Arsenic (As) is a contaminant found in ecosystems and drinking water throughout the world; it is a potent human carcinogen. Arsenic levels and speciation are controlled by a series of abiotic and microbial processes. Arsenic toxicity depends on its speciation and proper risk management is linked to predicting As speciation in various environmental matrices. Laboratory […]

Trophy hunting, while a controversial issue in the developed world, is an important management strategy by wildlife management agencies across the equator. Due to negative public opinions, trophy hunting outfitters are under increased scrutiny to demonstrate that hunting has no detrimental effects on animal populations. To this end, we are embarking upon research into the […]

Absence seizures are the most common form of epilepsy in children. These patients often experience transient episodes of impaired consciousness, which have an enormous impact on their quality of life. We are proposing to identify the neural substrates for these seizures. These experiments would provide the basis of future experimental studies examining the biological basis […]

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Targeted cancer therapies have significantly improved the treatment of leukemias, but emergence of treatment resistance and subsequent cancer relapse significantly reduces patient survival. This relapse is primarily caused by the inability of current therapies to eradicate leukemic stem cells. It is currently extremely challenging to study these stem cells, due to its rarity in patient […]

Rabbits are increasingly recognized for their superior immune response to antigens and their ability to generate highaffinity monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that can be used as reagents, diagnostics and therapeutics. However, methods for the discovery of rabbit mAbs are limited and extremely cumbersome. This proposal aims at developing a rapid and robust microfluidic-based approach to generate […]

The development of beneficial bacterial inoculant as biopesticide and biofertilizers is directly beneficial to agricultural producers through the preservation and enhancement of crop quality and yield. At present, a limited spectrum of naturally occurring microorganisms have been developed for directed, commercial agricultural applications in Canada. Engage Agro Corp is interested in developing bacterial inoculants with […]

“A large majority of microbes cannot be cultured. Recently, microbiome sequencing has begun to identify the genetic potential of these lineages, often referred to as microbial “dark matter”. By integrating my taxonomic profiling methods with function profiling developed by the academic supervisor, I aim to develop and apply a comprehensive pipeline for microbial dark matter […]

Circadian rhythms are processes which allows animals to regulate their physiology based on time of day. These rhythms are controlled by the circadian clock, a group of transcription factors that form a feedback loop. Over 40% of the genome is transcribed rhythmically, implicating the clock in many physiological processes. The cell cycle is another process […]

Invasive plants represent a major threat to the economy and environment, with annual economic costs in North America estimated at $30-40 billion CDN. Aquatic invasives rank among the most destructive, affecting recreational activities such as boating, fishing and swimming, displacing native vegetation, slowing down water flow and altering oxygen levels. Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus) is […]

This research project is intended to take the first steps forward in breeding hardier, disease resistant Atlantic salmon. Infectious salmon anemia is a disease of Atlantic salmon that has led to millions of dollars of losses within the aquaculture industry yearly on a global scale. Through a combination of genomic data and disease trial data, […]