UNews - Robert Wood

World leading computational chemist, Dr. Stacey Wetmore, honoured with 2021 Speaker Research Award

trevor.kenney — Wed, 19 May 2021 19:46:31 +0000

Dr. Stacey Wetmore is one of the world’s leading computational chemists and has pushed the boundaries of modeling nucleic acids and proteins to become one of the most cited and studied researchers in her field. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has named Wetmore the 2021 winner of the Speaker Research Award.

“Dr. Wetmore has demonstrated exceptional scholarly distinction and has had considerable impact on her field of study,” says Dr. Robert Wood, interim vice-president (research). “She is also a tireless advocate for training and supporting the next generation of aspiring scientists as well as educating the public at large through her knowledge mobilization and translation activities.”

Wetmore, born and raised in St. John, New Brunswick, came to the U of L in 2006 as a Canada Research Chair and quickly established the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s own computer cluster within the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. She will be presented with the Speaker Research Award at the uLethbridge Awards Night on Thursday, May 27.

Dr. Stacey Wetmore

Stacey Wetmore learned early that her understanding of advanced chemistry principles were not best applied in a lab setting but rather in front of a computer, where she could also utilize her mathematical aptitude. So began an outstanding career in computational chemistry.

Wetmore completed her undergraduate degree at Mount Allison ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ before earning her doctorate in computational chemistry at Dalhousie ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. Her research is primarily focused on using computer calculations to understand how the structure and function of DNA changes upon damage from external factors in our environment, how naturally occurring modifications impact the many critical roles of RNA, and the function of enzymes that interact with nucleic acids.

Her work has broad and far-reaching implications, including directly impacting the health of the general population. For example, by providing fundamental information about the structure of modified DNA/RNA and how enzymes that interact with nucleic acids work, her research permits the design of cancer treatments that minimize drug resistances or therapy-derived secondary tumors.

Wetmore’s contributions to the field have earned her numerous accolades, including a Tier II NSERC Canada Research Chair and a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair. In 2021 she earned election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives boosted by federal grant

trevor.kenney — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 17:42:54 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is one of 12 post-secondary institutions from across Canada receiving a highly competitive two-year grant to help identify and overcome systemic barriers that impede the career advancement, recruitment and retention of underrepresented and equity-deserving groups.

The U of L will receive $400,000 over two years to support the implementation of EDI initiatives.

“We’re very pleased the granting agencies recognized the progress we’ve made towards enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community and our plans moving forward,” says Dr. Mike Mahon, U of L president and vice-chancellor. “Our success is dependent on how well we include, value and engage a diversity of students, staff, faculty, administrators and alumni.”

Today, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the 12 institutions sharing close to $4.8 million in funding as part of the 2020 competition of the EDI Institutional Capacity-Building Grant. The U of L will receive $400,000 over two years to support the implementation of equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives throughout the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

“This vital funding will support a foundation of important initiatives that will truly move our university forward in terms of operationalizing our commitments and our responsibilities to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion,” says Dr. Robert Wood, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s interim vice-president (research).

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, which is currently in the process of hiring its first Executive Director of EDI, strives to create a diverse and inclusive community where students, faculty and staff feel welcome, are treated equitably and can thrive in their various endeavours. Achieving this requires intentional and systemic action. This means creating policies, procedures, programs, events and interventions that work to eliminate systemic barriers and establish the conditions and culture that enable the career advancement, recruitment and retention of equity-deserving individuals.

“Guided by the expertise and leadership of our next Executive Director of EDI, and with the support of this important grant, we will look to generate a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion throughout the academic, administrative and research domains of the university,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, the U of L’s incoming vice-president (research) and the first woman to hold a full-term appointment as VPR. “A commitment to EDI and belonging in the context of creative activity, teaching and learning benefits all of us, enriching and elevating our experiences and our perspectives.”

The Government of Canada is committed to tackling challenges encountered by underrepresented and equity-deserving groups in Canadian research institutions and their impacts on the whole of the research ecosystem.

This pilot funding program is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada(NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). NSERC is administering it on behalf of the three federal research granting agencies.

U of L appoints new director to the Prentice Institute

caroline.zentner — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 18:09:33 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is pleased to announce Dr. Lars Hallström has been appointed as the new director of the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy effective Jan. 1, 2021.

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Hallström to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and the Prentice Institute,” says Dr. Erasmus Okine, vice-president (academic) and provost. “I got to know Lars when I was still at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and he’s a dedicated scholar and researcher whose expertise is well-suited to the Prentice Institute.”

Hallström is currently the inaugural director of the Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities, a joint program of the Augustana Faculty and the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta. His background is in political science and he will be joining the U of L’s political science department as a faculty member. However, his primary duties will be with the Prentice Institute, which was established in 2009 following a $8.25 million gift from Alberta entrepreneur John Prentice. As a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty institute, it is dedicated to researching the long-term effects of demographic, economic and social issues related to changes in world population patterns. Hallström follows in the footsteps of Dr. Susan McDaniel, a sociologist and the Prentice Institute’s first director, who served in the position until August 2019.

Dr. Trevor Harrison, interim director of the Prentice Institute, says Hallström brings with him many interdisciplinary strengths, including the fields of political science, demography, geography and sociology. His skills in these areas will allow him to build upon what has already been established at the Prentice Institute.

“He has an established record of both getting research grants and assisting others in getting grants,” says Harrison. “His research, especially in rural areas and economic development in rural areas, is going to be a real plus for the institute.”

Hallström sees a natural fit between his previous work and the mission of the Prentice Institute.

“The position at the Prentice Institute aligns with some of the different areas where my work has fallen in terms of intersectoral actions, how environment and social and health policy, for example, can all affect each other and maybe leverage positive change in ways that are not directly assumed,” says Hallström. “I am a political scientist by training, but my work is more broadly oriented towards public policy at different levels, including environmental health and social policy, questions of equity, social determinants of health, urban and rural economic development, youth and youth engagement and access to public health infrastructure.”

“Dr. Hallström brings extensive experience in leading a highly impactful research institute within a comprehensive university environment,” says Dr. Robert Wood, interim vice-president (research). “We look forward to the collaborative research and community engagement opportunities he will cultivate in his role as director of the Prentice Institute.”

After a year of university studies and playing rugby in the United Kingdom, Hallström obtained a BA with a major in political science at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary in 1995 and completed a master’s and PhD in political science at Indiana’s Purdue ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. He began his academic career at St. Francis Xavier ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Nova Scotia as a professor of political science and Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Governance. Hallström joined the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta in 2009 and has been director of the Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities since then.

Hallström was born in Edmonton but his family, due to his father’s work in the oil industry, left Canada shortly after and he spent most of his childhood living in Europe and the United States before returning to Canada as a teen. Music was a central theme in his life as a youth and something he continues to pursue today.

“My dad was an amateur musician as a youth in northern Sweden,” says Hallström. “I went through the Royal Conservatory piano trajectory and started playing in bands, as many people do, in high school. For the last five years, I’ve been playing bass in a local band. It’s great fun, and we have a good time playing rock and roll and playing it loud.”

Canada Foundation for Innovation funding will help U of L researchers pursue a drug treatment for COVID-19

caroline.zentner — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 17:26:14 +0000

Two U of L researchers have received a $200,000 grant from the Exceptional Opportunities Fund of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for infrastructure to aid them in their search to find a drug to treat the SARS-CoV-2 virus that’s responsible for the COVID pandemic.

The funding is part of nearly $28 million in research infrastructure support announced by Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Baines. The funding will support 79 projects across the country and covers the urgent need for equipment for ongoing research related to COVID-19.

“Canadian researchers and scientists are helping to protect our health and safety and are key to finding our way out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Baines. “With this funding through the Exceptional Opportunities Fund, the Government of Canada is ensuring these talented Canadians have the equipment and tools to support them in their very important work.”

The CFI funding bolsters two grants received earlier this year by Drs. Trushar Patel and Borries Demeler (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry). In July, they received a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) grant of $150,000. A short time later they received a MITACS Accelerate grant, in partnership with Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API), for $210,000 to develop a drug treatment for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“Despite extreme efforts by health agencies and governments worldwide, effective treatments or vaccines will still take months or years to develop, and there is always the potential that some will fail,” says Demeler. “Therefore, it is important that multiple and unique strategies are pursued in parallel. While there has been a major focus on the development of new vaccines, the development of novel therapeutics represents a critical need as well.”

Specifically, they are looking to inhibit the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to replicate by targeting the interactions between viral proteins and the human host cell machinery responsible for replicating the virus. Their goal is to create a drug treatment capable of preventing these interactions.

Patel and Demeler plan to establish a suite of equipment that will allow them to conduct structural biophysical studies. The Biomolecular Characterization Suite or BCS is comprised of four pieces of equipment that work together to provide information about biomolecules’ size, shape, concentration and how they bind together. With the funding from CFI, the suite is now complete.

“The CFI grant gives us the funding to build that suite and buy a computer cluster to study the structures of human proteins in complex with coronavirus proteins,” says Patel. “I’m pretty excited because this infrastructure not only provides us with the capability to work with the coronavirus system, but, in fact, my lab can now prepare viral nucleic acid and host protein complexes based on zika, encephalitis, hepatitis B and C, and hanta viruses. We are not using this to study one virus system, but we can expand it to many other protein nucleic acid studies that are at the heart of viral infections.”

U of L Students will also benefit as they receive additional opportunities for further training in biophysics and biochemistry and gain skills they’ll need in their future careers.

“The combination of that characterization suite with the computational capability will provide interdisciplinary training to students with both wet lab techniques and the computational modelling packages,” says Demeler.

“The success of this important grant application by Dr. Patel and Dr. Demeler reflects their stellar potential as a team, as well as the significance of their research as it relates to solving the problems of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Dr. Robert Wood, vice-president (research.) “Their scientific contributions will serve the greater good of our society.”

ARRTI researcher earns $642,600 CIHR grant to investigate complex process of ribosome formation

trevor.kenney — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 15:39:15 +0000

Long-term goal is to inhibit interactions between small RNAs and ribosomal RNAs thereby depriving cancer cells of protein factories

Understanding one of the fundamental building blocks of life may also hold the key to unlocking new targets for the treatment of cancer. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Dr. Ute Kothe and her team will look to unravel the complex process of forming ribosomes, the body’s protein factories, through RNA research in a new five-year project that has received $642,600 in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Ute Kothe is a professor of biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and a Board of Governors Teaching Chair.

Identifying Critical RNA-RNA Interactions during Ribosome Biogenesis is the title of the project that will be based at the U of L and within the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI), but also include collaborators at the Universities of Sherbrooke and McGill ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Quebec, as well as three German institutions.

“What excites me about this project is the intersection between it being medically important and also fundamentally important to understanding life. If you don’t understand life, you cannot develop new therapeutic strategies,” says Kothe, a professor of biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Board of Governors Teaching Chair.

The CIHR grant has been close to a decade in the making. Kothe has revised and resubmitted her application multiple times over the years, indicating the competitive nature of these grants. By earning this funding, she is among the top 10 per cent of biomedical researchers in Canada. The grant also illustrates the growth and impact of biomedical research at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, and in particular ARRTI, as Kothe is the first of the research group to secure a CIHR Project Grant since ARRTI’s inception in 2012.

“This important CIHR grant will support Dr. Kothe in making foundational advances in our understanding of cancer cells and cancer treatment,” says Dr. Robert Wood, vice-president (research). “The U of L was recently named second in the country in our category in the Maclean’s rankings. The groundbreaking research being conducted by stellar colleagues such as Dr. Kothe is a major driver of this strong reputational standing.”

Kothe believes wholeheartedly in how this research can add to the body of knowledge around forming a complex biological machine, which is the prerequisite to better understanding cancer cell division and tumor growth.

“This study is a great example of how the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is contributing to biomedical research in Canada, and also illustrates the important link between fundamental and biomedical research — one doesn’t work without the other,” she says. “RNA research and cancer research go hand-in-hand and this is the strength we can build upon here in Lethbridge with ARRTI.”

All cancer types share a need for increased protein production to enable rapid cell divisions and tumor growth. Accordingly, all cancer cells are characterized by an enhanced production of protein factories called ribosomes and by an enlarged cellular compartment, where ribosomes are assembled.

“Cancer cells need the most proteins because they grow so rapidly. If a tumor wants to grow, it needs proteins, and cancer cells are smart – they have found a way to make more ribosomes, to make more protein machines, and that’s how they can outcompete all the other cells,” says Kothe.

Therefore, inhibiting ribosome formation is a promising future therapeutic strategy in cancer treatment. However, it is currently impossible to target this pathway because there is a fundamental lack of understanding ribosome formation. Kothe’s research aims to close this knowledge gap, thereby opening a new avenue for impairing assembly of protein factories in cancer.

“Ribosomes consist predominantly of RNA, a sister molecule of DNA,” says Kothe. “Critical steps during ribosome formation constitute the chemical modification and three-dimensional folding of ribosomal RNA. Interestingly, these steps are mediated by other small RNAs in the cell. Our long-term goal is to inhibit these interactions between small RNAs and ribosomal RNAs thereby depriving cancer cells of protein factories.”

That the grant stretches over five years affords an excellent opportunity for students to participate in the research work.

“This research grant opens training and employment opportunities for different researchers ranging from post-doctoral researchers who already have their PhD, as well as a couple of PhD and master’s students,” says Kothe, who plans to send students to Quebec and Germany to work with their collaborators as the study progresses. “I also think it’s important we include our undergraduate students in the research. It is one of our particular strengths at the U of L that we train them early and they get experience that really sets them up to go anywhere they want in the world.”

Kothe is enthused to get started and eager to unlock the mysteries of RNA in forming the body’s protein factories as the prerequisite for future RNA-targeted cancer therapeutics.

“RNA is an awesome drug target, so once we understand ribosome formation and the role of RNA in this process, we are one important step closer to targeting and inhibiting it in cancer. This should be a much more feasible treatment method than any other types of drugs.”

U of L researchers earn $918,000 CIHR grant to test a new idea in memory formation

caroline.zentner — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 23:15:32 +0000

Drs. Bruce McNaughton and Robert Sutherland, neuroscientists from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, will explore a hypothesis about memory formation thanks to a grant of $918,000 over five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

“The U of L’s nexus of research and academic programming in neuroscience is internationally renowned,” says Dr. Robert Wood, vice-president (research). “Our ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s reputation and impact in this area is a direct reflection of foundational and novel research being conducted by talented neuroscience colleagues such as Dr. McNaughton and Dr. Sutherland. The strength and importance of this project is further reflected in the fact that only about 15 per cent of applications in the national CIHR competition were successful.”

As age-related memory problems are on the rise, McNaughton and Sutherland are looking to unlock some of the mysteries of the memory-making process and, if successful, their research could open up new avenues for therapeutic treatments.

“The main point of the project grant is to test an idea about the organization of long-term memory that’s never been directly tested before,” says Sutherland. “We have had a long, long interest in trying to understand this particular process. It’s relevant to aging, dementia and almost any kind of failure of long-term memory.”

Two systems are involved in the memory formation process, one in the hippocampus and one in the neocortex. New information is replayed in the hippocampus during short-term memory storage while replay in the neocortex is involved in long-term memory storage.

“The real trick in trying to understand how long-term memories work is trying to understand how these two systems interact,” says Sutherland. “We know, for example, that when the interaction between the cortex and the hippocampus becomes rather weak, there’s a correlated memory problem. So, it could well be that this is an early problem in age-related memory decline or perhaps even some dementias.”

In the McNaughton lab, researchers observed a replay phenomenon in the hippocampus of rodents called sharp wave ripples. This distinct pattern of brain activity occurred after the animals had learned a certain task and while they were at rest or sleeping. For example, if the animal was running from one room to another during the learning task, the hippocampus, during rest or sleep, repeats the same sequence of activity during sharp wave ripple events.

“Anytime the brain is not busy processing input, it could be emitting sharp wave ripples,” says McNaughton. “They do occur sporadically when an animal is sitting there eating, which is kind of a reflexive, non-attentive behaviour. The hippocampus seems to have two modes. It has acquisition mode where it processes external input and it has replay mode.”

“The idea that’s been kicking around for quite a while in various models of how long-term memory could work is that somehow that replay strengthens the representation of information outside the hippocampus, and in particular, in other parts of the cortex,” adds Sutherland.

The specifics of an episode, what you ate for breakfast, for instance, are replayed in the hippocampus during rest or sleep. In the neocortex, the memory system extracts the information and interleaves it with other information about what you are likely to eat for breakfast. This neocortical memory is called semantic memory and can be thought of as general world knowledge.

“The long-term memories stored in the cortex are partly distinct memories, but more often than not, it’s kind of a semantic or schematic representation of how the world works,” says McNaughton. “We hypothesize this storage of general knowledge about the world is constructed by amalgamating and extracting the gist of many episodes.”

Associated with replay in the neocortex is a distinctive pattern of brain activity called the K-complex, which can be easily detected with microelectrodes.

“These cortical and hippocampal replays are thought to be shuffled together during rest and sleep, like a deck of cards, except that the number of old patterns exceeds the numbers of recent ones, of course,” says McNaughton. “What’s happening during this replay is the cortex is kind of re-evaluating its assumptions about the world.”

While scientists know that interfering with sleep can interfere with memory storage, testing to see if these patterns of activity are necessary for memory formation is more difficult. But McNaughton and Sutherland have devised a way to test it out in rodents by disrupting the sharp wave ripple and K-complex patterns using weak electrical stimulation of brain circuits.

“We don’t know for sure whether these two processes do the work that we just described,” says Sutherland. “If we do know that’s how new episodic memories are stored together with older memories, then those become very significant targets for therapeutic intervention.”

Provincial support expanding agricultural research at U of L

trevor.kenney — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 22:26:42 +0000

In July, Alberta’s government and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge signed a $1.8-million agreement, which saw three programs transferred to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and provided it with the financial capacity to recruit three researchers.

Drs. Shelley Hoover, Michele Konschuh and Kim Stanford are introduced to campus.

On Thursday, Drs. Shelley Hoover (apiculture and pollination), Michele Konschuh (irrigated crops) and Kim Stanford (livestock pathogens) were introduced.

These researchers bring world-leading experience and expertise to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and create even greater learning experiences for students. Welcoming these researchers brings together multiple disciplines and opens up even more chances for collaboration.

“The addition of Doctors Konschuh, Hoover and Stanford will expand the breadth of agriculture research on our campus, while their programs and experience will inform and enhance the greater work of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s talented faculty members. Our institution values collaboration and trans-disciplinary research. Having these talented individuals working in tandem with our existing researchers will lead to new discoveries benefiting the communities we serve," says Dr. Robert Wood, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's vice-president (research).

This agreement is a part of the Alberta government’s commitment to ensuring farmers and ranchers lead agriculture research priorities. Establishing Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR), an arm’s-length non-profit corporation, is a first step in making sure research funding priorities are producer-led. Over the long term, RDAR will assume ongoing responsibility for the funding agreement with the U of L.

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is closely connected to southern Alberta’s agriculture activities through its research, teaching and outreach activities," says U of L President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mike Mahon. "The addition of these three research programs will further our agriculture research capacity on campus, and allow the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to enhance its already close connectivity to this critical industry in the years ahead.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ achieves highest-ever second place position in Maclean’s ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Rankings

trevor.kenney — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 19:15:12 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge achieved its highest-ever position in the annual Maclean’s ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Rankings Report, placing second overall in the primarily undergraduate classification.

Moving up three spots from its fifth place ranking a year ago, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ bettered its previous best standing, a third-place ranking spot that it occupied for six consecutive years, 2013-2017. At the heart of the surge was the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s continued focus on investing in its students and pushing the boundaries of research across all disciplines.

“It’s exciting to see the efforts of our faculty, staff and students recognized, because it takes our entire community working together to achieve success,” says Dr. Mike Mahon, president and vice-chancellor. “We strive at every level to provide the best student experience, academic experience and research experience for our community of learners and teachers. We believe we offer the best option in the country and one of the best experiences in the world, so it is gratifying to see this reflected in the ranking metrics.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ saw gains in four of the 13 main ranking categories, while maintaining its standing in several other key areas. One such area was the percentage of its funding devoted to student services, which ranked fourth of the 19 schools in the primarily undergraduate classification. It’s a metric where the U of L has been amongst the top five schools for six consecutive years.

“There is a culture of support for our students that exists on campus, it’s in everything we do and is integral to our students achieving their academic goals,” adds Mahon. “More than the resources we invest in student services, it’s an attitude amongst our faculty and staff that I believe truly sets us apart from other schools.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ continues to bolster its reputation as one of the top research institutions in the country, with faculty members and student researchers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels earning substantial funding awards. The U of L ranked second of 19 schools in medical and science grants received, the sixth consecutive year it has ranked either first or second, and jumped two spots to seventh overall in social sciences and humanities grants.

“There is a breadth of research activities across the institution that has positioned the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ as a major driver of discovery, creativity and innovation,” says Dr. Robert Wood, vice-president (research). “Our success in medical and science grants is consistently among the best in the country in our category, and includes many professors who are world-leaders in their research areas. The growth of our humanities, social sciences, and arts portfolios continues a trend that has seen more-and-more of our faculty members across the university recognized for their ground-breaking research and creative activity.”

U of L overall student satisfaction also jumped two spots, placing the institution eighth overall, while the reputational ranking among its 19 peers also rose to sixth overall, a jump of one position.

“Our focus is and always has been on providing an unparalleled learning environment for our students, research experiences at both the undergraduate and graduate stages of their academic careers, and growing a research program that betters the lives of people in southern Alberta and beyond,” adds Mahon. “To have that recognized externally and showcased nationally is very good news.”

The full Maclean’s ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Rankings Report is available here.

U of L scientists receive two New Frontiers in Research awards

caroline.zentner — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 21:40:54 +0000

Two innovative ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge projects will bring together expertise from different fields to bring new light to promising research thanks to Exploration grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).

“When only 20 per cent of applications for NFRF grants were successful across the country, having two come to our institution demonstrates that our researchers are advancing the frontiers of knowledge and creative activity,” says Dr. Robert Wood, interim vice-president (research).

Dr. Aaron Gruber, a neuroscience professor in the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and his collaborators will use the grant to study how the active compound in magic mushrooms (psilocybin) may rewire the brain to alleviate depression and anxiety and boost creativity.

“The idea of this project is that psychedelics help the brain get out of a pattern of worry by changing brain connectivity in a positive manner,” says Gruber. “We’re going to use sophisticated analytical techniques often used for complex physical systems, such as galaxies, to test if psilocybin does weaken patterns of neural activity associated with previous stressful experiences in mice.”

Gruber and his fellow researchers, Dr. Jörn Davidsen (professor of theoretical physics with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary) and Dr. Michael Stingl (U of L philosophy professor with expertise in neuroscience ethics), suspect psilocybin will cause a long-lasting expansion in neural signaling, which may facilitate future creative problem solving. They are looking to evaluate the claim that psychedelics actually do expand the mind, as measured by the diversity of brain activity patterns. Their goal is to gather neurobiological evidence on this potentially useful class of compounds to treat the growing crisis of mood disorders.

The researchers will employ high-density imaging techniques to record the activity of thousands of neurons in the neocortex of mice before and after exposure to psilocybin. Once they’ve recorded the subsequent brain activity in mice, they’ll relate their findings to human use to see if the neural changes observed in mice explain the lived experience and therapy results reported in people.

“This kind of work highlights how modern neuroscience has become highly interdisciplinary,” says Gruber. “We are teaming up with physicists, engineers, neuroethicists and computer scientists to do this work.”

In his project, Dr. Nehal Thakor, a professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair of Synthetic Biology and RNA-based Systems, and his co-applicants, Drs. Seyed Mehdi Jafarnejad (Queen’s ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Belfast), Marc Roussel, Stacey Wetmore and Paul Hayes, will use expertise in several fields of research to investigate therapeutic targets for the treatment of glioblastoma patients. The team also includes nine world-renowned collaborators.

Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest cancers and the average survival time is about 15 months after diagnosis. The standard of care for glioblastoma includes surgical removal, radiation and chemotherapy. Despite these treatments, the prognosis remains poor for the approximately 3,000 Canadians who are diagnosed with glioblastoma every year. New treatments are urgently needed.

“We are taking a paradigm-shifting approach and trying to find chemical compounds that can inhibit protein synthesis in glioblastoma. When we stop that type of protein synthesis, the cancer cells will succumb,” Thakor says.

The team will combine mathematical modelling, computational biochemistry, chemical synthesis, cell biology and multi-omics in the search for new targets. Multi-omics is an approach that uses data sets from different omics groups, such as genomics and metabolomics, to do a biological analysis. This approach allows scientists to study complex biological processes holistically.

“The advantage of working with many teams with completely different expertise is that we are working from the ground up,” says Thakor. “We know the mechanism of how the protein synthesis machinery works and we want to pinpoint and validate a target in that machinery. These fundamental discoveries will provide knowledge that may be used for many other types of cancers.”

U of L researchers receive nearly $4 million in NSERC Discovery grants

caroline.zentner — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 21:44:54 +0000

A crop of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are recipients of close to $4 million in new grants payable over multiple years through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Discovery research program.

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, recently announced more than $492 million in funding to some 2,400 researchers across Canada. At the U of L, 19 researchers were successful in their applications for Discovery grants. These grants, which vary in amounts from $23,000 to $65,000, will enable discoveries in chemistry, biochemistry, biological sciences, neuroscience, mathematics and computer science and psychology. The U of L was also successful in receiving two Research Tools and Instruments grants worth almost $300,000.

“We are excited to share the news of these grant recipients and extend congratulations to each and every one of them,” says Dr. Robert Wood, interim vice-president (research). “Our success rate of 76 per cent in this granting cycle is well above the national average. This is testament to the skill of our researchers and the significant impact of the work they are doing. It is talented researchers such as these that make the U of L one of Canada’s leading research universities for its size.”

Below are listed the recipients in each department:

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry: Drs. René Boeré, Paul Hayes, Ute Kothe, Trushar Patel and Athan Zovoilis.

Department of Biological Sciences: Drs. Matthew Bogard, Julie Lee-Yaw, Jenny McCune, Gregory Pyle and Stewart Rood.

Department of Neuroscience: Drs. Aaron Gruber, Andrew Iwaniuk, Artur Luczak, Robert McDonald and Masami Tatsuno.

Department of Mathematics & Computer Science: Drs. Andrew Fiori, Habiba Kadiri and Nathan Ng.

Department of Psychology: Drs. Fangfang Li, David Logue and Paul Vasey.

In addition, Drs. Ute Kothe and Aaron Gruber received Accelerator supplements, valued at $120,000 each over three years, on top of their Discovery grants. And, four early career researchers, including Lee-Yaw, Bogard, McCune and Fiori, were awarded Discovery Launch supplements, each valued at $12,500.

More information can be found on the NSERC website.

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