Congratulations
Dr. Mazen Saleh has been awarded a $10,000 grant to support the development of a new serodiagnostic for tuberculosis (TB). The funds were awarded by the Ontario Partnership for Innovation and Commercialization (OPIC). TB remains a serious global burden with approximately 1.6 million deaths per year globally.
Nadia Mykytczuk, Ph.D. candidate in the Boreal Ecology Program, was awarded $500 for one of the three best presentations of the Student Award - Symposium Competition during the 58th Annual Conference of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists (CSM) in Calgary, Alberta, June 9 to 12, 2008. The award was presented by the CSM and the Canadian College of Microbiologists (CCM). The selection of students for this symposium was made by the CSM Education Committee on the basis of a previously-submitted written extended abstract. Three awards were presented based on the oral presentation and the extended abstract. Each award consisted of $500.00 cash and a plaque. Nadia's presentation was in the subject category of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and was entitled, "Cold adaptation in the acid mine drainage bacterium: Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans." The other collaborating authors were Dr. J.T. Trevors (University of Guelph), Dr. G.D. Ferroni (Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury Campus), Dr. S.M. Twine (National Research Council of Canada), Dr. J.F. Kelly (National Research Council of Canada), and Dr. L.G. Leduc (Laurentian University).
Dr. Leo Leduc received a citation from the Canadian College of Microbiologists for his role in the success of Ms. Nadia Mykytczuk at the 58th Annual Conference of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists in June (see above).
Dr. Albrect Schulte-Hostedde has been appointed Director of the Wildlife Research Station in Algonquin Park, Ontario. The Algonquin Park Wildlife Research Station (WRS) was established in 1944 for the long-term study of terrestrial ecology in an undisturbed tract of the boreal coniferous, mixed and northern hardwood forests. The WRS facilities are operated and administered by a consortium of Ontario Universities. The station provides access to a 400 km² forested "wilderness zone" protected from anthropogenic disturbances; this area contains a variety of terrestrial habitats, numerous headwaters, and several lakes and streams that are the research foci of 9 major users and several minor users from various Universities across Ontario. In addition, there are International researchers who use the station because it is such a unique research venue on the Canadian Shield. The link to the WRS is http://www.uoguelph.ca/~wrs/ .
Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde and Dr. Jeff Bowman have recently been awarded just over $170 000 over 2 years to work on the "Impacts of domestic mink on wild mink populations" as part of the NSERC Strategic Grants Supplementary competition. The project is an extension of Anne Kidd's MSc work on hybridization between escaped domestic mink and wild mink. The project will investigate transmission of Aleutian disease from the farms to the wild mink (1 MSc student at Trent), broad scale genetic introgressive hybridization between domestic and wild mink (1 technician at Laurentian), and examine mating patterns and sexual selection in relation to hybridization events (1 MSc student here at Laurentian). Anne Kidd and Helene Filion are the Technician and MSc student working here on the project.
Theses defended
Congratulations to the following graduate students who successfully defended their theses:
Ningning Li (for M.Sc. - July 2) - The identification and characterization of Akt2 substrates and a novel Akt3 splice variant (Supervised by Dr. H. Lee)
Justin Boyer (for M.Sc. - July 10) - Impact of BPAG1-deficiency on cardiac tissue (Supervised by Dr. C. Boudreau-Larivière)
Amanda Valois (for M.Sc. - August 22) - Spatial patterns in zooplankton recovery: The role of regional and local factors (Supervised by Dr. C. Ramcharan)
Christopher Edge (for M.Sc. - August 22) - Multiple scale habitat selection by Blanding's turtles (Emydoidea blandingii): Seasonal shifts in habitat preference (Supervised by Dr. J. Litzgus and Dr. L. Brooks)
Alison Buckner (for M.Sc. - August 25) - The effects of flaxseed oil (Linum usitatissimum) on cell growth of maligant versus non-malignant cell lines (Supervised by Dr. R.M. Lafrenie)
Seminars
On May 28, 2008, Ms. Nicole Paquette (Animal Care Facility, LU) gave a presentation on various aspects of animal care that she assembled from the District 8 meeting of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) conference held in Seattle, Washington in April. A fundraiser for the Department coincided with Nicole's presentation.
Publications
Tucker, W.T., J.D. Litzgus, S. Ferson, H.R. Akçakaya, M.E. Thompson, D.J. Fort, and J.P. Lortie. 2008. Population-level effects of PCBs on wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) breeding in vernal pools associated with the Housatonic River, Pittsfield to Lenoxdale, Massachusetts. pp 97-122. In Demographic Toxicity: Methods in Ecological Risk Assessment. Edited by H.R. Akçakaya, J.D. Stark, and T.S. Bridges, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
Tremblay, A., Lesbarrères D., Merritt T., Wilson C. and Gunn. J. 2008. Genetic structure and phenotypic plasticity of yellow perch (Perca flavescens) populations influenced by habitat, predation and contaminant gradients. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 4: 264-266.
Enneson, J.J. and J.D. Litzgus. 2008. Using long-term survey data and a stage-classified matrix to assess conservation strategies for an endangered turtle (Clemmys guttata). Biological Conservation 141: 1560-1568.
Greaves, W.F. and J.D. Litzgus. 2008. Chemical, thermal, and physical properties of sites selected for overwintering by northern wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta). Canadian Journal of Zoology 86: 659-667.
Ryser P., Bernardi J., and Merla A. 2008. Determination of leaf fresh mass after storage between moist paper towels: constraints and reliability of the method. Journal of Experimental Botany 59: 2461-2467.