Volume 6
Issu e 1
Jan . 20 11
X AFMNET RESEARCH TRAVEL GRANT……..….2
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SAID THAT DREAMS DO NOT COME TRUE ?............................3
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SAID THAT DREAMS DO NOT COME TRUE ?.... CONTINUATION…. 4
The HQPA
THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL ASSOCIATION AS PART OF THE ADVANCED FOODS AND MATERIALS NETWORK
Insider
The exiting journey towards academic life Since May of 2009, I have been lucky enough to be part of Dr. Alejandro Marangoni’s research laboratory at the University of Guelph. I began my research as a full-time co-op student working on ethylcellulose organogels. From there, my main project developing heat resistant chocolate evolved. Over the next year, Dr. Marangoni and I worked diligently on the chocolate project and were able to gain industry interest. During the summer of 2010, I had the opportunity to travel to Mars, Inc. in Slough, England to collaborate with a few researchers there and participate in a mutual exchange of knowledge.
and state apartments of Windsor Castle. I spent a day in London before my departure doing as many of the touristy things as I could. I watched the Changing of the Guard Ceremony at Buckingham Palace, toured West Minster Abbey and the Tower of London and walked all around London. With my camera in hand, I saw and captured as many of the amazing sites of London as possible in such a short time. Thereafter, I headed home with giant blisters on my feet, some great memories of London, and an overall amazing experience working with Andrea and his group at Mars, Inc.
While at Mars, I worked with Andrea Cattaruzza and his research group which included Stewart Radford, Nancy Lanxing and Tania McLachlan. There I learned the intricacies of lab-scale chocolate making including the various stages in conching and the art of tempering. I was then introduced to some of the tests that are regularly performed on the chocolates. These tests include a viscosity measurement of the molten chocolate using a rheometer and a hardness measurement using a texture analyser. I was also shown some of the product lines while they were running and that was fascinating to see. In turn, I demonstrated some of the techniques for making organogels and a few of the tests used to characterize the gels.
-Terri Stortz
Of course this trip was not all hard work. The people I worked with were incredibly kind and welcoming and we enjoyed some Indian cuisine together in Eton during my stay. I stayed in Windsor during my visit and was able to spend an afternoon touring the grounds
Terri Stortz (left) is currently a PhD student at the University of Guelph and soon she will start a new project as a PhD student with Prof. Marangoni.
The HQPA
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Insider AFMNet Research Travel Grant The AFMNet HQP travel grant enabled me to travel abroad to New Zealand in the spring of 2010 to carry out my M.Sc. thesis project. The objective of this study was to determine the short-term relative bioavailability of microencapsulated L-5-MTHF versus folic acid in either a pill form or in a food matrix. This was a multidisciplinary project encompassing the disciplines of food chemistry, nutrigenomics and human nutrition. The goal of the project was to develop a stable L-MTHF folate that can deliver the benefits of folic acid fortification without the health risks potentially associated with excessive folic acid intakes. Canada has folic acid fortification programs and it would be difficult to conduct human folate intervention trials within the country without a lengthy and costly folate depletion period. As such, we chose to conduct relative bioavailability studies in Dunedin, New Zealand with colleagues at the University Otago. Colleagues at this university have shown sub-optimal folate status among the population. The University of Otago was an ideal host for this project because they have experienced staff, clinical facilities and the equipment required to conduct folate bioavailability studies. I was responsible for designing and carrying out an eight-week study involving 16 participants. I recruited subjects, conducted screening visits, designed a randomization schedule, planned meals, oversaw the project day-to-day, coordinated payment for participants and analyzed the blood samples. This training period provided me with the skills to extract DNA, learn cell culture methods and conduct the microbiological folate assay. I have since been able to set up and run these lab procedures in Canada and train other students and lab technicians.
This travel opportunity provided research collaboration opportunities with other graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty at the University of Otago. Our team also worked with industry sponsors including Merck and Fonterra with the common goal of discovering new microencapsulation technologies for food fortification. In summary, the AFMNet travel grant has enabled me to travel abroad and develop new technical, analytical and interpersonal skills that I will carry forward into my future career. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to form new partnerships with both academic and industry stakeholders and look forward to sharing the results of the project with our valued collaborators. -Sara Harvey
Sara Harvey is a graduate student working with Dr. Tim Green at the University of British Columbia.
I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale. Marie Curie
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The HQPA Insider Who said that dreams do not come true? “So, what do you think? Would you like to go?” Those were the questions that made my soul smile. In a split second my mind was racing, going back to where it thought the beginning was. Yes, the beginning of a dream; a dream that was built on equations, math, physics and names of famous scientists. Trained to be a physicist, I was exposed to techniques and facilities to experiment with atoms and molecules. But all my learning came from books, from stories that researchers told us and from a couple of personal visits to some facilities. From all these images I built a dream, a dream of one day being able to seriously work in a place like the one that was being offered to me. My mind raced to the beginning and slowly followed the time line to the present, making some stops along the way. Each stop was a particular occasion where the opportunity to work in one of these scientific facilities was there, but never materialized. So, of course, at the moment that I was asked, another question came to my mind: is it true? Will I really go to work at this place? There was no blinking, no doubts, no buts and in the next split second my mouth opened on its own and said “Yes, I would be delighted.”
It was AFMNet and the project that my lab is involved with that allowed my personal dream to come true. The destination was Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Long Island, New York. The experience was wonderful. It was better than I anticipated, and even though I came home exhausted from the long shifts at the console and inside the hutch, my soul was extremely happy. During my stay at the synchrotron, I was subjected to an above average exponential learning curve. The learning came from many directions: from basic to sophisticated equipment and software to control the equipment as well as from collected data. I had to learn all about safety and about the basic operations along with rules and policies of the synchrotron. There was even a quiz online about all of this new knowledge! Our experiments involved studying the molecular structure of fats. X-ray scattering is an excellent technique for this purpose. I felt lucky to be working beside Dr. Mazzanti who has many years of experience in this area. Our experiments were done on samples kept in capillaries, slide holders and in couettes.
So, to work on a synchrotron I went! A synchrotron is a remarkable and huge machine that allows scientists to learn about the microscopic world, to learn about the structure of matter at the atomic and molecular level. The synchrotron produces light by accelerating electrons almost to the speed of light. Electrons are injected into pipes where magnets keep them in circular paths. As the electrons turn, photons of light are given off that can be either infrared, UV or X-rays. These beams are sent down on other pipes, called beam lines, that bring them into the work areas (hutches) where scientists run their experiments. I have seen pictures of this equipment, I have read books, I have even visited one as a tourist (The Desy ring, at the Hamburg Synchrotron in Germany). However, that was not enough. I wanted to work somewhere and sometime in one of these amazing machines that many physicists and engineers built after years of planning, calculating and constructing.
Fernanda Peyronel is currently a PhD student at the University of Guelph working on the project “Engineering the oil binding capacity and rheological properties of nanocrystalline fat networks structured using high shear fields under non-isothermal conditions.”
Continued on page 4
The HQPA
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Insider Who said that dreams do not come true? Continued from page 3
In front of the console of the X10A Beam line at BNL. Back row left to right: Dr. Mazzanti and Ibetsam. Front row left to right: Mengyu and me.
The project at BNL is a collaboration between five different teams, one of them being Dr. Mazzanti’s team from the Department of Processing Engineering and
Applied Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He was the main researcher in charge of the experiments, who brought with him two students, Ibtesam Ahmed and Mengyu Li. Dr Idziak from the University of Waterloo also came to help with the software and with the set up and alignment of the beam. We also worked closely with technicians from the Beam line 10XA. It truly was an experience to have all these knowledgeable people around me who where always willing to teach new things. I can say that after 10 days, my head was about to explode due to too much information, but my soul was extremely happy. Finally, I understood what it meant to work in a synchrotron and as a bonus I also experienced what it means to work in collaboration with another team. All I want to say now is thank you AFMNet for making my dream come true! And thank you to the two supervisors that allowed this to happen. -Fernanda Peyronel
Farewell from the Governing Council We could not write this HQPA GC address without acknowledging the very disappointing and recent news that AFMNet will no longer be receiving funding from the Networks of Centres of Excellence program, come March 31st, 2011. This surprisingly announcement has hit everyone across the Network hard, and it is fair to say that, given AFMNet’s success over the years, most of us did not expect this outcome. Tempting as it is to dwell on the negative, we would like to take this opportunity to speak to what we have all gained from being a part of the Network, so far. While AFMNet works hard to determine what it will look like come spring, its spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration and support of young scientists and students continues to thrive among all of its members. The Network’s HQP development and networking opportunities over the years led many of us to become better connected, better aware of the opportunities in our fields, and
therefore better able to pursue our research interests where they might lead us. No matter what the future holds, the links we have made with other scientists and HQP, as part of this Network, will forever exist. We would like to encourage everyone to keep taking advantage of those links and to remain in touch with other members of the Network, as well as the Network Administrative team. AFMNet gathered together some of Canada’s brightest research talent, and we feel lucky to be a part of such a thriving community. We know that the exchange of ideas and opportunities that took place over these seven years will continue decades into the future, as today’s HQP go on to become leaders in industry, academia and government in Canada and elsewhere. -Governing Council