Four researchers from The University of Western Ontario were announced as the university’s newest Canada Research Chairs. The funding value of the four Chairs announced for Western totals $3.8 million.
The four Western researchers are:
• Norman Hüner – Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Environmental Stress Biology (Renewal – $1.4M) – In his extensive work on the structure and function of the photosynthetic apparatus of microbes and plants, Hüner has identified a general molecular sensing mechanism by which these organisms detect and respond to environmental change.
This will allow the identification of specific biological characteristics to screen and predict for freezing tolerance in cereal crops as well as predicting enhanced capacity to assimilate CO2 from the environment. Hüner will expand his work on improving crop tolerance to environmental change by examining fundamental features of excitation pressure and photostasis, the processes by which photosynthetic organisms regulate energy flow from light to biomass production.
A recent report by Industry, Sciences and Technology Canada estimated that increase in the freezing tolerance of winter wheat alone would generate $100 million in increased revenue for Western Canadian farmers.
Hüner led the establishment of the Biotron Centre for Climate Change Research, a unique, international research facility focused on the discovery of the ways by which organisms respond to climate change to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem health under extreme, sub-optimal climate conditions.
• Lars Konermann – Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Biophysical Protein Mass Spectrometry (Renewal – $500,000) – In his work, Konermann explores the mechanisms by which protein chains fold and assemble into their biologically active structures.
“Almost every protein in the human body has to undergo this process before it can perform a specific function,” says Konermann. “Unfortunately, proteins do not always fold correctly. ‘Molecular mishaps’ of this type can lead to disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”
Other research activities in the Konermann laboratory focus on the mechanisms by which protein structural changes are coupled to function (e.g. enzyme catalysis). Most of this work involves the use of mass spectrometry, a technique that allows highly accurate measurements of a protein’s weight, which is typically on the order of 0.000000000000000000001 grams.
• Amanda Moehring – Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Functional Genomics (New – $500,000) – One of the great unanswered questions in biology is how such a wide variety of creatures came to be living on our planet – that is, the genetic changes that cause one population to diverge into two distinct species and prevents them from merging back together.
The work of Moehring focuses on the genetic changes that cause new species to form and be maintained. Her work examines both the genetics of behavioural isolation (why species are not attracted to other species) as well as hybrid sterility, which occurs from interspecies matings.
“The question of how species arise is critical for our understanding of evolution, conservation of endangered species, and maintenance of biodiversity,” says Moehring, who uses fruit flies in her research, because they allow a wide array of genetic and genomic tools, and offers species pairs that can be crossed together to produce fertile offspring.
Moehring also received $163,330 in infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for a Molecular and Behavioural Genetics Laboratory.
• Peter Rogan – Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Genome Bioinformatics (New – $1.4M) – Rogan is developing new ways to identify and interpret genetic variations so patients can get personalized, individual molecular diagnoses, and possibly avoid or fight disease. His software will be used to evaluate the impact of millions of variants on genes, helping researchers to understand and predict their severity in common diseases. His team will test these predictions in the lab.
Rogan also developed single-copy DNA probe technology, a technology used to diagnose human congenital and acquired genetic disorders such as leukemia. These probes can precisely analyze abnormalities in chromosomes.
“Many patients have chromosome abnormalities that are too small for existing commercial probes to detect,” says Rogan. “Our probes should allow doctors to fine tune their diagnoses. Our goal is to introduce these DNA probes into clinical laboratories to benefit patients throughout Canada and around the world.”
Rogan also received $374,063 in infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for Chromosomal and Point Mutation Discovery and Interpretation in the Post-Genome Sequencing Era: Tools for Bioinformatic and Genomic Analysis.
“This is vital funding for Western scientists and it recognizes the excellent work underway by four exceptional researchers and their teams,” said Ted Hewitt, Vice-President, Research & International Relations, noting Western is now home to 67 Canada Research Chairs. “Innovative research requires a strong funding commitment to people and the Canada Research Chair program provides that essential investment.”
Read full details on today’s CRC announcement.