Researchers and agriculture company battle the crop-damaging disease and train new scientists
A $1.25-million research project is tackling clubroot resistance in canola to help battle new strains of the crop-damaging pathogen. Funded by agriculture company BASF, University of Alberta plant scientists Stephen Strelkov and Sheau-Fang Hwang will work to identify new sources of pathogen resistance that can be bred into canola seeds. New strains of clubroot, a soil-borne disease that attacks the…
Findings show promise for new anti-inflammatory drugs and treatments for autoimmune diseases
New research shows a group of enzymes may have a critical role in how immune cells are activated and then migrate to certain sites in the body – findings that could improve our understanding of inflammation and potentially lead to new treatments. In a recent study, researchers explored a particular family of enzymes called neuraminidases. "We…
Experts to examine systemic problems, make evidence-based recommendations
A research team led by a University of Alberta scholar has received nearly $2.5 million in new federal funding for a national research project aimed at reforming the Canadian justice system. The team, headed by sociologist Sandra Bucerius and including the United Way and academic experts on the court and prison systems from across Canada, was awarded a Partnership Grant from…
Juanita Gnanapragasam plans to use her career to help people achieve good health and wellness
Juanita Gnanapragasam isn’t the type to restrict herself to one interest, to study just one topic. She believes her varied passions and expertise will figure in her work toward her career and life goal – to build a community where everyone can thrive. She knows now that she doesn’t have to limit herself, something she…
Through engineering, Portia Rayner discovered her calling as an experimenter, innovator and leader
Portia Rayner describes her University of Alberta engineering degree as a seismic “shift in mentality.” At first, she wasn’t at all sure engineering was the right program for her. She had once wanted to be a veterinarian, and later thought chemistry or pharmacology would be a better fit. “You always hear those stories of the…
How one student found her voice as an advocate for patients and other nurses
Cool air blew from above, nearly as bracing as the antiseptic smell of chlorhexidine that wafted through the operating room. The surgeon bent over a completely still older man, carefully inserting a small wire into an artery in the patient’s groin, searching for the path to repair an aneurysm. It was the first time Hanna…
Federal funding supports intensive advanced training for future leaders in AI and diabetes research
In a global competition for talent, Canada is seeking to train the best graduate students to become “highly qualified personnel” – university-educated experts with the savvy and ingenuity to lead innovation in high-tech industries, government and academia. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada has announced two new programs at the University of…
Assisting landmark Indigenous cases, Anita Cardinal-Stewart graduates with even stronger passion
The caption on her junior-high yearbook photo reads, “Dreams of being a lawyer or an actress.” That was when Anita Cardinal-Stewart was full of hope, and anything seemed possible. But that hope evaporated through her teen years growing up in the Woodland Cree First Nation in northern Alberta. “I started to see how hard it…
Fergus McSween is applying his new knowledge of forests, plants and animals to help protect them
Fergus McSween loves the outdoors. Growing up in Calgary, he spent much of his youth outside the city, roaming Alberta’s forests as a Scout, on school outdoor education trips, or camping with friends and family. “Nature is so peaceful and tranquil. It’s a place where I can be myself, turn my brain off and just…
Age of Enlightenment partly responsible for the destructive colonial logic that has wreaked so much havoc among Indigenous peoples
There is a wisdom principle known as wâhkôhtowin underpinning how Cree peoples fundamentally see the world. Literally, it means kinship but refers more widely to the interconnectedness of human beings with each other and with all other forms of life. According to Dwayne Donald – freshly appointed Canada Research Chair in reimagining teacher education with…
A $1.25-million research project is tackling clubroot resistance in canola to help battle new strains of the crop-damaging pathogen. Funded by agriculture company BASF, University of Alberta plant scientists Stephen Strelkov and Sheau-Fang Hwang will work to identify new sources of pathogen resistance that can be bred into canola seeds. New strains of clubroot, a soil-borne disease that attacks the…
