32 minute read
WORLDWIDE NEWS
SCIENTISTS CREATE A GLOBAL REPOSITORY FOR CELL ENGINEERING
A cloud-based repository that creates a digital fingerprint of engineered microorganisms has been successfully trialed by an international team led by Newcastle University. CellRepo, a species and strain database that uses cell barcodes to monitor and track engineered organisms, keeps track of and organizes the digital data produced during cell engineering. It also molecularly links that data to the associated living samples.
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Available globally, this resource supports international collaboration and has significant safety advantages, such as limiting the impact of deliberately or accidentally released genetically modified microorganisms by enabling faster tracing of an organism’s lab of origin and design details.
CellRepo is built on version control, a concept from software engineering that records and tracks changes to software code. The scientists believe that version control for cell engineering will make engineering biology more open, reproducible, easier to trace and share, and more trustworthy.
Additional benefits of this community resource include traceability, providing the exact documentation for a strain and properly crediting laboratory work. The database also puts responsibility in focus by making it easier to track and assign ownership.
With access to a global database, researchers will be able to reproduce results and collaborate more easily. The scientists also say the repository will improve transparency and reduce costs associated with data and source code losses.
Researchers uncover gene that doubles risk of death from COVID-19
Scientists at Oxford University have identified the gene responsible for doubling the risk of respiratory failure from COVID‑19. Sixty percent of people with South Asian ancestry carry the high-risk genetic signal, partly explaining the excess deaths seen in some communities and the impact of COVID‑19 on the Indian subcontinent. The researchers found that the higher risk version of the gene probably prevents the cells lining airways and the lungs from responding to the virus properly. But importantly, it doesn’t affect the immune system, so the researchers expect people carrying this version of the gene to respond normally to vaccines.
Gigantic French tokamak reactor on hold over safety concerns
France’s nuclear regulator has ordered ITER, an international fusion energy project, to hold off on assembling its gigantic reactor until officials address safety concerns. Plans for welding together the 11-metre-tall steel sections that make up the doughnut-shaped reactor called a tokamak were put on hold in January by France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) over concerns about neutron radiation, slight distortions in the steel sections, and loads on the concrete slab holding up the reactor. ITER staff say they intend to satisfy ASN by April so that they can begin to weld the reactor vessel by July.
REBALANCING EARTH’S METABOLISM WITH FAST GROWING TREES
To fight climate change, Living Carbon, a California biotech firm is working to develop fast-growing trees that can rapidly soak up carbon dioxide. It recently announced it had developed a genetically enhanced poplar which grew more than 1.5 times faster than unmodified ones in lab trials. “It’s a great first step,” says Sophie Young, a plant biologist at Lancaster University. But she adds there’s a big caveat: “The trees grew in a carefully controlled greenhouse as opposed to the outdoors.”
The Trackers:
Keeping tabs on the Canada's wildlife
BY JANA MANOLAKOS
Across Canada, teams of scientists stand as sentinels, tracking and watching wildlife on the horizon of climate change. Relying on an arsenal of technologies including camera traps, drones, satellites, and tiny transmitters, they’re keeping their fingers on the pulse of animal behaviours, gathering a profusion of data to help preserve threatened animal populations, improve wildlife and habitat management, and monitor behaviour that signals potentially catastrophic changes to the environment.
At the University of British Columbia, there’s a study that offers new evidence that protected natural areas promote mammal diversity. Researchers at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry analyzed data from a global data set drawing from 8,671 camera trap stations spanning four continents, the largest number of wildlife cameras ever analyzed in a single study.
They found more mammal diversity in survey areas where habitat had a protected designation compared to forests and other wilderness areas that lacked that designation. This was true even when these protected areas experienced human disturbances, such as recreational use and logging.
“As international discussions continue on new global targets for expanding protected areas, it’s important to be able to measure the benefits of the protections that do currently exist,” said Cole Burton, the study’s senior author and a conservation biologist who researches mammal populations
and human-wildlife coexistence. “Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the world is currently discussing new targets for how much of the Earth’s surface should be covered by parks. We need to have better information to inform these policy discussions.”
Watching from above, drones help UBC researchers study killer whales
Meanwhile, along Canada’s West Coast, drones are being used by researchers at UBC’s Hakai Institute in the northern and southern waters of Vancouver Island, where they gathered stunning new aerial and underwater footage of Northern and Southern Resident killer whales that offers a new glimpse into the underwater lives of these whales. The project is looking into whether endangered southern resident killer whales are getting enough of their preferred prey, Chinook salmon, to meet their nutritional needs. The researchers used aerial drones and underwater cameras with biologgers to study their feeding behaviour, and hydrophones to measure prey availability.
Lead investigator Andrew Trites from UBC’s Institute for Oceans and Fisheries, explains: “Looking at the drone footage we collected on our research voyage last year, one of the things that struck us was the extent to which resident
killer whales touched each other. This year, we were able see this touching from their perspective. In one instance, we got to see a northern resident whale calf getting its belly rubbed by its mother’s pectoral fin as they swam side by side. It was something nobody could see if they were watching killer whales from a boat.”
Migratory patterns of marine life
Migratory patterns among ocean animals have captured the attention of seafarers long before marine biology became a thing. The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), headquartered at Dalhousie University in Halifax, is contributing to a deeper understanding of ocean life through the use of autonomous marine vehicles and fixed-station telemetry, and oceanographic equipment like acoustic tracking. OTN has deployed more than 2,000 Canadian-made acoustic receivers and monitors that send signals to floating buoys or fixed locations in the ocean around the world to track the movements of 130 commercially, ecologically and culturally valuable aquatic species.
These technologies enable scientists to see the world through the eyes of an animal. Last fall, a team from UBC’s Marine Mammal Research Unit spent a month at sea, filming both Northern and Southern resident killer whales, not only from above with drones, but also from below, by placing suction-cup camera tags onto the whales’ bodies. These devices allowed the crew to record what the whales see and hear and the sounds they make, as well as their three-dimensional movements, diving depths and feeding behaviours.
“With this technology we’re able to combine all the different data streams to get a complete picture of what is going on underwater. We’ve never been able to do that before. It’s quite thrilling,” says Sarah Fortune, a post-doc marine biologist, who designed the study.
Investing in new tech to monitor the elusive Canada lynx
At the Integrative Wildlife Conservation lab at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., scientists are keeping close tabs on the Canada lynx in the Yukon. Launched in the 1980s, it’s the longest-running study of a vertebrate predator-prey system in Canada, and it recently secured a $149,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for additional tracking devices that will help them get a deeper look at how the animals respond to drastic changes in their environment.
The new state-of-the-art instruments attached to the lynx include satellite GPS radio-collars for tracking movement
and habitat selection, accelerometers for identifying activity patterns, and acoustic recorders for tracking interactions with both prey and other predators. The wildcats are harvested for their fur and while their populations are secure in central Canada, more southerly populations are of conservation concern.
Butterflies and songbirds
At the University of Guelph, since 2008 Ryan Norris’s lab has been working on migration patterns and population dynamics of monarch butterflies as well as many other migratory animals.
The team primarily uses stable isotopes in wing chitin to estimate the natal origin of individuals captured throughout the range and over multiple seasons, explains Norris. Chitlin from monarch butterfly wings has been used to analyze strontium in the wing. It’s an indicator for migration patterns when correlated with local soils and vegetation. Similar to other organisms, nitrogen and carbon isotopes can also be used to reconstruct the animal’s diet.
The researchers aim to describe broad-scale connectivity patterns across the eastern breeding range and then integrate this information into year-round predictive population models to understand what limits and regulates migratory monarch butterflies.
Norris’s team is also tracking songbirds. Advancements in nanotechnology have revolutionized the study of bird migration, offering smaller tracking devices like the light level geolocators that are replacing heavier satellite telemetry tags and bird banding. It has also enabled the Norris lab to shed light on how the tiny blackpoll warbler, one of Canada’s fastest declining songbirds, makes its way to Venezuela in the winter, on a 10,000-kilometre migratory path.
Genomics and tracking data deepen our understanding of the endangered right whale
Marine biologists like Timothy Frasier of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax have teamed with American researchers at Boston’s New England Aquarium to apply genomics as they study the world’s most endangered large whale, the North Atlantic right whale. They are using genomic data to improve conservation strategies for this endangered species, of which there are fewer than 400 individuals remaining.
Frasier explains, “Although inbreeding has been an important topic in population biology for over a century, our understanding of its impact in the wild, and in endangered species in particular, is still in its infancy due to a lack of good case studies. This study, where we have the ability to combine 40 years of field data with genomic data for such a high percentage of individuals, will allow us to not only quantify the impacts of inbreeding on the recovery potential of this species, but will also greatly improve our understanding of the impacts of inbreeding on wildlife populations and the subsequent implications for conservation.”
From genetics to game changing satellite technologies like Canada’s RADARSAT, a satellite network that monitors oceans, ice and Earth’s ecosystems, scientists across the country are harnessing the power of technology to gain a deeper understanding of the world around us and are standing on guard to protect life on the planet.
SASKATCHEWAN SCIENTIST BECOMES FIRST CANADIAN TO WIN FELLOWSHIP
IN UK’S ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
BY JANA MANOLAKOS
Last fall, the sun spewed a violent mass of fast-moving plasma into space that came crashing into the planet’s magnetosphere, igniting the sky with shimmering coils of dramatic colour – a light show we know as the Aurora Borealis. And as lovely as the sight was, the event could have been far worse. In 1989, a similar geomagnetic storm caused the HydroQuebec power grid to fail, leaving millions in the province without power for nine hours.
That’s where researchers like Kathryn McWilliams at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) come in. McWilliams is an international expert in the dynamics of field-aligned currents that link the solar wind, magnetosphere, and ionosphere — the bubble that protects the Earth from direct impact by the solar wind. She’ll tell you that our technologically driven world is vulnerable to what happens in near-Earth space environments, so it’s important to keep tabs on what’s happening above and in the atmosphere.
She’s also the director of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) Canada, the Canadian arm of an international project that uses high-frequency radars in the northern and southern hemispheres to study Earth’s upper atmosphere. She recently made headlines as the first Canadian to have been awarded an honorary fellowship from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) of the United Kingdom.
The RAS awards honorary fellowships to scientists living outside the U.K. who are eminent in the fields of astronomy or geophysics. McWilliams said she feels “humbled and honoured” to receive the award.
In its announcement on Jan. 14, 2022, the RAS acknowledged McWilliams as an international expert in the dynamics of fieldaligned currents that link the solar wind, magnetosphere and ionosphere.
“We are trying to understand all the processes involved in creating the aurora. Like the weather maps that we see in the news, SuperDARN provides a vast scan every minute of the electrical voltage in the atmosphere not too far below the altitude of the International Space Station’s orbit,” said McWilliams, for whom the RAS recognition was both humbling and an honour.
SuperDARN is on a mission to study plasma near Earth as well as the Sun-Earth space system. The radar network studies how plasma interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere and geospace environment, as well as its effects on planetary infrastructure in the fields of communications, energy, and transportation.
As the head of SuperDARN Canada, McWilliams has led the development of a new radar system called Borealis that improves the capability and flexibility of the project’s radar stations. The new radars are already operating in Canada, while two international SuperDARN partners have begun upgrading to the Borealis system.
SuperDARN Canada is based at USask’s Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies. It’s part of the Canadian Space Agency’s national scientific program, Geospace Observatory Canada, and supports Canadian satellite missions. It’s a critical function, given that satellites represent a significant sector of Canada's economy, worth billions of dollars in revenue for the telecommunications industry alone.
The first tenured female faculty member in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics at USask, McWilliams has dedicated most of her career to the SuperDARN project. She first became involved with SuperDARN Canada as a summer student in 1992, when she helped build the first radar site east of Saskatoon.
“I find magnetospheric research very interesting. Understanding how conditions in space connect with conditions in our atmosphere and even down to ground level is a very complex problem to solve,” she explains.
The highly sophisticated radars are synchronized to scan together, allowing researchers to monitor space weather conditions in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Changes in the speed and density of the solar wind, as well as the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field, affect the motion of charged particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere.
Located in Saskatchewan, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario, the Canadian network of radar stations provide coverage of the High Arctic. Canada has the largest land mass under the auroral oval (an oval shaped region around the geomagnetic pole where the aurora most commonly occurs), making the country an ideal place to study interactions between the sun and Earth.
The 35 radars are high-frequency coherent scatter radars, used to study field-aligned ionospheric irregularities. This means that all of the SuperDARN radars send out radio waves, which then bounce off the ionosphere and return to be read by the radar. This is the same process by which you can hear radio in your car, except that these radars bounce off irregularities which signal changes to the density of the ionosphere.
When the radio wave is returned back to the radar, the information it carries can tell how fast the irregularity coming towards or away from the radar. Much like a weather map, when all the radars overlap their data, researchers can build a picture of how the ionosphere is moving as a whole in the polar regions. This data is then used to study the effects of solar wind on Earth's ionosphere, which in turn will lead to developing protection and prediction of space weather. Understanding how conditions in space connect with conditions in our atmosphere and even down to ground level is a very complex problem to solve
The National Microbiology Laboratory:
Supporting the Canadian public health system through the development of new diagnostics and scientific innovation
The past couple of years have been disruptive and chaotic, to say the least. Communities all over the world have been impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic, changing the way we do things, share information, and communicate with one another.
For scientists working in laboratories that specialize in researching and tracking infectious diseases, it’s been a time that has served to propel our collective knowledge concerning their spread and impact on humans. Leading the way in Canada with respect to the study and diagnosis of many of the world’s most dangerous pathogens is the country’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg. Formed in 1999, the NML is a hub for research within the country and is responsible for Canadian public health, health emergency preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic disease control and prevention. And, according to NML Vice-President Guillaume Poliquin, it does so through the execution of work within a number of key areas.
“Where the Lab really excels in supporting the Canadian public health system is in the diagnostics and reference work that we do around diseases that are difficult to diagnose, rare, or cumbersome,” he says.
“However, we’re also constantly studying some of the more commonly diagnosed diseases as well, like streptococcus pneumonia, in order to better understand how they change and evolve over time, taking data in from across the country, doing the appropriate laboratory work and then feeding that information to people who make the downstream decisions. Technology continues to advance, and pathogens are ever-changing, driving our need for strong research and development to consistently remain ahead of our work. We provide a leadership role within the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network, collaborating and exchanging knowledge with the country’s public health network. And we also work with global groups, contributing our expertise and know-how with respect to understanding threats on a global scale.”
BY SEAN TARRY
UNDERSTANDING COVID-19
Not surprisingly, much of the work that the laboratory is undergoing at the moment is focused on tracking and researching COVID-19, spanning the development of new diagnostics and the evaluation of things like rapid antigen tests to the studying of potential vaccines for the virus. The work that its scientists and technicians do on a daily basis is extraordinary, helping to further our comprehension and awareness of the disease. However, in between the aforementioned efforts there are a handful of initiatives that Poliquin says the NML is especially proud of that has the potential to change the way COVID is tracked, diagnosed, and treated.
“The development of our wastewater initiative, which is focused on the monitoring of wastewater to better understand transmission of COVID at a community level, has been essential in informing and directing public health officials with respect to the presence of the virus and its variants,” he says.
“We’re also very proud of our Northern Remote and Indigenous Initiative, which was driven by a need at the onset of the pandemic to speed up testing in remote areas. Working in partnership with more than 350 remote and First Nations communities across the country, we’ve been able to develop and set up in-community testing systems that allow people to access critical testing in a timely manner, really helping to set up the future for in-community diagnostics to take place for other diseases. And our genomics initiative, which is being used to heighten our national understanding of the variants, is serving a critical role in observing their evolution in real time.”
A RANGE OF PATHOGEN WORK
In addition to these projects, the NML is also heavily invested in the study of a range of viral diseases, such as hepatitis and other blood-borne pathogens; other respiratory viruses and viral exanthemata, such as measles; bacterial pathogens, including tuberculosis and antibiotic-resistant organisms; and enteric diseases, with a focus on food and water-borne pathogens including E. coli and salmonella. In fact, the NML’s Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health—one of its several sites located across the country—is also home to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, allowing scientists to freely share research and information. In addition, the Lab also conducts extensive research around some of the world’s deadliest pathogens like Ebola, Nipah, and Marburg. As such, it operates the only laboratory in Canada equipped to conduct highcontainment work. Such work harbours risk, admits Poliquin, but is work that he says the NML approaches with extreme seriousness from a health and safety perspective.
“We understand that we’ve been entrusted to be able to leverage the resources and know-how to work with some of the world’s deadliest pathogens, and we take that honour and responsibility incredibly seriously with respect to safety,” he said.
“Safety at the Lab is indexed concerning all sorts of layers of protection. As our work progresses up the four containment risk groups, extra layers of protection and training are required from technicians, ranging from the use of lab coats and hoods and the use of respirators and showers, all the way up to Level Four work which involves a fully enclosed environment in which technicians have their own air hoses that are separate from the air inside of the lab. In addition to the layers of protection and training that’s necessary, we also place a great amount of emphasis around decontamination protocol research, with an entire group that’s responsible for fwurther ensuring the safety of the lab and the continual adherence to and evolution of lab safety protocols.”
PEOPLE, PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATION
Just as important as the work that the NML conducts and the layers of safety that it ensures is the talented and dedicated team of scientists and technicians that make it all happen. It’s a team, explains Poliquin, that has grown exponentially as a result of the pandemic and efforts that have been required in order to properly and accurately track and research the virus.
Prior to the outbreak, the Lab operated with approximately 550 staff. Today, there are more than 800 science professionals working toward the NML’s goals and objectives. Most of the funding that it receives in order to support its efforts comes through the Public Health Agency of Canada. And the Lab also partners with various other government departments on a number of initiatives, including collaborations with the National Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
It’s a collective effort that Poliquin says guides the Lab’s work, adding it’s the only way innovation of this kind of significance is truly achieved.
“Fundamentally, science is not a solo endeavour, particularly not in this day and age,” he said.
“In light of this, we curate and encourage our staff to collaborate with academia where there are mutual interests. In doing so, our reach and knowledge is naturally extended through these types of partnerships and collaborations. As part of this, international collaboration is also essential to the work that we do and to the work being conducted around the world. We’ve had deployments in which we’ve supported Ebola diagnostics in Congo and the Lassa virus in West Africa. We recognize that pathogens do not respect borders and have seen that in crystal-clear relief with this current pandemic. Our view is that improving diagnostics capacity and knowledge abroad will make us safer at home, allowing us to fulfill our responsibility as an internationally active institution to be a good global citizen.”
THE POWER OF DATA
It’s a comprehensive portfolio of ongoing work that’s no doubt impressive. The amount of collaboration between team members and with members of other organizations, the assembly and organization of research and information, and its dissemination and analysis, requires an enormous amount of effort, as well as a seemingly perfect confluence of technological innovation and human insights. And facilitating this amalgam is the power of data. Without it, says Poliquin, much of the work that the laboratory conducts would be impossible or, in the least, incredibly consuming from a human capital perspective, adding that it’s in large part responsible for the enabling of the NML’s ability to carry out such incredible production and performance.
“Data complexity continues to increase,” he says. “Our network handles an astounding amount of sheer data on a daily basis which really goes a long way toward supporting the work that we do. It’s data that’s integral to our ongoing research and diagnostics. As such, we’ve invested significantly in bringing in the knowledge necessary to not only generate and handle that volume of data, but to be able to conduct the analytics as well. And we’ve also put a lot of focus on figuring out how we make all of our data available in a useful and responsible manner, so we not only benefit within the laboratory, but that the benefit of the data is extended through our numerous partnerships with academia and others. The power inherent in the data is increasing every day. And its importance with respect to the work of microbiology scientists all over the world is only going to continue increasing, too.”
COMPREHENDING THE FUTURE
The complexity of the work that the NML is responsible for, combined with its critical nature concerning the continued health and safety of Canadians across the country, is almost overwhelming. And, given the world’s present circumstances, it might just be some of the most important work being done at the moment. Their efforts have lent toward an improved understanding of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, serving to lessen the severity of the pandemic’s impacts and lightening the tenor of a very dark time in human history.
And, although Poliquin acknowledges these obvious trials and tribulations, he suggests that, looking forward from a scientific research and pathogen diagnostic point of view, the past two years may have served to benefit humankind more than we can currently imagine.
“There haven’t been a lot of silver linings with respect to the pandemic, but there are a few if you look closely enough,” he said.
“There’s been a leapfrog forward in our ability to use tools like genomics and wastewater diagnostics that have been advanced as a result of the pandemic. One day, concerning the devastation that’s been caused by the virus, the storm will run out of rain. But there will be all of that know-how and infrastructure and all of that capacity that’s been built up. There isn’t a shortage of other infectious diseases that we’re going to need to consider and study going forward in order to get ahead of the next threat. So, how do we take the tools and the knowledge that we’ve developed and translate it to the best of our ability in order to keep Canadians even safer moving forward? That’s the question that we keep asking ourselves at NML, and one that continues to drive the entire team and the work we do forward.”
Ag-West Bio:
Are you building an agri-food business in Saskatchewan, looking for connections, training or support? We can help!
Are you an investor looking for opportunities in the agri-food sector? Learn what Saskatchewan has to offer by contacting Ag-West Bio.
WE GROW BIOBUSINESS IN SASKATCHEWAN
What’s special about Saskatchewan?
Saskatchewan is home to one of the most vibrant bioscience innovation clusters in Canada, at the heart of the country’s agricultural biotechnology sector.
Centred at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) campus and Innovation Place technology park in Saskatoon, the research cluster includes public and private research organizations, such as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Light Source, Global Institute for Food Security, Global Institute for Water Security, National Research Council Canada, the Saskatchewan Research Council, the Toxicology Centre, and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO). Off campus, the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre is a key player in the value-added sector.
With the support of this cluster—along with a businessfriendly provincial government that promotes science-based policy—the bioscience and agri-food sectors are growing, with new companies emerging around the province.
Ag-West Bio is a catalyst and connector for the provincial bioeconomy—the province’s bioscience industry association. Located at Innovation Place in Saskatoon, we work with industry stakeholders, innovators, and investors to help bring research to market, and to assist local agri-food start-ups or companies who want to relocate to this region.
What we do:
• We support businesses • We catalyze initiatives • We create connections • We promote science
Support for businesses
Ag-West Bio helps move research to market and grow agri-food business in the province.
Combining expertise and experience, we provide personalized input and a suite of services tailored to a company’s unique commercialization needs.
We provide a centralized hub for linking private business with market knowledge, advisory input, mentoring, and guidance. And we provide linkages to research and market networks.
We can help start-ups advance their business plans based on opportunity and feasibility, which they can then use to gain investors and strategic partnerships.
Ag-West Bio’s Technology commercialization Fund
There is a crucial stage that start-up companies need to navigate, often called the “Valley of Death,” when they are not yet able to attract venture capital, but they’re beyond start-up investment. This is the stage that Ag-West Bio’s Technology Commercialization Funding is meant for.
Companies that qualify for Ag-West Bio funding have undergone a rigorous due-diligence process, which leads to investor confidence, enabling investee companies to leverage investment dollars.
Ag-West Bio financing is in the form of flexible and patient capital, and targets initiatives where start-ups (or expanding agri-food companies) show that a clear pathway to commercialization has been established, with suitable return on investment and significant benefit to Saskatchewan.
Catalyzing initiatives
Saskatchewan’s bioscience research and development cluster continues to grow. Exciting new technologies are emerging from this cluster, such as digital agriculture, imaging, biologicals, and the growth of the plant protein sector.
By staying up to date with research and commercialization activity and market trends, we recognize opportunities when they arise. Ag-West Bio acts as a catalyst, making connections and encouraging collaboration so the province can benefit from those opportunities.
Recent Ag-West Bio initiatives include the Protein Industries Canada supercluster (PIC) and the Global AgriFood Advancement Partnership. We are currently involved in the development of the Saskatoon Food Cluster, with the goal of supporting the creation of more food and ingredient companies in the province.
Filling the gap in Saskatchewan’s agri-food innovation pipeline
Agri-food start-ups have unique challenges. They often need highly specialized equipment and staff, have high upfront costs, and face a long road to market entry and revenue generation.
To address those challenges in Saskatchewan, AgWest Bio joined forces with the Global Institute for Food Security, Innovation Place, and the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre to create the Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership (GAAP), located at Innovation Place in Saskatoon.
Officially launched in December 2021, the GAAP provides facilities, mentorship, equipment training, and funding to early stage, homegrown companies, as well as international clients looking to establish a presence in Western Canada.
Creating connections
Business is built on relationships. One of Ag-West Bio’s roles is to help people make the connections they need to grow their businesses.
To do this, we bring groups together in many forums, including hosting meetings and workshops, as well as organizing tours for international visitors.
Ag-West Bio manages the Agricultural Bioscience Innovation Centre (ABIC) Speaker Series, where experts from around the world inspire and teach entrepreneurs and the public about bioscience innovation. Past speakers have included Dr. Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Laureate and biochemist, and the co-inventor of CRISPR gene editing technology; Brent Zettl, president and CEO of ZYUS Life Sciences; and Curtis Frank, president and COO of Maple Leaf Foods. The Spring 2022 event on April 19 features Sylvia Wulf, president and CEO of AquaBounty Technologies.
The Knowledge Farm
Is a new event series that we co-host with Innovation Place to encourage our community to explore all kinds of agri-food topics. Watch the calendar at theknowledgefarm.ca to discover exciting learning and networking opportunities coming your way – in person at the Boffins Event Centre or from the comfort of your own computer.
Take advantage of networking opportunities we offer. Our Weekly Update and online event calendar can keep you up to date!
Open communication
Keeping information moving is an important aspect of business development. In the bioscience sector, information must flow along many lines—from researchers to entrepreneurs, investors and consumers. Visit our database of Saskatchewan agri-food organizations at saskagrisource.ca.
With good communication networks, entrepreneurs can discover potential partnerships and learn from others with more business experience. People who have already navigated the path to commercialization are usually happy to share their knowledge.
Visit Ag-West Bio’s website for information about Saskatchewan’s bioscience organizations and activities. Check out our blogs and subscribe to our quarterly e-magazine, the BioBulletin. Find us on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook.
Get connected, stay informed
The Ag-West Bio team is working to grow the bioeconomy in Saskatchewan—and you can be a part of it!
As a member, you support our efforts to promote Saskatchewan’s bioscience capacity. Keep us aware of your needs so we can work for you. Knowing your challenges, we strive to keep our government informed so the sector can flourish. Visit the website to learn more. www.agwest.sk.ca
AN INVENTORY OF MULTICELLULAR SPECIES
HELPING PRESERVE AND PROTECT LIFE ON EARTH
Photos courtesy of the University of Guelph
Can we establish a global biosurveillance system? Can we avert a planetary mass extinction? Helping to answer these and other large-scale questions about life on Earth is the goal of Bioscan, a project awarded $24 million in federal funding this past January according to a University of Guelph news article.
Led by Paul Hebert, director of the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (CBG) at the University of Guelph, a worldwide, interdisciplinary research team will use the funding to advance this ambitious eight-year project begun in 2019. Bioscan will inventory multicellular species and probe their interactions and dynamics while advancing our capacity to protect natural resources, ecosystems, and human health.
“With this grant, Canada’s capacity to lead Bioscan will be sustained,” said Hebert, a Canada Research Chair in the school’s Department of Integrative Biology and principal investigator on the $180-million, eight-year project.
Bioscan is among seven initiatives nationwide to receive awards through the Transformation 2020 competition, which supports large-scale, Canadianled research projects that address a major challenge and promise real, lasting change.
Involving more than 70 team members at research institutions in Canada and abroad, co-principal investigators include integrative biology professor Mehrdad Hajibabaei, a metabarcoding expert with the CBG, and Graham Taylor, a machine learning and artificial intelligence specialist in the School of Engineering, University of Guelph.
The project aims to compile a DNA reference library for multicellular life, with a focus on species discovery in developing nations, and expand the DNA barcode reference library housed in the informatics platforms at the CBG. To add new “volumes” of species to the database, the centre’s DNA sequencing equipment and “big data” tools crunch through DNA from specimens provided by scientists from the 40 member countries in the International Barcode of Life consortium, also based at the university.
Developed by Hebert and his colleagues, DNA barcoding identifies species based on the sequence characterization of a short, telltale stretch of their genetic material.
By cataloguing what creatures live where, BIOSCAN is developing
a baseline for monitoring ongoing changes to biodiversity and ecosystems. That’s critical information for accurately assessing and alleviating human impacts on other species through climate change, invasive species, wildlife trade, habitat disturbance, and resource use, said Hebert.
Without action to stem biodiversity losses, he added, “all evidence points to the first mass extinction event in 65 million years.” Through Bioscan, researchers hope to influence regulatory policies and practices worldwide to mitigate these losses.
Among various biodiversity projects worldwide, CBG researchers are working with colleagues in Costa Rica to examine the benefits derived from the transition to organic farming of pineapple on both beneficial insects and the birds that consume them. In collaboration with researchers in Ghana, metabarcoding is being used to map food webs involving insects and their predators to help control malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Here in Canada, CBG researchers are working with McCain Foods to advance its efforts to develop farming practices that promote soil biodiversity while improving crop yield. They are also barcoding Arctic species to help monitor biodiversity in the North.
Bioscan aims to revolutionize our understanding of biodiversity and our capacity to manage it. Involving scientists, research organizations, and citizens, it will explore three major research themes: species discovery, species interactions, and species dynamics.
Tracking biodiversity might even help to avert future pandemics, said Hebert. The devastating impact of COVID-19 makes clear the need for a “pandemic interception system,” he said. “Using the power of DNA sequencing, we can not only register the diversity of multicellular life, but also the organisms associated with them.” This is important because other species harbour pathogens that can create health risks, especially as humans encroach on natural habitats.
However, the core mission of Bioscan lies not with protecting human lives but those of the millions of species that share our planet. As Hebert put it, “It’s the only way that humanity will achieve the UN’s goal of living in harmony with nature by mid-century.”
