On March 30th, come to the school visits! A unique chance to visit different university facilities, to participate in interactive activities and to attend fascinating lectures on a variety of subjects.

You will also get to meet the 39 student teams who took the Challenge!

See the detailed program!
2010 School visits
Program

If you need more information please contact the regional coordinator :
Louise Legault, Coordinator
Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge, Montreal
Société pour la promotion de la science et de la technologie (SPST)
Téléphone : (514) 244-4165
Courriel: ll@spst.org
Site web: www.spst.org

Some Rules for Oral Presentations

Elevator Pitch Description

Scientifically Speaking

Guidelines and Tips for Scientific Oral Presentations

Elevator Pitch Workshop 2010 – Mr.Keith Scharnau’s presentation

The details for the meeting are:
When: Thursday, February 25th, 2010 from 4:30pm to 8:00pm
Where: Natural Resources Engineering (NRE) Facility 2-003 (map)
Why: Elevator pitch training and status updates

Please email Richelle (SABC.Edmonton@bioalberta.com) or RSVP on the Facebook event page by February 19 to confirm your attendance.

Note: NRE is immediately south of ETLC, where the Safety Training and Meet and Greet were held. ETLC and NRE are connected by a pedway. The closest parking lots are Windsor car park (on parking map – section B2) or Stadium car park (on parking map – section E3).

At this time mentors and participants will also have an opportunity to:
� refine or modify the design of the project
� discuss equipment and laboratory needs
� discuss arrangements for future meetings
� discuss necessary permission forms and organization information

We look forward to meeting you on January 14th! If you have any questions or require additional information please contact Ron Krysa or John Taras at 652-1785.
Please RSVP by January 12th, 2010 either by phone at 652-1785 or through email, KRYTAR@shaw.ca

When: Wednesday, December 2nd at 6:00pm
Where: Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex (ETLC) 1-013 (see map).
Parking is available in the Stadium or Windsor car parks.

Refreshments will be provided. Please confirm your attendance by November 30th by emailing Richelle Prickett

WHMIS/BioSafety Training session
When: Wednesday, December 2nd at 4:30pm
Where: Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex (ETLC) 1-013 (see map)

Please confirm your attendance by November 30th by emailing Richelle Prickett.

The WHMIS/BioSafety Training will be followed by the ‘Meet and Greet‘ event.

Research on Flax Phytoestrogens Wins Grade 11 City Student Binudith Warnakulasooria Entry to National Biotech Competition

Outstanding research by a 16 year-old Winnipeg student at Fort Richmond Collegiate that could lead to improved health benefits from this common crop has earned the first place prize in the 2009 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC) in the Manitoba region.

Grade 11 student Binudith Warnakulasooria won the $2000 cash prize with a study into important health chemicals produced by Flax and will travel to Ottawa to compete in the national SABC competition May 5, to be judged by a panel of experts at the National Research Council. The national winners will be announced at a ceremony in Ottawa on May 6.

He worked on genes in the common Flax plant which produce “lignans”, (nutritional chemicals found in flax that can have major health benefits for humans) The object of his research is to “find out the flax genes responsible for producing lignans and use that to figure out the optimal genetic set up to produce the highest level of lignans in flax.” He hopes that the “data gathered from my experiment could be used to genetically engineer flax plants that produce higher lignans here in the prairies.”

Cash prizes were also awarded to:

2nd place; $1500 to Juliet Daet of St Mary’s Academy in Winnipeg for her project examining biochemical means of fighting breast cancer.

3rd place : $1000 for Beth Ferreira of Fort Richmond Collegiate in Fort Garry. Beth’s project continues her ground-breaking work in studying pollution levels in arctic seals through chemically analysing their claws.

4th place $750 awarded to Alyssa Verrelli from St Mary’s Academy for her research in diabetes. Alyssa looked at how nerve cells of diabetics may lose their ability to take in the hormone Insulin.

and

5th place : $500 to Ryan Murphy from Fort Richmond Collegiate for his continuing research into the many potential benefits of Manitoba-grown garlic.

At the regional announcement ceremony, Dr Francis Amara warned the students to never think that their research is the most important. He emphasized that science is a collaborative endeavor, and each new truth adds to the collective knowledge of all of us. and can lead us in unexpected and exiting new directions.

Encouraged by his teacher Kathy Crang, and under the guidance of mentors Sylvie Cloutier of the Agriculture Canada Cereal Grains Research Centre, and Veronique Barthet of the Canadian Grain Commission

“The Manitoba government is a strong supporter of encouraging more students to consider careers in biotechnology,” said Magda Byma of Manitoba Science, Technology, Energy and Mines.

Winnipeg Student wins Ottawa Bronze at National Biotechnology Science Event!

SABC09 Manitoba Binudith Warnakulasooriya Project Abstract

Proposal Title: (scientifically informative title)
– The title should touch on what is being accomplished in the investigation and what question is trying to be answered?
Introduction:
– The introduction should include the question you will be asking, why you are asking it and what you expect the answer will be.
-It should also inlcude any pertinent background information on the organism(s) or process(s) that will be investigated.
-This section should not be more than one or two short paragraphs.
Relevant Application:
– Explain how the idea was derived.
– Provide justification as to why your idea is relevant and would be important to investigate.
Experimental Design:
– Include a detailed description of how you plan to execute your project.
– If you are unsure please provide an educated guess based on the research you have done.
Results and Interpretation:
– Please include an explanation of how you plan to analyze and present your results if known.
– Predict what you think you results might be and why.

APPENDICES:
Materials and Methods:
– Please include a detailed explanation of the methods and techniques required for proposed research project if known.
– Please provide a list of materials, instruments and equipment that your school will be able to provide toward this project if necessary.
Timeline of project:
– Please include a brief outline of how you plan to complete your project in time for the competition day in early April.
Mentorship support:
– If you have already sourced out a mentor please include their name and contact information.
– If you have someone in mind who you would like to act as your mentor please inlcude their name, contact information (if known) and how you discovered their work. Your program coordinator will contact them on your behalf.
In any other case please indicate that a mentor is required.

Where: Room 341, Central Academic Building (CAB), University of Alberta (map)

Why: To assist students with the SABC proposal. Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from the University of Alberta will be at the workshop to provide guidance to the students and answer any questions the students may have about how to write a proposal.

Snacks and drinks will be provided.

For more information, please contact the Edmonton SABC coordinator, Richelle Prickett

2. Figure out what question you would like to answer through your research project. Find out what research is being done in Edmonton. For more ideas on possible projects or information on biotechnology research that is being done in Edmonton, check out the links at the bottom of this page.

Is there a lab doing research that your idea would fit with? Contact the researcher and let them know that you are interested in the SABC and what the competition entails. Explain the research topic you are interested in and ask them for help or if they would like to be your mentor for the SABC program (keep in mind that this is a part time research project that must be finished by early April).

3. Follow the links from the SABC home page for the online application. There you will find some helpful hints and guidelines on how to develop and write a proposal.

4. Write and submit your proposal on-line by the deadline (October 31, 2009)

Check out the following links to help you get started:

Science Buddies
SMARTS
University of Alberta, Departments and Programs
National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT); Nano-Life Sciences
Faculty of Science (Research areas), U of A
Faculty of Engineering (Research areas), U of A
Department of Biomedical Engineering, U of A
Research at NAIT