Science Contours Fall 2018

HEALTHY PEOPLE HEALTHY PLANET

Vol. 35, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2018

science.ualberta.ca

Vol. 35, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2018

The University of Alberta Faculty of Science is a research and teaching powerhouse dedicated to shaping the future by pushing the boundaries of knowledge in the classroom, laboratory, and field. Through exceptional teaching, learning, and research experiences, we competitively position our students, staff, and faculty for current and future success.

Science Contours is a semi-annual publication dedicated to highlighting the collective achievements of the Faculty of Science community. It is distributed to alumni and friends of the faculty.

Interim Dean of Science Frank Marsiglio

Managing Editor Katie Willis

Contributing Writers Kristy Condon Matthew Kingston Andrew Lyle Julie Naylor Jennifer Pascoe Michaela Ream Katie Willis

Associate Editor Andrew Lyle

Photography John Ulan

Design Lime Design Inc.

Proofreader Philip Mail

Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Pascoe

Send your comments to: The Editor, Science Contours Faculty of Science 6-194 CCIS, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E1 science.contours@ualberta.ca

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facebook.com/UAlbertaScience @UAlbertaScience @UAlbertaScience UAlbertaScience UAlbertaScience science.ualberta.ca

Smarten up Alona Fyshe ('05 BSc, '07 MSc), assistant professor (psychology and computing science), applies her expertise in machine learning to brain imaging data, with the goal of understanding how humans create meaning to help make machines smarter.

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Dean’s message

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Byte-size science

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Science news

› This baby snake is 100 million years old

› Not so bird-brained

› Cannabis has detrimental effects on developing embryos

› Ghost particle solves mystery of high-energy cosmic rays

› The original sunscreen

› AI against invasive species

› Promising new compounds can treat RSV, Zika virus

› The world’s fastest supercomputer

12 Is there a doctor in the house?

Science grad saving lives 16 Strengthened by science Two science alumni are addressing challenging health concerns—from prenatal genetic testing to aging and frailty—in their own way 19 From ALS to Zika Tackling society’s most pressing health needs, one disease at a time 20 Small doses Why the next breakthrough in human health care will be at the molecular level, with UAlberta scientists leading the way 24 Silver linings How listening helps one alumnus focus on fostering potential 28 A delicate balance From space to sea, how two science graduate students are exploring the movement and momentum of energy through dance 31 Wrangling the runaway mind How string theory and ultramarathons can put perseverance and grit in your tool kit 34 Awards and accolades 35 Alumni perspectives “To me, post-secondary education is about building the prepared and open mind.”

—Chris Fetterly ('18 PhD)

In the field

Girls on ice When Alison Criscitiello (earth and atmospheric sciences), technical director of the Canadian Ice Core Archive, isn’t drilling ice cores in Antarctica or the Canadian Arctic, she is focused on bringing the first-ever Girls on Ice expedition to Canada. With her three co-directors, Criscitiello brought 10 girls, aged 16 to 17, on a 12-day trek through Glacier National Park this August for the first Canadian instalment of Girls on Ice. The program is designed to show young women what studying glaciology looks like first-hand, encouraging diversity in the sciences. “It has been clear for years that there is a huge need for a program like this in Canada,” says Criscitiello. “We share a strong desire to create an opportunity for high school girls that didn’t exist until now like this in Canada, a no-barriers, tuition-free, science- and mountain-based program in our home mountains,” says Criscitiello.

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Dean’s message

On innovation and inspiration

From new ideas for understanding our universe (are particles actually better described by strings?) to practical protocols (using omics to improve our overall health), the university is a place that fosters innovation and inspiration.

This issue of Contours highlights many examples of our graduates, students, and faculty improving the health of our planet and the people who populate it.

As a physicist, I can’t resist noting that Michael Faraday’s experiments in electricity and magnetism in the early 19th century were simply curiositydriven research, with no immediate

applications. And yet, so much of the equipment in any modern-day emergency room owes its life-saving utility to these early investigations.

Shandra Doran saving lives in the University of Alberta Hospital ER is a striking example of helping others, yet this endeavour started out by seeking excellence in a seemingly unlikely place—the volleyball court. One can only marvel at the symmetry of Dr. Doran’s story of elite athlete turned medical doctor to Vincent Bouchard’s tale of string theorist turned ultramarathoner.

Story after story in this issue tells us of remarkable achievements, for the individual as well as the people whom they serve and the planet that they inhabit, like the story about the prosperity of a small town in Mexico, catalyzed by an otherwise unrelated mining venture, sparked by a unique attitude toward sustainability.

Everything we do can have a positive impact on the life of our planet and the lives of those around us. In striving for excellence while pursuing their dreams, the individuals in these pages have affected the lives around them in positive ways, sparked by their experiences at the University of Alberta. One truly cannot ask for much more from oneself.

Frank Marsiglio, Interim Dean and Professor of Physics

In 2018, more than 1,500 campers came to campus for Science Summer Camps.

200 Together, we launched 200 rockets, created 1,000 video games, and used more than 30 litres of liquid nitrogen to make our own ice cream.

More than 75 students and staff volunteers and 30 camp leaders make camps possible.

4,000 There are 4,000 nodes in each of the two new supercomputers, developed in part by UAlberta computing scientists.

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Learn more on page 9.

6 days

Byte-Size Science

For pregnant women, consuming cannabis during gastrulation (a six-day period taking place about three weeks after conception) could have negative effects on developing embryos.

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Our paleontology program is ranked top 3 in the world, according to the Center for World University Rankings.

Learn more on page 11.

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$5.7M+

Our geology program is ranked 5th in the world, according to the Center for the World University Rankings.

was awarded to Faculty of Science students in scholarships and awards in 2017.

Our geophysics program is one of the top 10 in the world, according to Applied Geophysics.

U of A grads have the highest employment rate in Canada and are moving up the list of the world's most employable, according to latest global rankings.

73% of donors

who give to the Faculty of Science are alumni.

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employers actively recruited Science Internship Program students in 2017.

An international team with more than 300 scientists from 12 countries has solved a century-old mystery about where neutrinos come from.

Learn more on page 8.

3rd

31st in the world

140 countries From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, our graduate and undergraduate students represent 140 different countries.

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300/12

35,474 35,474 people have earned their bachelor of science from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Science. An additional 5,326 have earned a master’s and 3,312 have earned a PhD.

UAlberta is the third mostfollowed post-secondary institution in Canada on Twitter, according to data from Twitter.

The incoming high school average of our 2018 class was 90.9%.

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Science News Ghost particle solves mystery of high-energy cosmic rays

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

For more than 100 years, astrophysicists have been puzzled by the source of highenergy neutrinos, known as cosmic rays, that travel to Earth at the speed of light.

A global team of researchers believes they’ve now found the answer to the extraterrestrial mystery: a blazar—a giant elliptical galaxy with a massive, rapidly spinning black hole at its core.

Last fall, the team found the first evidence of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, ghostly subatomic particles that traveled unhindered for four billion years to Earth, before their discovery at the IceCube observatory at the South Pole.

“These intriguing results represent the remarkable culmination of thousands of human years of intensive activities by the IceCube Collaboration to bring the dream of neutrino astronomy to reality,” says Darren Grant, associate professor (physics) and spokesperson for IceCube, of the international team with more than 300 scientists from 12 countries.

The discovery unites two areas of research strength at the University of Alberta, astrophysics and particle physics. Grant’s colleagues and fellow physics professors Claudio Kopper and Gregory Sivakoff, along with their graduate students, played instrumental roles in the discovery, Kopper with a focus on neutrinos and Sivakoff with an eye on astronomy.

This is the first time a high-energy neutrino has been tracked back to its origin in a blazar, far beyond our own galaxy. The discovery opens the door to a brand-new type of science, known as multi-messenger astrophysics.

Scientists have discovered for the first time a fossilized embryo, preserved in ancient amber. The discovery is rewriting what paleontologists know about the evolution of modern snakes.

Using CT scanning technology, the scientists studied the ancient snake and compared it with the young of other modern snakes. Their results yielded unexpected insight into the development and embryology of the ancient specimen.

“This snake is linked to ancient snakes from Argentina, Africa, India, and Australia,” explains Michael Caldwell, paleontologist and professor (biology).

“It is an important and, until now, missing

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component of understanding snake evolution from southern continents, that is Gondwana, in the mid-Mesozoic.”

Caldwell and his international team, including collaborators from Australia, China, and the United States, have tracked the migration of these ancient Gondwanan snakes beginning 180 million years ago, when they were carried by tectonic movements of continents and parts of continents, from Australia and India to Madagascar and Africa, and finally to Asia, in modern-day India and Myanmar.

“All of these data refine our understanding of early snake evolution as 100-million-year-old snakes are known from only 20 or so relatively complete fossil snake species,” says Caldwell.

“There is a great deal of new information preserved in this new fossilized baby snake.”

This snake hatchling was preserved in Burmese amber.

IMAGE: MING BAI

PHOTO SUPPLIED

This baby snake is 100 MILLION years old

AI AGAINST INVASIVE SPECIES New research on managing aquatic invasive species in Canada combines the power of machine learning with expertise in biology and statistics to build a simple, easy-to-use tool for environmental managers.

The tool—developed by professors Mark Lewis (biological sciences and mathematical and statistical sciences) and Russ Greiner (computing science), with their research collaborators—helps environmental managers decide which approach to take when dealing with invasive species in their waterways by predicting the outcomes of various invasive species management strategies.

“The economic cost of invasive species is in the tens of billions of dollars—and because the cost is so high, there is a great deal of interest in preventing and controlling invasions,” explains Lewis.

There are many kinds of aquatic invasive species in Canada in both marine and freshwater environments, ranging from invasive seaweed to fish to water fleas. Many are spread by shipping routes and through pet trade, such as when you release your goldfish into a lake.

Lewis and Greiner, with their former post-doctoral fellow Yanyu Xiao, ran machine learning techniques that produced simple, easy-to-use decision trees. From here, environmental managers can use the trees to determine the best strategy to deal with any invasion, ranging from eradication to containment and mitigation of spread.

“As the end user, having a computer isn’t necessary,” says Lewis. “All you need is a copy of the decision tree, which is much more useful for environmental managers working in the field.”

IMAGE: CENTER FOR GREAT LAKES & AQUATIC SCIENCES

Left: Zebra mussels, like these, are one of many invasive species in Canada.

Below: (L to R) Artem Chikin, Nelson Amaral, and Taylor Lloyd

The world’s fastest

supercomputer The fastest, most efficient computers on the planet, announced in June by the United States Department of Energy, include technology developed by University of Alberta computing scientists.

get 10 or 15 per cent improvement on a given piece of code, and we are thrilled,” says Amaral, co-chair of he IBM Alberta Centre for Advanced Studies. “But this work allows certain segments of the code to run up to 26 times faster.”

The two supercomputers are made up of 4,000 nodes each, in a room about the size of a basketball court. The first, Summit, housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was announced this year. The second project, Sierra, arriving later this year, will be housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States.

The U of A team, comprising Professor Nelson Amaral (computing science) and graduate students Artem Chikin ('17 BSc) and Taylor Lloyd ('16 BSc), provided technology used in the machine’s compiler—the program that translates what a programmer writes into machine code.

The U of A technology consists of a program analysis that predicts and allows performance-improving changes in code to happen automatically, without requiring troubleshooting or reprogramming from people.

“I have been working in this field for 20 years. Usually, we

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Science News The original sunscreen Particles in ancient sea water helped early organisms called cyanobacteria to oxygenate Earth’s oceans billions of years ago.

These bacteria produce oxygen through oxygenic photosynthesis, resulting in the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere. But cyanobacteria needed protection from the sun’s UV radiation in order to evolve. That’s where iron and silica particles in ancient sea water come in, according to Aleksandra Mloszewska, who conducted this research as part of her PhD studies under the supervision of professors Kurt Konhauser (earth sciences) and George Owttrim (biological sciences).

Promising new compounds can treat RSV, Zika virus A new class of chemical compounds has major potential for treating Zika virus and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The next step is to develop a drug.

Fred West, chemistry professor

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“In effect, the iron-silica particles acted as an ancient ‘sunscreen’ for the cyanobacteria, protecting them from the lethal effects of direct UV exposure,” says Konhauser. “This was critical on the early Earth before a sufficiently thick ozone layer was established that could enable marine plankton to spread across the globe, as is the case today.”

But, the researchers explain, the iron-silica-rich precipitates tell only part of the story.

“The accumulation of atmospheric oxygen from cyanobacteria facilitated the evolution of oxygenbased respiration and multicellular organisms,” says Owttrim. But the reason for the large amount of time that it took for free oxygen to accumulate permanently in the atmosphere after the initial evolution of cyanobacteria remains a mystery.

“This is both a remarkable scientific discovery and also something that has the potential to positively affect not only global health but also the economy of Canada,” says Fred West (chemistry). The compound is similar to the naturally occurring isatisine A, an antiviral compound originally found in traditional Chinese herbal medicine.

Working with David Marchant and Tom Hobman in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, West developed and then tested this chemical compound against powerful viruses, including RSV and Zika virus. The results were promising, showing that the chemical compound was active and effective against both viral infections.

The next step of drug development is already underway. “What we aim to do is further refine this compound, to keep the elements that make it medically active and build in the structural components that make it possible for patients to consume it in drug form,” explains West. “We are approaching that point.”

Marchant has started a company, Antibiddies Technologies Inc., that will license the intellectual property and begin commercialization.

Not so bird-brained Neuroscientists have uncovered the secret to intelligence in parrots. The secret lies in a neural circuit, called the medial spiriform nucleus (SpM), which circulates information between the cortex and the cerebellum.

Using samples from 98 birds, from chickens and waterfowl to parrots and owls, the scientists examined the brains, comparing the relative size of the SpM with the rest of the brain. They determined that parrots have an SpM that is much larger than that of other birds.

“The SpM is actually two to five times larger in parrots than in other birds, like chickens,” explains post-doctoral fellow Christian Gutierrez-Ibanez, who works with neuroscientist Doug Wylie (psychology).

The discovery is an example of convergent evolution between the brains of birds and primates, with the potential to provide insight into the neural basis of human intelligence.

Scientists studied parrot brains like this one.

The SpM is similar to an area of the brain that plays a major role in primate intelligence, called the pontine nuclei.

“Independently, parrots have evolved an enlarged area that connects the cortex and the cerebellum, similar to primates,” adds Gutierrez. “This is another fascinating example of convergence between parrots and primates. The more we look at the brains, the more similarities we see. It might give us a way to better understand how our human brains work.”

Declan Ali’s research into the effects of cannabis on developing embryos comes just as cannabis use has been legalized in Canada.

Cannabis has detrimental effects on developing embryos

IMAGE: ANDREW IWANIUK

Zebrafish embryos exposed to cannabis show negative effects on both physiological and neurological development, according to new research.

same period. The compounds are then removed, and the embryos develop. Then, they studied how the embryos developed after exposure.

“We found that fewer eggs hatched and fewer fish survived,” explains Declan Ali, professor (biology) and author on the study. “The embryos also tended to be smaller in length, and show significant neurological delays.”

The fish embryos were exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) during a critical developmental stage known as gastrulation. In zebrafish, gastrulation occurs five hours after fertilization, and lasts for about five hours. In humans, gastrulation occurs about three weeks after fertilization and lasts about six days.

Ali and his team exposed the zebrafish to THC and CBD during this gastrulation period, simulating the effects of a pregnant woman consuming cannabis during this

“Our results suggest that, in a developing organism, exposure to THC and CBD has an effect,” says Ali. “We expose these embryos for a short, finite period of time and then let them develop normally. Despite this, we are seeing effects throughout development and even into adulthood.”

While Ali and his colleagues are hesitant to translate this research directly to humans, the results call for significant future investigation, especially in light of the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada. Previous research on humans has shown that exposure to cannabis during pregnancy is related to memory and attention deficits in children.

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Is there a doctor in the house?

SCIENCE GRAD SAVING LIVES

By KRISTY CONDON

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Photos JOHN ULAN

Medical doctors can solve complex health riddles and recall multiple human maladies on demand.

They have an almost preternatural ability to stay calm under crushing pressure and an unflappable dedication to the well-being of fellow humans. There’s little wonder they hold an almost superhuman status among mortals.

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aving lives on the daily,

often at great personal sacrifice, a physician is perhaps the closest a person can get to being a real-life superhero. Seasoned by the rigours of MCATs, med school, and gruelling sleepdeprived years of residency, doctors fit neatly at that rare juncture where intellectual brilliance meets remarkable heart, propped up by no small measure of physical and mental stamina.

Coveted by academically inclined students (and their parents) the world over, the occupation holds an unparalleled allure for undergraduate science students in particular. Ask any first-year biology class which of them are planning to pursue medicine and you’ll see more hands go up than not.

Although it is difficult to track just how many of these students complete the path to MD as intended, those who do are quick to acknowledge that the journey is not always as straightforward as it seemed in that first year.

THE ROAD TAKEN One of the few in that biology class who would not have raised a hand is Shandra Doran ('98 BSc, '05 PhD).

A self-described adrenaline junkie, Doran thrives in high-stake settings.

Since beginning studies at the University of Alberta in 1993, she’s found these for herself through a combination of high-performance competitive sport and rigorous academic ventures.

These days, she most often gets her fix at the University of Alberta Hospital, where she works as an emergency department physician—a job she hadn’t considered until late in her studies.

Born at the same hospital where she now works, Doran grew up in Edmonton and attended Old Scona Academic among a cohort of ambitious classmates, many aspiring to careers in medicine. When beginning her own undergraduate studies, however, she was more interested in treating four-legged patients and enrolled in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences in a pre-vet

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“I WAS AT KIND OF A CROSSROADS FOR MYSELF. I HAD RIDDEN THE ATHLETICS TRAIN AS FAR AS IT WAS GOING TO TAKE ME AT THAT POINT.” program before transferring into the Faculty of Science to study zoology.

Though it would play a huge role in her life, varsity sport wasn’t on her radar until a friend suggested she try out for the Pandas volleyball team. Sure enough, she showed up for tryouts and made the team.

“The trajectory from that point upward really changed for me,” she says. Doran played with the Pandas for five years, winning the national championship an impressive four times.

Her athletics career continued after graduation; she played with the Canadian national team followed by a season of professional volleyball in Tokyo before injury-related setbacks forced her to examine other options.

“I was at kind of a crossroads for myself,” she says.

“I had ridden the athletics train as far as it was going to take me at that point.”

ADRENALINE-SPIKED SUCCESS Taking the ch allenge characteristically in stride, in 1999 she approached her old undergraduate advisor Jeff Goldberg, former professor of biology, who agreed to take her on to do a master’s in his lab. She enjoyed the research so much that she soon changed her master’s into a PhD, graduating in 2005.

Though Doran enjoyed many aspects of research, she was less passionate about the administrative side of academia—writing grant proposals, securing funding, and the other related behind-the-scenes duties.

Medicine, which combines her love of science, high-stakes performance, and human connection, stood out as a field that would check off all her boxes.

Hoping to stay at her alma mater, Doran first applied to the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at

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UAlberta but was missing one undergraduate course required for admission (PhD in physiology unfortunately notwithstanding). So instead, she completed her MD program at the University of Calgary before heading to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., to start her residency.

When given the opportunity to return to Edmonton, however, she jumped at the chance.

“I was really quite fortunate in that the U of A was interested in having me as well, and I was able to transfer,” she says. After completing her first year at Queen’s, she returned to UAlberta for the next four years of her five-year residency.

“The U of A is near and dear to my heart, just in so many ways. I had a really special experience. I got to experience the athletics and the academics side fully, and I consider myself really lucky to have been able to participate in all of those sides of the school.”

Now back at UAlberta, Doran feels quite at home in the adrenaline-spiked world of the emergency department, where she has worked since 2015. Her interest in science and research lends itself well to the problem-solving component of patient diagnosis and management.

“Emergency medicine, probably from the very beginning of med school, was something I was really interested in,” she says. “It appealed to me in a lot of ways. You never know what’s coming in the door, you get to talk to lots of people, and you see them oftentimes under quite a bit of duress and have to try and make a connection with them fairly quickly.

“I appreciate the challenge of that.”

PUTTING IT ALL ON THE LINE Athletic perform ance and emergency medical response have a lot more in common than you might expect.

Doran explains: “You’re trying to put your best performance on the line in a sport context and it’s the same thing for us when we step into a shift [in the emergency department] and don’t know what’s coming.

“You’re trying to anticipate things and make a decision on how you’re going to act on it, but you have to ultimately react to what’s in front of you.”

Both have a major teamwork component as well. “The athlete in me comes in when we have a resuscitation or a code, for example, and we have to pull together as a team and function well.”

“THE U OF A IS NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART, JUST IN SO MANY WAYS.”

For proper execution, the physician must make decisions quickly and communicate clearly with teammates—in this case, nursing staff and medical colleagues—to ensure everyone is on the same page and working toward the same goal, all while under considerable stress.

“You really see what people are made of.”

A major component of her role at the hospital is passing on knowledge to new medical residents.

“Medicine is really one of those specialties where you pay it forward. You were taught by people coming up, and you will teach going forward.”

She encourages her students to think long and hard about their reasons for wanting to pursue medicine. The job comes with more than a few drawbacks—shift work, aggressive patients, and long hours, to name a few from the emergency specialization.

Only a segment of undergraduate doctorhopefuls will end up in a hospital or clinic. Though often emphasized, academic skill is just one small component in a complex matrix of essential qualities that make a good physician. The few that do end up in a hospital or clinic are those who also possess an uncommon combination of empathy, grit, an appetite for lifelong learning, and a true desire to help people.

The superhero’s cape is optional.

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Strengthened TWO SCIENCE ALUMNI ARE ADDRESSING CHALLENGING HEALTH CONCERNS—FROM PRENATAL GENETIC TESTING TO AGING AND FRAILTY—IN THEIR OWN WAY

By JULIE NAYLOR Illustration CHRIS MADDEN

by SCIENCE SUPPLIED

DETAILS OF YOUR DNA In the l ast t wo decades, genetic testing has become a household term. Millions around the world have submitted samples of saliva or blood to learn the details hidden in their DNA. Many are simply curious about where they come from and who their ancestors are. But for others, genetic testing can be a matter of life and death, raising difficult decisions about how best to prevent illness and avoid health risk.

As a genetic counsellor, Cynthia Handford ('02 BSc, '05 MSc) knows all too well the tough decisions patients have to make when results come back from a genetic test.

“We generally see patients before the test, educate them on what they might expect, then meet with them after test results to focus on what was found and how to interpret the results in context of the family history,” she explains. “So if they test positive for a mutation like BRCA1, where the risk of breast and ovarian cancer is quite high, then we focus on understanding what those risks are and the options of how to deal with the risks.”

Handford can trace her connection to genetic counselling back to her high school days. “I remember doing a career search in the area of molecular genetics so I could show my dad I could get a job with a bachelor of science—and genetic counsellor kept popping up.” She must have been convincing, as she started her bachelor’s degree in honors molecular genetics shortly thereafter. Handford went on to complete two master’s degrees, one in microbiology and biotechnology and another in genetic testing.

After years working as a genetic counsellor in Edmonton, Handford headed south to California to work for Color Genomics, a company that provides genetic testing for common hereditary cancers and heart conditions. As a patient advocate, Handford walks patients through testing options, explaining what results they might expect, and helping them use the results as part of their health-care decision making.

Genetic counsellors: the next generation Since 2011, the Faculty of Science, along with the Department of Medical Genetics, has offered a senior undergraduate course on genetic counselling. Taught by Heather McDermid (biological sciences) and Sajid Merchant (medical genetics), it provides undergraduate students interested in becoming genetic counsellors an opportunity to gain practical knowledge and observe patient sessions, prerequisites for most master’s programs.

“We provide these students insights into the varied roles genetic counsellors have by having students prepare for actual genetic counselling sessions in the clinic,” McDermid explains.

Today’s genetic testing plays a larger role in health care, for both prevention and treatment.

The role of genetic counsellors has expanded over the years, Handford notes. With roots dating back to the 1970s, when the practice was mainly centred on prenatal testing, today’s genetic testing plays a larger role in health care, for both prevention and treatment. Now it means understanding risks for inherited heart conditions, high cholesterol, and newborn metabolic disorders, to name a few.

“While I work mostly with families that are concerned about whether there might be a genetic component to cancer in their family, genetic counsellors are now moving into the research laboratory setting or working to provide information and reports for the public.”

Interested in exploring different models of how hospitals and companies are trying to meet the needs of cancer counselling services, Handford is now moving to Seattle to join the team at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which unites the leading research teams and cancer specialists of Fred Hutch, Seattle Children’s, and University of Washington School of Medicine.

“Cancer genetics in a hospital setting means we see patients, and it has a research component as well,” she notes. “This brings me back to some of my university days and the fantastic training I had while in the molecular genetics program that has helped me to understand molecular techniques and to have a strong foundation in scientific literacy.”

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AGING GRACEFULLY

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Courtney Kennedy ('98 BSc) is passionate about aging—an area of increasing importance as our population grows older. Her focus? Helping seniors function independently, leaving them feeling happy and productive into the later years of life.

The associate scientific director of the Geriatric Education and Research in Aging Sciences (GERAS) Centre for Aging Research at McMaster University, Kennedy brings a unique mix of gerontology, clinical epidemiology, and implementation science to her role.

Frailty and dementia are among some of our most pressing health-care problems. According to Statistics Canada, the number of people aged 85 and older grew by 19.4 per cent between 2011 and 2016, nearly four times the rate for the overall Canadian population.

“Mind-body activation is key, which includes physical, mental, and social stimulation,” she says.

“I am most passionate about helping seniors who have mobility or cognitive challenges to engage as fully as possible in their lives. I would love to see high-quality programs on every corner—part of what we are doing with DANCE.” DANCE is the DANcing for Cognition and Exercise study, which looked at how dance could improve cognition, mobility, and social interaction for atrisk seniors with cognitive and physical challenges.

Initially funded as a pilot project through McMaster University, the six-month program included input from dancers, rehabilitation therapists, and geriatricians with the goal of bringing a high-quality, engaging program to where the seniors were.

“They loved it,” says Kennedy. “We kept getting asked if we would put it on again,” which is exactly what she plans on doing. Along with geriatrician Alexandra Papaioannou and occupational therapist Patricia Hewston, Kennedy and the GERAS team have secured additional funding from a Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation grant to build an implementation study based on the DANCE pilot.

“We can now take this concept and roll it out in a wider format,” she explains. “We have partnered with the YMCA and will be introducing it to 12 sites in the Halton, Hamilton, and Niagara regions in the next year, with the first three sites launching in November.”

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Leaders and participants in the DANCE pilot

“I AM MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING SENIORS WHO HAVE MOBILITY OR COGNITIVE CHALLENGES TO ENGAGE AS FULLY AS POSSIBLE IN THEIR LIVES.”

Frailty and dementia are among some of our most pressing health-care problems.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of people aged 85 and older grew by 19.4% between 2011 and 2016, nearly four times the rate for the overall Canadian population.

If Kennedy had her way, she would have DANCE in every community hall at least once a week, so seniors could easily access programming nearby. She recalls one man who was in the pilot DANCE program with his wife. At almost 90, he is highly active as a swim coach as well as the primary caregiver to his wife, who has dementia. It is people like this, who strive to keep engaged at any age, that inspire Kennedy to continue her research.

As part of her PhD, Kennedy also worked with computing scientists to develop the Fit-Frailty App, an easy-to-use tool that helps patients, caregivers, and health-care professionals assess the risk of adverse events, like falls, and consider interventions. The FitFrailty App was a project recipient of the 2018 Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation Gala and, with funding from the Spark Program, Phase 2 is underway.

“We can now take this grassroots idea and prototype and make into real-world application,” Kennedy explains. “This next phase will be to make it better, to test with seniors, to look at the interface and how they are interacting with it.”

And while her University of Alberta days are long past, she credits her passion for research to her early undergraduate days. “I still think fondly of my days at the U of A,” she recalls. “That is where I was exposed to unique learning and research opportunities. I even published a paper in my final year of undergrad. I love the campus, and because I drank so much coffee there, I still think it is the best campus for great coffee spots.”

A to Z: dictionary of disease research Tackling tough topics from ALS to Zika virus, Faculty of Science researchers are addressing society’s most pressing health needs, one disease at a time.

By Jennifer Pascoe

• From Alzheimer’s to dementia, Roger Dixon (psychology) conducts longitudinal and epidemiological research in healthy, normal, impaired, and neurodegenerative aging, focusing on the genetic, biological, health, and neurocognitive influences in normal aging versus neurodegenerative disease.

• For Debbie McKenzie, associate professor (biological sciences), using genomic and metabolomic techniques to tackle the role of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) affecting cervids as food sources means that she and her team can potentially wipe out this slowly progressing, brain-destroying fatal disease.

CWD persistently accumulates in the environment with untold negative effects on our ecology.

There is no known cure and no vaccine.

McKenzie hopes to develop an early detection and rapid response system to reduce the spread of CWD in Canada.

• Therapeutic hypothermia can help to lessen cell death and promote functional recovery as a means of reducing the harmful effects of stroke, the second top cause of death globally in 2016, according to statistics from the World Health Organization. Fred Colbourne, psychology professor and Canada Research Chair in intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke, is focused on evaluating and improving the use of therapeutic hypothermia for ischemic and hemorrhagic brain injuries.

Illustration Chris Madden

• Whether neurodegenerative diseases like ALS or Parkinson’s, the prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (“mad cow”), or the human form Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, if it is a disease influenced by misfolding proteins, it’s likely a subject of interest in physics professor Michael Woodside’s lab.

The Guggenheim Fellow’s work stands at the intersection of physics, molecular biology, and biochemistry. While protein folding is a normal part of the molecular process, misfolding may lead to serious consequences, as is the case with the aforementioned diseases.

• Tracy Raivio (biological sciences) is focused on understanding how microbial cells sense and adjust to environmental changes. The work in her lab—informing the process of how bacteria grow and thrive, how they cause infection, and how they can be engineered to perform beneficial processes—is dedicated to exploring the development of novel therapeutic agents to address the virulence determinants in enteropathogenic E. coli, a major cause of infantile diarrhea.

• Applying the artificial intelligence of machine learning, computing science professor Russ Greiner is working to produce tools for mental health clinicians to assist with objective, data-driven diagnosis and treatment planning, to predict and identify instances of ADHD and schizophrenia.

Interested in supporting research into some of society’s most pressing health problems?

Contact give2sci@ ualberta.ca to learn how your donation can make a critical difference.

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(small doses)

Why the next breakthrough in human health care will be at the molecular level, with UAlberta scientists leading the way

By Katie Willis

Photos John Ulan

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD that personalized health care is in our not-so-distant future. But for some Faculty of Science researchers, the future is already here. These trailblazers study the human body on a molecular level.

Lovingly referred to as omics, scientists in this field are experts in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and glycomics. Despite their main subject of study— from genes to proteins and metabolites to sugars— the main thrust of omics research is to understand our world molecule by molecule, examining how each unique element combines and interacts to shape each one of us in unique and dynamic ways.

Learn how these Faculty of Science omics researchers are leading the way in metabolomics and glycomics and changing the face of health care, both in Canada and around the world.

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This instrument, called a Fouriertransform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTICR MS for short), is used to precisely weigh molecules. It has a superconducting magnet that is among the strongest in the world, and it is the only instrument of its kind in Canada.

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(metabolomics)

(glycomics)

What if you knew now how healthy (or unhealthy) you’d be in 10 years? And what if, armed with that information, you were given simple, straightforward solutions to implement now that would prevent you from becoming ill in the future in the first place?

Sound like science fiction? Believe it or not, the science behind these impressive ideas already exists, thanks to a revolutionary field of research called metabolomics.

Much like metabolomics, glycomics is the study of certain molecules in a biological system, only in this case, the focus is on sugars, rather than metabolites.

Chains of sugars, called glycans, play a major role in human health—from the benefits of breast milk to the functioning of our immune systems. The most abundant biomolecule on the planet, sugars are one of the fundamental building blocks of our bodies and the world around us. And the better we understand them, the larger the role glycomics can play in health care.

Predicting and preventing disease METABOLOMICS is the study of

metabolism, and it is one key to predicting and detecting disease, explains biochemist David Wishart ('83 BSc).

Through his research, Wishart and his colleagues identify and catalogue every chemical in the human body, looking for patterns that correspond to different illnesses. This work allows practitioners to tailor care for each patient, based on their makeup at a molecular level. “There’s a huge impact in terms of lives saved and quality

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of life, not to mention dollars,” explains Wishart.

For example, one study uses biomarkers in blood to detect early-stage diabetes, says Wishart.

“In many cases, we can predict the disease up to 10 years before it actually develops. If you can make an intervention before the disease develops, that can save thousands of lives.”

Another test, not yet available in Canada, will catch colon cancer at the polyp stage, without a colonoscopy. This early detection could improve cure rates from 50 to 95 per cent. It could also reduce health‑care costs by about $2 billion annually, says Wishart.

Wishart’s research at the Metabolomics Innovation Centre at the U of A and his work through the Human Metabolome Project are available, open access, to researchers around the world and are accessed by millions of users each year.

“Making ideas available for other scientists moves our whole field forward faster,” Wishart says.

“We’re helping patients, we’re treating people, and we’re changing lives for the better.”

Why breast milk benefits babies AS ANY PARENT KNOWS, human breast milk

has many benefits for infants, including protection against pathogens such as norovirus and cholera, providing prebiotics to promote the growth of a healthy microbiota, and supporting the developing immune system. Many of these health benefits come from sugars in the breast milk called human milk oligosaccharides, or HMOs. But for parents who do not or cannot nurse their babies, formula cannot provide the same protections and natural benefits as breast milk, because it lacks this key ingredient.

To help formula makers help mothers, enter UAlberta chemist John Klassen, the scientist behind the launch of a new HMO library screening facility.

Klassen and his colleagues have developed a mass spectrometry technique for studying the interactions that HMOs make with human

What makes you immune ANTIBODIES ARE SMALL PROTEINS

and microbial proteins. The technique identifies HMO binding from changes in the molecular weights of proteins. By gaining key insights into how HMOs work, Klassen aims to help formula producers emulate the natural benefits of breast milk.

“We now have an analytical method that can really push this area forward,” explains Klassen.

“Not only is it fast—we can screen our library of more than 45 purified HMOs in about half an hour—but it is exquisitely sensitive, and can identify very weak interactions that are undetectable by other methods.”

The screening facility will soon be available to researchers around the world, including those who work with formula makers. For parents, it is one step closer to formula with the benefits of breast milk.

Glycomics expertise UAlberta has an impressive track record of glycomics expertise, from Ray (Sugar Ray) Lemieux ('43 BSc, '91 DSc) to David Bundle, Todd Lowary ('93 PhD), Chris Cairo, and Ratmir Derda among others. The Faculty of Science is proud to host two glycomics powerhouses, including Alberta Glycomics Centre as well as GlycoNet, the National Network of Centre of Excellence, housed at the University of Alberta.

created in white blood cells that prevent intruders—or antigens— from harming the human body. For instance, vaccines help our bodies to create antibodies for certain diseases, like measles, before we get infected, to keep us from getting sick in the first place when and if we are exposed.

For chemical biologist Matthew Macauley, the key to understanding the human immune response is one level deeper.

“Questions about the roles for carbohydrates in controlling immune responses are what motivates me,” explains Macauley. “Tackling these challenging questions with chemical, biochemical, and genetic approaches is powerful.”

He’s examining how carbohydrates fine-tune antibody responses, an aspect critical for not only protection from all kinds of pathogens but also essential for understanding how autoimmunity arises.

One of the diseases Macauley studies with his colleague Klassen is Alzheimer’s. The pair are examining microglia, the receptors for sugar on white

blood cells in the brain called microglia. These receptors can indicate who is at risk for the disease and who is not. “There are different forms of this receptor, called protein isoforms, that have been linked to whether people are protected from the disease or not,” says Macauley. “People who are protected from getting Alzheimer’s have a version of that isoform that does not bind to sugars—this is the key.

“If we can better understand the correlation between sugars and Alzheimer’s, then changing or altering the sugars could potentially alter the disease,” he adds.

Groundbreaking research for tuberculosis diagnosis

Green and gold roots

Todd Lowary, Raymond Lemieux Professor of Carbohydrate Chemistry, recently helped to develop a urine test that can detect tuberculosis in people living with HIV. TB is the most common cause of death for those with HIV. The test will improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis, providing earlier treatment and improving health outcomes.

Did you know that David Wishart is one of UAlberta’s own?

Read more about his recent alumni award on page 34.

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Silver linings How listening helps one alumnus focus on fostering potential

BY JENNIFER PASCOE • ILLUSTRATION CHRIS MADDEN • PHOTOS JOHN ULAN

In every rock, in every local miner, and

Geologist Godfrey Walton is focused on the future of people and the planet.

F

in every geology student, Godfrey Walton (’74 BSc) hears a story and sees potential.

Walton’s way of perceiving the world—and the way it has influenced how he runs his company, Endeavour Silver—signifies a shift in the mining industry. For decades, the industry has faced harsh criticism. But under Walton’s leadership, Endeavour Silver is contributing to turning the tide toward a mining industry that is sustainable in more ways than one.

or Walton, the focus is not only on developing sustainable practices but also on empowering people to build sustainable communities that will long outlast the life of a single mine. Much like the proverbial rolling rock, the momentum for Walton and Endeavour’s efforts only grows.

“It’s a complete switch in ideas,” says Walton from his Vancouver headquarters. “There has been a lot of discussion and evaluation throughout the mining industry with people looking at ways to be

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sustainable. How can we do it, and what are the best ways to move forward with this process. Most of the places we go, there’s no other industry, so you’re trying to create jobs and wealth for people in areas where there is nothing else. There are no other industries that are going to go there until the mining industry develops some initial prosperity for the local people.”

Walton recounts the story of Guanacevi, Mexico, where for 15 years Endeavour has operated a silver mine.

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People, prosperity, potential “When we first arrived in Guanacevi, the beyond the life of a single mine. And for that, he’s town was maybe 2,000 people,” says Walton. “There listening to the locals. was a lot of cartel activity around the area, so the “We’ve always felt it’s important to talk with only opportunities people had were to move to the the local communities and get them involved. In these States or get into drugs. We started working away, discussions, the two requests we’ve had were that and we were successful and able to expand the mine, they want education for their kids, and they want and it’s been going now for 15 years. You go to the training so that they are employable. We established community now, and there are all scholarships at all our sites so that sorts of small business and prosperity. children can get books and clothes and “It’s thrilling to see people being able We’ve got all sorts of people coming go to school from kindergarten up to to provide a better back from the States, and the place is the end of high school. And where we prospering. It’s amazing to see that this environment for are actually able to start mining, we hire their families.” mine can create so much prosperity as many local people as possible. They and opportunity around it—not just want training to be able to go out and salaries, but a number of other small businesses. get jobs in other areas, since eventually the mines will And it shows that you can go into a community and close down, despite the fact that the mines have been get everybody aligned and provide guidance to see going for 400 or 500 years. We are very much focused them blossom. It’s thrilling to see people being able to on how do we create something that they can use in provide a better environment for their families.” the future.”

For Walton, as for Endeavour, the focus is also on empowering local communities to sustain themselves

Meet the new economic geologists With a leading reputation for research on Earth’s energy, mineral, water, and soil resources, the University of Alberta is ranked fifth in the world for geology according to the Center for World University Rankings. Meet the new economic geology professors, who are exploring novel and sustainable solutions in resource extraction and demonstrating the department’s commitment to the responsible Want to help keep our characterization, extraction, geology program ranked and environmental monitoring fifth in the world? Contact give2sci@ualberta.ca to of these resources:

learn how you can support undergraduate field school opportunities.

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On the trail of tungsten Pilar LecumberriSanchez is on the hunt for critical metal-bearing mineral deposits, while navigating not only economic but also environmental needs. The geologist focuses on using fluids found in geologic deposits to understand where metals are found, including critical metals such as tungsten, which occur in very few localities in the world, including China, Portugal, and the Northwest Territories and Yukon in the Canadian North. LecumberriSanchez notes that Canada is viewed as a model for economic geology: maximizing economic impact while minimizing environmental impact.

“There’s a definite balance between providing economic support and also taking care of the environment. Canada is a place where people are putting a lot of effort into doing things right.”

Focus on the future Walton’s focus on the future features not only peoneeds to look at rocks and understand what they’re ple but also place. More specifically, the entire planet. saying. Every rock has a story. I’ve always believed it’s His specific vision of supporting future generations so important to be out in the field, and it’s something of field geologists is key to sustaining the growing that I still prefer to do. I don’t like sitting in an office. I change in the mining industry toward sustainable much prefer to go to a site either into the mines or with solutions and safer practices. the exploration crew and look at the mines and rocks “In the early days, people were to understand what the potential is for much less focused on the environment that block of ground. And that is what I “Field geology is and safety. And that’s why mining has want to have happen in this field school. critical. To me, the got such a bad reputation. Nowadays, Our program is for people to go to mines, most important mining has basically switched to the to understand the systems, and to be part of becoming a geologist is other side. It’s now very much focused able to figure out what the conditions for actually getting on sustainability, focused on the mineralization are and how to find more out in the field. environment, and making sure that of the same mineral. Future generations A geologist needs we don’t create problems for future of geologists need to find minerals that to look at rocks and are buried, so they need to understand generations.” understand what Speaking of future generations, how to do that and where to go to find the they’re saying.”

Endeavour Silver has recently signed mineral, and that is where understanding on to support Walton’s alma mater, of the mineralized deposits is critical,” the University of Alberta, in the creation of a new says Walton. “They need to understand what created economic geology field school running at one of that deposit. That’s what has driven our success, and Endeavour’s Mexican mine sites starting next May. that’s what we want to give back. That’s what we want to Because for Walton, the key to success is simple. have for the next generation. We’re desperately short of “Field geology is critical. To me, the most people in the industry. So it’s important for the future, important part of becoming a geologist is actually because it brings wealth and prosperity to places that getting out in the field,” says Walton. “A geologist don’t have any opportunity.”

Hard rock meets heavy metal

Striking a balance: economics and the environment

“Picture the periodic table, and draw a box around the metals on it.

Everything in that box is something that is needed for technology right now,” says Matt Steele-MacInnis.

“Whether it’s massive amounts of iron for all types of infrastructure building or tiny but crucial amounts of rare earth elements to help power modern electronics, the world is recognizing there is a huge need for metals. Canada is a huge global player in the world of metals and mineral deposits. We are probably in the best position worldwide to really be at the forefront of what is happening with mineral deposits.” Steele-MacInnis focuses on hydrothermal systems, specializing in the properties of water at high pressure and temperature, particularly when it crystallizes minerals to form a deposit.

“Anything can become a contaminant when a system is out of balance,” Sasha Wilson says of the elements she studies. “It’s all about context.” Wilson investigates the balance between the economic and environmental aspects of geology, focusing on carbon sequestration and metal recovery. “I’m interested in improving environmental sustainability for the minerals industry, specifically using metal mobility for metal recovery and carbon sequestration. If there’s an economic incentive to do something environmentally beneficial, it’s more likely that these techniques will be adopted. The first step is finding out what those techniques might be.”

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A delicate balance From space to sea, how two science graduate students are exploring the movement and momentum of energy through dance

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Imagine two dancers on a stage.

By Michaela Ream // Photos John Ulan

For a moment they stand frozen, poised and waiting to begin. Only with the first swell of music will they begin to move. Their movements are precise, yet flow together to create the energy they need to carry on to the next step, the next turn. This movement of energy used to be known as vis visa—living force— now referred to as kinetic energy.

Physics and ballet are often paired, using the former as a means to explain the latter. After all, ballet is all about the movement of energy—physics in its most visual form. Yet rarely are the two experienced and understood as one and the same.

For Charles Nokes and Laura Gillard ('13 BSc, '15 MSc), both talented dancers and graduate students, physics and dance go hand in hand. Their dancing and their studies are an exploration of the movement and momentum of energies that coexist in their lives and world. The pair are well-acquainted with the importance of balance, and the nature of cause and effect in both their intellectual and physical pursuits.

“Much like our approach to understanding the planet, if you concentrate on only one part of a larger movement, you’re going to get pulled out of balance,” Nokes says of his experiences as a dancer. “Balance isn’t a static thing; it’s constantly evolving, shifting, moving in different directions. Keeping your whole body connected to this movement is key.”

Laura Gillard prepares for her performance in Edmonton’s Marr-Mac Dance & Theatre Arts studio’s 2018 production of Swan Lake.

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“In my lifetime alone, I’ll see physical changes to Earth’s glaciers, oceans, and subsequently our climate.”

And speaking of observing changes, during his undergraduate degree in engineering physics, Nokes was part of the AlbertaSat team, involved in creating and launching Ex-Alta 1, the first student-designed cube satellite. Since its launch in spring 2017, the cube satellite has orbited Earth every 90 minutes. (Ex-Alta 1 was scheduled to burn up in the atmosphere just prior to the printing of this issue of Contours.) Each orbit measures patterns of space weather, similar to the data that Nokes is using for his graduate research.

By studying space weather patterns focusing on storms, Nokes examines how energy from the sun may be causing perturbations in Earth’s magnetic field. “Lots of people know about solar flares and the aurora, but not everybody learns about what drives space weather, and how it affects us here on Earth,” he explains.

To these scientists, the effects space weather and fresh water cycles have on our global climate are obvious. As the dynamics of each shift and change, so too does Earth, as our planet strives to maintain a balance of its own.

At any given moment around us, Earth is in motion, a constant and dynamic entity. Things are growing and dying, seasons are changing, and climate is affecting the speed of change. To the untrained eye, these changes may not be so obvious. But Gillard, Nokes, and their fellow scientists know everything is interconnected, regardless of whether we can see it at first glance.

“Balance isn’t a static thing; it’s constantly evolving, shifting, moving in different directions. Keeping your whole body connected to this movement is key.”

All the world is their stage

Maintaining balance In their studies, Nokes and Gillard are likewise exploring the importance of balance. Gillard—now in the fourth year of her PhD—studies the interaction between glacier meltwater and icebergs from Greenland that feed into our oceans and the influence the oceans have on melting the Greenland Ice Sheet by examining the effects on ocean circulation. “As an ocean scientist, I am seeing how delicate this balance is,” says Gillard.

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Staging the present with an eye to the future, Gillard and Nokes dance at the intersection of art and science.

Nokes and Gill ard have come to understand through their dance and studies that the movement of energy—on both the planet and the stage—is a delicate balance.

“By studying engineering physics and space weather, I’ve got a much larger understanding of how Earth’s systems are interconnected and how various little things can influence so many large changes,” explains Nokes.

“It’s also a tool for me to keep working towards my values in terms of being environmentally conscious and taking action.”

“The more we learn, the more questions we encounter,” adds Gillard.

For these two dancers turned scientists, maintaining momentum in the quest to achieve balance in the movement of energy on stage and on Earth will never stop.

By Matthew kingston // Photos Raven Eye Photography

(COURTESY SINISTER 7)

Wrangling the runaway mind How string theory and ultramarathons can put perseverance and grit back in your toolkit

What do string theory and ultramarathons have in common?

W ell, for starters UAlberta mathematician Vincent Bouchard excels in both fields.

String theorist and former Rhodes Scholar, Bouchard is an associate professor and associate chair (undergraduate) in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences. He also won the Sinister 7

Vincent Bouchard smiles on his way to victory at the Sinister 7 ultramarathon.

in 2014, an ultramarathon spanning 160 kilometres with an elevation gain of 5,687 metres.

Depending on how you look at it, an ultramarathon isn’t something you necessarily set out to “win.” Most people are just happy that they managed to complete it. But Bouchard isn’t like most people. That’s part of what makes him an exceptional instructor and researcher.

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Born to run The story starts in 2008 when Bouchard suffered a blown anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, while downhill skiing. Needing something to rehabilitate his knee, he turned to running. He signed up for his first marathon in 2009 and was hooked by the intensity of accomplishing something he never thought he could do.

Fascinated by the mental stamina required for endurance runs, and inspired by the book Born to Run

by Christopher McDougall, Bouchard has been running four or five ultramarathons a year since his first in 2012, the Canadian Death Race. In 2014, just two years after his first ultra, Bouchard clocked his best marathon time at 2:47 and came in first at Sinister 7, running 100 miles in 19:10:01. All of this on a torn anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, and meniscus.

“The challenge is not being able to run it.

The challenge is to allow your mind to free your body to let your body run.”

Mind over matter It ’s fascinating to speak with Bouchard about wrangling the runaway mind. He speaks of “the wall,” which all runners know as the first of many gruelling obstacles to overcome. Bouchard approaches running the same way he approaches his research: with an inquiring mind and persistence.

“The process of a long race is fascinating,” says Bouchard. “If you let your brain run loose, then it’s like living a whole life compressed into a short amount of time. You have your highs, and then you get lows. You’re on a roller-coaster, and your brain is telling you to stop.

This is the whole challenge, which I find fascinating. To try to stabilize your mind, to prevent these highs and lows from happening. And it’s very close to exactly what you do in research.”

The key to success?

Incorporate multiple goals, says Bouchard. At last year’s Fat Dog ultramarathon, Bouchard had three goals, each designed to progres-

finish under a prescribed time. The second goal was just to finish.

And the third? The third was to stay happy and smile the whole way.

This is a powerful life hack for anyone who might be struggling—be it with research, a race, or anything in between. Take it from a string theorist—he knows a thing or two about seeing things to the end.

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sively increase the odds of achieving the next. The first goal was to

Aniket Joshi overcoming obstacles at the 2018 Sinister 7 ultramarathon in the Crowsnest Pass.

Bouchard crossing the finish line as the winner of the 2014 Sinister 7 ultramarathon.

Bouch ard is the epitome of perseverance, in both research and endurance sport. He has a way of acknowledging adversity and then dismantling it so he can push forward.

It’s the mental aspect that really got him into the sport, and he feels that researchers in theoretical sciences are particularly adept at training for this sort of adversity. “In research, you want to solve a problem, or prove something,” Bouchard explains. “You try something, and it fails. You try something else, and it fails. Then you try something and you think it works.

You’re ecstatic, and then you realize there was a mistake. And it’s always like this, but you have to keep your mind stable.”

Researchers, Bouchard suggests, possess an advantage in racing, because they are used to the mental challenge.

It’s what they do every day.

“Being stuck on a problem, having to think about it non-stop, always having to overcome obstacles—this is the kind of challenge that presents itself in research,” he explains. “And it’s exactly the same in a long race. The challenge is not being able to run it. The challenge is to allow your mind to free your body to let your body run.”

This kind of metaphysical thinking is an important tool for athletes and researchers alike. Bouchard says that when you are trying something new and challenging, your mind is going to try to convince you to give up.

The solution? “If you try to control your race, then you’re gonna fail. Let these thoughts of stopping go, and don’t let your mind control you.”

(COURTESY SINISTER 7)

Perseverance and grit: Improvise, adapt, overcome

Researchers who run Vincent Bouchard isn’t the only scientist who feels the connection between ultramarathons and the research grind.

Two PhD students in his lab, Nitin Chidambaram and Aniket Joshi, also run ultras. So too does Tom Scully (’17 PhD), a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry.

“As far as the similarity between running ultras and research goes, I think it helps not to get discouraged by any setbacks or think too far into the future,” says Joshi of running and research. “Instead, focus on the process and doing the motions in the moment.

If things are not going too well and you feel low, one can be patient and try to not take these emotions too seriously.”

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AWARDS

&

ACCOL ADES

Yunjie Xu (Canada Research Chair in chirality and chirality research)

David Brown ('13 BSc)

Jeff Birchall

DAVI D BROWN’S outstanding career

With a concentration on coastal and big river communities in Canada, Alaska, New Zealand, Iceland, and Eastern Australia, JE FF BIRCHALL (earth and atmospheric sciences) is focused on community climate resilience. His research broadly explores how communities confront climate change and adapt to challenges due to increases in temperature, extreme weather events, and a rise in sea level. Birchall was recognized this fall with induction into the College of Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

achievements and contributions to health innovation were recognized this fall with an Alumni Horizon Award. After competing in the entrepreneurship division of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition during his undergrad, Brown became interested in the business potential of bioscience. He has since founded Mycodev Group and Chinova Bioworks, two companies focusing on the use of chitosan—a versatile fibre with a wide variety of health-care and food safety applications.

Charles Lee ('90 BSc, '93 MSc, '96 PhD)

Ronald Moore ('80 BSc)

David Wishart ('83 BSc)

C HA R L ES L E E ’S breakthrough discovery

SURGEON-SCIE NTIST RONALD M OORE

DAVID WISHART (biological sciences) has

in 2004 of structural variation in the human genome challenged the long-held belief that humans had two copies of each gene in their genome, showing instead that genes can be present in more or fewer numbers or missing altogether, important factors that influence an individual’s susceptibility to disease. For his world-class achievements and contributions to precision health and genomics, Lee was recognized this fall with the Distinguished Alumni Award, the University of Alberta Alumni Association’s highest honour.

focuses his research on urological cancers and renal transplantations. A founding member of the Kidney Cancer Research Network of Canada, Moore has made contributions to improving the lives of patients, to his profession, and to our community. Those contributions were recognized this year with an Alumni Honour Award. His research has led to advancements in the treatment of bladder, kidney, and prostate cancer to new treatment methods, including laser treatments, and to new drugs to improve cancer outcomes.

broken new ground in disease diagnostics and advancing the field of predictive medicine, which focuses on detecting diseases earlier.

For these achievements, Wishart received an Alumni Honour Award this year. Wishart’s research into human health at the molecular level has made major contributions by studying metabolites, the molecules created by the body’s cellular reactions. Wishart’s work at the Metabolomics Innovation Centre has enabled studies of biomarkers for cancer, stillbirth, and organ transplant, helping to predict and prevent health issues before they arise.

RYAN WHITEFIELD

The outstanding accomplishments of YU N J I E XU (chemistry), a world leader in the field of chirality research, were recognized this year with her induction as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Xu studies chirality: a molecular geometric property that can be found in nearly all the molecules that form the important biochemical basis of life. Her research has advanced the field by developing new tools to better understand chirality and to identify the property in new drugs quickly and accurately.

P h o to s J O H N U L A N

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Strong opinions, loosely held

Alumni Perspectives B y C H R I S F E T T E R LY ( ' 1 8 P h D) / P h o to J O H N U L A N

Chris Fetterly, recent PhD graduate, stands as the inaugural director of the Student Innovation Centre.

I’M N OT SU R E I F M Y WI NDI NG PAT H in

science began with reading The Magic School Bus, watching Bill Nye, or ordering random gadgets from the back of comic books, but science and technology have been part of my core identity since childhood.

At age three, my mom made sure I always had my “makings bag”: a cloth satchel full of pipe cleaners, glue, and other odds and ends for building things. I guess you could say this was my first exposure to the concept of rapid prototyping. I still walk around with the idea of a makings bag or “toolkit” in my head. The University of Alberta has added enormous value to my expanding toolkit and to my perspectives on life.

My tech and maker enthusiasm continued well into my undergrad, where I started to develop an interest in nanotechnology as it related to biomedical applications. The no-

tion of applying massive amounts of genetic data towards personalized health seemed inevitable, so I thought about ways I could add nanotechnology to my toolkit. This drove my initial application to the UAlberta to study with Jillian Buriak, professor of chemistry and Canada Research Chair of Nanomaterials for Energy, for my PhD. In my graduate studies, I was exposed to nanofabrication methods used in the semiconductor industry, cutting-edge cellular imaging systems, and selfassembly surface chemistry techniques.

These experiences have helped to shape my outlook that lifelong learning is an essential skill in and of itself. As part of that continued learning and opportunity seeking, I cultivated an interest in innovation and entrepreneurship as a means to advance societal progress beyond research.

When the opportunity to work in the Faculty of Science in the new Student Innovation Centre came up, it resonated deeply with me.

We have world-class knowledge and equipment at our fingertips at UAlberta. I saw the potential to enable student creators as nearly limitless and thus applied to the position without hesitation. I never stop chasing what interests me and therefore helping students do the same was a natural fit. I’m thrilled to be the inaugural director of the Student Innovation Centre at the Faculty of Science.

Science is woven into every aspect of my life, including parenting, nutrition, and environmental responsibility. Through my experiences as a scientist and my continued education with peers, podcasts, and books, I adopted the personal mantra, “Strong opinions, loosely held.”

This reflects a state of open-mindedness that, despite biases, holds conviction to the best available evidence. To me, postsecondary education is about building the prepared and open mind. This receptive state of being requires a foundational knowledge base: a toolkit. When stimuli from the world hit the prepared mind, new and interesting ideas emerge. I am now in a position to help students expand and build their own toolkits, a place I’m happy to be.

S C I E N C E . U A L B E R TA . C A

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