UNews - Steve Wiseman

Broad areas of research awarded federal funding

caroline.zentner — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 21:03:34 +0000

A spectrum of research projects at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge have been awarded nearly $2.6 million in federal funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

The funding is part of $693.8 million for several NSERC research competitions recently announced on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

“This investment in ULethbridge research activities speaks to the excellence and nationally competitive research we do — everything from mapping fuels for wildland fires to bee behaviour and the dynamics of black holes,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “Our researchers investigate topics that impact the ways we understand the world around us and the complex influences and interconnectedness of the natural environment, agriculture and food security, and deep space phenomena.”

In addition, Dr. Monique Giroux had her Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Métis Music renewed for $500,000 through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

In all, 14 ULethbridge projects are receiving funding support from NSERC through the Discovery Grant and Discovery Development Grant programs. Among them are the following projects:

Dr. Laura Chasmer, a professor in the Department of Geography & Environment, will use novel Earth observation and geospatial data to examine how variations in vegetation ecosystems, both in space and in time, may enhance and reduce wildfires in Western Canada. The research program, which will include Indigenous land managers and knowledge keepers, will develop new ways of understanding fire hazards and recommendations for ecosystem management to lessen the impact of fire and improve the resilience of ecosystems and communities.
Dr. Sergio Pellis, Department of Neuroscience, will investigate the role of rough-and-tumble play or play-fighting in the development of cognitive and social skills in non-human mammals. Based on preliminary findings, Pellis hypothesizes that species with more complex social systems that require them to negotiate more varied relationships will have patterns of play that train youngsters for the social skills they’ll need as adults.

Discovery Grants

The funding listed for the following projects is over five years:

Dr. Theresa Burg, Biological Sciences — Evolution of High Latitude Birds ($200,000)
Dr. Shelley Hoover, Biological Sciences — Interactions between social bee behaviour and health ($190,000)
Dr. Steve Wiseman, Biological Sciences — Toxicant Induced Dysregulation of Oocyte Maturation ($235,000)
Dr. Nehal Thakor, Chemistry & Biochemistry — Regulation of mRNA Translation During Cellular Stress and Apoptosis ($200,000)
Dr. Laura Chasmer, Geography & Environment — Spatio-temporal variations in wildland fire fuel connectivity and behaviour using multi-data analytics ($275,000)
Dr. Joy Morris, Mathematics & Computer Science — Unexpected Symmetries of Graphs ($135,000)
Dr. David Euston, Neuroscience — Risk, Reinforcement Schedules, and Dopamine ($165,000)
Dr. Sergio Pellis, Neuroscience — Social play, the prefrontal cortex and the development of socio-cognitive skills ($275,000)
Dr. Alexandra Tetarenko, Physics & Astronomy — Unravelling how black holes power explosive outflows ($145,000)
Dr. Stephanus Henzi, Psychology — Contingency and Specificity in the Structure and Dynamics of Social Behaviour in Baboons and Vervet Monkeys ($235,000)
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca, Psychology — Mechanisms and evolution of material culture in primates: Does object play facilitate tool use? ($268,690)
Dr. Jamal Mansour, Psychology — Measuring cognitive processes that predict eyewitness identification performance ($165,000)

Discovery Development Grants

The funding listed for the following projects is over two years:

Dr. Philip Bonaventure, Geography & Environment — Climatic, geomorphic and ecosystem-driven multi-scale permafrost modelling and testing ($40,0000)
Dr. David Morris, Mathematics & Computer Science — Arithmetic groups, orderability, bounded generation and automorphisms ($40,000)

The Research Support Fund supports a portion of the costs associated with managing the research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, such as salaries for staff who provide administration support, training costs for workplace health and safety, maintenance of libraries and laboratories, and administrative costs associated with obtaining patents for inventions.

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas grant supports ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research expertise

trevor.kenney — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 20:59:41 +0000

Eight ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research projects focused on water storage, carbon storage, insect health, fish habitat and the endangered sage grouse will go ahead thanks to a $500,000 grant from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (AEPA).

“We’re joining forces with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge to look deeper into environmental issues impacting southern Alberta,” said Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, in a news release. “This grant will help us better maximize and manage Alberta’s water supply, reduce emissions, recover species at risk and protect the environment in the years ahead. This is a great example of government and university scientists working together.”

The three-year research grant will ultimately help both government and ULethbridge researchers better understand and respond to environmental challenges in southern Alberta and across the province.

"The Ministry's significant investment in these innovative and provincially important research projects led by ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers working with Environment and Protected Areas colleagues is greatly appreciated,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “The research includes answering important questions about water resources and habitat management, carbon storage in landscapes, ensuring diverse and thriving insects, birds, and fish populations, as well as human actions and interventions that affect water and lands."

The projects target diverse areas of research. Drs. Matthew Bogard and Sam Woodman (BSc '15), a postdoctoral fellow, will collaborate with researchers from AEPA and Ducks Unlimited Canada to map and define patterns of prairie wetland carbon and nutrient stocks.

In another project, Drs. Theresa Burg and Melissa Chelak, a postdoctoral fellow, will work with AEPA scientists to see how endangered sage grouse populations are responding to recent habitat restoration, namely oil and gas reclamation efforts.

Drs. Laura Chasmer, Chris Hopkinson and Craig Coburn will be focusing on the vulnerability of peatlands to wildfire. Peatlands in Alberta have been drying out in recent years, reducing their ability to slow the spread of forest fires and resulting in increased carbon loss into the atmosphere. In addition, Chasmer and Hopkinson will also work on a project to assess the province’s lake water resources.

Climate phases, such as El Nino, can impact the productivity of native grassland and wetland ecosystems. Dr. Larry Flanagan and AEPA will examine how these year-to-year variations in weather contribute to fluctuations in productivity and carbon sequestration in these ecosystems and how these factors in turn can affect dryland farming, ranching, irrigated crop production and bird habitat.

How rainbow and brown trout in urban rivers such as the Bow River are affected by the combined effects of exposure to two stormwater associated chemicals as well as increased water temperatures and decreases in dissolved oxygen is the subject of research by Drs. Steve Wiseman and Andreas Eriksson, a postdoctoral fellow, in collaboration with researchers from AEPA and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan.

Grasshopper expert, Dr. Dan Johnson, will be conducting extensive field sampling of Orthoptera to determine their diversity, abundance and biomass in wildlife food webs. Orthoptera includes insects such as grasshoppers and crickets.

A project team led by Dr. Jodie Asselin, an anthropology professor, in collaboration with government researchers, will look at the impact of human activities on the ecology of the Upper Oldman Watershed to assist in the development of policies that balance the needs of recreational users with the protection of at-risk species such as bull trout.

“These projects will help to monitor and build understanding of the southern Alberta environment and potentially lead to better responses to droughts, floods, species at risk and less predictable climate changes,” says McMartin.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge student takes top thesis prize at Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop

caroline.zentner — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 17:50:52 +0000

Yamin Raza (BSc ’22) capped off her undergraduate degree by winning an award for the best undergraduate thesis in the field of ecotoxicology. She presented her research and received the award at the recent annual conference of the Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop.

“I was extremely honoured to receive the award,” says Raza. “But mainly I’m very grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Steve Wiseman, for all the time he invested in me as an undergrad student. It’s only with his support and the opportunities he provided me that I was able to make this achievement.”

“I’ve been very fortunate to have Yamin as a member of my research team,” says Wiseman. “I try to give all members of my lab an environment in which they can excel. Yamin has embraced the challenges of independent research and worked very hard to achieve success. It gives me a lot of joy to see Yamin recognized with this award at our discipline’s largest and most important national conference.”

For her honours thesis, Raza researched the effects of flame-retardant chemicals on fish reproduction. She developed an assay or procedure to assess the effects of exposure to a flame-retardant chemical known as TBCO on female Japanese medaka fish. TBCO is used in many products and materials from clothing and electronics to building materials. While flame retardant chemicals can help prevent products from bursting into flames, they can also leak out of products into the air, soil and water.

Raza tested TBCO in two ways: by exposing only oocytes (immature egg cells in the ovary) and by exposing female fish. She then examined how many oocytes reached maturation and how many eggs the fish produced. In both cases, exposure to TBCO had adverse effects.

“What we were able to see is that this flame-retardant impaired reproduction and oocyte maturation using the assay I developed,” says Raza. “The tool allowed us to predict adverse effects that might happen in reproduction by exposing the ovary and only using a few fish.”

The effectiveness of the assay Raza developed indicates it has the potential to be used more broadly.

“I was very excited when I got these results,” she says. “It was really interesting to see how we’re able to develop an assay and how it’s able to tell us so much. The goal moving forward is to develop this assay with more species of fish and with different chemicals.”

Raza, who grew up in Lethbridge, wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she entered university but knew she enjoyed biology. She enrolled in the Department of Biological Sciences Research Internship Concentration and that allowed her to get involved in research early on in her university career. Raza is now working on a master’s degree in Wiseman’s lab.

“I just found his lab really interesting to work in,” she says. “I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I ended up loving it and it really ignited a passion for toxicology in me.”

Research study to focus on the environmental impacts of effluent release

caroline.zentner — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 22:37:12 +0000

This overview of Frank Lake shows the effluent outflow.

Around the world, people use wetlands to help treat wastewater. ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers will look to better understand how these complex systems work by studying the Frank Lake wetland and its watershed near High River, Alberta.

With base funding from Cargill Limited and matching funds from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada Alliance program totalling approximately $1.5 million, the research team will embark on a five-year project.

Drs. Matt Bogard, Steve Wiseman and Larry Flanagan from ULethbridge will be joined by two researchers, Drs. Kerri Finlay from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina and Markus Brinkmann from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan. Partners in the project include Cargill Limited and the Highwood Management Plan Public Advisory Committee, with support from ULethbridge Professor Emeritus Dr. Stewart Rood and Dr. Peter Leavitt from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina.

“The goal of this project is to understand the impacts of land use on the health of the Little Bow watershed, with a focus on the role that the Frank Lake wetland plays in processing effluent in this economically important region,” says Bogard, an assistant professor of biology and Canada Research Chair. “We want to provide all stakeholders with scientific knowledge and data to help manage the watershed as best as possible.”

ULethbridge graduate student Oshini Fernando uses a flux chamber to measure emissions, such as greenhouse gases, from the ground to the atmosphere.

Frank Lake is a restored wetland six kilometres east of High River. Managed by Ducks Unlimited Canada, the wetland is listed as an Important Bird Area. Treated effluent from both the Town of High River and Cargill Limited is released into Frank Lake to maintain water levels. Not only does the wetland provide habitat for birds, it adds another level of effluent treatment by further removing nutrients, salts and other chemicals. The concern for stakeholders is how long it can sustain current levels of treatment, and whether actions can be taken to enhance its functioning.

The wetland is also part of a larger watershed. Frank Lake flows periodically into the Little Bow River, which begins near High River and eventually joins the Oldman River. Along the way, other communities located within the watershed add effluent, and surrounding land uses include feedlot operations. By studying the whole basin, the researchers hope to gain an understanding of how the entire system works. The researchers will examine nutrient cycling in the watershed, water quality, aquatic ecology, health of the wetland and surrounding vegetation, and effluent toxicity.

“Part of the goal of this project is to tease apart the influence of different land uses on watershed health, so that future management decisions can better evaluate impacts of individual land uses,” says Bogard. “Much of the water used by humanity is released back into the environment as wastewater, so this project has major implications for watershed and wastewater management worldwide.”

Compound found in tires toxic to certain fish

caroline.zentner — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 15:40:51 +0000

As the treads on tires wear down, small particles of rubber fall off onto roadways where they react with oxidants such as ozone. And when it rains, these particles get flushed down storm drains and into waterways where they can be toxic to certain species of fish.

“For some time now, we’ve seen coho salmon along the west coast of the United States die after rainfall events,” says Dr. Steve Wiseman, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge biology professor and Canada Research Chair in Aquatic and Mechanistic Toxicology. “Research suggested that tire-related chemicals might be responsible for this.”

These sloughed-off particles contain a chemical compound called 6PPD, which becomes 6PPD-quinone when it interacts with ozone. In addition to previous research showing that small amounts of the chemical are toxic to coho salmon, another study showed that zebrafish and Japanese medaka can tolerate high amounts of the compound.

Wiseman, along with Drs. Markus Brinkmann and Markus Hecker at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan, wanted to know if the compound was toxic to other fish species, too, especially to commercially, culturally and ecologically important fishes.

“We exposed juvenile brook trout, rainbow trout, Arctic char and white sturgeon to varying levels of the chemical,” says Wiseman. “Even small concentrations were fatal to brook and rainbow trout, but none of the Arctic char and white sturgeon died after four days of being exposed to high levels of the compound, similar to concentrations that are found in storm water during a rainfall event. This is the first study to demonstrate acute toxicity of 6PPD-quinone — at environmental-relevant concentrations — to a species other than coho salmon.”

The research team has received funding from Alberta Environment and Parks to investigate concentrations of 6PPD-quinone in storm water in Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton. In addition, the team will look at other fishes in the salmon family for their sensitivity to the compound.

The project was partially supported by a financial contribution from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, NSERC, Western Economic Diversification Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, NSERC’s Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship program, the Canada First Research Excellence Funds and the Canada Research Chairs program.

Canada Research Chair appointments support U of L expertise in water and agriculture

caroline.zentner — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 18:18:58 +0000

Two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers have earned Canada Research Chair appointments, as announced by the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry on Jan. 12.

Dr. Jean-Denys Hamel, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, has been appointed a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Organofluorine Chemistry and Catalysis. Dr. Steve Wiseman, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has been reappointed a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Aquatic and Mechanistic Toxicology.

Dr. Dena McMartin

“We’re extremely pleased to see both Dr. Hamel and Dr. Wiseman recognized and supported for their excellent work,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s vice-president (research). “Dr. Hamel’s research has far-reaching applications in agriculture and pharmaceuticals, while Dr. Wiseman’s work is essential in helping maintain the health of our extremely valuable aquatic environments. Their appointments highlight the importance and impact of the work of our faculty members to southern Albertans and society as a whole.”

Dr. Jean-Denys Hamel

A year ago, Hamel joined the U of L’s Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies (C-CRAFT) where he leads an innovative research program in the emerging field of organofluorine chemistry. Fluorine is vital to the development of drugs, agrochemical agents and fine materials. Organofluorine chemistry requires greener chemical processes and shorter syntheses due to its increased number of applications.

“As an early-career researcher, it is very exciting to see the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and now the CRC program, sharing a common vision with me regarding the true potential of organofluorine chemistry and its positive impact on society,” says Hamel. “I am looking forward to contributing in positioning Canada at the forefront of research in that field.”

Thousands of unique chemicals are released into the environment from both natural and man-made sources. Aquatic systems are sinks for many of these chemicals, but little is known about their effects on aquatic organisms. Wiseman’s research program evaluates whether chemicals have adverse effects on aquatic organisms, with an emphasis on fish, and develops new tools to accurately predict toxicities.

Dr. Steve Wiseman

“I feel very fortunate to have my CRC Chair renewed for an additional five years,” says Wiseman. “This would not have happened without the hard work of the students, post-docs and research assistants who have been a part of my research team. This support from the CRC program, and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, will allow me to expand the research performed during the past five years, and more than anything, allow me to keep training the next generation of scientists.”

Along with Hamel’s appointment as a Canada Research Chair, he has also been awarded $140,000 through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) for infrastructure supporting his research in catalytic organofluorine chemistry.

About the Canada Research Chair program

The Canada Research Chair Program was established by the federal government in 2000 as part of a national strategy to attract and retain a diverse set of researchers. Chairholders achieve research excellence in engineering and the natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. Tier 1 Chairs, for leading researchers in their fields, are appointed for seven years and are renewable once. Tier 2 Chairs, for exceptional emerging researchers, are appointed for five years and are renewable once.

Novel approach wins Kaden Fujita an undergraduate thesis award

caroline.zentner — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 19:44:22 +0000

Kaden Fujita’s (BSc ’20) curiosity, creativity and perseverance has led to an award-winning thesis, a couple of papers submitted for publication and the spawning of a new collaboration between two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge scientists.

Fujita, now a master’s student in biology, recently received the Dr. Richard C. Playle Award for Outstanding Theses in Ecotoxicology by the Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop, a first for a U of L student. The award is given to only one undergraduate student each year in Canada.

“I’m extremely honoured to receive this award,” says Fujita. “I’m very grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Steve Wiseman, for all his assistance and to Tony Montina for taking me on as an independent studies student in metabolomics.”

“Kaden is extremely hardworking,” says Wiseman, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “Intelligence is one thing and you can be as smart as you want in science, but it doesn’t really guarantee success. Kaden puts in the hours to be successful.”

“He’s a good scientist, too,” adds Montina (BSc ’08, MSc ’10), an instructor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and director of the Magnetic Resonance Facility. “He doesn’t accept anything we tell him without questioning it first.”

Fujita began his studies at the U of L in the Research Internship Concentration offered in the Department of Biological Sciences. A Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Undergraduate Student Research Award allowed him to spend a summer working with a graduate student to examine the toxicity of diluted bitumen exposed to environmental weathering on zebrafish embryos.

“That, to our knowledge, was the first time anyone had studied the toxicity of weathered sediment-bound diluted bitumen,” says Wiseman. “We saw a variety of effects on developing embryos. What we didn’t know after that study was how those effects manifested — what’s happening at the cellular level that leads to these effects on the embryo, like changes in heart rate and lack of a swim bladder and other malformations. Kaden then used a metabolomics approach in his undergraduate honours thesis to try and figure out why these effects manifest.”

Fujita approached Montina with the idea of doing an independent study in metabolomics. Metabolomics, the study of the chemical composition of fluids that result from cellular processes, gives researchers a picture of how an organism is functioning and helps pinpoint why changes are occurring.

After completing a project in metabolomics in Montina’s lab, Fujita began his thesis work studying the effects of diluted bitumen on the early life stages of zebrafish. He tested several concentrations of diluted bitumen on zebrafish larvae and observed effects on various metabolites.

“Many studies have been done on early life stages of fish, but the molecular mechanisms of toxicity aren’t very well understood,” says Fujita. “I wanted to take a metabolomic approach to get a broader picture of what might be happening under the surface. We found there were various metabolites that were increased or decreased in concentration after exposure to diluted bitumen.”

Largely, amino acids were affected and various deformities, such as yolk sac edema, pericardial edema and uninflated swim bladder, were observed. His work formed the basis for his award-winning thesis and points to areas for further studies.

“There are a lot of questions yet to be asked but I think it gives us a very nice starting point,” says Wiseman. “We know what to look for now, so if we were to follow up with more environmentally relevant studies, we have a really nice platform to jump from.”

An NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship in hand, Fujita is focusing his master’s thesis on UV stabilizers, which are chemicals put into plastics to maintain their stability, with Wiseman and Montina as his supervisors.

U of L researchers finding better ways to monitor fish species

caroline.zentner — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 15:53:21 +0000

Studying the impacts of chemical pollutants on fish reproduction in the field is a complicated business. Because complex environmental cues, such as changes in temperature, salinity and food availability, are all linked to reproduction, scientists at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge are working on developing an easier way of monitoring fish species.

Using a blood, fin or scale sample that can be taken without harming the fish, researchers can determine if a particular species of fish is highly susceptible to a chemical exposure. They then can identify a need to monitor certain fish species or pinpoint certain areas of an aquatic system to monitor.

To get to that point, scientists like Dr. Jon Doering, the recipient of a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) post-doctoral fellowship, first work with fish in a controlled lab environment.

“These are typically small minnow-type fish that you can actually reproduce in an aquarium,” says Doering. “We look at the genetic and molecular mechanisms to extrapolate to large, native fish, like northern pike, trout and sturgeon, that we’re interested in for economic, ecological and cultural reasons.”

His work in Dr. Steve Wiseman’s lab in the Department of Biological Sciences aims to provide scientific evidence to direct conservation efforts in fish.

“Our primary goal is to determine the impacts of chemical pollutants on fish populations by extrapolating results from working on model fish in the lab, which aren’t necessarily native to Canada or of regulatory concern, to species that we are more interested in protecting, like recreational fishing species and endangered and threatened species,” says Doering. “We’re doing this through 21st century approaches and advances in predictive and molecular toxicology.”

Doering is looking at the long-term impacts on fish reproduction from chemical exposures in early life. Previous research has shown that a developing embryo exposed to a chemical for even a very brief time may have reproductive problems as an adult. Doering is specifically studying a class of chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These ubiquitous chemicals are released in the burning of organic matter, such as forest fires or burning coal. They’re also found in oil and are released into the environment through vehicle exhaust, during oil extraction and refining, or an oil spill.

“Exposed fish might produce fewer eggs or no eggs at all,” says Doering. “This is something that’s very hard to measure in the field because the fish are otherwise perfectly healthy, they just can’t produce eggs due to a chemical impact very early on in life. We’re measuring this in a number of different species and looking at species differences in susceptibility to these impacts and then we’re developing molecular models to predict those impacts in native species that are important to Canadians, like northern pike, endangered sturgeon species and other recreational species.”

They’ve largely determined the molecular mechanisms involved in this process. Chemicals can bind to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) in fish and can disrupt the processes that control the expression of different genes, causing certain reproductive genes to not be expressed at the proper levels.

“These disruptions can be permanent and they can actually be passed on to multiple generations, not just the individual that was exposed,” says Doering. “When expression disruptions happen, a fish that grows to adulthood is not expressing these reproductive genes at the proper levels and that’s what prevents it from producing eggs. This can lead to long-term population decreases.”

Doering and Wiseman suspect some species of fish are more sensitive because the structure of their receptor has a high affinity for these chemicals. Other species with a different receptor structure may be more tolerant of chemical exposures early in life.

“The idea is that we can predict a species sensitivity based on how tightly those chemicals bind to that receptor, and we can assess that interaction without having to kill any fish,” says Doering. “In an endangered species for instance, we can collect a blood sample, a scale or a fin clip and we can do all the measurements we need. That could inform what species we want to monitor.”

Doering completed his PhD at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan and worked as a postdoctoral fellow with the United States Environmental Protection Agency on the Great Lakes Restoration Project before joining the U of L. His NSERC post-doctoral fellowship is the second for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

Biology student projects earn awards at international conference

caroline.zentner — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 17:05:38 +0000

Two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge biology students earned first-place awards for their research at the recent 40th annual North American Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, the largest yearly gathering of environmental toxicologists in North America.

Darren Van Essen, a fourth-year student, was awarded first place in the undergraduate poster presentation competition, and Justin Miller, a master’s student presenting his undergraduate research, was awarded first place in the undergraduate oral presentation competition. Both are supervised by Dr. Steve Wiseman, a biological sciences professor.

Justin Miller, left, and Darren Van Essen have both used zebrafish in their research; zebrafish embryos are nearly transparent so researchers can easily observe development.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” says Van Essen. “Dr. Wiseman’s lab has been a perfect fit for me and I’ve had many different opportunities, including conducting research and attending conferences.”

“I’ve never done an oral presentation at a conference this size,” says Miller. “I was shocked when my name popped up, I was very excited.”

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge produces great undergraduate students and Darren and Justin are no exception,” says Wiseman. “They have worked hard on their research so it’s nice for them to be rewarded. Seeing my students be successful is the most rewarding aspect of my job.”

“I’m using zebrafish embryos to determine if a flame-retardant chemical is toxic to fish,” Van Essen says. “I found that it increases mortality, decreases heart rate and increases developmental malformations.”

Van Essen also used gene expression to investigate mechanisms of effects of exposure. He continues to examine the effects of the same chemical for his honours thesis.

Miller also used a zebrafish model to study the effects of dicamba, a herbicide used to control broadleaf weeds.

“I was building off of my previous project where I used rainbow trout to see how their liver cells responded to dicamba exposures,” says Miller. “I wanted to do a multi-species comparison. I took zebrafish embryos and exposed them to dicamba and I looked into the methylation profile of the genome in early life stages of zebrafish.”

DNA methylation can affect gene expression, which can alter physiological processes, but does not alter the genome. In zebrafish, Miller found exposure to dicamba didn’t cause early life malformations or changes in heart rate or gene expression. He found no alteration of the methylation profile in rainbow trout liver cells.

“Negative results are still results and they push research forward,” Miller says. “Dicamba is detected in many freshwater systems in southern Alberta. It’s nice to see that a chemical which is valuable to our agricultural industry might not pose a threat to freshwater fishes. Of course, more research is needed to fully understand this.”

Van Essen, who grew up on a farm near Picture Butte, chose to attend the U of L because of its Research Internship Concentration, which offers students the opportunity to be involved in biological research in their first year and to build their research skills in subsequent years.

“The Research Internship has made a huge difference in terms of meeting other students and professors and getting involved in research in various labs,” says Van Essen. “By the time I reached my fourth year, I’d already worked on multiple research projects. It gave me a lot of background that’s important for my thesis.”

Through his involvement with the program, Van Essen discovered he preferred working with an animal model. Wiseman’s lab allowed him to combine his interests in using an animal model and molecular biology, providing him with the material for his poster presentation in the process.

Both Van Essen and Miller credit Wiseman for giving them the opportunity to be involved in research and to develop research projects based on their own interests.

“Having two undergrads produce such strong work that’s recognized is really a testament to both the U of L and especially Dr. Wiseman’s commitment to producing strong undergraduate researchers,” says Miller.

The awards provide Miller and Van Essen with complimentary registration for next year’s conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

UNews - Steve Wiseman

Broad areas of research awarded federal funding

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