Unraveling the black knot problem – scourge of cherry trees
April 22, 2010 by admin
It’s not hard to spot a tree infected with black knot. The thick, black irregular swelling on branches and twigs indicate a victim of Dibotryon morbosum, a fungal germ that destroys cherry, plum, apricot and even almond trees throughout North America.
In the streets and gardens of their home town of Summerside, PEI, Scott Dewar and Mark Townsend saw many ornamental cherry trees that carried the telltale galls, but also some that were free of the infection.
Both 17-year-old Grade 12 students at Three Oaks High School, Scott and Mark hypothesized that comparing the chemical composition of bark taken from a resistant tree to that from a susceptible tree might turn up some important differences that could explain the trees’ different fates.
Working with Dr. Junzeng Zhang, a research officer with the Natural Research Council Institute of Nutrisciences and Health, and using nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, Scott and Mark determined that the two trees did in fact have different chemical spectra.
“We weren’t able to isolate the compounds that were responsible for the difference,” said Scott, “but that is something we would like to continue investigating because they could be a new anti-fungal agent. With further research and development in this area, there is the potential to eventually develop a new anti-fungal product for use in agriculture and the forest industry.”
Scott and Mark both plan to study biology and engineering next year at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Student unlocks DNA of flaxseed to create potential for healthier food
April 22, 2010 by admin
Omega 3 and Omega 6 are essential fatty acids in foods that play an important role in growth and development, reproduction, vision and the immune system, including prevention of cancers and heart diseases.
However, modern diets are often too high in Omega 6, which can increase the probability of disease and depression, and too low in Omega 3, creating substantial health issues.
Binudith (Bin) Warnakulasooriya, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Fort Richmond Collegiate, Winnipeg, decided to tackle this widespread problem by figuring out how to unlock DNA to produce flaxseed with the healthiest ratio of the Omega fatty acids.
Although flaxseed generally has more Omega 3 than 6, Bin identified many types of flax that have too high a level of Omega 6, making them unsuitable for human consumption since they could lead to chronic diseases.
“My experiment found the right ‘genetic code’ necessary to get a lower Omega 6 and get higher levels of Omega 3 from the flax plant,” he said.
Armed with this genetic secret, plant scientists could develop and commercialize flax types with the optimal Omega 3 / Omega 6 ratio. And it could go a long way towards correcting the dietary imbalance of many people.
It took months of 2.5 hour lab sessions daily to make this breakthrough, so the big challenge for this busy high school student, simultaneously involved in athletics and other extracurricular work, was time management.
After five years of science competition (he placed third in last year’s SABC national final), Bin says he was surprised at how “smart and complicated” projects have become. “The competition increases every year.”
Bin, who plans a career in molecular genetics or medicine, says a major lesson for him this year was “how organized you have to be to achieve anything.”
Using dill oil to create a less toxic insecticide
April 22, 2010 by admin
The average Colorado potato beetle larva can chomp its way through 45 square centimeters of foliage in a day. In large numbers, the pest can wipe out entire crops of potatoes, tomatoes or eggplant. To make matters worse, the need for stronger and stronger insecticides to combat the beetle’s increasing resistance to chemical agents has become a worldwide environmental problem.
For 16-year-old Emma Graham – an environmentalist with a keen interest in botany – a problem combining contamination and plants presented an irresistible challenge. Her project – combining a plant extract with the pesticide to boost its effectiveness and lower its environmental impact – has earned her the right to represent Eastern Ontario in the national finals of this year’s Sanofi-Aventis Biotalent Challenge.
“One solution to the problem of resistance is to add another compound, called a synergist, to the commonly used insecticide (Imidacloprid),” explained Emma, a Grade 10 Student at Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa. “I wanted to find an environmentally friendly alternative to the most popular synergist (Piperonyl Butoxide), which is a potential carcinogen.”
Working with Prof. Tony Durst in his chemistry lab at the University of Ottawa, Emma extracted a natural insecticide from Indian dill oil, created two forms of a compound with the pesticide Imidacloprid and then tested the mixture on Colorado potato beetles. Her formula proved 95 percent effective against the pest — higher than the Imidacloprid alone – and, most importantly, less toxic.
“We need to explore every opportunity for reducing our impact on the environment,” said Emma, a member of the EcoMentors program that promotes environmental education and action among young people nationwide. “Pesticides are necessary but it’s important to make them less dangerous to human health and the environment.”
Northern BC student deciphers enzyme mutations that may lie behind early aging disorder
April 22, 2010 by admin
With just under 17,500 residents, Fort St. John in northeast British Columbia has the distinction of being the second-largest city on the Alaska Highway after Whitehorse.
This year it also has the distinction of being the home of Taneille Johnson, whose research into the causes of an early-onset aging disorder called Dyskeratosis Congenita (DC) earned her the right the represent her province in the SABC finals.
Symptoms of the disease can include premature graying, degeneration of nails, lesions, anemia, testicular atrophy and predisposition to cancer. The lives of patients with more serious forms of the disease are often cut short.
Working with Dr. Tara Beattie at the University of Calgary (Fort St. John is near the Alberta border), Taneille looked at a DNA enzyme called telomerase, mutations of which are believed to shorten the lifespan of bone marrow stem cells and help cause DC.
Testing four common mutations, she determined that one suppressed telomerase activity while the other three had no effect.
“Understanding how telomerase and its mutations work is an extremely important field of study,” said Taneille, 17, a Grade 12 student at North Peace Secondary School. “Low activity is associated with DC and blood disorders such as anemia but too high levels are associated with many different types of cancer.”
She intends to pursue molecular biology and life sciences at McGill University next fall after a summer of lifeguarding, breaking a two-year tradition of spending her summer holiday in the University of Calgary lab.
Student opens door to new diagnosis and early treatment of child heart disease
April 22, 2010 by admin
Greater Toronto SABC finalist Colin Carter has long been intrigued by the human immune system. And this year’s competition gave him the opportunity to conduct leading-edge research at Toronto’s famed Hospital for Sick Children on a challenging auto-immune disease called Kawasaki Disease.
In auto-immune diseases, the body attacks itself because it can’t tell the difference between harmful invaders and its own cells.
Kawasaki Disease (also known as lymph node syndrome) causes a massive inflammation around the blood vessels near the heart in children under age five and can cause heart attacks.
Named for the Japanese researcher who first described it in 1967, causes of the disease is not well understood. Colin worked with Dr. Rae Yeung, a University of Toronto Associate Professor of Pediatrics, to tease out some answers.
“We believe Kawasaki Disease is caused by a super-antigen, a molecule that triggers an extreme immune response,” says the Grade 12 student at Northern Secondary School. Such powerful antigens attack viruses and other pathogens but are supposed to die before causing harm to the body. Colin’s project tested and verified that a specific molecule called the TLR2 ligand may be reactivating the super-antigen, provoking the dangerous immune response Kawasaki Disease.
“(Colin’s) findings help define the signaling pathway involved in immune activation and cross-talk between the innate and adaptive immune response,” says Dr. Yeung. In addition Colin improved the lab’s cell screening system making it faster and “will speed the pace of discovery,” he says.
Colin, who undertook the research project on his own time after school and on weekends, says “the opportunity to present the work I had done in the past two years has been really exhilarating.”
And the SABC experience confirmed a passion for scientific research. “The stimulating work environment, sense of community, and that fact that research is the crux behind keeping people alive … these are all thing that contribute to that interest and passion.”
Research on childhood autoimmune disease wins Grade 12 Toronto Student $2500, scholarships and entry to National Biotech Competition
April 12, 2010 by admin
For release: Thursday, April 8, 2010
Innovative research that could lead to an improved treatment for a childhood autoimmune disease has earned a 17-year-old student from Northern Secondary School the first place prize in the 2010 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC) in the Greater Toronto region.
Grade 12 student Colin Carter won the $2500 cash prize with a study of the disease mechanism of Kawasaki disease, a childhood autoimmune disorder of blood vessels. Colin’s insights into the how the disease progressed in an animal model may lead to earlier detection and intervention in the human disorder, that mainly affects children under five years of age.
Encouraged by teachers Dr. Danielle Gauci and Mr. Frank DeLeo and under the guidance of mentor Dr. Rae Yeung of The Hospital for Sick Children), Colin’s research involved almost a daily visits to the hospital laboratory.
The first prize also includes scholarships to either the University of Toronto, York University Ryerson or Seneca College. Later this month, Colin will travel to Ottawa to compete in the national SABC competition where his research will be to judged by a panel of experts at the National Research Council. The national winners will be announced at a ceremony in Ottawa on April 27.
At the awards ceremony in the MaRS Centre, Dr. Alison Symington of BioScience Education Canada and master of ceremonies commented, “There were several projects of exceptionally high quality this year and the judges had some difficulty choosing the top five.”
Cash prizes were also awarded to:
2nd place ($2,000):
Alessia Manzoli, Megan Vellozo, and Lauren Moretto, St. Elizabeth Catholic High School in Thornhill, for research that showed that an antiviral drug, already approved for use against hepatitis B, also has a destructive effect on leukemia cells. This suggests the possibility of further therapeutic use in humans.
3rd place ($1,500):
Supritha Nilam, a Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in St. Catharines, for a project that showed that providing plants with antioxidant supplements improved their efficiency in using fertilizer and could possibly lead to reduced fertilizer requirements for crops. She also won the $500 award for the best project from a new school in the competition.
4th place ($1,250):
Clarissa Samson, Jocelyn Micallef and Laura Caruso, St. Joan of Arc Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga for a project that investigated the effectiveness of combinational viral and chemical therapy on breast cancer and colon cancer cell lines.
and
5th place ($1,000):
Li (Danny) Liang, Ashkan Parcham-Kashani, Rogerio Huang and Krishna Modi, of Newtonbrook Secondary School in Toronto for a project that investigated the effectiveness of combinatorial therapy using potential anti-cancer therapeutics derived from dietary sources such as fruits, vegetables and spices.
Best Commercialization Potential ($1000)
Adarsh Gupta and Samantha Pramanick of the University of Toronto School for their research on using natural cellulose fibers in producing substrates for electronic display systems and medical instruments requiring optical precision.
Background
Now in its 17th year, the Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge is a high-level competition that introduces students to the real world of biotechnology by carrying out research projects of their own design. An SABC program has been held in the Greater Toronto area since 1994.
The competition mirrors the real world of scientific research by:
• Requiring students to submit research proposals for evaluation by a scientific evaluation committee;
• Providing up to $200 in advance funding to approved student projects;
• Assigning mentors to each team to provide expert advice and access to equipment and supplies; and
• Having each student project judged by fellow students (peer review) and by judges representing government, business, academia and the education community.
Follow-up studies have found that many of the students who compete go on to careers in biotechnology, healthcare, agriculture, and the environment.
“As the program’s lead sponsor since its inception, Sanofi pasteur has been committed to encouraging more students to consider careers in biotechnology,” said Dr. Luis Barreto, Vice President of Immunization and Scientific Policy. “The students in this competition represent some of the brightest young scientists in Canada and I congratulate them all on their outstanding achievements.”
More than 100 organizations across Canada are partnered with sanofi pasteur and sanofi aventis in this educational outreach initiative.
Regional competition sponsors:
• University of Toronto
• York University
• Ryerson University
• Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology
• The Biotechnology Initiative
National competition supporters:
• Sanofi pasteur
• Sanofi aventis
• BioTalent Canada
• the National Research Council of Canada
• Genome Canada
• the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and
• the Canada Foundation for Innovation
The project is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Sector Council Program.
For more information or to book an interview, please contact
Tony Legault.
SABC Toronto coordinator,
289-242-8421,
tony.legault@cberc.ca
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About Sanofi Pasteur Limited and sanofi-aventis
Sanofi Pasteur Limited is the vaccines business of the sanofi-aventis Group, the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Sanofi Pasteur Limited has a long history of supporting science education at the post-secondary level. In 1994, it recognized the need to engage younger students in biotechnology education, and the initial SABC program was run in conjunction with the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s first meeting in Canada. Since then, the program has expanded to 14 events across Canada and has involved thousands of students. As lead sponsor of the SABC, Sanofi Pasteur is proud to collaborate with partners in government, industry and academia to get high school students engaged in biotechnology. Sanofi Pasteur Limited is Canada’s only full-scale vaccine company, researching, developing and manufacturing in Canada a broad range of human vaccines. With over 1,000 highly-skilled employees, it is one of Canada’s oldest and largest biotech companies. For more information: www.sanofi-pasteur.ca
About BioTalent Canada
BioTalent Canada helps Canada’s bio-economy industry thrive globally. As a non-profit national organization of innovators leading our bio-economy, BioTalent Canada anticipates needs and creates new opportunities, delivering human resources tools, information and skills development to ensure the industry has access to job-ready people. BioTalent Canada is a Canadian sector council—one of many partnership organizations created to address skills-development issues in key sectors of the economy. For more information: www.biotalent.ca or Colette Rivet, Executive Director, BioTalent Canada
613-235-1402 x 226; coletter@biotalent.ca