Campus closures won’t stop these dedicated students! The University of Lethbridge undergraduate and high school iGEM teams are continuing their competition seasons even without access to wet lab space. Using Zoom, shared online drives, and their own ingenuity, the teams have been connecting and are making the best of a bad situation. While they may not be able to get into the lab, teams still have many tasks to complete — writing papers, building a…

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For Immediate Release Calgary, April 29, 2020 A representative public opinion survey of adults in Alberta, commissioned by Genome Alberta, indicates public trust in scientific experts has risen during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis. The online survey of 750 adults, conducted April 16-21, found that Albertans are closely following the course of events and they feel well informed about the pandemic. They also feel positive about the local, provincial and government responses to the crisis, and…

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COVID-19 is arguably the single most impactful crisis event in modern times. Bioinformatics is taking the lead in conquering the virus as institutions and organizations like CIHR increases funding for 49 additional COVID-19 research projects, and the Innovative Genomics Institute “pivots from genome editing research to an all-out effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.”   Healthcare and medical research is undergoing profound and exceedingly fast change in an all-out global effort to curb the…

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                              The woman just in front of me (at a safe social distance of course) was turned away from entering the grocery store since she had a small purse that was part leather and part cloth. “Cloth purses are not permitted” she was told by the security guard dressed in his cloth uniform. I wondered if I needed to purchase a motorcyclist’s leather pants and jacket. Not to worry, the guard…

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As anyone who has endured online dating will attest, finding your perfect match is a tough hill to climb. Yet as researchers and industry partners have proven, the right collaboration can move mountains, and where better to reinforce that than at the 2020 Banff Pork Seminar. “As researchers, the more informed we are on the needs of industry, the better we can make decisions and craft studies to meet those needs,” said Dr. Michael Dyck,…

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Like most animals on the planet, people are interested in staying alive. COVID-19 poses a real threat to that driving force and that leaves us vulnerable to strange and downright false ideas about avoiding the virus and about what to do if we show symptoms.   Sylviane Duval is Director of OpenTheBox, a co-founder of the Institute for Knowledge Mobilization, and a member of Evidence for Democracy's Network of Experts.  She conducts  workshops and webinars…

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As anyone who has endured online dating will attest, finding your perfect match is a tough hill to climb. Yet as researchers and industry partners have proven, the right collaboration can move mountains, and where better to reinforce that than at the 2020 Banff Pork Seminar. “As researchers, the more informed we are on the needs of industry, the better we can make decisions and craft studies to meet those needs,” said Dr. Michael Dyck,…

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New Canadian network will undertake viral and host genome sequencing to improve patient outcomes April 23, 2020 – Ottawa,Ontario – Following an announcement in Ottawa by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Genome Canada has launched the Canadian COVID Genomics Network (CanCOGeN), a newly formed initiative backed by $40 million in federal funding. Led by Genome Canada, in partnership with the six regional Genome Centres, national and provincial public health labs, genome sequencing centres through CGEn, hospitals,…

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The Stem Cell Network (SCN), Canada’s national leader in stem cell and regenerative medicine research, announced today the funding of three new research projects that will contribute to the global response to COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, as part of the Government of Canada’s support of a national medical and research strategy to fight…

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The Southern Alberta Technology Council (SATC), which has organized the Lethbridge Regional Science Fair and Science Olympics since 2002, has decided to virtualize the 2020 Regional Science Fair event. Originally scheduled to take place on March 27 and 28, the science fair had to be postponed due to limitations on public gatherings put in place shortly before the event was scheduled. SATC is now accepting video submissions of student projects from Grades 4 to 12…

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