Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Holiday wishes from Co-operative Education and Career Action

Following tradition, the fall 2016 co-op students at CECA transformed into Santa’s little helpers to decorate the Christmas tree in the Tatham Centre. From everyone at CECA, we wish you the happiest of holidays! See you in the New Year!

Waterloo researcher helps expand genetic toolbox

Waterloo biologist Trevor Charles is part of a newly formed collaboration that has received $250,000 in funding from Genome Canada’s Disruptive Innovations in Genomics (DIG) program to retool a well-studied bacterial strain into accepting genetic material from other bacterial species. The new genetic toolbox will have wide-ranging applications from generating new bioplastics to fighting devastating plant pathogens.

The partnership brings together scientists and graduate students from University of Waterloo, McMaster University and the the company Designer Microbes Inc. in London Ontario.

“Each of the three partners brings key knowledge and expertise to developing this technology, which is ideal for studying all sorts of difficult to grow bacteria,” says Charles, professor of Biology at the University of Waterloo and one of the project’s leading partners.

Led by McMaster University, the two-year proof-of-concept project focuses on adapting the well-studied bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti to become a synthetic genome host. Next, they’ll apply the technology to improve bioplastic production using methanotrophs.

Charles, an expert on bacterial genetics who has recently begun working on methanotrophs because of their ability to produce bioplastics from waste methane. Currently, the bacteria only produces one type of bioplastic but if the scientists can tweak the bacteria to produce other varieties of bioplastics of higher value, they could close the loop on waste methane at landfills, anaerobic digesters and wastewater treatment plants.

“Methanotrophs are hard to work with, but because they are closely related to S. meliloti, you can transfer the methanotroph’s genome and manipulate it as part of the S. meliloti system,” says Charles, also an Associate Director for Waterloo’s Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

S. meliloti is a common, nitrogen-fixing bacterium found on the roots of alfalfa plants, and according to the researchers at McMaster who’ve studied it for years, it provides the perfect cross-species platform for a variety of applications.

Experts in genome transfer and genetic manipulation at Designer Microbes, working with graduate students at McMaster, Waterloo and Western, will develop the technique behind transferring the genome into the S. meliloti host, manipulating the genome and successfully transferring it back into the original bacterium.

The partners plan to explore additional applications of this technology, especially involving bacteria that have never been grown in culture, once their initial trial is complete.

Faculty of Arts, CTE Achieve Green Office Silver

Right in time for the holidays, two departments at Waterloo are adding a little silver to their green! The Dean of Arts/Arts Undergraduate Office, as well as the Centre for Teaching Excellence, have both implemented new actions to reach Green Office Silver.

The Dean of Arts Office built strong momentum early in the year by developing a green team for the faculty, which is helping to nurture a culture of sustainability across departments. The team circulates sustainability news and updates, organizes events like waste-free picnic lunches, and holds occasional walk-and-talk outdoor meetings (when there’s a little less snow!) to get outside and promote physical activity.

The Centre for Teaching Excellence has also made progress. They launched monthly emails to share sustainability news and updates, as well as a “Green Tip Monday” to start their week. And they aren’t afraid to get their hands a little dirty, as their co-op student regularly checks in-office waste bins to find items that were improperly recycled or thrown in the garbage and communicate the findings to staff.

For a full list of participating departments, or to become an ambassador for your office, visit the Green Office page.

Notes on the first day of winter

Plant Operations is advising that the Physical Activities Complex will be without electrical power on Friday, December 23 from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. All computer equipment should be shut down by end of day Thursday.

Employers on campus in the first week of January 2017 hosting employer information sessions include Tribalscale, CIBC Capital Markets, GroupBy, KPMG, Eyereturn, Lyft, and TD Securities. Visit the employer information sessions calendar for more details.