Canola is a highly bee-attractive crop which is widely grown in Saskatchewan and commonly treated with agrochemicals, including neonictoinoid insecticides. The impact of canola production on native pollinator populations in Saskatchewan is unknown. In this Mitacs project, Sofiia will compare the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators in canola and non-canola habitats in Saskatchewan and […]

Depuis le début de la phase aiguë de la guerre russo-ukrainienne, plus de 12 millions d’Ukrainiens ont été contraints de quitter leur foyer. Plus de 4 millions d’entre eux sont partis à l’étranger, principalement dans les pays voisins. Qu’ils soient déplacés dans les régions occidentales ou vers d’autres pays, la principale préoccupation des Ukrainiens est […]

Tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a protein that is able to mediate the cross-linking of other proteins. The unregulated activity of TG2 is implicated in fibrosis, celiac disease as well as cancer cell survival. Blocking this activity has been shown to decrease tumour size and growth in mice. We have previously designed small molecules that are […]

In many real world problems, the design process involves iterative steps with generation of candidates and evaluation of these generated candidates to evaluate their utility for the relevant task. This evaluation can be done with say expensive wet lab experiments or some computational oracles. We might want to make the best use of both of […]

This project will measure the behavioural responses in a certain fly species, ‘Ormia ochracea’, to a variety of cricket mating songs, and from geographically separated North American populations of the fly. This type of fly attacks crickets so that their larvae may feed and mature within the cricket’s body. They locate the cricket’s position by […]

Biological-system-based production of chemicals and fuels (Eg: ethanol, bio-diesel, bio-nylon, etc.) has lesser or no impact on the environment than their conventional, chemical processes But, these biofactories are not evolved to produce industrially important chemicals yet. Hence, the productivity of the desired chemical is low in an isolated biological system. Metabolic engineering modifies the metabolic […]

In cattle, energy requirements after parturition increase exponentially, primarily, due to increase in milk production. Negative energy balance hampers reproductive efficiency, inflicting heavy economic losses to dairy industry. Poor reproduction is the most important cause of culling dairy cows. Feed supplementation with vitamins improves energy balance. Also, observations in humans indicate that folic acid and […]

The research project will investigate the impacts of the US-Canada border on conservation of at-risk species around the region of the Okanagan watershed, in the context of culture, politics and land governance. Species distribution modelling will be used to compare distributions of selected species either side of the border, and environmental, social and geographical variables […]

The innate immune system is the first line of defense of our body against pathogenic bacteria. It uses a sophisticated arsenal of proteins that recognize and fight infection. Certain bacteria, like the food-borne pathogen Salmonella, can enter cells in your body to hide. We recently identified novel immune sensors that allow the recognition of these […]

Insects, being dominant in almost all ecosystems, are vitally important for regulating ecosystem health. There are growing concerns that insect abundance is declining globally, causing serious consequences for ecosystem services. To understand insect abundance trends, and their drivers, we need long-term monitoring schemes that are sensitive enough to detect change over time whilst balancing against […]

Xanthomonas phaseo i pv. manihotis (Xpm) is an important bacteria pathogen causing Cassava Bacteria Bight (CBB). Cassava is an important staple food source for millions of people worldwide. However, CBB constrains crop productivity and threatens food security for people in tropical regions. Xpm uses a set of effector proteins to manipulate Cassava defenses. Our research […]

Ce projet de recherche propose d’étudier l’origine de la latéralité humaine. En effet, la vaste majorité des humains préfère systématiquement l’utilisation d’une main relativement à l’autre tandis que nos plus proches cousins, les grands singes, n’ont pas une telle préférence. Cette préférence pour une main plutôt que l’autre est détectable dans nos os puisque ceux […]