BioScience Technology students test dental compounds. Marei Therapeutics Inc. (MTI), a Saskatoon-based R&D firm, was one of the first industry partners to leverage SBARC’s research expertise and facilities. Under the supervision of SIAST instructor Lance Wall, BioScience Technology students adapted a methodology for testing whether natural compounds in MTI prototype products could
fight infections. SIAST’s Office of Applied Research and Innovation (OARI) helped secure a $25,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) prior to the research, which helped to cover the cost of a substitute instructor who relieved Wall of some of his regular teaching responsibilities so he could spend more time on the project. OARI dedicates a full-time position to bioscience applied research. By providing funding to hire a full-time temporary instructor, OARI lightened the teaching load of three instructors so they could focus on applied research projects. It also freed up time to apply for federal grants for future projects—an intensive, detailed task that has paid off. “The commitment of a full-time staff member was critical to the centre’s success,” says Blaine Chartrand, head of SIAST’s BioScience Technology program and SBARC’s principal investigator. (It has also benefited the program, he says, because the temporary instructor performed so well that she was hired on permanently, replacing a retiring employee. OARI has since provided SBARC with funding to hire another temporary instructor.) Federal government recognizes SBARC’s key role with $465,478 investment. “This was a huge boost,” says OARI director Cristina Holguin-Pando of the funding through the Western Diversification Program last June. The funds helped to cover the cost and installation of new lab furniture at SIAST Kelsey Campus as well as the purchase of instrumentation equipment that assists product development in four areas: agricultural biotechnology, bioproducts, the environment and biomedicine.
Confidencebooster For SIAST grad Megan Letkeman, the opportunity to test dental compounds for Marei Therapeutics Inc. not only gave her a chance to earn some significant cash for tuition and textbooks, it also added an enriching dimension to her education. “It helped reassure me that I could put what I’ve learned in the classroom into an actual setting,” says the 24-year-old. “It also gave me more confidence in talking to people and working independently.” Letkeman graduated from SIAST’s BioScience Technology program in May 2013 and spent the summer working as a pedigreed seed inspector for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Now a chemistry technician for the agency, she tests a variety of foods for chemical residues.
Partnership awarded $750,000 to test ecofriendly gas station cleanup. This NSERC grant, awarded last June for three years, recognizes SBARC’s innovative partnership with the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) and Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL). The funds have enabled SIAST to hire a fulltime applied research technologist and 18 students (six each year) to develop and test soil remediation models developed by FCL in collaboration with U of S scientists. “The [U of S] PhD students are gaining practical knowledge from the SIAST students, who in turn are learning some of the fundamental science behind bioremediation technologies from the PhD students,” says Chartrand. BioScience Technology grad Megan Letkeman.
13