Images provided by Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC), ©Her Majesty The Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada By Robert Price Axel Diederichsen has a scientist’s sense of humour. A research scientist and curator at Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC), he recalls one …

Dr. Ryan Flannigan and research assistant Meghan Robinson with the bioprinter they’re using to 3D print copies of a patient’s testicular cells.Photo Courtesy: University of British Columbia Science has come a long way since the first blood vessels were bioprinted in 2010, successfully printing cartilage, bone, cardiac, nervous, liver, and vascular tissues. Recently, scientists at the University of British Columbia …

The Canadian BioGenome Project is an ambitious undertaking that aims to map the complete genome of plants and animals By Sean Tarry When it comes to scientific pursuits, there aren’t many that match the ambition, breadth or significance of the Canadian BioGenome Project. Established as part of the larger Earth BioGenome Project, it’s an undertaking that aims to map the …

By Heidi Loney Established in June 1951, the Canadian Institute of Food Science & Technology (CIFST) arose from the recommendations of the National Research Council Committee on Food Preservation, which was formed during the Second World War. The committee recognized food technology as an identifiable science and saw a need for trained people in the secondary handling and processing of …

It goes as far back as the Assyrians who documented the use of willow leaves for rheumatic inflammation on stone tablets during the Sumerian period, around 2000 BCE. They found that willow leaves and bark reduced fevers and inflammation. Willows naturally produce salicylic acid in response to stress and to help fight against bacterial infection. It’s an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial …

By Jana Manolakos Joy Cummings Photo UNB Resolute is one way to describe Christopher Gray. A member of the Natural Products Research Group and Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Gray is on a relentless, lifelong search for new molecules, that in the distant future, might hold the key to new therapeutic drugs. He’s searching …

By TREVOR KENNEY Southern Alberta’s vast prairies can often be harsh and unforgiving. Windswept and prone to temperature extremes of 35 C during baked dry summer months and -35 C in the bone-chilling winter, its landscape is still surprisingly rich in flora, producing an array of hearty plants that are just now being recognized for their unique properties of medical …

By JANA MANOLAKOS In the face of a critical shortage of ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of physicians and engineers from the University of Calgary have developed an award-winning device that safely increases available machines at a low cost.The Valence InVent Xtend allows a single ventilator to provide air for up to four patients, with the capability of …

By Jana Manolakos There’s no sugarcoating it. Diabetes is growing at an alarming rate in Canada, afflicting one in three Canadians. It’s particularly worrisome for Canada’s First Nations and Inuit populations, where rates of diabetes on some reserves are three to five times higher than the general population.In the face of this threat, two leading Canadian scientists and their teams …

By Jana Manolakos While medicines have been extracted from plants for centuries, plants and plant cell systems today can be genetically engineered to serve as drug-producing factories for a range of antibodies and other protein-based therapeutics and vaccines.At the forefront stands Canadian biopharmaceutical company PlantForm, which is harnessing plants for cost-effective therapeutic drugs for cancer and other life-threatening conditions — …