In this project, the main objective is developing a peptide-based environment sensitive siRNA delivery system for cancer treatment. If this deliver system can be proved efficient both in vitro and in vivo, it could have potential feasibility to be further characterized and become a pharmaceutical drug eventually.

Upcoming legalization of marijuana provides many opportunities for all Canadians. Licensed Producers (LPs) are the main providers of medicinal cannabis to patients and will be the main suppliers for recreational market. The significant disadvantage in the current environment is the limited number of strains available to LPs. Sundial Growers have acquired a collection of Cannabis […]

Yeast are used on a massive scale in many industrial settings, such as production of food and beverages, nutrient supplements, pharmaceuticals, and others, totaling over $5 billion dollars in annual market value. Most yeasts currently used for industrial purposes are taken directly from nature and not optimized for the specific process requirements of industry. Currently, […]

This research aims to learn more about the way that homeless and street-involved evaluate information regarding substance use from their peers. To this end, this research team will work with Operation Come Home, a non-profit organization supporting homeless and at-risk youth in downtown Ottawa. The research team will recruit and interview 40 – 50 youth […]

Research problem: Reclamation practices in regions known to be undergoing rapid climate change must consider what adaptive measures could be implemented to maximize short-term reclamation success and long-term resilience of reclaimed sites. Objectives: I will investigate how a multi-scale ecological classification system can be used to predict regeneration success of different forest tree species at […]

Many facets of human life are affected by bacterial pathogens. Bacteria can cause both animal and plant diseases. Extensive use of antibiotics to contend with pathogenic bacteria has resulted in an increase of multi-resistance to antimicrobials. Even when antibiotics are used vigilantly, their application in poultry or other fields of animal production can lead to […]

The bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) is a migratory songbird that is currently a species at risk in Canada due to steep population declines. Because bobolink nest on the ground in pastures, hayfields, and other grassland-type habitats, nest success and abundance may be influenced by various environmental factors. Our goal is to understand whether these factors directly […]

Traditional breeding of agricultural plants is based on repeated self fertilization of large number of parental plants followed by screening larger offspring populations to uncover random natural or induced genetic variants with a desired trait. This approach can take many years and considerable resources to complete. This approach cannot directly be applied to hops breeding […]

Amber, or fossilized tree resin, is a natural trap that provides a valuable source of palaeontological data on insects in ancient ecosystems. The chemistry and composition of the amber itself can also be used to explore which trees produced each amber deposit, and what conditions these trees lived under. Western Canada contains multiple amber deposits […]

Genetic engineering has proven to be a useful approach for gene therapy and transformation of value-added agricultural plants. However, the current available technologies suffer from several limitations. These include relative low delivery efficiency with difficult-to-deliver cells or complex constructs and limit freedom-to-operate. Considering advances have been made in the applications of nanotechnology to life science […]

We now live in a world where people can communicate, in real-time, both directly and remotely (e.g., Skype); and where new technologies (e.g., virtual reality, robots, driverless cars) are blurring the traditional lines of human-human and human-computer interactions. The digital world of industry is experiencing a revolution. Products that have traditionally been displayed on computer […]

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia which worsens over time. Current therapeutic against Alzheimer’s disease provides only symptomatic treatment. This limited effectiveness provides us with an opportunity to direct our research efforts towards developing new agents to prevent or retard the disease. Studies have shown that very small amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a […]