UNews - Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies

U of L’s computing capabilities to expand through NSERC grant

caroline.zentner — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 15:30:49 +0000

New computing infrastructure will support the world-class research being done at several centres at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, including the Southern Alberta Genome Sciences Centre (SAGSC), the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), the Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies (C-CRAFT) and the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI).

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Research Tools and Instruments Grants Program is providing nearly $147,000 to support the expansion.

“This infrastructure increases our high-performance computing capabilities and supports our research in bioinformatics, genomics, machine learning, neuroscience and computational chemistry,” says Dr. Athan Zovoilis, a Canada Research Chair in RNA Bioinformatics and Genomics in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and director of SAGSC. “It will also benefit BioNet Alberta, the bioinformatics network in Alberta, which includes the three major Alberta universities and is led by the U of L’s SAGSC.”

“With this funding, we will be able to replace our aging graphics processing unit (GPU) nodes,” says Dr. Stacey Wetmore, a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry with expertise in computational chemistry. “This new GPU cluster will enable both our teams to perform complex calculations very quickly, meaning we can tackle important problems related to health and disease. U of L students will also have the opportunity to be trained on state-of-the-art equipment.”

Foreign study placement leads to post-doc at Princeton

caroline.zentner — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 16:40:17 +0000

For Connor MacNeil, graduate school turned out to be the tale of two Pauls.

While doing his undergraduate degree in chemistry at New Brunswick’s Mount Allison ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, his research supervisor, Dr. Steve Westcott, suggested he call the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Dr. Paul Hayes, who had also been a student of Westcott’s. Westcott mentioned they had similar research interests and thought they would get along.

Photo by Jon Darmon

“I could tell right away it was going to be a good fit,” says MacNeil. “It’s an important part of starting grad school. If you don’t get along with your supervisor, then it can be a really unpleasant few years.”

Hayes was on study leave in Germany when MacNeil first called but that didn’t stop him from moving across the country to start working as a research associate in Hayes’ lab in the U of L’s Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. The year was 2014 and MacNeil had heard about plans to build a new science building. He wanted to get in on the ground floor.

“Seeing how the department has evolved physically and, with the new talent that we’ve brought in, securing a Canada Research Chair in organofluorine chemistry and the friends I’ve made along the way, it has been a great experience,” says MacNeil.

MacNeil is pursuing a PhD, now in its final stages. He wanted to focus on problem solving during his graduate studies and that’s what he found in Hayes’ lab — a team of problem solvers who ask interesting questions and have their eye on how chemistry can play a role in solving global challenges like climate change and developing new pharmaceuticals.

“The things I’m focusing on specifically in my PhD research are reactions pertaining to the hydrogen economy,” says MacNeil. “I’ve shown that organic molecules containing element-hydrogen bonds react with a metal complex to release hydrogen gas. When you break it down, hydrogen is a versatile reagent in all kinds of chemistry and my PhD research looks at new methods to generate hydrogen from common organic molecules in a straightforward way.”

“It has been a true pleasure working with Connor over the past few years,” says Hayes, who is also a member of the Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies (C-CRAFT). “We both enjoy brainstorming ideas and often find ourselves drawing out new chemical reactions long after most of our colleagues have gone home for the evening.”

While working away at his own research, MacNeil was also following the work being done in Paul Chirik’s lab at Princeton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Princeton, New Jersey. Chirik’s expertise is in organometallic chemistry, using environmentally friendly catalysts made from abundant earth elements including iron and cobalt.

“I’d been interested in the work that Paul Chirik was doing at Princeton since I started graduate school and it had always been a dream of mine to work in that area of chemistry,” MacNeil says. “I never thought it would be possible for me to work in that lab at Princeton.”

Because MacNeil received the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, he was able to secure the prestigious Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement. He contacted Chirik, who was enthusiastic about MacNeil spending the fall semester in his lab.

“It was a bit surreal because you hear about all the amazing research that this group does and then, all of a sudden, you’re dropped in and you’re a part of the group and conversing with people that you’ve admired,” he says. “Everybody at Princeton is at the top of their game and that was a world I wanted to immerse myself in.”

MacNeil focused on doing the best he possibly could with the time he was given. The first month brought a lot of trying and failing. He persevered and often found himself working away in the lab near midnight with a smile on his face because there was nowhere else he wanted to be.

“I think I made a positive impact on the group and, in the four months I was there, I was able to complete a project and actually publish a paper in Angewandte Chemie,” he says. “I’m going back — I was offered a post-doctoral position at Princeton after I conclude my studies here. My time there was highly productive and Paul Chirik and I got along really well. The way he thinks about science is something that fits well with my goals.”

“Connor has really matured as a scientist, so when the opportunity came along to work with Prof. Chirik at Princeton I knew he was well prepared for the challenge,” says Hayes. “Thus, it was not a surprise that he was an outstanding ambassador for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and that he flourished in the high-pressure environment. His future is incredibly bright and I look forward to following his career and continuing to bounce ideas back and forth.”

MacNeil is currently working on writing his PhD thesis and plans to finish it this summer. He says he hopes to spend time with family in New Brunswick before moving to Princeton at the end of the summer, depending on border restrictions and public health directives.

“I definitely miss being in the lab and I miss seeing people working on science,” he says. “If there’s one thing I learned during this time alone is that science is collaborative in nature.”

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.

UNews - Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies

U of L’s computing capabilities to expand through NSERC grant

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Foreign study placement leads to post-doc at Princeton

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