Monday, August 10, 2015

New director, alumni relations named

By the Office of Advancement

"I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Alison Boyd (BMath '96) as Director, Alumni Relations effective August 1, 2015," says a note from interim Vice-President, Advancement, Erin Sargeant Greenwood.

Alison has provided leadership to the Alumni Relations team in an interim special assignment role since September 2014 and has demonstrated outstanding skill and capacity throughout this period.

As Director for Alumni Relations, Alison will be responsible for setting and executing priorities and programs for Alumni Relations and providing leadership and support to our alumni professionals across campus.

Waterloo's Alumni Relations program and engagement of our alumni are recognized as incredible assets that contribute significantly to Waterloo's reputation and its success in attracting students, co-op employers and philanthropic investments from around the world. The entire Advancement team and our campus partners are committed to building on this foundation and expanding the scope and strategic impact of our alumni engagement. Alison's leadership, experience and entrepreneurial attitude will be an asset in this work.

Alison started her career with the University and joined the Alumni team in 1999 as one of three employees. As the Associate Director since 2011, Alison has helped shape Alumni Relations into the successful unit it is today. She brings a wealth of institutional experience and exceptional alumni relationships to her new role.

Alumni Relations  looks forward to progressing under Alison's leadership in its mission to inspire and engage alumni to advance the University of Waterloo.

#LiveLikeAlex: Remembering Alex Foto

Friday, August 7 marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of University of Waterloo student Alex Foto.

Outside of class, Foto was a WorldVision Youth Ambassador. One of her personal goals was to raise awareness about the importance of access to clean drinking water around the world.

WorldVision is honouring Foto's memory by encouraging others to follow her inspiring lead, and #LiveLikeAlex.

Watch the CTV video coverage of the #LiveLikeAlex Water Walk, which took place over the weekend.

Teaching old drugs new tricks

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the School of Pharmacy's news site.

Like many other tools, sometimes prescription drugs can be used for more than one purpose. University of Waterloo scientists and industry partner Cyclica discovered that a commonly known antidepressant may be useful in fighting some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

During the summer of 2014, researchers at the Faculty of Science’s School of Pharmacy were looking into whether a group of drugs called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) — normally used as anti-depressants — could be used to treat Alzheimer's. Through a Mitacs Accelerate grant, the researchers partnered with Cyclica, a company specializing in using computers to predict all effects of new medicines.

“Our approach,” says Stephen MacKinnon, a Structural Bioinformatician at Cyclica, “was to use our computers to run models of all of the drugs being studied, testing them against different kinds of proteins. We looked at them from a different perspective: not what they were designed to do, but rather what they can do.”

Gary Tin, a specialist in the organic and synthetic development of drugs, was chosen to take part in the project. Tin, a graduate student in Dr. Praveen Nekkar Rao’s lab at the time, acted as a bridge between scientists at the university and Cyclica.

"The theory was that SSRIs might block a protein called Amyloid beta that builds-up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and is believed to cause damage,” says Tin. “We wanted to see if this was true, and how the SSRIs would work. With Cyclica’s help, we could get an idea of the effects of the drugs, and compare that data to what we’d discovered ourselves in the university lab.”

In the end, the team discovered one of the anti-depressants, Prozac, has the most potential of the SSRIs to block Amyloid beta and slow-down the progression of Alzheimer's.

It’s still in the very early stages,” says Tin, “but this research opens the doors to the possibility of more testing of antidepressants as a means of fighting Alzheimer's. It’s also good for healthcare providers and drug companies to be able to look at repurposing existing drugs, instead of needing years to develop new ones.”

Read the rest of the article on the School of Pharmacy's news site.

Students should get their Fall fees in order

Fees for the 2015 Fall term were posted in students' accounts beginning Monday, July 27. 

Students can view their bill for Fall 2015 by logging into Quest, going to Student Centre, then by click Finances> Account Inquiry. 

There are two ways to become Fees Arranged:

• Payment in full; and
• payment by Promissory Note.

Students can follow the step-by-step instructions to ensure that they are "Fees Arranged" by the Thursday, August 27 deadline.

Scholarships, bursaries and awards will not be deducted from a student's Balance Owing unless they are “Fees Arranged” for the term.

Students who are not Fees Arranged by October 31, you will be unenrolled and lose access to assignments, exams and course material on LEARN.

For more information please contact studentaccounts@uwaterloo.ca or visit the Finance - Student Accounts website.