Faculty Recognition

John Percy appointed Honorary President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC)

John Percy has been appointed Honorary President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), for a four-year term. The RASC is a general astronomical society, founded in 1868, with 4000 professional and amateur members across Canada, and around the world.  It is especially known for its award-winning work in astronomy education, outreach, and communication.

John Percy - Education Prize of the American Astronomical Society

John Percy has been announced as the 2013 recipient of the Education Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the organization of professional astronomers in North America.  The prize is for "outstanding contributions to the education of the public, of students, and of the next generation of professional astronomers".

It will be presented at the January 2014 winter meeting of the AAS, in Maryland.

Jochen Halfar Group in the News 2010-10

Here is a newspaper article that appeared in several Canadian newspapers on the work of Jochen Halfar group in the North Atlantic. 

Patrick Gunning - The making of molecules 2010-08

Recently awarded with an Early Researcher Award (ERA), Patrick Gunning is further exploring innovative cancer treatments in his project: "Developing Novel Uba1 Molecular Therapeutics: Suppressing the Side-Effects of Aggressive Chemotherapy."

An interview with Gunning was published in this week’s UofT Bulletin, “… my molecular efforts have focused on targeting the aberrant activation of specific proteins that directly contribute to cancer progression." Gunning's study is primarily concerned with inhibiting the Ubiquitin E1 activating enzyme (Uba1), which has proven to be successful in killing cancer cells, leaving normal cells unharmed, and in helping to delay tumor growth in leukemia studies.

To read the full story, www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/making-molecules

Jumi Shin in the News 2010-07 

Jumi Shin is one of seven U of T scientists sharing a total of $3.2 million as part of the 31 Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) grants announced recently by the Government of Canada.  “This program brings together the expertise of researchers in natural sciences and engineering with medical researchers to find innovative solutions in key areas of health,” said Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.  Jumi will develop a novel platform for cancer drug discovery using minimalist hybrid proteins. 
 

Patrick Gunning in the News 2010-06

Professor Patrick Gunning was recently profiled by the University of Toronto’s Research and Innovation department as a Featured Researcher, for his work on protein and cell interactions. 

Gunning designs molecular reaction agents for the treatment of cancers, such as leukemia, multiple myeloma, and especially brain cancer – an area which currently has limited treatment options due to the fragility of the area. 

“The thrust of my work is trying to find therapeutics that target protein interactions, which are typically under-investigated,” he noted. 

The article, which also detailed Gunning’s love of art and architecture, called the practical applications of his research “formidable.”.  The complete article is available at, http://www.research.utoronto.ca/features/patrick-gunning/.

Professor Jumi Shin
Jumi Shin receives CHRP grant to fund collaborative development of her engineered proteins as anti-cancer drugs 2010-05

The Collaborative Health Research Project (CHRP) program is funded by NSERC and CIHR in order to promote research involving basic scientists and health scientists. Our project involves Linda Penn, a cancer expert at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and Warren Chan, well-known for engineering nanodelivery systems. Together, we are testing how designed minimalist proteins (Shin lab) can be delivered to the nuclei of diseased cells (Chan lab) to target known cancer cascades in cell lines and mouse models (Penn lab). Already, one of our minimalist proteins has demonstrated significant efficacy against a major cancer target in assays of cancer cell lines. This project involves a number of students and postdocs, who interact on a regular basis and are increasing their understanding across broad disciplines of science.

Professor Henry Halls
Professor Halls Guest of Honour at Indian International Conference 2010-04

In early February Professor Henry Halls (ERS) attended the 6th International Dyke Conference (IDC) in Varanasi, India. These meetings are held every five years, the first being organized by Professor Halls in 1985 at UTM. Since that time the meetings have been held in Australia, South Africa, Israel, Finland and now India. Dykes represent the conduits or fissures along which basaltic magma  breaks through the Earth's crust in response to the separation of Earth's lithospheric plates(the current eruption on Iceland is being fed from just such a fissure!). Ultimately after the volcanism has ceased magma is stranded in the fissure, and will solidify to form a dyke. [more]

Professor Lindsay Schoenbohm
Lindsay Schoenbohm received NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplements Program (DAS).

Professor Patrick GunningGunning research graces cover of Organic and Biomolecular chemistry"

The article describes the controlled, sequential functional group decoration of a potent anion recognition scaffold using a modular and highly efficient synthetic route. Calorimetric screening showed one of the derivatives to be a highly potent and selective sensor for inorganic phosphate.

Novel asymmetrically functionalized bis-dipicolylamine metal complexes: peripheral decoration of a potent anion recognition scaffold Joel A. Drewry, Steven Fletcher, Haider Hassan and Patrick T. Gunning, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2009, 7, 5074.

We report the development of a highly efficient, facile and modular synthetic route to orthogonally functionalized bis-dipicolylamine (BDPA) receptors.

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/OB/News/2009/November/Issue_24.asp

Professor Ulrich Fekl
Fekl undergraduate findings featured in "Inorganic Chemistry"

Research findings resulting from a fourth-year undergraduate thesis project (chm489; 08/09) just have been featured on the front cover of the prestigious American Chemical Society journal "Inorganic Chemistry":

The publication "Ligand-Based Reactivity of a Platinum Bisdithiolene [...]", by Kerr, Harrison, Lough and Fekl, reports on a newly discovered access to a class of compounds that could be extremely useful for the synthesis of unsymmetrical bio-active compounds:

pubs.acs.org/action/showLargeCover


This honour nicely highlights the quality of research performed by highly qualified personnel here at all levels, including outstanding UTM undergraduates.

In addition to Mitch Kerr's contribution, additional valuable contributions to this paper came from Dan Harrison (chemistry graduate student located at UTM) and a collaborating X-ray crystallographer (Alan Lough, St. George).

New layer...

New layer...

Professor Ulrich Fekl
Early Researcher Award to Ulrich Fekl

Developing Inexpensive Catalysts for Cleaner, Sulfur-free Gasoline and Oil.
Lead researcher: Dr. Ulrich Werner Fekl
Number of researchers benefiting: 4

The crude oil used to make gasoline contains sulfur. When burned with fuel, this sulfur contributes to formation of urban smog – a major cause of pollution, premature deaths, increased hospital admissions and other illnesses. The petrochemical industry relies on special catalysts to remove much of the sulfur from crude oil. But the industry is increasingly using lower quality oil that is richer in sulphur and current catalysts are not good enough to meet the stricter environmental regulations and standards of the future. Dr. Fekl’s research aims for a better catalyst, made of small molecules, for more efficient sulfur removal.

http://www.mri.gov.on.ca/english/news/ERA081709_toronto_bd.asp