Since 1972, pork producers have gathered in Banff, Alberta to discuss their industry from its technology to its economics. This year there was an air of concern surrounding the event after the announcement that PED had been discovered in the province in early January. Genome Alberta has helped fund PED research in the past and to date there is still no approved vaccine for the virus. Our livestock blogger Geoff Geddes was at the annual…

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                          I flipped through the pages of the graphic novel Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide. It looked to be amusing. I have previously read graphic novels based on Shakespeare and they tended to be entertaining shortened versions of the long play. I thought that Epigenetics: A Graphic Guide was going to fit into the same category. I was only partially correct. Yes, the illustrations…

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A team of researchers at the University of Lethbridge is conducting research in a quest to uncover the mechanisms that make glioblastoma such an aggressive cancer, with hope the results could lead to new therapeutic interventions in the future. Glioblastoma (GBM), the brain cancer that killed Gord Downey of The Tragically Hip and former American senator John McCain, has a dismal prognosis and survival rate. “The median survival rate is about 15 months, even after…

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If you think finding the right gift for the right person is a challenge, try matching beef cattle genes with the traits they control. In large part, that’s the challenge being faced, and embraced, by scientists as they apply genomics to improve traits of interest to Canada’s commercial beef industry. “A key focus of the Genome Alberta project is identifying the genes responsible for feed efficiency and meat quality including tenderness,” said Dr. Mohammed Abo-Ismail,…

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What do pigs and snowflakes have in common? If you said they’re both pretty and fall from the sky, it’s time to quit the eggnog. The correct answer is that in both cases, no two are the same. That may sound simplistic, but it plays a key role in the complex task of applying genomics to improve disease resilience in the pork industry. “There’s a strong focus on precision agriculture today, and it’s a concept…

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                             Topics of interest for scientists, science teachers, students, and anybody else keen on science: we had it all on our Genomics Blog this year. We had podcasts, news releases, funding announcements, book reviews, hints for phone apps, as well as news from science fairs, science events and museum exhibitions. In all, there were 112 blog entries this year. How do you pick a ‘top post’ for each month? I chose to showcase the wide…

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Scientists at McMaster University have discovered several new biomarkers from a single drop of blood that could allow earlier and more definitive detection of cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disease which strikes both children and adults, causing chronic problems with the digestive system and the lungs. The findings, published online in the Journal of Proteome Research, are significant because current newborn screening methods are not accurate enough to identify the disorder in the population, which…

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                        After my previous blog Design on Display, I received a few questions asking me about the relationship between architecture, design and science. One person went so far as to suggest this was not science at all. I began the blog asking science teachers what might comprise a minimum curriculum about architecture. I consider one of the primary roles of the teacher is to help students learn how to think. It is important to present…

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Just as variety is the spice of life, it’s also a key focus for those behind the “Efficient Dairy Genome Project”.  As they seek to apply genomics in breeding dairy cattle that are more feed efficient and produce less methane, scientists know that genetic variance could be the difference between success and failure. “We’re examining the transcriptome (RNA) and genome (DNA) of dairy cattle to improve feed efficiency and reduce methane emissions,” said Stephanie Lam,…

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Mention genomics to a scientist, and the eyes light up with thoughts of recombination, microarrays and polymorphisms. For a beef producer, those terms make their eyes glaze over, but one word is sure to grab their interest: profit. It’s a word that plays a leading role in the Genome Alberta project using genomics to improve feed efficiency and carcass quality in beef cattle, and a key part of the project is development of a feedlot…

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