchers include:

Dr. Matthew Tata, neuroscience; Dr. Steven Mosimann, chemistry & biochemistry; Dr. Marc Roussel, chemistry & biochemistry; Dr. Athanasios Zovoilis, chemistry & biochemistry; Dr. Marc Bomhof, kinesiology & physical education; Dr. John Anvik, mathematics & computer science; Dr. Alexey Popov, mathematics & computer science; Dr. David Euston, neuroscience; Dr. Sergio Pellis, neuroscience; Dr. Stephanus Henzi, psychology; Dr. Cameron Goater, biological sciences; Dr. Majid Mohajerani, neuroscience.

Graduate students who received funding include:

Elijah Dueck, chemistry & biochemistry; Lukas Grasse, neuroscience; Samantha Krause, psychology; Kailyn Nelson, environmental science; Candace Burke, neuroscience; Serena Jenkins, neuroscience; Justin Lee, neuroscience; Conner MacNeil, chemistry & biochemistry.

Journey to academic success doesn't always follow same path

trevor.kenney — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 16:52:25 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master’s student Richard McLean (BSc ’14) would be the first to tell you that all educational journeys do not follow the same path. In fact, some of the most unorthodox routes can lead to some of the greatest results.

McLean, shown here in the lab, was inspired by the opportunity presented to him in an Applied Studies course.

McLean contributed to a groundbreaking study that was recently published in Nature, the world’s most-cited interdisciplinary science journal, with work he accomplished as an undergraduate student in an Applied Study setting with Dr. Wade Abbott, an adjunct chemistry and biochemistry professor. Given that McLean’s future was headed toward toiling in a kitchen rather than researching in a lab, the magnitude of this accomplishment is all the more impressive.

“At one point I was thinking, this is about as good as it’s going to get,” says McLean of his work as a cook in a variety of local restaurants before he decided to return to post-secondary studies. “Ultimately, my dad talked me into it and I thought maybe I should go back.”

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Man., McLean moved to Lethbridge at age 12 and excelled academically. A strong student out of Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, he went directly to the U of L following his high school graduation. After two years, his GPA sagging along with his interest level, McLean left to “do my own thing”. He and his family eventually realized he was destined for bigger things.

Working with Dr. Wade Abbott, standing, McLean contributed to a major international study that was recently published in Nature.

“Going from cooking in a kitchen where it doesn’t matter how hard you work, you don’t really see any rewards, to coming in here where everybody you work with is really invested, is working toward the same goal and is passionate about what they are doing – it’s a refreshing change,” says McLean.

He got his big break shortly after coming back to the U of L, when Abbott presented him with the chance to work in his lab.

“As soon as I gave him that opportunity, he worked like nobody I’ve ever seen,” says Abbott, one of the co-lead authors on the Nature paper, Human gut Bacteroidetes can utilize yeast mannan through a selfish mechanism, that was published Jan. 8, 2015. The study discovered that certain strains of bacteria in the human gut – Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (Bt) – have developed a taste for yeast, which may hold the key to strengthening the immune system in both humans and livestock.

“That’s one of the things that makes the U of L such a great school. Before I dropped out, I had kind of lost interest so my GPA was nothing to get too excited about, but I still had the opportunity to get into the lab,” says McLean. “At a lot of other schools you have only the top of your class struggling to get a position in a lab, so I feel quite lucky.”

His first task was to try and unlock the structure of a specific enzyme, something that Abbott and his colleagues had been unable to accomplish.

“It was the first time I’d tried the technique and all these other guys have tons of experience. I jokingly said that I probably did something wrong and that’s why it worked,” says McLean. “Sometimes the conditions are just right and everything falls into place.”

It proved to be an important part of the study and earned McLean his first publishing credit. Since then he has graduated and begun work, also with Abbott and Dr. Steven Mosimann, on his master’s degree. He’s now working on a project that is attempting to eliminate food-born pathogens, something he intends to transition into PhD studies down the road. His ultimate goal is to become a research scientist.

“I felt that Wade had given me a real opportunity to come and work in his lab so I really wanted to prove myself,” says McLean. “He rolled the dice on me and I wanted it to pay off for the both of us.”

It already has, and from the goals that McLean has established going forward, the journey is far from over.

2010 faculty research awards

trevor.kenney — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:36:52 +0000

External SSHRC Grants
(Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council)

Paul Vasey and Martin Lalumiere (Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences in Canada) $23,663
Claudia Malacrida is a co-applicant on a $1 million CURA through the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta

Independent Foundational Grants

Fangfang Li $4,800
Duane Rockerbie $4,000
Ed Wasiak $3,000
David Gregory $11,780
Malla Stavroula $11,500

CREDO Applications
(Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities)

Kiki Benzon
Robin Bright
Lynn Kennedy
Kevin McGeough
Janice Newberry
Claudia Steinke/Helen Kelley
Wei Xu

CIHR
(Canadian Institutes of Health Research)

Ute Kothe
Igor Kovalchuk
Gerlinde Metz
Paul Vasey
H.-J. Wieden
Kelley Williams-Whitt

AGRI
(Alberta Gaming Research Institute)

Noella Piquette-Tomei, $10,000
Robert Williams, $44,000

Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions
(formerly AHFMR)

Igor Kovalchuk

ARDN
(Alberta Rural Development Network)

Noella Piquette Tomei
Steve Ferzacca

NIH
(National Institutes of Health)

Bruce McNaughton (2 grants awarded by NIH to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Arizona were successfully transferred to the U of L)

Alberta Cancer Research Institute

Roy Golsteyn

Sport Science Association of Alberta

Jennifer Copeland

Alberta Family Wellness Initiative
(Norlien Foundation)

Noella Piquette-Tomei

NSERC CREATE Grant

Phil Teillet, Physics $1.5 Million over 6 years

NSERC Discovery Grants
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Robert Laird, Biological Sciences (Developing and testing the evolutionary reliability theory of senescence) $24,000
Rene Boere, Chemistry & Biochemistry (Redox-generated free radicals: basic science to nanomaterials) $40,000
Paul Hayes, Chemistry & Biochemistry (Organometallic complexes of new pincer ligands: Structure, reactivity and catalysis) $61,000
Steven Mosimann, Chemistry & Biochemistry (Structure and function of PTP like inositol polyphosphatases) $31,000
Nathan Ng, Mathematics & Computer Science (Prime numbers and L-functions) $15,000
Aaron Gruber, Neuroscience (Dopamine modulation of neural dynamics and behavioral flexibility) $27,000
Brian Kolb, Neuroscience (Brain plasticity and behaviour) $105,000
Artur Luczak, Neuroscience (Neuronal population patterns - studying interactions among hundreds of neurons) $26,000
Deborah Saucier, Neuroscience (Neural and hormonal bases of sex differences in spatial ability) $42,000)
Masami Tatsuno, Neuroscience (Quiescent dependent memory consolidation: memory-trace replay during REM sleep) $23,000
David Euston, Psychology (Neural mechanisms of decision making in frontal cortex) $23,000
Martin Lalumiere, Psychology (The nature and functions of genital sexual arousal) $27,000
Paul Vasey, Psychology (The comparative biopsychology of non-conceptive sexuality) $30,000

NSERC Equipment Grants

Aaron Gruber, Neuroscience $96,373
Rene Boere, Chemistry $22,024

* We are unable to post SSHRC winners at this time as SSHRC has not officially announced its award recipients. They will be published once they are made available.

Chinook Symposium winners announced

trevor.kenney — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:20:35 +0000

Craig Wheaton won the first-ever Loren Hepler Gold Medal for PhD research excellence as the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry held the 3rd Annual Chinook Symposium for Chemistry and Biochemistry in early October.

The symposium and associated poster prize is held to recognize undergraduate and graduate students performing original research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The Chinook Poster Prizes have been established at the undergraduate and master's levels, but new this year was the addition of the Loren Hepler Gold Medal for PhD research excellence. Two people gave presentations about their PhD research, with Wheaton winning the gold medal and Jeffrey Fischer placing second.

Judges for the annual contest included: Dr. Peter Dibble, Gary Knox and Jared Nieboer (Richardson Nutrition) for the Chemistry prize; Dr. Steven Mosimann, Dr. James Thomas and Sandor Dudas (ADRI) for the Biochemistry prize; Dr. Rene Boere and Dr. Brent Selinger for the PhD prize.

Following are the winners from the 3rd Annual Chinook Symposium for Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Chemistry – Undergraduate
First - Cassandra Churchill
Second - Shayne Rybchinski

Chemistry – Master's
First - Jennifer Przyblski
Second - Kevin Johnson

Biochemistry – Undergraduate
First - Mackenzie Coatham
Second - Michael Shields

Biochemistry – Master's
First - Evelina De Laurentiis
Second - Jessica Durand

PhD Presentations
First - Craig Wheaton
Second - Jeffrey Fischer

UNews - Steven Mosimann

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