Could potentially identify children at risk of neurodevelopmental disorders
Infant boys with a higher composition of a particular gut microbiota show enhanced neurodevelopment, according to a new study. The University of Alberta-led research followed more than 400 infants from the CHILD Cohort Study (CHILD) at its Edmonton site. Boys with a gut bacterial composition that was high in the bacteria Bacteroidetes at one year of age…
Discovery means the nationally threatened Gibson’s big sand tiger beetle is more at risk than previously thought
An undergraduate research study has found that a threatened type of beetle found in Saskatchewan and Colorado is, in fact, made up of two genetically distinct subspecies. The discovery has important implications for conservation efforts for the insects and shows that both populations of Gibson’s big sand tiger beetle are more threatened than previously thought.…
Only the female mosquito seeks a blood meal. She needs to penetrate the skin of warm-blooded mammals to get her meals
As a naturalist, I wonder about things – sometimes obvious things, sometimes odd things but always interesting things. Today’s thought surrounds interactions with insects, their kin and other critters that on occasion negatively interact with us. People often claim to have been bitten by an insect. “That mosquito just bit me!” But did it? Or…
For Tom Ndekezi, university was a chance to gain practical skills not only for a variety of jobs but a variety of careers
Tom Ndekezi remembers hearing a statistic during his second year at university that would drive every decision about his academic future from then on: members of his generation can expect to have six to eight careers in their lifetime. “Not even just jobs, but careers,” said the graduating University of Alberta Faculty of Science student.…
Without safeguards, the abuse of dream tech is inevitable
By 2030, could an agency record everything we dream? Danish member of parliament Ida Auken thought so. In her 2016 blog post on the World Economic Forum’s website and republished by Forbes, “Welcome to 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy and Life Has Never Been Better,” Auken envisioned a person saying, “Once in a…
Insects are already in serious decline throughout the world, so killing insects for the sake of killing them seems ill-advised
This seems to be a good year for gypsy moths and a bad one for people who love trees. Have you never seen a gypsy moth? This might be the best time to find them. Look for a light to dark brown, medium-sized moth flying in a seemingly erratic way. These are the males. They’re…
Procedure developed at U of A guides islet cell transplants for people with Type 1 diabetes around the world
Nina Greene’s diabetes was so hard to control, she had “Type 1 Diabetic” tattooed on her left wrist – a guarantee that emergency medical personnel could identify her illness quickly if she was found unconscious. Despite all her efforts to manage her diabetes, she wound up in hospital so often with high or low blood…
Canadian Nightjar Survey recruits volunteer citizen scientists for the study of nocturnal birds
Ten years ago, University of Alberta PhD candidate Elly Knight started a volunteer citizen science program. Since then, the Canadian Nightjar Survey has grown from a single volunteer in southern British Columbia to several hundred citizen scientists across the country – and more volunteers are needed. Their mission? To monitor the nightjars that breed in Canada. These fascinating,…
Alberta-based 48Hour Discovery works with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to streamline the process
With the cost of drug development beginning to skyrocket in the 1990s, pharmaceutical giants thought the path to better economics lay in high-throughput screening facilities that would test libraries that ranged in size from a few thousand up to million compounds at a time. “Separate shelves, many rooms, with the emphasis on robotics and automation…
New U of A research has implications for prenatal development in humans
Zebrafish exposed to the leading cannabinoids found in cannabis in the earliest stages of development suffer a significant drop in neural activity later in life, according to a University of Alberta study that has implications for prenatal development in humans. Richard Kanyo, the lead author on the study and post-doctoral fellow in the Faculty of Medicine…
U of A researchers find SARS-CoV-2 infects immature red blood cells, reducing oxygen in the blood and impairing immune response
A new study published in the journal Stem Cell Reports by University of Alberta researchers sheds light on why many COVID-19 patients, even those not in hospital, are suffering from hypoxia – a potentially dangerous condition in which there’s decreased oxygenation in the body’s tissues. The study also shows why the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone has been…
Cutting-edge recording technology captures never-before-heard sounds of the elusive boreal predators hunting, fighting and sleeping
Using a Fitbit and a spy mic, University of Alberta scientists have revealed new insights into the behaviour of the elusive Canada lynx. The research provides a first look at how miniaturized technology can open the door to remote wildlife monitoring. “Working on one of the boreal forest’s top predators, the Canada lynx, we found…
The work of the $4-million endowed position will help inform forest companies as they sustainably manage land for timber and biodiversity
Robert Froese can tell you the exact moment he knew forestry would be his lifelong career. He was an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia, standing in the forest with his classmates. “My professor went crashing into the woods … and he came back with a big Douglas-fir branch,” said Froese. “It was rainy…
Abundance of protein galectin-9 in cancer patients is associated with poor response to immunotherapy
University of Alberta researchers have uncovered a link between the expression of the protein galectin-9 (gal-9) and whether a cancer patient will benefit from immunotherapy. The discovery could help inform physicians about which patients will likely respond to immunotherapy and lead to better treatment options. Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by…
Many birds explore the nooks and crannies of these seed-bearing pods as they try to pry the seeds loose or find minute insects
As we welcome spring, we see the remnants of pine and spruce cones previously covered by snow. Few of us think about how important these cones are to the floral and faunal communities – as food and to ensure the next generation of trees is born. Many species of coniferous trees produce cones – pines,…
Infant boys with a higher composition of a particular gut microbiota show enhanced neurodevelopment, according to a new study. The University of Alberta-led research followed more than 400 infants from the CHILD Cohort Study (CHILD) at its Edmonton site. Boys with a gut bacterial composition that was high in the bacteria Bacteroidetes at one year of age…
