Genome Alberta Newsletter GeneSnips - July 3, 2008
Genome Alberta News
New Head for Genome Prairie
One of Genome Alberta’s sister centres has a new President and CEO. Dr. Wilf Keller has been Research Director and acting Director General with the National Research Council-Plant Biotechnology Institute. While Dr. Keller may be in a new role he is well known to genome centres as the Project Leader of the Designing Oilseeds for Tomorrow’s Markets (www.dotm.ca) . Genome Prairie’s Board Chair Dr. Arnold Naimark thanked outgoing President and CEO, Jerome Konecsni for his work and said "Jerome's leadership style, passion and commitment have established a firm foundation for future development based on effective collaboration regionally, nationally and internationally." Genome Prairie (www.genomeprairie.ca) will have an acting President until October 1st when Dr. Keller will assume his new position.
BIO San Diego a Success
Genome Alberta was part of the Alberta Pavilion at the 2008 BIO International Convention in San Diego and we’re already preparing for next year’s event. There were more than 24,000 exhibitors and attendees filling the impressive San Diego Convention Centre. The BIO International Convention is the world’s largest annual event for the biotechnology industry and Genome Alberta was pleased to be asked to be a guest blogger on the BIO blog (http://bioontheroad.org).
BioAlberta (www.bioalberta.com) did an excellent job organizing the Alberta Pavilion and the Alberta reception at the W Hotel on the first night of the convention. There were about 100 delegates from 14 Alberta organizations on hand in the Alberta Pavilion – all ready to show off Alberta as a place to invest in the life sciences. Genome Alberta’s booth featured the Mountain Pine Beetle project and we’d like to thank Project Manager Matt Bryman for joining us in San Diego and for preparing the poster we used at the event. You can download a .pdf of poster and find a variety of pictures from BIO either through our home page at www.genomealberta.ca or through the Genome Alberta Group on Facebook
Alberta Action Plan will boost the Life Sciences
Early in June the Alberta Government announced their ‘Action Plan to Bring Technology to Market’.In the announcement they said it would help researchers get “more of their ideas off the research bench and into consumers' hands”. During BIO in San Diego, Premier Ed Stelmach led a trade mission to California which included Alberta Advanced Education and Technology Minister Doug Horner who followed up on the Action Plan with some details. He announced a 3 year collaboration between his department, the University of Alberta, Hewlett Packard Canada (HP Canada), Alberta Health Services, the Alberta Cancer Board, and an international partnership of pharmaceutical and computing firms. The 6.5 million dollar partnership is directed at cancer research.
Staff MovesGenome Alberta is sorry to see a couple of our staff move on. The Human Metabolome Project is winding up so Project Manager Ian Forsythe will be ending his term at the same time. Also our Chief Financial Officer Bhaskar Dave is leaving us as of June 30th. We wish them both the best of luck in whatever lies ahead.
You’re Invited
If you are going to be in Calgary on July 7th please join us in our building at 3553 – 31st N.W. at 3:00pm. Federal Industry Minister the Honourable Jim Prentice will be on hand for a funding announcement regarding Genome Alberta. There will be coffee and donuts to why not take a few minutes out of your day and help us celebrate the announcement.
And while we are in an inviting mood keep in mind the MAG Science Cafe every Wednesday night at 6:30 throughout the summer in the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery. They’re free, open to the public, and are part of the Geee in Genome exhibit being hosted by the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery. There will be everything from discussions about GMOs to movie nights and refreshments will be available. Genome Alberta is co-sponsoring the evening and we’ll be posting more information on our home page.
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GE3LS Digest
This is a sample from the GE3LS Digest put out on a regular basis by Genome Alberta’s GE3LS team. If you’d like to receive the full digest, email rhyde-lay@genomealberta.ca
Province tops up support for nanotechnology students and industry – May 14, 2008http://www.expressnews.ualberta
New funding announced by the Government of Alberta will increase access for undergraduate students to nanotechnology- related studies and support research collaborations between industry and academics. Minister of Advanced Education and Technology Doug Horner announced May 13 that $30 million in funding is being invested in supporting nanotechnology programming for Bachelor of Science in engineering students at the University of Alberta and Bachelor of Science students at the University of Calgary, as part of the province's $130-million strategy to make Alberta a centre of nanotechnology research and product commercialization. The funding will create room for about 600 more undergraduate students
Time for an organic-GM peace treaty – May 19, 2008
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=85348-gm-organic-food-security
The war between the GM and organic movements has been bitterly fought. However in the midst of a global food crisis the time has come for these old enemies to bury their differences and concentrate on the benefits an alliance may bring. With increasing food prices and an estimated 854 million undernourished people worldwide (FAO 2006 estimates), debate is raging over how to feed the world's growing population. The debate is, however, unhealthily polarised. On the one side the organic proponents are advocating less technology and a return to more traditional farming methods which they promise will increase yields and reduce the unsustainable environmental load of current agricultural methods. On the other side we have the GM supporters claiming the ability of the technology to produce higher yield crops that are resistant to pests and diseases, and may help farmers adapt to future changes in climate.
Why we need GM foods – June 2, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/02/eawigan102.xml
The Government is accused of having lost touch with reality. No better example exists than agriculture minister Hilary Benn's insistence that domestic food production is unnecessary for food security. Other countries across the world are protecting their populations from running low; even major food exporters like Argentina are beginning to restrict some exports. American rice rationing is a fact. World leaders are starting openly to talk about food running out. The sharp commodity price hikes after 10 years of stagnation are causing alarm. China is now seeking to buy farm-land abroad further increasing alarm. The arguments about genetically modified crops are being resurrected. When the price of a loaf of bread doubles, as it is on the way to doing, the public's pickiness about production methods will weaken. GM can be seen as crop modification addressing contemporary problems. Take fuel costs and the carbon effects of heavy tractors churning over fields. On a crop of GM sugar-beet or oil seeds weeds are controlled with one 'pass', the tractor using an all-inclusive weed-killer to over-spray the crop which itself remains undamaged. Ordinary sugar-beet varieties require three to four sprayings.
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Genome Alberta in Pictures
Our education consultant and blogger Gerry Ward was busy during Science Fair season. He ended up the Science Fair circuit by attending the National Youth Science Fair in Ottawa and posted some pictures from the event.
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