Braved cold and wind during the first phase of a research effort to document changes atop Mt. Logan
A pair of University of Alberta researchers led a research expedition that braved nearly three weeks of unrelenting cold and wind during the first phase of a monumental multi-pronged research effort to document changes atop the world’s largest mountain. Alison Criscitiello, director of the U of A’s Canadian Ice Core Lab and researcher in the Faculty of Science,…
The February 2021 tragedy was caused by the collapse of more than 25 million cubic metres of rock and ice
The catastrophic landslide that occurred in Chamoli, India, in February 2021 was the result of a worst-possible combination of rock and ice, according to a new study by an international coalition of scientists. On Feb. 7, 2021, Chamoli district in India’s Uttarakhand region was crushed by a massive slide of rock and ice – more than 25…
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…
The support of volunteer mentors helps students built their confidence
Abigail Brodhead considers herself a quiet person, shy about striking up conversations and asking questions. So when the COVID-19 pandemic shelved the University of Alberta student’s in-person practicum in the spring of 2020, she was concerned about making a go of it online. “I worried about how I would take control of my own learning,” said Brodhead,…
University of Alberta students will get cross-disciplinary, work-integrated learning in one of Canada’s fastest-growing industries, thanks to a major grant announced on Thursday. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded $1.6 million to the U of A for the Sensory-Motor Adaptive Rehabilitation Technology (SMART) CREATE training program to train up to 120 graduate and…
New decision tool on cannabis use may help provide the answer
People with arthritis are more likely than others to use cannabis for pain, mood and sleep disorders, but few studies have examined whether the products effectively treat the disease. But that is about to change. An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Alberta is developing a cannabis use decision tool for the estimated…
Star Trek-like scanners may be on the verge of becoming a reality
Futuristic handheld scanners that can instantly diagnose all that ails us are on the verge of becoming a reality, thanks to a University of Alberta researcher whose use of artificial intelligence (AI) to pinpoint a growing host of disorders landed him an unprecedented research chair. Jacob Jaremko, a pediatric and musculoskeletal radiologist and researcher in…
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,…
Lise Gotell was living in Toronto in 1986 when a serial rapist, later dubbed the “Balcony Rapist” because he broke into homes by climbing onto balconies, started attacking women. Gotell, a graduate student, remembers following the case of one of his victims, who sued the police force for not warning women about the violent attacks…
Increased visits play a role in a decrease in overdose deaths
Researchers have found a link between increased visits to supervised consumption sites in Alberta and decreased fentanyl-related overdose deaths. Using publicly available opioid-response reports from the province of Alberta, the University of Alberta researchers looked at the number of fentanyl-related overdose deaths by quarter from 2017 to 2020, as well as the number of visits…
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…
Nearly $1M awarded to seven new projects from U of A researchers focusing on cancer, pulmonary, diabetes and neurology research
Seven new University of Alberta research projects focusing on cancer, pulmonary disease, diabetes and neurology are the latest recipients of funding from the 2020 Kaye Competition. The annual competition supports individuals and collaborative, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams in the pursuit of research, innovation and quality-improvement programs and projects that seek to establish new approaches to patient…
SKIPP offers a space to discuss ethical and respectful research as part of Career Corner series at Congress 2021 virtual conference
Changing standards around Indigenous engagement in research is a key initiative of the University of Alberta’s Situated Knowledges: Indigenous Peoples and Place (SKIPP) signature area. Florence Glanfield, SKIPP co-lead, will help share that focus with early-career researchers during the 2021 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. On June 3, Glanfield, who is also vice-provost (Indigenous programming and…
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…
A pair of University of Alberta researchers led a research expedition that braved nearly three weeks of unrelenting cold and wind during the first phase of a monumental multi-pronged research effort to document changes atop the world’s largest mountain. Alison Criscitiello, director of the U of A’s Canadian Ice Core Lab and researcher in the Faculty of Science,…
