News

A researcher at the University of Ottawa has identified a group of spinal neurons that play a major role in recovering mobility following a serious spinal cord injury. The study, led by Tuan Bui, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and researcher at the University of Ottawa’s Brain and Mind Research Institute, has been published in the life sciences journal eLife. Read the complete article.

Focusing on media coverage related to research, this award aims to recognize individuals who have successfully promoted research results in the media. Their research findings have been published by partners, Faculty staff or the Media Relations Office. These findings may have been covered by specialized or general media in the months following the initial announcement of results.

Frithjof Lutscher, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, explains how longer summers and climate change can have serious impacts on the prey-predator relationship and the extinction of certain species. Read the complete article.

A group of twelve researchers from the University of Ottawa will be joining the ranks of Canada’s brightest minds, with five elected to the Royal Society of Canada and seven others gaining admittance to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Congratulations to Muralee Murugesu and Alexandre Poulain! Read the complete article.

Collaborative research by scientists at the University of Ottawa and the Government of Alberta’s Environment and Parks ministry has found that the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have increased in lake sediments near in-situ drilling wells since production began at the Cold Lake oil sands development in the 1980s. PAHs, a diverse group of organic contaminants, have been linked to cancer and other adverse health effects in humans. Read the complete article. 

A study led by researchers at the University of Ottawa and published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B has found that a lake ecosystem was severely affected by arsenic contamination from the Giant Mine, which produced over seven million ounces of gold while it was active, between 1948 and 2004.  Over 20,000 tonnes of toxic arsenic trioxide were released from the Giant Mine’s roaster stack over the years as part of its process to extract gold from arsenopyrite ore. Read the complete article. 

Traditional food in Canada's Inuit regions is becoming harder to get, leading to a "critical situation," according to a new study.

Published in the Journal of Circumpolar Health, the study places some of the blame on climate change, and urges communities to be ready to adapt to changing diets. Read the complete article.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) enhance plant’s ability to extract nutrients from the soil and are widely used as bio-fertilizers to improve plant yield in organic agriculture. The genetic system of these organisms has long been obscure, hampering our ability to produce new strains that are more optimal for our green economy. A study led by the laboratory of Nicolas Corradi has finally unlocked their genetic secrets, opening new avenues for AMF strain improvement and their environmental application. The work is published in Nature Microbiology.” Read the complet article.

Faculty of Science professor François Chapleau set out to shake the world of some University of Ottawa students, in the gentlest way, by providing a scholarship that could help ease the financial pressures of a university education. Read the complete article.

American Botanical Council’s Botanical Excellence Awards were founded in 2006. They are presented each year at the American Botanical Celebration, which takes place in conjunction with the Natural Products Expo West. Recipients are chosen based on their contributions to the herbal and botanical community during the previous year.

The Liber Ero Fellowship Program supports emerging conservation leaders and gives them the training, networking, and encouragement to solve important conservation questions facing humanity. Congratulations!

Kathryn Hargan currently holds a W. Grafield Weston Postdoctoral Fellowship for northern research at the University of Ottawa. She received her Masters of Science from Trent University (2010) and completed her PhD in paleolimnology at Queen’s Univerisity (2014). Kathryn’s postdoctoral research in the Canadian Artic will help to yield an understanding of the biotic (e.g. seabirds) and abiotic (e.g. atmospheric) role in the transfer and concentration of contaminants and heavy metals to coastal sites, and how this transfer from oceans and southern latitudes may be influenced by climate change.

Mercury is a toxic element with no known biological function. Daniel Gregoire and Alexandre Poulain, from the Biology department, demonstrate that mercury can be beneficial to microbial growth by acting as an electron acceptor during photosynthesis. Their work was summarized and published in Nature Geoscience.

Climate change is heating things up, and new research shows that some of North America’s most cherished species can’t take the heat.

When average temperatures in a given area rise, some species move to cooler locations. This is because all species can only exist within a certain range of temperatures.  If a species cannot move to more suitable areas quickly enough, or if weather patterns become erratic, the species may face a real risk of local extinction in areas that are too warm. According to a recent study published in Ecology and Evolution, University of Ottawa researchers found that some North American songbirds are becoming extinct in warmer regions of the continent. Read the complete article.