UNews - Dr. Stacey Wetmore

U of L chemist wins prestigious national award

caroline.zentner — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 19:52:54 +0000

In a first for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Dr. Stacey Wetmore has been awarded a Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) Fellowship, the highest accolade that can be bestowed upon a CIC member.

“It’s a huge honour; I’m still in shock,” says Wetmore, a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry with expertise in computational chemistry. “I really wasn’t expecting to be awarded with that at this point in my career. Normally, it’s something that people receive in the later parts of their careers because it’s really a career-distinction type of award.”

Dr. Neil Burford, 2018-2019 Chair of the CIC Board of Directors, presents Dr. Stacey Wetmore with her CIC Fellowship award.

The award recognizes individuals for making exceptional contributions to the chemical professions.

“Fellowship in the CIC is awarded to those members of the Canadian Society for Chemistry, the Canadian Society (CSC) for Chemical Engineering and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology who have made outstanding scientific, engineering or technical contributions, including service, management and teaching,” says Dr. Neil Burford, chair of the CIC. “Professor Wetmore is highly deserving of this honour which recognizes her outstanding achievements as a researcher and mentor and for her work with the CSC, the CIC, NSERC and the Canadian Journal of Chemistry.”

Wetmore came upon the field of computational chemistry somewhat by chance. She was attending Mount Allison ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in New Brunswick, studying math and chemistry in a combined honours program.

“After my second year, I spent a summer doing math research and, after my third year, I spent a summer doing chemistry research in a wet lab,” she says. “Both of those experiences taught me what I didn’t want to do. Then we had a speaker come to the university and talk about how you can do chemistry by computer. You needed to understand math and be able to work with computers to model what was actually happening with the molecules and look at how they react together. I thought this sounded like something that played to my strengths and interests.”

The guest speaker was Dr. Russell Boyd. Wetmore went on to complete a PhD at Dalhousie under his supervision and now, some 17 years later, he nominated her for the CIC fellowship.

"Stacey has an inimitable level of enthusiasm that she applies to everything she does, be it teaching, research or administrative activities,” says Boyd, professor emeritus at Dalhousie ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. “Her students have no choice but to be inspired by her enthusiasm and respond in kind. She has become an outstanding researcher through her willingness to tackle tough problems, to master complex material, and to persevere in a minefield of potential blind alleys."

After doing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Australian National ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, Wetmore joined the faculty at her alma mater. As a student, she had been involved in research and, as a professor, she hoped to inspire that same love of research in her students. After five years there, Wetmore came to the U of L in 2006 as a Canada Research Chair.

“I was able, because of our strong liberal undergraduate program, to have undergraduate students participate in research with me,” she says. “We also have a very strong graduate program and two research institutes in our department. That was really appealing. I could do what I loved to do, but I could also extend and expand my research program into new areas by including MSc and PhD students.”

Wetmore, whose research looks at how DNA is damaged and repaired in cells, has had more than 80 undergraduate students and 20 graduate students conduct research in her lab. Her students have also had opportunities to work in labs around the world because of Wetmore’s reputation internationally. She has established research connections during visits to other universities, by attending international conferences and being contacted by other scientists who’ve read about her work in publications.

“The best is when experimentalists read what we’ve done and then come to us and say ‘We see the value in your approach and we want to work with you.’ I think it speaks volumes about the quality of work my students are doing,” she says.

Interdisciplinary collaboration leads to research publication

caroline.zentner — Wed, 23 May 2018 21:36:26 +0000

A collaboration between ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and international scientists has led to a prestigious publication for doctoral student Ryan Kung (BSc ’15).

Under the supervision of Dr. Stacey Wetmore, Kung’s research into how the structure of a DNA damaging agent affects biological consequences was recently published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

“It was encouraging and exciting that something I did a lot of work on was published and added knowledge to the field,” says Kung. “I’m really thankful that Stacey set up this collaboration for me and allowed me to conduct this research and expand my knowledge in this area.”

The research involved studying DNA damage related to a class of compounds called aromatic amines, which come from many different sources in the environment, such as vehicle exhaust, oil refining and tobacco smoke.

“We looked at DNA damage that was very similar to an aromatic amine that we know is very toxic and causes bladder cancer. We wanted to know if it would behave the same way if we changed the structure slightly,” says Kung.

Dr. Richard Manderville, at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph, and Dr. Shana Sturla and Florence Berger, at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, created the damaged DNA and marked it with a fluorine atom. The presence of the fluorine atom allowed Kung to gain critical information about the structure of the damaged DNA using both computational and experimental methods.

“Their help was instrumental in the making of the damaged DNA,” says Kung. “The collaboration and the ability to work with these people and learn from them was a great opportunity and I really enjoyed that.”

At the U of L, Kung and Wetmore worked with other researchers within the Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies (C-CRAFT). This state-of-the-art facility provided the high-quality equipment that allowed Kung to make a significant contribution to the research. Kung and Wetmore used powerful computers to model what was happening at the microscopic level.

“The experimental information collected about these systems is complicated and difficult to interpret. Computer modelling therefore plays a critical role in allowing us to understand the effects of DNA damage,” says Wetmore. “The modelling expertise that Ryan has developed thus far in his graduate studies makes collaborations with international, interdisciplinary research groups possible and successful.”

In collaboration with Tony Montina, who is the U of L’s nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) facility manager, Kung also looked at the samples of damaged DNA using NMR spectroscopy.

“The use of fluorine NMR in this project provided a powerful piece of experimental evidence that could be used to confirm the computational work done by Ryan,” says Montina. “This project represents an excellent example of the high quality transdisciplinary research being done by C-CRAFT and the diversity of training that students like Ryan are able to obtain while carrying out graduate studies at the U of L.”

“Using a combination of computational and experimental techniques, we found that there could be two structures, one of them was very similar to undamaged DNA and likely would not have a huge impact on the body,” says Kung. “The other structure we found distorted the DNA more and would likely have more serious consequences. Even a small change in the structure of DNA can have a big biological impact.”

Originally from Linden, a village northeast of Calgary, Kung came to the U of L intending to eventually enter education. He knew he wanted to study science but felt equally drawn to mathematics and chemistry. He flipped a coin and chemistry won.

“As an undergraduate, I was encouraged to do research with different groups and one that really fascinated me was Dr. Wetmore’s computational chemistry,” says Kung. “We focus on the micro level so we can understand small changes. Those small changes can have large effects, such as cancer and other immune disorders. You can’t always predict from the small change what’s going to happen in the large system.”

Kung has been awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Program, Alberta Innovates Technology Futures (AITF) Graduate Student Scholarship and a School of Graduate Studies fellowship.

U of L computational chemistry students build international networks

caroline.zentner — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 17:44:34 +0000

Two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge doctoral students have built international connections early in their careers, thanks to Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements (MSFSS) from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Katie Wilson (BSc ’13), who spent three months at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Porto in Portugal, and Stefan Lenz (BSc ’13), who spent three months at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Rhode Island, are being supervised by Dr. Stacey Wetmore, a professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. They are in the process of finishing the requirements for their PhDs in computational chemistry, a field that employs computers to help solve chemistry problems.

“It was amazing,” Wilson says of her time at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Porto. “I wanted to learn new techniques to model biological systems and Dr. Wetmore is connected to Dr. Maria João Ramos’ group in Porto, so I went there to learn the methods they are using. For any scientific advancement, you need that collaboration in order to go forward.”

Lenz went to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Rhode Island to work with Dr. Deyu Li, an experimental expert in the field of DNA repair. Lenz had the opportunity to learn experimental techniques used to study DNA repair.

“Computational chemistry can’t solve all of the problems and, by the same token, experiments can’t provide all of the insights we’d like either,” says Lenz. “It’s often a dual-headed approach that yields the best results, so establishing a consistent collaboration between a computational lab and an experimental lab can be extremely valuable.”

“An incredible part of a young researcher’s education is exposure to new environments and ways of thinking,” says Wetmore. “Nothing can replace the experience of being immersed in a collaboration between innovative researchers with vibrant and productive research programs. Katie and Stefan have enhanced their graduate education by securing funding from the MSFSS program in order to take advantage of this important opportunity.”

Wilson, who is from Canmore, and Lenz, who is from Coaldale, came to the U of L with very different goals from those they are now pursuing. Wilson had set her sights on becoming a teacher while Lenz wanted to study medicine.

“That was before I realized I couldn’t deal with blood or the hospital atmosphere,” he says, adding he became aware of Wetmore’s work through a tour of her lab. “I really liked the idea of studying DNA and the processes that involve DNA.”

Wilson altered her path when she found she enjoyed her science courses so much so that she only wanted to keep building her knowledge.

“I didn’t want to stop learning; I wanted to be able to apply it more in-depth than if I were to get an education degree,” she says. “I got involved in the co-op program during my undergrad to get a research-related job in the summer. There was a job posting to work with Stacey and understanding how DNA damage affects the body interests me, so I worked in her lab that summer and stayed.”

Wilson studies how damaged DNA is replicated in the body. Repair proteins aren’t perfect and they sometimes miss damaged sites. These damaged sites may be replicated and that can introduce further damage into the DNA that can lead to long-term health effects. Since her return from Portugal, she’s shared what she learned with other students in Wetmore’s lab, which is part of the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI) and the Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies (C-CRAFT).

Lenz focuses on DNA repair mechanisms. Several repair pathways exist and they use proteins that catalyze chemical reactions or enzymes to search and reverse the damage caused by the things we encounter on a daily basis, oxygen being the most common. Cancer drugs can also damage DNA and Lenz works to find out how repair proteins work, with the hope of synthesizing new drugs to enhance cancer treatment in the future.

Wilson and Lenz were eligible for the Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements because of their NSERC scholarships. Wilson is a Vanier scholar and Lenz was awarded the Alexander Graham Bell Canadian Graduate Scholarship.

“Studying abroad allows you to build connections and collaborations with other researchers, which are always going to be useful when going on in science,” Wilson says. “It’s a huge benefit to my future, and just getting exposed to a different research environment and being able to adapt allows me to be strengthened as a researcher.”

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has been great,” adds Lenz. “The U of L has been incredibly generous with computer and monetary resources, and mentorship. Stacey, and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as a whole, have provided valuable insight and direction into my thesis and guided my career path.”

Lenz and Wilson are also grateful to have received scholarships from the U of L and Alberta Innovates-Technologies Futures.

U of L chemistry student’s research published in top tier journal

caroline.zentner — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 21:21:20 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master’s student Daniel Stuart, in collaboration with Drs. Michael Gerken and Stacey Wetmore, have cracked the case of the vanishing compound.

Their research results were recently published in Angewandte Chemie, a top-notch, peer-reviewed scientific journal, and subsequently featured in a Research Highlight in the journal Nature.

During common chemical reactions, some organic compounds are created but they disappear in the flicker of an eye. While scientists have made these compounds in a solution before, the U of L team from C-CRAFT (Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies) is the first to successfully create these compounds in a solid state.

“The isolation of these intermediates in the solid state is highly significant,” says Gerken. “Daniel’s results show the structure of molecules that have been written on the white board in every advanced organic chemistry class around the world. The collaboration with Dr. Wetmore is a prime example of the synergy with C-CRAFT, providing students with optimal training and research opportunities. I am very proud of Daniel; he has done a great job in preparing and characterizing his molecules, as well as supporting his results with computational results.”

“I started studying these systems based on another project I was working on,” says Stuart. “I was doing a reaction and normally, I see my reactions start to decompose, they go brown and nasty things happen and my reaction is essentially ruined. I did one and it worked out fine. It was very fishy and I couldn’t explain it. I started to do some work and lo and behold, I was able to start growing crystals.”

Drawing from previous work done by Nobel-prize winner Dr. George Olah, the researchers nailed down the disappearing compounds by conducting the reactions in baths of pure acid. The reactions created solid deposits that were studied further using an X-ray diffractometer and spectroscopy.

“Dr. Wetmore really helped us learn more about the bonding in these molecules, carrying out calculations and determining energies,” says Stuart. “She helped us further confirm what was going on.”

“Computational chemistry uses computers to gain information about molecules at the atomic level,” says Wetmore. “This research project provides a wonderful illustration of how chemists can use powerful computers and sophisticated lab techniques to understand how atoms bond. Daniel is a very smart student and quickly learned how to do the calculations necessary for his project.”

The research finding has helped clarify what happens in these reactions at a fundamental level. Ultimately, the results could be used to improve and modify conditions in reactions that are used in industry or in the development of pharmaceuticals.

“This is definitely the highlight of my master’s; it is really exciting work,” says Stuart. “I’m really grateful I was able to work in Dr. Gerken’s lab and get his support and advice in this project. I’d also like to thank Dr. Wetmore for her help with modelling these systems — she was fantastic.”

Stuart came to the U of L after he met a former graduate student of Gerken’s while completing his undergraduate degree at McMaster ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Hamilton.

“We have some of the best instrumentation in North America and the opportunities for undergraduates here are phenomenal,” says Stuart. “They get hands-on experience and those opportunities are really hard to come across at bigger institutions.”

Wetmore harnesses power of computers to tackle some of society's biggest problems

caroline.zentner — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:50:08 +0000

Dr. Stacey Wetmore admits she used to break her fair share of equipment and spill enough compounds that experimental chemistry wasn’t the most prudent career choice. She took her mathematical aptitude and applied it to her chemical knowledge and set up shop in front of a computer screen – and has been at the forefront of computational chemistry ever since.

Wetmore will give the southern Alberta community a look at this essential field of study at the final PUBlic Professor Series event of the spring on Thursday, March 23 at 7 p.m. at Lethbridge City Hall. DNA Damage, Repair and Disease: How Computers Can Help Us Understand will discuss how computer calculations can provide the information required to complement traditional experimental work in the lab.

Dr. Stacey Wetmore is passionate about her work and involves students in every aspect of her research in computational chemistry.

“The simplest way to understand it is chemistry by computers,” says Wetmore. “We use a computer cluster for our work, which is like thousands of computers all linked together.”

Whereas traditional “wet” experiments in a chemistry lab see chemists create compounds out of physical ingredients, Wetmore’s group will model a chemical on the computer, often in much less time.

“In drug design for example, we can model how a lot of different compounds interact with whatever we are trying to affect and come up with some potential targets for the compound to attack. We then turn it over to the lab where they can go away and spend time actually making the compounds and testing them. We provide another important piece to the puzzle,” she says.

Born and raised in Saint John, NB, Wetmore completed her undergraduate degree at Mount Allison ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ before earning her doctorate in computational chemistry at Dalhousie ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. She came to the U of L in 2006 as a Canada Research Chair and quickly established the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s own computer cluster, allowing for cutting-edge computational research that complemented an outstanding lab environment already in place.

Funny, engaging and passionate about her work, Wetmore involves her students, from high school-aged to the post-doctorate level, in every aspect of research.

“I went back to Mount Allison after my post-doc studies in Australia because of the undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research that they were doing. That’s what got me involved in this in the first place,” she says. “When the position at the U of L came up, it seemed like it offered that same sort of atmosphere and it also had a growing graduate program. When I got here I couldn’t believe the facilities available at the U of L, and the quality of staff and students.”

Now, Wetmore is on the ground floor of projects that look to tackle some of society’s biggest problems. She’s currently studying DNA damage and repair, with implications that contribute to fields such as cancer research.

“I’m not saying we’re going to cure cancer here, but I think it’s important to make this connection between some of the fundamental chemistry we do, the important training we do and how that relates to these bigger problems we face,” she says. “Directly, I’m not going to solve the problem, but all these little pieces have to come together at some point.”

All the while, she’s breaking down misconceptions that chemicals are either unnatural or bad. A forum such as PUBlic Professor helps to dispel some of these notions.

“There are so many negative implications of chemicals out there through marketing and media,” she says. “From that perspective, it’s really important to go out and say that this is what chemistry is about, all chemicals aren’t bad, I’m a chemist and look at what I’m doing with chemistry. It’s about solving bigger problems and trying to make our lives better.”

UNews - Dr. Stacey Wetmore

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