UNews - Harland Brandon

Allos Bioscience to develop better biosensors thanks to Mitacs grant

caroline.zentner — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 22:15:34 +0000

Thanks to a Mitacs Accelerate grant worth $150,000, Allos Bioscience is set to work on developing better biosensors to detect specific carbohydrates in solutions.

Luc Roberts

Over the next two years, the grant will allow Allos Bioscience to hire two interns to work on the project using space and equipment in the SynBridge maker space at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Allos Bioscience is a startup company based at ULethbridge that designs and produces biosensors to detect specific carbohydrates. These biosensors have wide applications, including in human health, biofuel production, food production and textile finishing.

“Our main goal is to improve the biosensors we already have and to make them more accessible to our end users,” says Luc Roberts (BSc ’12), a ULethbridge PhD candidate who founded Allos Bioscience with Dr. Harland Brandon (BSc ’13, PhD ’21). “In addition to improving the prototypes we have by making them more sensitive and efficient, we also hope to make them more available to end users who may not have the infrastructure available at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.”

They’re also embarking on a pilot project to design biosensors for a cancer biomarker. Research has shown that specific carbohydrates can be used as biomarkers to detect cancer, so the team at Allos Bioscience hopes to develop a biosensor to detect those carbohydrates.

“Presently, the largest barrier to understanding the role carbohydrates play in human health is the lack of suitable tools to study them,” says Roberts.

Dr. Harland Brandon

A biosensor is a biological tool that detects a specific target. Roberts uses the example of a flashlight and batteries to illustrate. The flashlight can be considered the biosensor and the batteries as the target. The flashlight will light up when the batteries are present.

“In our case, the flashlight is a protein with a fluorescent dye on it and the batteries are the carbohydrates,” says Roberts. “When the protein binds to the carbohydrates, you get a change in the brightness of the dye, like a flashlight lighting up. And we can quantify how bright the light is.”

The team at Allos Bioscience will work with Dr. Trushar Patel, a Canada Research Chair in RNA and Protein Biophysics at ULethbridge.

“The work will lay the foundation to develop biosensors that can help detect diseases, such as cancer and infections,” says Patel. “This partnership is also an example of the unique opportunities ULethbridge offers to graduate students, promoting their entrepreneurial skills.”

Roberts and Brandon have based their work on previous research by ULethbridge alum, Dr. Dylan Girodat (BSc ’13, PhD ’19), PhD candidate Dustin Smith (BSc ’13, MSc ’17), former ULethbridge professor Dr. HJ Wieden, and ULethbridge adjunct professor Dr. Wade Abbott of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

“Without them, this Mitacs grant wouldn’t have been possible,” says Roberts.

U of L graduate students earn GreenSTEM funding in support of biotech start-up

trevor.kenney — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 21:16:06 +0000

The southern Alberta biotech industry will get a boost this spring thanks to some innovative work out of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and funding support from the Government of Alberta’s GreenSTEM program.

Harland Brandon

Allos Bioscience, a start-up company that designs and produces protein-based biosensors, is led by PhD candidates Luc Roberts (BSc ’12) and Harland Brandon (BSc ’13). The two, with support from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI), its director Dr. H.J. Wieden, Dr. Wade Abbott of the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre and Synbridge (the synthetic biology makerspace on campus), are members of the first cohort of GreenSTEM fellows in the province.

Luc Roberts

“With the funding from GreenSTEM and the support of Synbridge and the Wieden lab, we now have the opportunity to leverage the rich infrastructure here at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ,” says Roberts. “Without this funding, I doubt we ever would have attempted to do it. They partner you with business mentors, provide training opportunities and really help you create the foundation for your business. We actually came into the program after the first cohort was selected and the first thing we noticed was how supportive and collegial the other fellows are.”

GreenSTEM is an entrepreneurial pilot program for recent graduates of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) masters and PhD programs. It provides funding support over two years for entrepreneurially inclined, technically skilled participants who are working on hardware-based technologies with emissions reduction potential. The GreenSTEM fellows are hosted by Alberta’s research universities, including the U of L, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary.

Roberts and Brandon based their idea off work done by the U of L’s Dr. Dylan Girodat (BSc ’13, PHD ’19, currently working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory) and PhD candidate Dustin Smith (BSc ’13, MSc ’17).

“The detection of specific biomolecules is an important part of many industrial and academic processes,” says Roberts. “However, sensors that detect and differentiate between similar molecules are not readily available for all types of molecules, or require significant time and technical infrastructure for detection.”

Their company proposes to develop custom biosensors for a variety of applications, including the biofuel industry and any number of ag biotech uses. Their biosensors are biodegradable detection systems that provide rapid, sensitive and selective measurements of a desired chemical in solution. They currently have three working prototypes (each detecting a unique biomolecule) and their main focus is on green technologies.

“Our first priority is to do some strong market research, and talk to as many biofuel people as we can to show them what we have and whether it might be helpful to their business,” says Brandon. “Some of the first advice we’ve been offered about building our business, is to ensure we’re satisfying a need with our product.”

Roberts says they are also looking at custom applications, finding people in either energy or research sectors who have a need to detect certain molecules, then partnering with them to build a custom biosensor for that need.

“Either you make it and sell it directly to them or you license what you’ve designed and sell it to a biotech company, and they build it on a large scale,” he says. “We think the value in our company is the technology and the development pipeline and less an actual, physical product.”

GreenSTEM provides annual fellowship stipends (essentially salaries) as well as seed funding to cover technology and business development expenses. Additionally, the program provides technology-focused entrepreneurship programming, technical and business mentorship and networking opportunities with investors, venture capital organizations, service providers and potential industry partners.

“There’s a lot of biotech going on in southern Alberta and it’s growing much faster than most people realize,” adds Brandon. “This rapid increase in biotech and green energy technologies is where GreenSTEM can make such a big impact, and afford us an opportunity to contribute to that sector.”

The intake for the latest round of GreenSTEM has just opened. Expressions of interest are being accepted from Feb. 24 through Mar. 23. For more information, visit alberta.ca/greenstem.

U of L's iGEM Team claims two awards at World Jamboree

trevor.kenney — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 18:40:47 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team captured two prominent awards at the iGEM 2013 World Championship Jamboree, Nov. 1-4 in Cambridge, Mass.

Fresh off claiming the top prize in the North American Jamboree in Toronto last month, the U of L team once again showed it was at the top of the North American class and continues to be one of the world leaders in the study of synthetic biology.

The U of L's iGEM student team consisting of (l to r) Graeme Glaister, Zak Stinson, Suneet Kharey, Jenna Friedt, Dustin Smith and Harland Brandon.

“I am very proud of the results they achieved on the world level,” says team leader Dr. Hans-Joachim Wieden, Director of the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute at the U of L and Innovates Centre of Research excellence Chair of Bioengineering. “The World Jamboree was dominated by the European teams, but we presented very well and the awards we received were well earned.”

The U of L grabbed the Best Poster prize in the Overgrad classification, and also collected the Security Commendation, an overall award that debuted this year.

“I’m especially excited about the security award. It was brand new this year and shows how we are a world leader in this aspect of the research,” says Wieden. “The application of security protocols to the science of synthetic biology is becoming more and more important as we continue to advance the field.”

The U of L team’s project included the development of a bioengineering part that compresses genetic information – essentially working like a zip drive. Every gene needs DNA, but there is only so much DNA that will fit in a cell. This novel part may allow future bioengineers more flexibility in their work. Additionally, the team developed software that quickly determines what DNA is compatible to compress together.

Team member Harland Brandon said the research they conducted around the social implications of their project was lauded at the North American Jamboree and set their project apart from others.

“Our team sought to ensure that our part could not be misused to hide dangerous genes,” says Brandon (BSc’13), a first-year master’s student and Winston Churchill High School graduate. “We hypothesized that our part could be used to hide dangerous sequences, such as Ricin or Ebola, from gene synthesis companies. We then took it a step further and actually consulted with gene synthesis companies, U of L Risk and Safety Services and even a representative from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). Not only do we see our project benefitting the field, but we found through our critical analysis that the potential for misuse is not possible.”

Just six Canadian universities qualified for the World Jamboree, with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary the only teams to capture awards.

“iGEM enables students to get their first taste of research,” says Wieden. “They understand the goal of the project, and learn how to think outside of the box, troubleshoot and apply their knowledge to create scientific discoveries. All of this unlocks students’ creativity.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge team consisted of Dustin Smith (BSc ’13), Graeme Glaister, Jenna Friedt (BSc ’11, MSc’13), Suneet Kharey, Harland Brandon (BSc ’12) and Zak Stinson.

To view full results from the iGEM 2013 World Championship Jamboree, see this website.

iGEM team celebrates North American Regional victory

trevor.kenney — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 21:10:49 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has further cemented its reputation as a leader in the teaching and research of synthetic biology by capturing first place at the 2013 North American iGEM Regional Jamboree in Toronto, Ont. this past weekend.

The competition, held at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto, featured teams from across Canada and the United States. The U of L team of Dustin Smith, Graeme Glaister, Jenna Friedt, Suneet Kharey, Harland Brandon and Zak Stinson will now move on to the international competition, which will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Mass. Nov. 1-4.

“This certainly shows that bioengineering research and the aggressive approach we’ve taken to study this field is working at the U of L, and that the RNA Institute is playing a key role in both enabling research and training students,” says Dr. H.J. Wieden, director of the Alberta RNA (Ribonucleic acid) Research and Training Institute (ARRTI) at the U of L, the Innovates Centre of Research Excellence (iCORE) Chair of Bioengineering and faculty advisor for the U of L’s iGEM teams. “The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is poised to continue to be at the forefront of this emerging field.”

The U of L team’s project includes developing a bioengineering part that compresses genetic information – essentially working like a zip drive. Every gene needs DNA, but there is only so much DNA that will fit in a cell. This novel part may allow future bioengineers more flexibility in their work.

Additionally, the U of L team developed software that quickly determines what DNA is compatible to compress together.

“Each year we are also tasked with exploring the social implications of our project. Our team sought to ensure that our part could not be misused to hide dangerous genes,” says team member Harland Brandon (BSc’13), a first-year master’s student and Winston Churchill High School graduate. “We hypothesized that our part could be used to hide dangerous sequences, such as Ricin or Ebola, from gene synthesis companies. We then took it a step further and actually consulted with gene synthesis companies, U of L Risk and Safety Services and even a representative from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). Not only do we see our project benefitting the field, but we found through our critical analysis that the potential for misuse is not possible.”

In addition to winning the overall Regional Overgrad award, the U of L also claimed the award for best Wiki (website explaining their project).

iGEM is the premier competition for young scientists interested in the emerging field of synthetic biology, which is quickly leading to new discoveries that will diversify key economic sectors such as pharmaceutical, agriculture, medical diagnostics, clean energy and resource extraction. It also facilitates scientific research and education by establishing and operating the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, a community collection of open source biological components.

The organization promotes the advancement of science and education by developing an international open community of students and practitioners in schools, laboratories, research institutes and industry.

Earlier this year, a team of Lethbridge high school students was awarded the coveted Green Brick grand prize at iGEM’s High School Jamboree.

Synbiologica records another win

trevor.kenney — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:48:02 +0000

It's win number two for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge student researcher/entrepreneurs who form the Synbiologica Ltd. team.

Pictured left to right are Mackenzie Coatham, Dr. HJ Wieden (team advisor), Erin Kelly, Harland Brandon and Isaac Ward.

CEO Isaac Ward (third-year neuroscience student), first-year biochemistry student Erin Kelly and chemistry and biochemistry master's students Mackenzie Coatham and Harland Brandon have developed a new method of detecting hormones, and are in the process of patenting their idea.

Their proposed biomedical device technology -- called "Biologically Enhanced Assay in Real-Time" -- is expected to bring next-generation hormone detection to the research, agriculture and medical markets.

In addition to winning $10,000 in the SouthVenture Business Plan Competition in March, the group recently took first place in the Tech Stream side of the Chinook Entrepreneurial Challenge, an annual business planning competition hosted by Community Futures Lethbridge Region.

They received another $10,000 in cash, a one-year lease on space in the tecconnect Centre for New Commerce, a high-tech business incubator operated by Economic Development Lethbridge, plus a host of other in-kind prizes including business consulting from MNP and ActionCOACH, and several thousand dollars worth of media services.

"I am extremely proud of the Synbiologica group for their achievements and wish them continued success," says Dr. Dan Weeks, the U of L's Vice-President (Research). "The U of L is a comprehensive research institution that offers significant research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students. This approach is important as it equips our graduates with the knowledge and ability to thrive in their research and entrepreneurial careers."

The competition evaluates and awards business plans submitted by entrepreneurs who have taken advantage of the free business training provided by Community Futures across Southern Alberta. Finalists were chosen from 24 groups that submitted business plans for the challenge.

While he has to be a bit cautious about revealing details because of the patent process – an expected six to eight-month timeline -- Ward said their idea will significantly improve the way in which hormones are detected.

"Hormones – and hormone imbalances – play very important roles in understanding behaviour and mental health, pregnancy as well as development and aging of all populations," says Ward. "We are pursuing new technology for the detection of hormones that provides rapid results that are 93 per cent more cost effective than traditional antibody technology."

The team's market analysis showed diverse applications and projections for growth, with a two to three-year timeline to produce a marketable device. The first test runs of this device will occur this summer at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) in collaboration with CCBN neuroscience researcher Dr. Gerlinde Metz.

Ward said the team came up with the idea to develop the company and the new biomedical device by using the skills they learned through the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines) program.

"The internationally competitive program allows undergraduate students to gain hands-on experience in science," Ward said. U of L teams have claimed several top international honours at past competitions, and three of the Synbiologica entrepreneurs are off to Boston Massachusetts, toward the end of June as advisors to the U of L's high school iGEM team. The university-level competition takes place in October, 2013 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, MA.

"iGEM is run out of a student-operated lab provided by the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry here at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and coordinated by Dr. HJ Wieden. We have been encouraged at every turn by our professors and others to move this idea forward, especially by the people at Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures (AITF) who promote entrepreneurial engagement from scientific innovation."

Ward cited advisors Dr. Gerlinde Metz (Department of Neuroscience), Dr. HJ Wieden (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), Dr. Roy Golsteyn (Department of Biological Sciences) and Michael Kelly (Erin Kelly's father and Manager of Real Estate and Land Development, City of Lethbridge) as being particularly helpful as they refined their idea.

UNews - Harland Brandon

Allos Bioscience to develop better biosensors thanks to Mitacs grant

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