News and Highlights
Media
Dr. Stolow's lab helped produce the world’s first commercial CARS Microscope, with researchers supported, in part, through QBM/CREATE funding. The product was covered in both the trade press and the local media:
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“CARS Microscopy Made Simple” Biophotonics 18(8), 36 (2009)
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‘Excellence in Research’ cover story. “The Big Picture” https://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/29582.html‘
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Lab Business’ (Summer 2010). “Good Vibrations” p. 22
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‘Photonics Spectra’ (24-5-2011). “Multimodal Imaging: Combining Techniques to Give Microscopists a Boost”. https://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=47194
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‘Ottawa Citizen’ (30-12-2009) “New laser shines light on live cells”
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‘Ottawa Citizen’ (29-12-2009) “Biology drives design of new microscope”
Academic Awards and Postings
Following completion of his PhD, Dr. Fangjun Wang - whose research was partially funded through QBM/CREATE - was awarded a ‘Hundred Talents Award’ by the Chinese Academy of Science. He currently holds a position equivalent to an assistant professorship at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Pamela Zhang, a QBM/CREATE-funded grad student in the Figeys lab, subsequently received a CIHR scholarship.
Nicola Jung, a CREATE-funded trainee jointly supervised by Dr.s Longtin and Maler, subsequently received a DFG fellowship in 2013 from German Research Foundation.
Stephen Clarke, a grad student jointly sponsored by Dr.s Longtin and Maler, was subsequently awarded a Queen Elizabeth Graduate Scholarship in 2013.
QBM/CREATE-funded postdoc Gary Marsat of the Maler lab was awarded a faculty position at the University of West Virginia
Jason Middleton, a grad student of Dr.s Longtin and Maler, accepted a faculty position at Louisiana State University, New Orleans.
Kevin Stamplecoskie, a CREATE recipient in the Scaiano lab, was the recipient of an NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship, while another Scaiano alumni, Hossein Ismali received a Vision 2000 PDF. And a third CREATE recipient from the same lab, Chiara Fasciani, was awarded a Vanier Scholarship by the Prime Minister.
Subsequent to her time spent as a CREATE-funded student in Dr. Godin's lab, Maryam Mirzaei won a Quebec FQRNT fellowship and was offered an NSERC Industrial Fellowship.
Zeinab Al-Rekabi, a CREATE PhD student co-supervised by Dr.'s Harden and Pelling was subsequently the recipient of a Raymond and Beverly Sackler Scholars Program in Integrative Biophysics Post-doctoral fellowship in 2013.
Researchers in the Pelling lab have benefited from working in the CREATE environment. These include:
- Daniel Modulevsky, who won a Presidential Scholar Student Award at the 2013 Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference. Only Canadian out of 33 awardees, only undergraduate.
- Dominique Tremblay was awarded a FQRNT Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2010-2012 and MITACS Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2013).
- Charles Cuerrier was aksi a FRSQ Postdoctoral Fellowship winner for 2011-2014.
Longtin lab trainee R. Khanbabaie obtained a faculty position at Babol U (Iran) in Sept 2011, while another alumnus of the lab, J. Benda, received a professorship at U. Tuebingen (Germany) in Feb.2012
Award winners of the Longtin lab include: Alexandre Payeur (FQRNT graduate funding in Sept.2010), Alexandre Iolov (NSERC graduate funding in Jan.2010), Alexandre Mélanson (NSERC graduate funding, in April 2013) and J. Lefebvre, who received an NSERC postdoctoral award (in 2013) to work in U. Geneva and U. Lausanne. In May 2011, Andrea Bravi received a MITACS Accelerate award for 3 years. The following year, she was awarded the Faculty of Medicine award for Excellence in Graduate Studies.
Dr. Longtin was awarded a University Research Chair in Neurophysics (in July 2011) and is the recipient of an NSERC Discovery Accelerator Grant (July 2009), and a uOttawa-Paris 5 Descartes joint grant (in collaboration with David Hansel, as of Jan 2012).
Notable Achievements
QBM/CREATE-funded grad student Altaf Khetani placed first at the University of Ottawa's 2012 Faculty of Engineering Graduate Studies and Research Day. See his Youtube video here.
Len Maler was awarded the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine Mentoring award in 2013 as the faculty's best mentor for trainees, many of whom were provided through QBM/CREATE.
A paper by Scaiano and Stamplecoskie was given a feature article in J. Phys. Chem. Letters and was included on the cover of the journal. A video was made, which is available both at the J. Phys. Chem. Letters website and on Youtube.
J.S., a one-time CREATE-funded summer student in Dr. Godin's lab, subsequently published a paper in Nature Photonics as first author while still an undergrad. He followed this up in 2011 with a publication in Phys. Rev. D on Higgs Coupling in the Large Hadron Collider - again, while still an undergrad in the physics department at the University of Ottawa.
Research Highlights
While working in the Figeys lab as a QBM/CREATE-sponsored grad student, Fangjun Wang developed technologies for the study of Alzheimer’s. His research, which involved the development of a phosphoproteomic reactor, shows changes in protein phosphorphylation in animal models of Alzheimers.
Research conducted by QBM/CREATE-recipient Gary Marsat and others in the Maler lab contributed to the discovery of the role of burst-induced long-term depression in the cancellation of redundant sensory inputs - one of a very few instances in which the results of a a theoretical neural model can be directly linked to cellular mechanisms.
Stephen Clarke's work into the computational basis of perception has generated so much interest from neuroscientists that his supervisor, Len Maler, has been asked to submit reviews to Current Opinion in Neurobiology for an unprecidented three consecutive years.
Dr. Stolow's lab has produced a number of notable advances in CARS microscopy, thanks in part to the participation of researchers funded through CREATE. These advances include the world's first demonstration of an all-fibre CARS microscope, paving the way to medical applications.
CREATE funding has allowed researchers in Dr. Pelling's lab to reveal the mechanisms underlying strain mechanosensitive fluctuations in actin stress fibers as well as the discovery of cell-type dependent responses to physical confinement.
Miscellaneous
Collaboration with Dr. Fangjun Wang (whose research in the Figeys lab was partially funded through QBM/CREATE) has helped establish a joint laboratory in proteomics and systems biology at OISB funded through the China-Ontario Bio-Analytic Consortium. Additional funding of $225,000 was provided through a CIHR-NSFC grant. This facility, along with concomitant collaboration with Dr. Wang’s colleagues at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, was thus seeded in part by CREATE funding.
Discoveries made by QBM/CREATE-funded researchers contributed to the Hardin's lab's being awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant for $61,000/yr for five years (2012-2017) for research into Soft Biolmolecular Materials and Interfaces. Additionally, QBM/CREATE sponsored researchers help the same lab win part of a NSERC CHRP grant for $139,000/yr for research into Anti-Microbial Scaffold Materials for Cutaneous Wound Healing. Similarly, QBM/CREATE-funded discoveries helped Dr. Johnston's lab win a 5-year NSERC Discovery Grant for research into Biomimetic Membranes.
Additionally, Dr. Stolow credits the research done by QBM/CREATE-funded students with helping secure a $250,000 NSERC Collaborative R.&D. (Team) award for the "Development of a non-linear optical laser scanning microscopy system for in situ examination of cartilage reconstructive procedures" and the renewal of a $452,000, 5-year NSERC Discovery Grant for continued research in "Femtosecond Molecular Science."
Dr.s Longtin and Maler have received two 5-year CIHR grants in recognition of research conducted in part through the efforts of QBM/CREATE-funded researchers.
CREATE funding has helped facilitate the exchange of students between the Scaiano lab and students in places such as Valencia, Spain and Linkoping, Sweden. A number of students have visited the Scaiano lab for stays extending from a few weeks to several months.