»Home»Patrick Keeling has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Election to the National Academy is one of the highest honours in science.
Patrick Keeling has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Election to the National Academy is one of the highest honours in science.
Patrick Keeling’s research program has illuminated fundamental properties of the evolution and diversity of algae, and microbial life in general. His prolific work has covered a broad range of biodiversity and disciplines, and had major impacts on our understanding of the tree of life, horizontal gene transfer, symbiosis, parasitism, and the evolution of the complex compartmentalization of eukaryotic cells. His work on plastid (chloroplast) diversity stands out, having combined evolution, cell biology, ecology, genomics, and theory to develop and experimentally test new models for the endosymbiotic origin and spread of photosynthetic organelles. The impact of this work has extended to a major theoretical reassessment of what endosymbiosis really means, calling into question longstanding and central assumptions about the mechanistic process of endosymbiosis, as well re-casting it as a primarily conflict driven process rather than mutualistic. His focus on diversity has similarly helped identify important new algal lineages, including many surprising links between algae and parasites, and more generally to re-draw the tree of eukaryotes highlighting the multiple origins of photosynthetic eukaryotes and their central roles in evolution and ecology. The impact of these advances is reflected in long and diverse lists of invited reviews in top journals, keynote lectures at major international meetings, and awards from distinguished scholarly organizations, including the Guggenheim Foundation, the Royal Society of Canada, and the US National Academy of Sciences. His work has made both profound and lasting impacts that change how we understand algae and the evolution of endosymbiosis more broadly.
Closing date: April 2, 2024 — Posting date: March 18, 2024
Applications are invited for a part time Sessional Lecturer position in 2024 Summer Term 1.
BIOL 111 Introduction to Modern Biology – 3 credits. Course Description: Concepts fundamental to biological issues, such as the genetic basis of biological variation, evolution, infectious diseases, causes of cancer, population growth, and human effects on ecosystems.
Job Description: Primary duties include teaching in the course, supervising and working with Teaching Assistant assigned, developing assessments and marking assignments and exams in BIOL 111. The term runs from May 13 – June 20, 2024.
We seek an innovative educator with demonstrated experience in teaching in the area of biology using evidence-based and learning-centred pedagogical approaches, mentoring and managing teaching assistants, and engaging students in active learning classroom environment.
Candidates should have a Ph.D. or is a senior Ph.D. candidate in Biology or related area with a strong background in biology. Previous experience in teaching and/or being involved in BIOL 111, and other relevant teaching experience at the post-secondary level in the area of biology will be an asset.
The current salary for a 3-credit course is $10,000.
Applications should include an up-to-date curriculum vitae, including the names, addresses and e-mail or telephone contact information of three people who can be contacted to provide reference letters, and a teaching statement. Application deadline is April 2, 2024.
UBC and the Department of Botany recognize that equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence, and that an open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged, leading to more relevant and impactful research and teaching. Accordingly, we particularly encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code. This includes racialization, status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status and/or age. Our department is committed to confronting systemic biases, particularly as they affect individuals from Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities, and intersect with other forms of discrimination. Botany department is committed to supporting success for individuals from traditionally-disadvantaged groups, building on existing efforts across the UBC Faculty of Science to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in our research and teaching missions (https://science.ubc.ca/faculty/diversity).
UBC’s Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam people.
Applications are invited for a part time Sessional Lecturer position in 2024 Summer Term 1.
BIOL 200Fundamentals of Cell Biology- 3 credits. Course Description: Structure and function of plant and animal cells; membrane models, cytoplasmic organelles, biological information from gene to protein, the endomembrane system, secretion, intracellular digestion, endocytosis, transport processes, cytoskeleton and cell motility.
Job Description: Primary duties include, teaching a lecture section in the course, developing materials for in-class and tutorial activities and assessments in Biol 200. The term runs from May 13 – June 20, 2024.
We seek an innovative educator with demonstrated experience in teaching BIOL 200 using evidence-based and learning-centred pedagogical approaches, mentoring and managing teaching assistants, and engaging students in active learning classroom environment.
Candidates should have a PhD and a solid background in cell biology. Previous experience in teaching and/or running tutorials in BIOL 200 is required. Other relevant teaching experience at the post-secondary level will be an asset and considered.
The current salary for a 3-credit course is $10,000.
Applications should include an up-to-date curriculum vitae, including the names, addresses and e-mail or telephone contact information of three people who can be contacted to provide reference letters, and a teaching statement. Application deadline is March 26, 2024
UBC and the Department of Botany recognize that equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence, and that an open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged, leading to more relevant and impactful research and teaching. Accordingly, we particularly encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code. This includes racialization, status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status and/or age. Our department is committed to confronting systemic biases, particularly as they affect individuals from Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities, and intersect with other forms of discrimination. Botany department is committed to supporting success for individuals from traditionally-disadvantaged groups, building on existing efforts across the UBC Faculty of Science to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in our research and teaching missions (https://science.ubc.ca/faculty/diversity).
UBC’s Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam people.
Applications are invited for a part time Sessional Lecturer position in 2024 Summer Term 2.
BIOL 300Fundamentals of Biostatistics- 3 credits. Course Description: Statistical procedures for biological research; estimation, hypothesis testing, goodness of fit, analysis of variance and regression; use of computers for statistical analysis.
Job Description: Primary duties include teaching in the course, working with TAs, developing assessments and grading assignments and exams. The term runs from July 2 – August 9, 2024.
We seek an innovative educator with demonstrated experience in teaching biostatistics using evidence-based and learning-centred pedagogical approaches, mentoring and managing teaching assistants, and engaging students in active learning classroom environment.
Candidates should have a Ph.D. in a Biological Sciences discipline and relevant teaching experience at the post-secondary level in the area of Biostatistics. Prior experience working with the BIOL 300 teaching team will receive priority consideration.
The current salary for a 3-credit course is $10,000.
Applications should include an up-to-date curriculum vitae, including the names, addresses and e-mail or telephone contact information of three people who can be contacted to provide reference letters, and a teaching statement. Application deadline is March 26, 2024.
Applications should be emailed to Dr. Sunita Chowrira, Associate Head of Biology, chowrira@mail.ubc.ca
Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person. Our department is committed to confronting systemic biases, particularly as they affect individuals from Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities, and intersect with other forms of discrimination.
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
Postdoctoral, Friedrich Miescher Inst., Switzerland (1986-90)
Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – Vancouver Research Centre (1990-1996) – Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre, Summerland (1996-now)
Associate Editor, Botany
Head, Secoviridae Study Group, International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV)
My research program is aimed at providing a molecular understanding of the replication cycle of plant viruses, with the long-term objective of designing new antiviral strategies. In particular, we are studying the function of viral proteins and the interaction between viruses and their host plants.
Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV) is a nepovirus and an important pathogen of fruit trees and small fruits in North America. Our laboratory is dissecting various steps of the replication cycle. In recent years, we have (1) examined the function and cleavage site specificity of the viral proteinase; (2) studied the assembly of viral replication complexes and examined the interaction between viral replication proteins and intracellular membranes, and (3) characterized the interaction between ToRSV and the plant gene silencing pathway. We have also collaborated with Dr. Thierry Wetzel (AlPlanta, Germany) to study the proteinase and replication proteins of Arabis mosaic virus(ArMV, another nepovirus that causes serious diseases in grapevine in Europe and elsewhere). We use a combination of molecular biology, cellular biology, biochemistry and plant tissue culture techniques.
In response to the discovery of Plum pox virus in Canada (PPV, the causal agent of sharka disease, a devastating disease of Prunus species in Europe), we have also participated in a team research effort to develop resistance to PPV in Prunus germlines.
Selected Publications
Wetzel, T., Chisholm, J., Bassler, A. and Sanfacon, H. (2008) Characterization of proteinase cleavage sites in the N-terminal region of the RNA1-encoded polyprotein from Arabis mosaic virus (subgroup A nepovirus). Virology 375, 159-169
Jovel J., Walker M. and Sanfaçon, H. (2007) Recovery of Nicotiana benthamiana plants from a necrotic response induced by a nepovirus is associated with RNA silencing but not with reduced virus titer J. Virol. 81, 12285-12297
Chisholm, J., Zhang, G., Wang, A. and Sanfaçon, H. (2007) Peripheral association of a polyprotein precursor form of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of Tomato ringspot virus with the membrane-bound viral replication complex.Virology 368, 133-144
Zhang G. and Sanfaçon, H. (2006) Characterization of membrane-association domains within the Tomato ringspot nepovirus X2 protein, an endoplasmic reticulum-targeted polytopic membrane protein. J. Virol. 80, 10847-10857
Zhang, S. C., Zhang, G., Yang, L, Chisholm, J. and Sanfaçon, H (2005). Evidence that insertion of Tomato ringspot virus NTB-VPg protein in endoplasmic reticulum membranes is controlled by two domains: a C-terminal transmembrane helix and an N-terminal amphipathic helix. J. Virol. 79, 11766-11775
Wang, A., Han, S. and Sanfaçon, H. (2004). Topogenesis in membranes of the NTB-VPg protein of Tomato ringspot nepovirus: definition of the C-terminal transmembrane domain. J. Gen. Virol. 85, 535-545
Han, S. and Sanfaçon, H. (2003). Tomato ringspot virus proteins containing the nucleoside triphosphate binding domain are transmembrane proteins that associate with the endoplasmic reticulum and co-fractionate with replication complexes. J. Virol. 77, 523-534
Léonard, S., Chisholm, J., Laliberté, J.F. and Sanfaçon, H. (2002). Interaction in vitro between the proteinase ofTomato ringspot virus (genus nepovirus) and the eukaryotic translation initiation factor iso4E from Arabidopsis thaliana. J. Gen. Virol. 83, 2085-2089
Office: 323-2357 Main Mall | Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4
Lab Phone: 604-822-6394
Research Interests
My research interests include understanding the role of plant genetics in the design of sustainable production systems, identifying relevant traits useful in these systems, combining them within superior germplasm, and integrating this germplasm into an optimized system. General areas of interest include plant breeding, intercrop interactions, nutrient use efficiency, root physiology, biotic and abiotic stressor resistance, and edaphic selection. Currently, I am focusing on understanding and designing intensive multi-trophic production systems and the re-integration of plant and animal production.
Associate Professor (Affiliate), University of Alaska, Fairbanks;
Visiting Lecturer, Vancouver Island University.
Contact Information
sandra.lindstrom@botany.ubc.ca
Research Interests
One of the world’s most complex coasts extends from Puget Sound, Washington, through British Columbia and around the coast of Alaska. Repeated glaciation has acted like a species pump, creating a more diverse marine benthic seaweed flora than one would expect in a region so recently covered by ice. Although this area has been studied by phycologists at U.B.C. since the 1950s, only recently have we had the molecular tools to address unequivocally questions of species limits and relationships and the biogeography of speciation in this environment. These tools have allowed us to recognize species that had previously been confused with other species, to hypothesize the existence of refugia that allowed species to persist within the glacial boundary through the Pleistocene, and to identify geographic boundaries that may have played a role in speciation.
These studies highlight the need for further systematic investigation of North Pacific species. More intensive collections are revealing not just additional cryptic diversity, but also concordant patterns of genotype diversity distributions and a strong signal for a Pacific origin of many Atlantic species. Culture studies have identified novel patterns of development and vegetative proliferation. These studies serve to further our knowledge of seaweed phylogeny, systematics and biogeography.
Hind, K. M., Gabrielson, P. G., Lindstrom, S. C., & Martone, P. T. 2014. Misleading morphologies and the importance of sequencing type specimens for resolving coralline taxonomy (Corallinales, Rhodophyta): Pachyarthron cretaceum is Corallina officinalis. J. Phycol. 50: 760-764.
Gabrielson, P. W., S. C. Lindstrom and C. J. O’Kelly. 2012. Keys to the Seaweeds and Seagrasses of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Phycological Contribution No. 8, iv + 192 pp.
Martone, P. T., Lindstrom, S. C., Miller, K. A., & Gabrielson, P. G. 2012. Chiharaea and Yamadaia (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) represent reduced and recently derived articulated coralline morphologies. J. Phycol. 48: 859-868.
Lindstrom, S. C., Hughey, J. R., & Martone, P. T. 2011. New, resurrected and redefined species of Mastocarpus (Phyllophoraceae, Rhodophyta) from the northeast Pacific. Phycologia 50: 661-683.
[1]Sutherland, J. E., Lindstrom, S. C., Nelson, W. A., Brodie, J., Lynch, M., Hwang, M. S., Choi, H.-G., Miyata, M., Kikuchi, N., Oliveira, M. C., Farr, T., Neefus, C., Mols-Mortensen, A., Milstein, D., & Müller, K. 2011. A new look at an ancient order: generic revision of the Bangiales (Rhodophyta). J. Phycol. 47: 1131-1151.
Boo, G. H., Lindstrom, S. C., Klochkova, N. G., Yotsukura, N., Yang, E. C., Kim, H. G., Waaland, J. R., Cho, G. Y., Miller, K. A., & Boo, S. M. 2011. Taxonomy and biogeography of Agarum and Thalassiophyllum (Laminariales, Phaeophyceae) based on nuclear, mitochondrial and plastid gene sequences. Taxon 60:831-840.
[2]Lindeberg, M. R. and S. C. Lindstrom 2010. Field Guide to Seaweeds of Alaska. Alaska Sea Grant College Program, Fairbanks, iv + 188 pp.
Kawai, H., Hanyuda, T., Lindeberg, M., & Lindstrom, S. C. 2008. Morphology and molecular phylogeny of Aureophycus aleuticus gen. et sp. nov. (Laminariales, Phaeophyceae) from the Aleutian Islands. J. Phycol. 44: 1013-1021.
[1]This publication won the Provasoli Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Phycology in 2011.
[2]This publication won awards from the National Association of Government Communicators (US) in the Soft/Hardcover book category (content and design) and from the American Library Association, Notable Government Documents program.
Len was a cherished lecturer in UBC’s Department of Botany. When you first met Len, he had a somewhat gruff exterior, but students soon realized he was a knowledgeable, trusted teacher and scholar who loved sharing his enthusiasm and curiosity and showing them how to uncover hidden gems in the natural world.
Len completed a Bachelors’ of Science degree in Marine Biology in 1978, then a Masters’ of Science in Botany in 1991 and finally completed his PhD in Botany in 2004. All of his studies were at UBC and he began working for the university as a sessional lecturer in 2003.
He emulated and worked with many preeminent scholars in his field and helped the department carry their legacy into the future. His behind-the-scenes efforts in the department, his field collections and his work with students in the classroom make him truly irreplaceable. He had an amazing depth of knowledge, and a way of opening students’ eyes to the diversity of life that we study. His passion for learning about bizarre and beautiful organisms that few people ever get to see, inspired our students to feel that same passion and awe.
Mostly, I will miss Len’s laugh, which often followed some wry comment. It makes me tear up thinking that I won’t get to hear it again. He held his cards close to his chest, but as soon as you realized how much passion he had for his work, he was so much fun and a joy to be around. It was obvious that he was doing what he loved. He was a really special man.
All of those who knew Len are deeply and profoundly saddened by his passing. As we mourn his loss, we respectfully ask media to allow us the space to grieve in private.
Patrick Martone Professor, UBC Department of Botany
BIOL320 field trip, March 2017
Clover Point, Victoria, BC
Len is showing the difference between two brown seaweeds: Desmarestia aculeata and Desmarestia viridis (picture and information courtesy of Patrick Martone).
Professor Carl Douglas passed away tragically on Monday, July 25, 2016 in a climbing accident. Professor Douglas was a faculty member in the Department of Botany from 1987-2016. He was a plant molecular biologist, studying tree biology and the genes responsible for lignin in plant cell walls. Carl was a kind and caring mentor, nominated by his present and past graduate students for a Killam Mentoring award. He led several large tree genome projects, most recently studying genomic properties of poplar trees for renewable bioenergy. He was on the executive of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists for many years, as western regional director from 2000-2002, vice president from 2007-2009 and president from 2009-2010. He was currently serving as Policy Director and represented the society as an executive member of the Global Plant Council, a group of senior scientists dedicated to using plant and crop science to meet global challenges. Carl was the Head of the Botany Department from 1999-2006.
Tributes to Carl:
In my former role as Administrative Director of the Department of Botany from 1996 to 2010 I had the great honour and pleasure of working closely with Carl for many years. He was my boss, colleague, mentor and friend who always made me feel that I was a very valued team member. Carl was a brilliant, wise, patient, fair and thoughtful man who was loved and highly respected by everyone, and over the years we dealt with many administrative challenges and accomplished a lot together. Those years represent some of the most fulfilling and memorable years of my career and I will forever be grateful for this time. Thank you Carl for everything.
Mutual friends said they felt “gutted” and along with “heartbroken” this is how it feels that he is no longer with us. My thoughts and prayers are with his daughter Jennifer, his wife Lorraine, family, friends and colleagues all over the world that are mourning his loss. May his spirit fly free over the mountains he loved.
Elaine Simons Lane
Carl once told me there is a concept in Germany of the “Doktorvater”, doctor father, a special scientific relationship between a PhD student and their mentors/supervisors. Although our relationship has been cut short, I thank my lucky stars that I had him as my supervisor, mentor and role model. He was so terrific and I will always look back fondly on my days as a student in his lab. The world has lost an outstanding person, and I lost my doktorvater. Rest in peace dear Carl. Thank you for everything
Teagen Quilichini, PhD student in the Douglas Lab 2008-2014
Carl Douglas and I arrived at UBC just one year apart, in 1987-88, but it took almost two decades to really get to know each other. Although both plant scientists, we were in different departments in different Faculty. In fact, it was mainly through our external involvement in the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists (then Physiologists) that we became acquainted with each other’s work, and our mutual interest in trees. Despite Carl’s incredible breadth of botanical knowledge, there was little overlap in expertise (I am molecularly challenged), and thus there was plenty of opportunity to collaborate. We have since published many articles together, with more still in the works. I can trace our collaboration to a particular event… a sunny summer day in about 2003. We ran into each other on campus and I mentioned that the Ministry of Forests had several hundred native black cottonwood clones that they hoped to generate interest in. Carl proclaimed “we should leverage that!”, and by “we” he meant our collective community on campus. A few years later that’s exactly what happened, with Carl (and Shawn Mansfield) leading the charge. Together, dozens of us (students, postdocs, technicians, faculty and partners) stumbled through the poplar genome to accomplish some really exciting science. Carl, more than any other single individual, understood and appreciated what we were all up to and kept the group functioning, if not always on track. I came to admire him as much as I have admired anyone. An excellent scientist, a tireless worker, a selfless leader and a most wonderful colleague. His passing cuts deeply.
Rob Guy
Carl Douglas was a treasured colleague and friend. His tragic death is a great loss to the extended Botany family. As an Adjunct Professor at the Dept of Botany, I have had the pleasure of working with Carl for the last 26 years. He provided a rare combination of scientific excellence and exceptional kindness and caring abilities. Carl was a co-supervisor or committee member for many PhD students working in my lab. His gentle and calm approach combined with a wonderful ability to see the positive in everyone and every situation has been greatly appreciated. I will miss you, Carl.
Hélène Sanfaçon, Research Scientist, Summerland Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Adjunct Professor, Dept of Botany, UBC
“When I came to UBC as a postdoc the only prof I saw who seemed to have really figured out well the life-work balance was Carl (apologies to the rest of you). He did a long bike commute most days, tended a native plant garden at home, went on lots of hikes, enjoyed wine-tasting parties etc and of course this is all while working hard too. He was also one of the kindest most generous people I knew. I think about him every day and I miss him. He was a incredibly human role model to me of how to live your life happily. I will keep thinking about him and I am sure as I go forward with my life, my choices will be influenced by him. I raise my wine glass in celebration of his dolce vita.”
Jennifer Klenz
“Carl had a love of science that was matched by a love of people. He always had a smile, a willingness to lend a hand to his community, and a true desire to connect with people. We at UBC were greatly enriched for having Carl as a colleague and will miss him greatly. Sally Otto (Zoology and Biodiversity Research Centre)”
Sally Otto
I have known Carl as a colleague and a friend since 1992, when I joined the department of Botany at UBC. Carl, you were truly a sincere friend, wonderful colleague and, above all, a kind and compassionate human being. You were always generous with your time, suggestions, and advice. There are few people like you in the world today. You will be missed dearly!
Santokh Singh
A great colleague and a wonderful man in general. We will miss his intelligence and gentle humour.
J.T. Beatty, Professor, Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology
Carl, you were a great scientist and above all an awesome human being. I will always remember our meeting during my graduate life at UBC as well as our meeting here in South Africa. May your soul rest in peace. I would like to offer my deepest and most sincere condolences to his family.
Tanay Bose
I met Carl for the first time at a conference in early 2012 where he was advertising a postdoc job in his lab. We met up and had such a good chat that he offered me the position right away. I was hesitant, because I had never lived abroad before, but he spoke of his research, UBC, and Vancouver in such an engaging way that it both excited me and assuaged my worries. Soon after I finished my PhD in Germany I joined his lab but when I arrived to Canada I was still looking for a place to stay. So, the first thing Carl did when I met him was to hand me his house keys before leaving for a week-long vacation. All I had to do was feed the cat and empty the fridge…
I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity and support that Carl provided for me as an early career researcher. Because of him, I’ve had many wonderful experiences in BC, learned extensively about tree research, and met many people that are now important to my life. Thanks Carl! Thanks for your guidance and support, for our many thoughtful discussions, and for stopping by in New Zealand just to say Hello. I will miss you!
Steffi Fritsche
Carl was a passionate scientist, encouraging mentor, and a fantastic teacher. His legacy will forever be ingrained into all his students, post-docs, and colleagues. You will be missed.
Ryan Eng, PhD, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology
R.I.P Carl. I liked you so much. You always had a smile for all of us, and you were a devoted scientist. You were so “Oregonian” and I mean that in the best form of flattery.
You were far, far too young to go, but this is nature’s choice and not ours. To your family and all your colleagues at UBC, I offer my deepest condolences. I am still stunned. May your soul
be at peace, Carl. R.I.P. my friend. Goodbye….
Peter Cohen
Dr. Douglas was my committee member, one of my comprehensive examiner and my referee for my postdoctoral position. He was always an inspiring person to me. He had helped me to grow scientifically by providing positive criticisms. I will miss him and he will remain alive in my thoughts.
Basudev Ghoshal, Ph.D., Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, Terasaki Life Sciences Building
Carl had a tremendous positive impact in my life. He opened the doors of his lab to me, a fresh graduate from Brazil, and dramatically altered the course of my life. I will be forever grateful for having been one of Carl’s PhD students. My gratitude, however, goes beyond a science education. Carl was a generous, kind and compassionate mentor, who supported his students and post-docs as complex, multifaceted individuals we all are. That support is what made my journey into getting a PhD possible. His friendly, calm and positive demeanor was comforting when everything seemed to be falling apart. He cheered together with successes big and small. I will never forget his smile and laughter during lab meetings, softball games, lab hikes and ski trips, weddings, conferences and so many lunches and dinners. His enthusiasm for life was genuine, and he seemed the happiest when we were all having a good time. Success was not only measured in the number of publications and grants, but in glasses of wine and good friends. May his good spirit live in the hearts of those who knew him.
I know it will in mine. Rest in peace, Carl.
Clarice Souza (Douglas lab member from 2001 to 2007)
Professor Douglas was one of the examiners in my thesis commitee. He was a very helpful mentor for me and I’m all the more grateful for his help. He will be sorely missed.
Thamali Kariyawasam
Two weeks before the accident, Carl treated all volunteers in his lab to Loaf’s coffee. For some of us, it was the first time having coffee with a professor and we were nervous! But he remembers our names and chatted about his traveling just like a kind grandpa. Many of us did not know much about the world of research, at least not by practical experience. Carl stood by the door of a world of research and scientists who are also wonderful people, waving to us who were nervously trying to take a peek into the world, he said: “Com’on in kids! Let’s explore, maybe you will like it here! Our hearts are still warm from that day’s coffee.
Olive Wang
Carl was not just a colleague, but a leader in forest biology. More importantly, he was a leader who attracted a following, because not only was he smart and inspired, but he was gentle and kind. Carl laughed in a way that we can still hear. He also took delight in what he was doing – and my God did he do a lot ! He was a bear for work: at one point he was not only chair of a sizeable university department, but he was the P.I. on a huge project. When you work at such a level, it generates respect. Carl made a great deal of effort to be a positive force in our field. He certainly helped out our Forest Biology group over the years. Being liked and being respected adds up to being admired. Carl Douglas was an admirable man. We were all shocked to hear of his death. It was the end of a giant in our field.
He will be sorely missed and we grieve his loss.
Our condolences to his family.
Patrick von Aderkas, Centre for Forest Biology, University of Victoria
It has taken me a long time to be able and sit to write some words about Carl. I still think he is out there, climbing some beautiful mountain, or skiing down, surrounded by white, cannot come to terms that he is gone. I had the privilege and the joy of knowing him, and working with him, for several years. Carl found the balance between good outstanding science, and exploring the world around him, and doing the ultimate to enjoy them both. We shared good wine and food together, great Douglas Lab hikes, and shared a couple of lab moves as well. Carl was always willing to help out, and I will always appreciate that included me as well, so will never forget. He believed in the inherent potential in everyone, thus mentoring and giving chances others might not, and students flourished thanks to this, never proving him wrong. An example to all. Will always remember you with fondness and respect and gratitude.
Michael Friedmann
George Haughn’s presentation at Carl’s memorial:
Carl Douglas was my friend and departmental colleague for the last 24 years. Lorraine his wife asked me to speak about Carl today. It’s is not possible to summarize anyone’s life in a few minutes, especially not Carl’s who had such a positive influence on so many people in so many ways. The large turnout at today’s memorial with people from Asia, Europe and all over North America, illustrates how many lives he touched.
Throughout the time I knew him, Carl took on many leadership roles. For example, he was the head a large active research program that included being the Principle Investigator for several complex, multi-laboratory, genomic projects. As an educator, he taught an unusually diverse set of university courses that included ones for first and fourth undergraduates and post-graduate students. He served as the Head of Department for Botany over a seven-year span and was recently the President for the Canadian Association of Plant Biologists. Clearly Carl was a leader who was not afraid to take on challenges but it was his personality and how he chose to lead that endeared him to so many people. Carl led by example, typically taking on more than his share of the workload. He had the common good at heart so you could trust him to do the best for the group. He was generous with his time and resources and enjoyed helping others. Even under stress Carl was incredibly patient and had a calming effect on others. He was kind and thoughtful not only professionally but privately as well. Years ago when he found out that our family was planning on taking a camping trip to in the Pacific Northwest he offered us the key to his family cabin on the Olympic Pennisula and thus introduced us to an incredibly beautiful part of the world. Most importantly, Carl always seemed to be in a good mood. Even in the face of problems he had this smile that was disarming.
I guess we would all like to know what Carl’s secret was. He always seemed content and was filled with a love of life that was contagious. He loved his family, enjoyed his job and filled his life with activities special to him. For example he was passionate about food. Many of us enjoyed his home-cooked meals at dinner parties and made use of his expertise in local restaurants and wines. Years ago he asked me to pick up a case of Tinhorn Creek Merlot that he had purchased from a VQA wine store close to our home on the North Shore. Taking the hint, I immediately bought a case for myself.
Like many people from the Pacific Northwest, Carl was drawn to the outdoors and spent a large part of his life hiking, climbing, kayaking, skiing and camping. I have fond memories of our yearly expedition to Gabriola Island for a camping and kayaking weekend each fall.
I am going to miss Carl a lot. I respected him, trusted his council and valued his friendship.
The last time I saw Carl was in mid-June at the Plant Cell Wall conference in Greece. On the night of the banquet, the entertainment was Greek music and dancers. As part of the show the dancers invited individuals to dance with them. Carl was one of the first to take them up on the offer. The picture below, aside from demonstrating that I won’t make a living as a photographer, epitomizes Carl’s joy of life, a joy that will live on in all of us who were lucky enough to have known him.
28th February 1933 – 10th October 2010 In memoriam by Iain Taylor
Gil. Hughes was born in Homerville GA, and earned an undergraduate degree in Biology from Georgia Southern University 1953. Biology was the major but music was never far behind for Gil was an accomplished pianist and had a lifelong love of the works of Rachmaninoff and became recognized as one of that composer’s expert discographers. He was widely known as one of the world’s experts of the discography.
He fell in love with fungi and obtained graduate degrees in Botany from Florida State University (M.S. 1957; Ph.D. 1959). After one year as an NSF Research Fellow at the Duke University Marine Laboratory and another as an NRC of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at UBC, he taught at Kansas State and then at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. He arrived back at UBC in 1964 and remained until he was appointed as Professor emeritus in 1998.
Like almost all the mycologists whom I have known, Gil’s love of fungi was almost obsessive. He was known internationally for his work on fungi in marine and estuarine habitats. For much of his career he was the only Canadian mycologist actively researching fungal pathogens in maricultured invertebrates and marine algae, and working on biodeterioration in Canada’s coastal waters. Given the ‘new’ interest in marine fungi, bacteria and viruses, Gil clearly was a pioneer for this currently emerging field. Gil was a meticulous researcher who maintained his own research at the same time as he nurtured his students to follow their own paths. He published sole-authored and co-authored peer reviewed papers, books and book chapters, and he actively promoted his students to publish alone when single authorship was the right thing to do. His best known work is the book, Fungal Diseases of Fishes, co-authored with Gordon A. Neish that was later translated into Russian.
Gil was a deeply committed teacher to undergraduates, especially in the first year Biology program. He served 2 terms as Director and was a strong supporter of real organism laboratory teaching. He was the founder Plants and Man, later Plants and People, which was one of the courses that were available to 3rd year Arts students but also became a major opportunity for Botany (now Plant Biology) students to see the wider context of Botany in society. He devoted enormous time to nurturing, rather than directing his graduate students.
Underneath, music was ever-present. It was almost impossible to visit his lab without a classical musical accompaniment. It was often Rachmaninoff, but it could just as well have been a powerful symphony or piano concerto that enriched conversation and may well have heightened Gill’s attention that found the right details to notice and interpret under the microscope.
Gilbert, Maryann and their children always made Sylvia and I welcome. We shared visits to the PNE, ate many meals in Chinatown. Lunch at the UBC Faculty Club was a time for great conversation as well as putting the university and the world to rights. Gil loved to cook and every meal that friends enjoyed at the Hughes home was a gastronomic event to remember. He lived life well. We will miss him. Many who were his friends were enriched for knowing him.
Fred David Sack was born on May 22, 1947 in New York City, the only child of Irving and Matilda (Trudy) Sack. Like many of his peers born in the wake of World War II, Fred was raised within the influence of the liberal Jewish tradition and the progressive tenets of the Ethical Culture Society. He attended Stuyvesant High School, graduating in 1969, and Antioch College where he majored in Sociology and was active in school and antiwar politics. He loved music of all types, folk dancing, playing the guitar, and traveling.
When he graduated from Antioch in 1969, Fred returned to New York City to work as a Research Analyst for the Health Services Mobility Study sponsored by the Research Foundation of the City University of New York. In 1973, He became an Assistant Management Analyst for Prison Health Service of the Healthy Services Administration of the City of New York. While living in Brooklyn, Fred discovered the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and quickly cultivated a fierce love of plants and natural habitats that would guide his interests and passions for the rest of his life.
Following his new found love, Fred enrolled as a PhD student in Plant Biology at Cornell University. His dissertation topic was, “The development and ultrastructure of the stomata of Funaria hygrometrica, Hedw.” After earning his PhD in 1982, Fred was a post-doctoral Research Fellow under Professor Carl Leopold at the Boyce Thomson Institute of Cornell University.
He joined the botany faculty at Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor in 1984, where he remained for 22 years, becoming an Associate Professor in 1990 and a Full Professor in 1997. His courses were very popular among students and his research into the cellular structure of plants and the effects of gravity on the growth of plants catapulted him to international prominence in the field. In 1994, he spent his sabbatical leave at the John Innes Institute of the Department of Cell Biology at Norwich University in England. From 2004 to 2006, he was Chair of the Plant Cell and Molecular Biology Department at Ohio State and was formally recognized by the University President for his contributions to scholarship.
Fred’s involvement in his chosen field was extensive. Over the course of his scholarly career, he published over 110 articles, supervised scores of graduate students, and received millions of dollars in grant support for his research. Between 1996 and 2000, he served on the External Advisory Board for the NASA Specialized Center for Research and Training in Gravitational Biology at Rice University. In 1995, he served on the grants panel for NASA’s Life and Biomedical Sciences, Plant Biology section. Between 1992 and 1995, he participated in the Science Working Group of NASA’s Space Station Biological Research Project and was a Council Member of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Between 1993 and 1995, he served on the National Academy of Science Committee on Space Biology and Medicine, the Space Studies Board, and the National Research Council. Between 1991 and 1993, he served on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology. In 2004, he was awarded the NASA Public Service Medial at the Kennedy Space Center and in 2005 he was appointed a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.
In 2006, Fred was named Head of the Botany Department at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada, in which position he served until 2011. In 2008, he was the recipient of a Faculty ROAD (Research Opportunities and Directory) Undergraduate Mentorship Award at UBC.
Throughout his life, Fred travelled extensively worldwide, attending and presenting at conferences, investigating natural habitats and visiting friends and colleagues.
He is survived by his wife Dian Clare, her sons Tyrone Clager, Aaron Clager, and Nate Clager, grandchildren Naomi Clager, Miles Clager, Theodore Clager, Audrey Clager, cousins Fred Horowitz, Harvey Horowitz, Frances Gershberg, Mark London, Eleanor London, Fred Lackstone, Michael Lackstone, Judy Wisansky, Doreen Bierbrier, Babs Eskin, Audrey, and many beloved friends around the world.
Thana Bisalputra passed away peacefully on June 13, 2009 in Surrey, British Columbia. He is survived by his brother, Thanit; his sister, Rasana; his sons Danai (and wife Angela) and Rabin; grandson, Jonathan; ex-wife, Alice-Ann; and several nieces and nephews in Thailand. Dr. Bisalputra was born January 6, 1930 in Thonburi, Thailand, the youngest of seven children.
He attended University of New England in Armidale, Australia, earning a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in 1958 and a Master’s degree in biology in 1960. He then moved to the University of California, Davis to work with Professor Katherine Esau. When she moved to Santa Barbara, he completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor T.E. Weier. His thesis work provided him with training in electron microscopy, which was considered the ‘thing of the future’. While at Davis, his fellow students included Jack Maze and Alice-Ann Webb. In 1964 he moved to Vancouver where he was persuaded to join the Botany department of the University of British Columbia by Dr. Robert F. Scagel, instead of taking up a post-doctoral fellowship at the Scripps Institute in California. Colleague Jack Maze remembers, “Dr. Bisalputra was hired to establish a program in electron microscopy and modern cytology. In that context he was the first person hired who made use of the more recently developed techniques and ideas. He was exceptional at both the technical and interpretive aspects of cytology.” Three years after his appointment, Dr. Bisalputra was promoted to Associate Professor. His research area was algal cell structure but he had broad interests in Cell Biology including studies of cell structure in vascular plants and animals. Dr. Bisalputra renewed his connection with Australia with a sabbatical year in 1972 at Australian National University in Canberra. Over the years, he published papers with his colleagues at UBC including J.R. Stein, F.J.R. Taylor, R.J. Bandoni and G.N.H. Towers. He also had a long and productive collaboration with N.J. Antia, of the Fisheries Research Board in West Vancouver. Dr. Bisalputra taught Introduction to Cytology (Biology 200) to class sizes of 90 students. Dr. Bisalputra also taught an advanced Cell Biology class, Biology 340, which was an intensive and stimulating synthesis of animal, protist, fungal and plant cell biology. In 1975, Dr. Bisalputra was promoted to Full Professor and he retired in 1989.
Dr. Bisalputra enjoyed photography and carpentry as pastimes. Although he loved the beauty of the west coast, he also missed his native Thailand. The family would like to express its deepest appreciation for all the caregivers at Morgan Place Care Facility, Langley Memorial Hospital, and Peace Arch Hospital who eased his burdens in the last years of his life.
Vladimir Josef Krajina was born at Slavonice, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) on 13th April 1905. He was educated at Charles University, Prague, where he graduated with the earned degree of D.Sc. cum laude in 1927. In World War II, he was a leader of the Czech underground resistance for which he received both military and civilian honours. “The hero of the democratic underground was Professor Vladimir Krajina,” wrote Korbel (1959, p. 55). After the war, he returned to Charles University as a professor. He was elected to the Czech parliament in 1945 and served as General Secretary of the largest democratic Socialist Party when the government was led by Jan Masaryk. When the communist government took over in 1948, he was forced to seek safety abroad. Vladimir was a great fighter for liberty. He put his life on the line for democratic freedom, and had the dubious distinction of being sentenced to death by both the Nazis and the Communists. Vladimir and Maria opened their home to refugees from Czechoslovakia and their hospitality was legendary. His name was an internationally known by-word for Czechs all around the world.
He immigrated to Canada in 1949 and joined the UBC Botany Department in 1949 where he taught plant ecology for 24 years. His knowledge of plants, their distribution and ecology was encyclopedic, his field trips were hectic, and his slide shows were legendary. He supervised many Ph.D. students, many of whom went on to leading positions in ecology. His major contributions to Canadian botany were to develop the ecologically-based system of vegetation classification (Biogeoclimatic Zones) now widely adapted and used as the basis for forest management in BC and Alberta. He used his political experience and acumen in the successful campaign that led the establishment of more than 100 ecological reserves in British Columbia, a feat unmatched anywhere in the world. This system has been studied and adopted in several parts of the world, including Western Australia. He was honoured during his lifetime with honorary degrees including the D.Sc. honoris causa from UBC, and was invested into the Order of Canada in 1981. Vladimir died on June 1st 1993. The Department of Botany continues to honour him with the annual Vladimir J. Krajina Memorial Lecture.
Several film documentaries and works provide insights into his life and attainments. Many of them are in Czech including Krajina’s Vyoská hra (“High Game”) published by Nakladatelstvi VTA, Prague, 1994. Some selected works in English are given below.
Canadian Journal of Botany 1988, Volume 66 Number 12: 2603- 2692 ─ Community Organization and Ecosystem Conservation: A Contemporary Synthesis, A Symposium held in honour of Professor Vladimir J. Krajina’s 80th Birthday. With Introduction by M. K. Wali and contributions by M. K. Wali; D. Mueller-Dombois; L. Orloci; H. H. Shugart, G. B. Bonan, and E. B. Rastetter; P. J. Courtin, K. Klinka, M. C. Feller, J. P. Demaerschalk; J. P. Kimmins; W. B. Schofield; R. L. Burgess; and J. Major.
Drabek, J. 2012, Vladimir Krajina: World War II Hero and Ecology Pioneer, Ronsdale Press, Vancouver Press, BC.
Jenik, J. 1992, Professor Vladimir J. Krajina─Honorary Member of the Czechoslovak Botanical Society, Preslia 64: 291-311.
Korbel, J. 1959. The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia, 1938-1948, Princeton University Press, Princetion, NJ.
Wali, M. K. 1994. Resolution of Respect─Vladimir J. Krajina 1905-1993: A Tribute, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America Volume 75, Number 4, 194-195.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of eminent bryologist and UBC Professor Emeritus of Botany Dr. Wilf Schofield on November 5th, 2008 at Vancouver. Many members of the UBC community and the botanical world, grieve this great loss.
For a biography of Wilf Schofield, written by Dr. René Belland of the University of Alberta, see the Botanical Electronic Newsletter (BEN)
The director of the UBC Herbarium at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, which houses Dr. Schofield’s extensive bryophyte collections, has written this memorial tribute to him:
Wilf Schofield (1927-2008)
The passing of UBC Professor Emeritus of Botany and World renowned Bryologist Wilf Schofield brings to a close a career of dedication to scholarship, professional service and mentorship that inspired countless students and colleagues, and will leave a lasting legacy for generations to come.
Wilfred Borden Schofield grew up in Nova Scotia and obtained a B.A. from Acadia University. Wilf started his professional life as a school teacher, before pursuing a lifelong passion, the study of bryophytes. His M.A. degree from Stanford University focused on the Canadian and Alaskan species of Hypnum. a genus that he continued to work on throughout his career. After completing a Ph. D. at Duke University in 1960, Wilf joined the Botany Department at UBC in 1961, where he spent the next 47 years.
Wilf was a gentleman scholar and a lovely man; his presence in the UBC Herbarium and in the halls of the Botany Department is greatly missed. Walking down the hall, Wilf had the ability to grab your attention with his impish grin – a sure sign that he had something to share: the latest update on a project, an anecdote from a grandchild, an interesting piece of correspondence, a comment on some departmental or world event. Wilf would shop year round for gifts of books for his loved ones, sharing his latest finds from the bookstore (where he sought out treasures in the remaindered sections, sometimes hiding an extra copy of a book in the stacks, so he could tell a friend where to find it. In small and big ways, Wilf showed us that the joys in his life came not just from work, but also from family and friends, literature and music. He reminded us that we are all people, in addition to being scientists.
Of course, for those who did not know Wilf personally, his scholarly work on bryophytes and other plants serves as his most easily measured legacy. Since 1948, Wilf published more than 100 scholarly works, focusing on bryophyte genera from Arnellia to Wijkia, including treatments of more than 20 genera for the Flora of North America. The foundation of his scholarly contributions was his intimate knowledge of bryophytes in the field, reflected in Beaty Museum’s collections. When he came to UBC, the bryophyte collection held about 3000 specimens; today it numbers over 260,000, contributed through his collections, exchanges, the work of his students and postdocs, and through the reputation he built for UBC’s collection. Fittingly, we will continue to process Wilf’s specimens for several more years.
When you visit the museum, and you walk through the numerous aisles of mosses, now you will know that this amazing collection exists in large part as the legacy of one just man. Remember too that he left not only the physical samples that he collected and studied, but also his teaching and mentorship left a network of researchers, many who make ongoing use of the collection, and that he inspired us to understand, conserve and appreciate bryophytes.
Luis Oliveira (Lic. Oporto, PhD UBC) arrived at UBC Botany in 1970, to do a PhD with Thana Bisalputra. After completing his thesis on the ultrastructure of senescence during the culture of the brown alga Ectocarpus, he returned to Portugal for national military service, and then returned to Vancouver for post-doctoral work with Thana in 1975. He was appointed to the faculty in 1978, with specific tasks for Luis to contribute teaching in first year, Biology 200, and Biology 340. His wife, Julie Celestino, was the technical assistant to the curator of the Phycology herbarium, Bob Scagel. Both Julie and Luis retired at the same time. Luis is remembered for his contributions to the Biology program, and for the care that he took in his teaching. Luis’s research involved various aspects of heavy metal effects on cytoskeleton in algae.
It is with great sadness that the Botany Department shares the news that Associate Professor of Teaching Greg Bole died on Sunday, August 22, 2021. Greg excelled as an instructor, and we will miss our warm and willing friend and colleague. He was jointly appointed in the departments of Botany and Zoology.
Greg’s love of science and evolution were infectious. He inspired undergraduate students with his wit, good humour, and enthusiasm. His students fondly recall the way that Greg made his thoughtful lectures interesting and fun.
In lieu of flowers, Greg requested donations to his favourite charities, Doctors Without Border or Nature Conservancy Canada. For more information about Dr. Bole, see this memoriam page.
Photo Caption: “John Davidson on Skwoach Mountain, ca 1915.”
Photo Credit: University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, John Davidson Lantern Slide 251.
John Davidson differed from most UBC faculty in that he never held any formal university degrees. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, to a working-class family. Without money for tuition, Davidson found a back door to higher education by becoming a boy attendant in the botany department at the University of Aberdeen. Davidson assisted in museum and laboratory research work, eventually taking charge of the museum in 1897. With European universities professionalizing, he could not rise any further in the academic ranks and he emigrated to Vancouver in 1911. Minister of Education Henry Esson Young gave him the job of Provincial Botanist the next year, and in preparation for the new university, one of Davidson’s duties was to assemble an herbarium and botanical garden. After some controversy because of his lack of formal qualifications, in 1916 Davidson became UBC’s “demonstrator in charge of the herbarium and botanical garden.” In addition to his academic duties, “Botany John” Davidson distinguished himself as a field naturalist, a popular promoter of science and nature study, and a tireless ambassador for the University. By the time that he retired as an associate professor in 1948, Davidson had also created the Vancouver Natural History Society. The UBC Botanical Garden’s journal, Davidsonia, now bears his name. For more information, see also: http://botanyjohn.org
Kay Cole spent her early years as a child in the small community of Wells (near Barkerville), later moving with her family to a home in the upper levels of West Vancouver. I first new Kay as a graduate student in the Department of Biology and Botany at U.B.C. We were both students on honour programmes in the Department – Kay in Biology and I in Botany. Our supervisor was Andrew Hutchinson, Head of the Department. As Honours students we were provided with office/study space in the then Applied Science Building on the West Mall. We had adjoining desks. At that time, to get to U.B.C. from West Vancouver, she would take a bus from the upper levels to the waterfront at Ambleside where she would take a ferry under the Lions Gate Bridge to the foot of Columbia St. in Vancouver. She would then take a streetcar from Hastings St. to Blanca St. where she would transfer to a bus to the U.B.C. Campus. We both completed B.A. degrees, graduating in 1947 and M.A. degrees in 1948. This was when the Faculty was Arts & Science, before the establishment of the Faculty of Science and the awarding of the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees. Kay then left for Smith College, where she completed her Ph.D. in genetics under the supervision of Albert F. Blakeslee. Blakeslee was a world authority on the genetics of Datura and it was on this plant that Kay did her Ph.D. research. I left for the University of California (Berkley) where I completed the Ph.D. in marine phycology under the supervion of G.F. Papenfuss.
During her years at U.B.C., Kay was active in the Music Society. She had a fine contralto singing voice and frequently performed in concerts and in Vancouver on radio during her years as a student at U.B.C.
Kay was appointed Lecturer and I was appointed Assistanat Professor in the Department of Biology and Botany at U.B.C. in 1952. Both us continued on the staff in the Department until retirement.
In the early years of our appointments at U.B.C. she continued her research in genetics, however on Medicago(alfalfa) . For several years in the summers in the 1950’s I taught a course in marine phycology at the Friday Harbor Marine Laboratory of the University of Washington. Kay was looking for a area of genetics that was new and challenging instead of the vascular plants she had been working with. I suggested to her that the genetics/cytology on marine algae was a new and challenging area she might like to explore. She spent one summer at Friday Harbor in the late 1950’s experimenting with her cytological techniques on marine algae. From then on, she and her graduate students pursued their research on the cytology (eventually the ultrastructure) of marine algae. She soon became a world-renewed researcher in the field of the cytology of marine algae. (I can see her yet at Friday Harbor, where her thumbs were usually stained purple from doing the fuchsin squash technique!).
Paul J. Harrison grew up in Ontario on a farm and attended the University of Toronto. He moved to the Botany department at Guelph for an MSc in plant ecology. After he worked with Canadian University Students Overseas (CUSO) in Ghana and was posted to the coast, he found interests in Marine Biology. He did a PhD in Oceanography at the University of Washington, and he joined UBC in September 1975. He had a prolific research program in Biological Oceanography, jointly appointed between the Departments of Botany and Earth, Oceans, and Atmospheric Science (EOAS-https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/news-events/news/1484208000). He mentored many students and postdocs, including David Turpin (PhD, 1980), who was Paul’s first student to move into off-shore studies, followed by Curtis Suttle (PhD, 1987); and Neil Price (PhD, 1987). A memorial tribute by Curtis Suttle in the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography demonstrates the lasting impact that his mentorshop had on his students (https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lob.10170). He was a valued instructor at Bamfield Marine Station . From 2001-2010, Paul was the Director of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Atmospheric and Marine Science Centre. Paul retired to UBC, and he passed away in December 2017.
UBC Data Science Institute Vancouver, B.C., Canada Postdoctoral Fellow Nov 2017 – Feb 2020
DSI/CS/Botany multidisciplinary research. Point person in Rieseberg Lab (Botany) for large-scale genetic data analysis. Collaborator on student projects.
Developed a reproducible data processing work ow on AWS which compresses core-years of compute into hours of wallclock time, via parallel use of docker containers and serverless. (Repo: https://github.com/rieseberglab/bunnies)
Computed (on AWS) the largest genomic dataset in the world for sunflower. It captures the genetic diversity of thousands of individuals and is studied to fi ght eff ects of climate change.
University of British Columbia Vancouver, B.C., Canada Ph.D. Computer Science in the Systems group Sept 2010 – Nov 2017
Published in Systems, Security, Data Privacy, Cryptography and Anonymity conferences.
Trained and supervised approx 14 undergraduate and M.Sc. computer science students.
(Link description: Bunnies is a python API to write scalable and reproducible scientific workflows/pipelines. It shares many ideas with other data-driven pipeline frameworks such as Snakemake, Nextflow, and Luigi, but strives to achieve a far higher level of reproducibility. It is in early stages of development, but it has been so far used to run bioinformatics pipelines on AWS, successfully)
Research Information
Reproducibility of scientific experiments is required for allowing results of high fidelity to the environment, and to permit transparency in research. More specifically, in large bioinformatics pipelines, result datasets can be deterministically produced by a series of computing steps. Converting bioinformatics pipelines into scripts is often equated with reproducibility, but it is only one step towards a complete solution. For instance, in addition to command sequences, the input parameters and input datasets should also be tracked. Furthermore, data science is an iterative process, and pipelines can take multiple core-years to complete. So it becomes important to also track how parameters and inputs change over the long span of research projects (months or years).
My research interests span computer science, data science, and bioinformatics: systems, cloud, data provenance, and scientific reproducibility of large bioinformatics experiments. I apply cloud technologies to solve both scaling problems and bring tools that help tightly bind datasets to the code, parameters, and environment that generated them. I am interested in finding solutions which can reduce the overall time needed to generate datasets, and generate enough metadata that they can be reused by other researchers and in other experiments, with high confidence.
Research Interests
Bioinformatics frameworks for data-driven pipelines. In particular, applied to short-variant-calling.
Computer Systems
Cloud Storage
Data Provenance
Selected Publications
Todesco, Owens, Bercovich, Legare, et al., \Massive haplotypes underlie ecotypic di erentiation in sun owers”, Nature 584, 602607, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2467-6, July 2020.
Several grants awarded during PostDoc: AWS Open Dataset Grant for \UBC Sun ower Genome” (Jan 2020), Compute-Canada Research Platforms and Portals (RPP) competition for \DivSeek Canada 2020″ (March 2020), AWS Cloud Credits for Research Award 50K (Oct 2018).
Jean-Sebastien Legare, \Enhancing user privacy in web services”, PhD thesis, UBC Faculty ofGraduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Vancouver, November 2017.
Jean-Sebastien Legare, Robert Sumi, William Aiello, \Beeswax: a platform for private web apps”, Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium (PETS), Darmstadt, July 2016.
Legare, Meyer, Spear, Totolici, Bainbridge, MacRow, Sumi, Jung, Tjandra, Williams-King, Aiello, and War eld, \Tolerating Business Failures in Hosted Applications”, ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing (SoCC), Santa Clara, Oct. 2013
Obituary by Louis Druehl1, Bamfield, BC, Canada, January 2019
Robert Francis Scagel’s (1921-2018) career’s journey began in Ontario where he fine-honed his business skills at a business college. In time he moved to British Columbia and a variety of business-related jobs, including the Boeing Manufacturing plant in Richmond, BC, where Hurricane fighter aircraft were made. A mystic transition found him at the University of British Columbia (A.B. 1947, M.A. 1948) and at Phykos’ Door. Next, U.C. Berkeley and a Ph.D. under Associate Professor George Frederik Papenfuss’s tutelage in 1952.
A joint Oceanography/Botany appointment brought him back to UBC and his second career tract: Academic. The story goes that Dr. Papenfuss assigned the first efforts to study the algal macroflora of the eastern Pacific Coast to himself (California north to the Canada-US border), and north of the 49th parallel to Scagel. In this role he synthesized seaweed literature relevant to the local flora, produced a world class herbarium, based on ten years of intense collecting from Attu, Alaska to Terra del Fuego, Chile, leap-frogging Papenfuss’s domain, and supported numerous graduate students, postdocs, and research associates.
Dr. Scagel developed a ‘Synthetic Approach’ to understanding seaweed distributions, relating known seaweed distributions to coastal oceanographic conditions. This approach resulted in predicting kelp refugia in tropical deep-waters (Graham, et al. 2007. PNAS 104: 16576-16580). I believe this research was important to his being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, Canada.
Outside of the lab, he guided the Botany Department as Head from 1972-1985. During this period there were several faculty members with algal interests: (J. Stein – freshwater, K. Cole – cytogenetics, B. Tregunna – physiology, T. Bisalputra – ultrastructure, R. de Wreede – ecology, R. Foreman – ecology, cultivation, F. J. R. Taylor – phytoplankton, P. J. Harrison – phytoplankton/seaweed physiology, P. G. Harrison – eelgrass ecology, Luis Oliveira – ultrastructure, Michael Hawkes – red algal systematics, life histories). Wrote David Garbary of this assemblage, “I have always looked back to my years at UBC with pride. In the 70s and early 80s Bob made that institution a world centre for phycology, and I am humbled to have been a part of that.” Dr. Scagel was editor2 of Phycologia, 1969-1971, and on the organizing committee for the 1st Phycological Congress, 1982.
Following his retirement in 1986, he slipped into his third career, visual artist (https://ginkgostudio.weebly.com/) where he quickly established his exploratory artistic excellence. During his last years, he lived with his son, Rob. His vision, hearing and mobility were ravaged, but his mind remained sharp.
My Phykos Door was opened when Professor Scagel discovered me, pouting, on WestBeach, WhidbeyI., WA., contemplating a career in the gas industry (I would walk gas lines looking for sick plants). He was putting seaweeds in a bucket and I asked him, “What are you doing?” He replied, “Collecting seaweeds.” And I said, “Oh, and who are you?” “Bob Scagel,” he replied. After a few more inane exchanges, Scagel said, “Would like to study at UBC?” Thank you, Bob, thank you for everything. R.I.P.
1Dr. Druehl was a Ph.D. student with Prof. Scagel; completing his thesis, ‘On the taxonomy, distribution, and ecology of the brown algal genus Laminaria in the northeast Pacific’, in 1965.
2Dr. Scagel was also Editor of Syesis (published by the BC ProvincialMuseum) from 1968–1975 (Vols. 1–8).
Further information on Prof. Scagel’s career can be found in Taylor (2017) A History of the University of British Columbia Botany Department 1908-2015.
Images and selected publications (courtesy of Mike Hawkes).
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figs. 1, 2 & 3. The canopy-forming kelps Macrocystis (1 & 2) and Nereocystis (3).
In a paper published just after he completed his B.A. degree at UBC, Scagel (1947) reported on seaweeds, especially ‘Giant kelp’ (Macrocystis pyrifera) and ‘Bull kelp’ (Nereocystis luetkeana), in the vicinity of HardyBay, on the NE coast of Vancouver I. This publication was based on field work carried out by Scagel at a station on DeerIsland from July to September 1947. The report focused on the growth, effect of harvesting, and conservation of these important seaweeds.
Figure 4
Fig. 4. Whidbeyella cartilaginea distribution as of 2019.
This extremely rare red seaweed was first described by Setchell and Gardner (1903) from a single drift specimen on the west coast of Whidbey I., WA. Scagel (1962) published the first account of the reproductive anatomy of the monotypic genus Whidbeyella, based on a collection from near Smith I., WA. Scagel also reported on the largest known specimen of Whidbeyella (lower left corner of Fig. 4) collected by Mike Neushul at Hein Bank, WA and photographed by Shirley Sparling while at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs, San Juan I.
Figure 5
Fig. 5. Scagel (1971) reported the first occurrence of the brown alga, Dictyota binghamiae, in British Columbia. This widespread genus is usually found in warm temperate to tropical waters.
Figure 6
Fig. 6. Bob Scagel and students collecting seaweeds at Kiix-in1 (pronounced KEE-shun in the Ohiat language), Barkley Sound, Vancouver I., BC, 10 May 1974. Kiix-in was once the capital community or main village of the Huu-ay-aht group of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation. Declared a National Historic Site in 1999, it is close to the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. Scagel (1973) published the first synopsis of benthic marine plants in the vicinity of Bamfield.
Figure 7
Fig. 7. Bob Scagel and Jean Feldmann (France) collecting seaweeds at Point No Point, near Sooke on the SW coast of Vancouver Island in 1959.
In an email (9 Dec. 2002), Scagel told the story of this field trip to some former students and colleagues (Widdowson, Druehl, Hawkes, Gabrielson, and Lindstrom). It is worth quoting here …… “I first met Feldmann in 1955 when I visited him in Paris and in the summer of 1959 as part of the International Botanical Congress in Montreal when I led a small field trip of several days duration to Vancouver Island (Sooke and Port Renfrew). That field trip was unique, because it comprised only five of us – fitting into one station wagon: Feldmann, Yamada, Helen Blackler (from St. Andrews University), Ron Taylor from New Brunswick and George (whose surname I have forgotten) from San Francisco. We stayed several nights at the Point No Point Motel in three separate cottages. Helen Blackler by herself in one cottage; Feldmann and Yamada in one cottage; and myself and the other two in a third. I often thought afterward that Feldmann and Yamada must have made a curious pair: At that time Feldmann spoke very little English and Yamada spoke very little English! The following year Yamada came to Friday Harbor where we shared in offering the course in “algology”. That field trip was also unique in one other sense: Helen Blackler had been visiting a relative in Victoria prior to the field trip and was just recovering from the “flu”. Our first night at Point No Point she was ill and lost one of her dentures (upper or lower, I don’t recall) down the John. Recovery was impossible, so I spent part of the next three days driving her back and forth to a dentist in Sooke. By the time we left, she probably went back to Scotland with one of the finest sets in Scotland. That field trip was also unique in that, courtesy of the Canadian Navy, we made a side trip from Victoria to Friday Harbor (and a dredging trip on the Hydah). We made quite an impression on the Friday Harbor residents and Marine Station with our naval escort.”
Figure 8
Fig. 8. Tom Widdowson (then doing his Ph.D. with Scagel), Y. Yamada, Ron Taylor (back), George ? (front), H. Blackler, and J. Feldmann at Botanical Beach, 1959. Continuing Scagel’s story of this field trip (email 9 Dec. 2002)….. “Our trip to Botany Beach at Port Renfrew was also noteworthy. In those days, as Tom will no doubt recall, we parked in the village of Port Renfrew and hiked over the remnants of the old plank road. During the field trip, Feldmann wore a pair of open plastic sandals, one of which he lost on the way back over the plank road. When the field trip ended we provided space in the Botany Department [at UBC] for those who had specimens to mount to do so. Julie [Celestino] changed the blotters and completed the drying and we mailed the specimens to them. In the meantime, Feldmann’s sandal was recovered, and we mounted it on a herbarium sheet and sent it back to Paris with his specimens.”
Figure 9
Fig. 9. Four distinguished phycologists. Sapporo, Japan, Aug. 1971. Scagel (email 9 Dec. 2002) also provided the story for this photo ….. “This picture was taken by Jun Tokida during the 7th International Seaweed Symposium in Sapporo. I had met Tokida and Yamada when I visited Sapporo in 1957. Tokida, whose English was quite good, came from Hakodate to Sapporo to meet me. When he met me at the airport he was holding a big sign that said “welcome Dr. Scagel”. He had borrowed the chauffeur and limousine of the President of Hokkaido University. The following day they took me on a field trip to the marine station at Oshoro (I think) in the shadow of Mt. Yendo – the first time I ever went on a field trip in a chauffeured Cadillac! The mountain nearby was apparently named after Yendo after his return from the University of Chicago and he was allegedly responsible for introducing skiing to Hokkaido on his return to Japan. In 1971 Yamada was in failing health and was living with his son in Sapporo. Tokida took the four of us (in the photograph) by taxi to visit Yamada. Those in the picture are left to right: seated Jean Feldmann and Y. Yamada; standing RFS and G. F. Papenfuss.
Figure 10
Fig. 10. The first five Editors of the journal Phycologia: Kay Cole, Robin South, Bill Woelkerling, Robert Scagel, and Paul Silva pose for a photo during the 13th International Seaweed Symposium held at UBC, Vancouver, Aug. 1989.
Figure 11
Fig. 11. Bob Scagel and Olivia Lee at the UBC Herbarium 100th Anniversary Celebration, 29 Feb. 2016.
Thank you to Dr. Scagel’s son, Rob, for bringing this video to my attention (MW Hawkes).
Selected Early Publications
Scagel, R. F. 1947. An investigation of marine plants near HardyBay, B. C. Provincial Department of Fisheries, Victoria. No. 1. 70 pp. 26 figs.
Scagel, R. F. 1957. An annotated list of the marine algae of British Columbia and northern Washington. National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 150: 1‑289. 1 fig.
Scagel, R. F. 1961. The distribution of certain benthonic algae in Queen Charlotte Strait, British Columbia, in relation to some environmental factors. Pacific Science 15: 494‑539. 51 figs.
Scagel, R. F. 1962. A morphological study of the red alga Whidbeyella cartilaginea Setchell et Gardner. Canadian Journal of Botany 40: 1217‑1222. 14 figs.
Scagel, R. F. 1963. Distribution of attached marine algae in relation to oceanographic conditions in the northeast Pacific. Pp. 37‑50. 11 figs. In Dunbar, M. J. (ed.), Marine distributions. University of Toronto Press.
Scagel, R. F. 1964. Some problems in algal distributions in the North Pacific. Proceedings of the International Seaweed Symposium 4: 259‑264.
Scagel, R. F. 1966a. Marine algae of British Columbia and northern Washington. Part 1. Chlorophyceae. National Museum of Canada, Bulletin 207: 1‑257. 49 pls.
Scagel, R. F. 1966b. The Phaeophyceae in perspective. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Reviews 4: 123‑194. 1 fig.
Scagel, R. F. 1967. Guide to common seaweeds of British Columbia. British ColumbiaProvincialMuseum, Handbook No. 27, 330 pp. 141 figs.
Scagel, R. F. 1971 [1972]. The brown alga Dictyota binghamiae J. Ag. from British Columbia and northern Washington. Syesis 4: 261. 1 fig.
Scagel, R. F. 1973. Marine benthic plants in the vicinity of Bamfield, Barkley Sound, British Columbia. Syesis 6: 127‑145. 1 fig.
Scagel, R. F., R. J. Bandoni, J. R. Maze, G. E. Rouse, W. B. Schofield, & J. R. Stein. 1982. Nonvascular plants: an evolutionary survey. Wadsworth Publishing Co., Belmont, California.
Scagel, R. F., R. J. Bandoni, J. R. Maze, G. E. Rouse, W. B. Schofield, & J. R. Stein. 1984. Plants: an evolutionary survey. Wadsworth Publishing Co., Belmont, California.
Reprinted with permission from the Botanical Electronic News (click here to see original article on BEN)
Neil Towers, a much respected scientist and Professor at the University of British Columbia, passed away on November 15th, 2004 in Vancouver. He was 81. Predeceased by mother Kathleen and brother Desmond, Neil will be lovingly remembered and sadly missed by his wife Elizabeth and his eight children. He will be greatly missed by colleagues, students, and friends at the University of British Columbia (Botany Department) and around the world.
UBC Emeritus Professor of Botany Neil Towers was well known nationally and internationally for his outstanding record of pioneering and sustained research in botany and phytochemistry.
He was born in Bombay, India and grew up in Burma, where his interest in the natural world began. He often spoke of his childhood spent collecting poisonous snakes and other curiosities in the forests near his home.
After time in the Royal Indian Navy Volunteer Reserve, and a stint as a liaison officer in Bath, England, he was awarded an Ajax scholarship to study in Canada. He obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from McGill University, and his Ph.D. in 1954 from Cornell University. After academic appointments at McGill and the NRC in Halifax, he was recruited to UBC, where he served as Head of the Department of Botany from 1964-71, a period of great expansion of the Department. After 1971, he devoted his full energies to his successful career in research and teaching, which he continued as an emeritus faculty member from 1989 until his death.
Neil was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, from whom he received the Flavelle Medal in 1986. He received numerous research awards and prizes over his career. Most recently, he was awarded the Pergamon Phytochemistry Prize in 2000, and in 2001 was recognized by ISI as one of UBC’s (and the world’s) most highly cited scientists. He published more than 425 papers and book chapters, starting with a 1953 paper in Nature.
Neil was charming, funny and an excellent raconteur. Lab parties at his Vancouver home often ended late at night, with the room cleared to make space for dancing to his favorite Django Reinhardt and latin music. He had an open door policy, and always welcomed office visits by students or whoever was interested in talking about plants and chemistry. He traveled extensively to collect plants worldwide, mainly in the tropics, and he returned from a trip to Peru only this last summer. Many in the Botany Department at UBC will remember the photos and artifacts from his travels that decorated his office.
Neil loved what is now called biodiversity: the shapes and colours of plants and insects, and the variations of chemical structures found in nature. His fields of study included medicinal phytochemistry, ethnopharmacology, photobiology, chemical ecology relating to plants, fungi and insects, and biotechnology of plant cell and tissue cultures. He conducted important early studies on phenolic metabolism in plants, and on the interaction of light with phytochemicals to produce toxicity. His lab investigated the chemistry and antibiotic activity of many plants native to British Columbia, including those used in traditional medicine.
Neil was also a great teacher of young scientists in Canada and elsewhere, and many of his graduate students and postdoctoral workers went on to establish their own labs. Perhaps his greatest contribution to science was through this role as mentor. A student in his lab couldn’t walk by his office door without being called in to discuss a new paper or a new idea. It is through his infectious enthusiasm for science and the natural world that the spirit of Neil Towers lives on.
I grew up in Myanmar (formerly Burma) when it was a British colony. My parents sent me to boarding schools around the country run by Christian brothers who sadly lacked an interest in the natural sciences, particularly natural history. Living and traveling as a schoolboy in perhaps one of the most beautiful tropical countries on this planet, I developed a craze for natural history. I collected snakes, beetles, butterflies, dissected animals for parasites and tried to identify plants from books. It was a happy boyhood. On reflection I think I was lucky not to have lived in our computer and television age. I did not see a television program until I was about twenty two! I spent all of my holiday time escaping prayers and wandering through the enchanting countryside exploring nature. I was spellbound by the travels, adventures and ideas of Darwin, Wallace, Bates and many other famous explorers. That is exactly what I wanted to be. World War II intervened.
I came to Canada on a scholarship for ex-naval officers at the end of the war. I had many adventures during the war, quite a number of which would have been called unforced errors of life were they to be compared to a game of tennis! Having escaped from the Japanese and winding up in England and then Canada, my life changed and I was suddenly plunged into the cloisters of academia. My sunny days of adventure were over – perhaps forever.
I was saddened to find that there were very few enthusiastic natural historians in this new life in a university. My fellow undergraduates in fact never seemed to have had time to talk about the excitement of biology they were so busy cramming for exams. I found out also that the world appeared to have been already explored by my arrogant zoology instructors and there was little new to discover other than to climb very tall moun- tain peaks or dive deep under the sea. I was an Honours Zoology student at McGill University in Montr,al at the time and was advised by zoologists that the secrets of the animal world really lay in the realm of statistics! Even genetics was all statistics according to them.
Botanists, in contrast, were fascinated by apparent trivia: they were excited by the shapes of leaves, the hairiness of plant structures (for which there are many unpronounceable names) the geometry of flowers and a phenomenon called 2N versus N. However these botanists seemed to love what they were doing and I was encouraged to join their ranks. They actually worked with their microscopes in the evenings. They suggested to me that the inner workings of plants e.g. how sugars are manufactured from a gas in light was irrelevant and for Heaven’s sake don’t spoil things by dragging chemistry into the picture in order to understand how a plant lives. Of course, electron microscopy, the role of nucleic acids, the nature of enzymes etc. were not even dreamed of at that time. Professor R. D. Gibbs, a feisty botanist at McGill, kindled my interest in plant chemistry. He was con- sidered a crank by other botanists as I found out later because he was fascinated by the chemical relationships between plants. In fact he was a chemotaxonomist at a time when chemists did not know the meaning of the word taxonomy and a botanist might have been embarrassed if accused of understanding anything about chemistry.
Here was a botanist who actually knew some phytochemistry and, Good Lord, this chap could actually draw chemical structures! We became good friends and I obtained an M.Sc. under his supervision. The research involved the chemotaxonomy of plant lignins and was published in Nature. Perhaps I was the first person at McGill to use the new technique of paper chromatography. Certainly, the chemists and biochemists at McGill seemed to be as yet unfamiliar with the use of this technology. Later on during a sabbatical leave with the enzymologist D.D. Davis at the University of East Anglia, I used to drink beer every afternoon with Dick Synge, one of the discoverers of paper chromatography, a Nobel Laureate, a seasoned beer drinker, and a very dangerous cyclist (after drinking of course). Curiously Gibbs suggested that paper chromatography would never work and that I should use fractional sublimation instead to separate my products of alkaline nitrobenzene oxidation, namely p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillin and syringaldehyde. Clearly this was not good advice because his total NRC budget for the year was about $115! Gibbs was old fashioned by current standards. It was good for me. It made me more of an independent scientist. When I asked him if he would be kind enough to read a draft of my thesis he was astounded. “I am here to examine you Towers, not to help you. It is your thesis – not mine!” Nowadays, of course, there are many rules in Canadian universities to chaperone graduates in thesis writing so that in the end I feel we sometimes produce the well- known camel instead of the desired racehorse.
I went to Cornell for my Ph.D. studies with Professor F. C. Steward, a distinguished English plant physiologist who boasted that he had never taken a course in botany in his life. Needless to say he thought that he was the founder of botany. He had achieved fame for his work on ion accumulation in plants. His students called him the Golden Bantam because he was small, a fearless fighter, and rather arrogant. He once told me that he regretted the fact that dueling was no longer encouraged as a means of resolving departmental quarrels among faculty. He meant it!
Steward had become interested in the use of paper chromatography for separating and identifying the many unidentified non-protein amino acids in plants. My Ph.D thesis was concerned with designing new methods for the identification of alpha-keto acids in plants. Quite boring actually. It was a wonderful period of study, however, because Steward had attracted extremely knowledgeable postdocs, such as John F. Thompson, and clever graduate students to his lab. He was also a research supervisor who was so busy chasing research dollars that we had complete freedom in our own programs. I think that this is still the case in many universities.
At Cornell I took Botany and Biochemistry and a course on enzymes by J. B. Sumner. After many years of tedious research Sumner had discovered that the fewer steps involved, the better were his yields of the hydrolytic enzyme urease which he was studying in Canavalia ensiformis (Jack bean). In fact, he discovered one day that a 32% acetone extract heated to about 60 deg. C, filtered overnight through Whatman paper into a graduate cylinder, and placed in a refrigerator yielded a precipitate which, when examined under a microscope, was found to consist of “octahedral” crystals. The crystals had tremendous urease activity. Repeated analyses showed that it was a protein. This was in 1926. Sumner wrote in his lab notebook about this momentous day: “That night I slept but little”. At that time of course the true nature of enzymes was unknown and the leaders in the field, among them the very famous German biochemists, Willstatter and Waldschmidt-Leitz, refused to acknowledge that a 26-year-old American had actually isolated an enzyme and proven that it was nothing more than a protein. His discovery was treated with some ridicule which unfortunately made him rather bitter. Four years later when Northrup crystallized the proteolytic enzymes pepsin and trypsin from animal sources at the Rockefeller Institute and showed that they are also proteins, Sumner’s achievement was acknowledged – they shared a Nobel prize. We had the privilege of repeating Sumner’s work in our laboratory course and even of recrystallizing urease. Of course, like Sumner, we made the entry “That night I slept but little” in our laboratory notebooks.
I was offered a job as Assistant professor in the Botany Department at McGill and assigned to teach plant anatomy, plant physiology, plant biochemistry and help run introductory botany labs. I inherited an old physics lab which could only be accessed through a men’s urinal, a bit of an annoyance to my women graduate students. After four years of working in this “lab” we discovered an open pool of about 40 kg of mercury under the wooden floor. It must have been “lost” by the physicists during their war research years. Also contributing to the poor working conditions were the feral cats that had taken up residence in the dark corners of this medieval set of rooms, occasionally emerging to produce a litter of young kittens on our chromatograms which had to be stored on the floor. The lab was cold and we often had to use gloves and overcoats to stay warm during the winter months. At that time, university startup money for research was unthinkable. Besides, there were tons of microscopes and herbarium sheets lying around. What more could a botanist want? Roy Waygood, the plant physiologist at McGill was most encouraging, allowing me access to his lab equipment and his knowledge of plant physiology and biochemistry.
Among the many wonderful graduate students in my lab was our illustrious PSNA [Phytochemical Society of North America] stalwart Ragai Ibrahim. Seichi Yoshida of Tokyo Metropolitan University also joined me as a postdoc. Later his student, Minamikawa, joined my lab and much later on Minamikawa’s student, Etsuo Yamamoto, came to my lab as a postdoc. That’s three generations of great Japanese phytochemists! We spent a lot of time making 2D chromatograms of plant extracts, cutting out spots, eluting them, and so on. I remember my eight year old son spending an afternoon in my lab. After watching me for half an hour he asked “What are you going to be when you grow up, Dad?” It seems that in his eyes I have never really grown up.
I was delighted to learn about the Birch and Donovan hypothesis in relation to flavonoids. Instead of being neatly derived (on paper) from two hexoses and a triose according to Geissman and Hinreiner, they now appeared to be derived from a hydroxycinnamate and acetate! We resolved to test this with the dihydro-chalcone glucoside, phloridzin. Alas! We were beaten by Neish’s group at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada in Saskatoon who proved this hypothesis with quercetin, and Grisebach’s group in Germany who proved the hypothesis with an anthocyanin. It seems silly now but we were dreadfully disappointed not to have been the first to have proven that Birch and Donovan were right.
I spent a summer at the NRC laboratories in Ottawa with D.C. Mortimer and Paul Gorham, learning radiotracer techniques and carrying out 14C photosynthesis studies. The following summer I spent with Stewart “Coumarin” Brown and Arthur Neish at the NRC laboratory (then called the Prairie Regional Laboratory) in Saskatoon studying coumarin biosynthesis. When I returned to McGill at the end of the summer Ibrahim and I prepared twodirectional chromatograms of the phenolic acids from a range of plants. Sprayed with diazotized nitroaniline or diatized sulfanilic acid they gave a range of beautiful colors. We had a special room set up with these large chromatograms adorning the walls for participants of the IXth Botanical Congress which was held at McGill, the Universit, de Montr,al, and Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) that year. These chromatograms were works of art and admired by all who visited us.
After enjoying more than nine years at McGill I was invited by Art Neish to head up the Plant Biochemistry section of the NRC’s Atlantic Regional Laboratory in Halifax, Nova Scotia to which he had been appointed Director. Neish was considered to be one of the outstanding phytochemists in Canada and I was delighted to join his institute as I had a great admiration for him as a scientist and also because I was jointly appointed as an Associate Professor to Dalhousie University in Halifax where Neish and I taught a course in comparative biochemistry. My graduate students at McGill accompanied me there and had the advantage of working in the well-equipped NRC labs and alongside distinguished Canadian scientists in chemistry (Gavin McInnis) and biochemistry (Leo Vining). We published many papers especially on the biosynthesis of interesting lichen compounds as well as on comparative phenylpropanoid metabolism in lycopods and fungi. We showed clearly that L-tyrosine is metabolized quite differently from L-phenylalanine, especially in vascular plants. Tyrosine is metabolized to acetate and its derivatives when introduced into plant tissues and phenylalanine is the gateway to phenylpropanoid metabolism. We also identified a new cyanogen from Taxus and studied its biosynthesis showing that both the nitrogen and carbon are derived from L-phenylalanine. We discovered psilotin, a glucoside derived from ahydroxycinnamate and one equivalent of acetate, in the primitive ferns Psilotum and Tmesipteris.
I next moved to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver as Head of Biology and Botany, an administrative position which tore me away from thinking time and plunged me into the petty life of administration in a then impoverished Canadian university. After five years, a sabbatical leave in England where I studied enzymes with D.D. Davies at the University of East Anglia, convinced me to resign as Head and settle down again to research and teaching. As most biology students at our universities do not enjoy chemistry my classes were small and were therefore a great pleasure to teach. Many more graduate students and postdocs passed through my research program and it would take many more pages to describe our further achievements in phytochemistry.
Katherine I. Beamish, Kay, was brought up on a Manitoba farm and moved to Burnaby, B. C. in her teens. She trained as an elementary school teacher at the Vancouver Normal School and taught in elementary schools throughout the 1930s until World War II. During the war Kay enlisted in the women’s division of the Royal Canadian Air Force and was based in Halifax and Newfoundland through the years of the Battle of the Atlantic. She served in the air ferry command that flew bombers across the North Atlantic. After the war, she obtained a B. S. Agriculture and M. Sc. in Plant Sciences at UBC. She then did a Ph.D. in plant taxonomy at the University of Wisconsin. Kay was invited back to the Botany Department at UBC, in part to help re-establish the herbarium. Through neglect during the Great Depression and World War II, several of its early plant collections by pioneer botanists had been virtually destroyed by beetles. She added greatly to the UBC herbarium collection and helped restore confidence in its usefulness. The Botanical Garden at UBC had dwindled to a few taxonomic beds, and Kay also helped with its restoration. She remained with the UBC Botany Department until retirement. In the 1950s and ‘60s, Kay and others assisted Vladimir Krajina in the development and passage of the B.C. Ecological Reserve Act. Kay was very active in the Vancouver Natural History Society and was the inspiration for the VNHS’s Kay Beamish Award for Achievement in Nature Education, established in 1995. She died peacefully in Crofton on February 4, 2003 at the age of 90.
Much of this information came from the Vancouver Natural History Society’s journal Discovery, Spring 2003, vol. 32 no. 1, pp. 8-12.
Jim Pojar remembers Kay Beamish
Dr. Katherine Beamish was one of the first Canadians I met, when in 1970 I came to Vancouver, for graduate studies in the Department of Botany. She made an immediate favourable impression on me, and has had a lasting effect on my life. I very soon realized she was a real botanist, and was a kind but no-nonsense person who I instinctively knew I must not disappoint. She became my supervisor, and guided me through the unpredictable academic terrain with care and skill. Every Friday, for three years, she sat down with me and discussed what I had been working on that week, what progress I had made on the thesis. Few Ph.D. supervisors spend that much time with their grad students. Her diligence with me was especially noteworthy because I wasn’t working on any of her favourite projects or species (saxifrages and shootingstars), nor did my research directly benefit her program. She was also remarkably tolerant of my headstrong and at times stubborn and smart-alecky behaviour. No doubt she had seen that sort of thing before. Looking back on those days, I recall that there was often a glint of amusement in her eyes, at some of my antics.
But we had more than just a student-professor relationship. Early on, it became clear that we both really liked going out in the field, exploring and botanizing and doing natural history. Field botany was our shared passion, and later on the Vancouver Canucks, who have been much less rewarding. It was Kay Beamish who first took me to Lighthouse Park, to Ladner Marsh, Camosun Bog, Burns Bog, Mill Hill, Thetis Lake Park, Long Beach, Liumchen Ridge, Blackwall Meadows and Mt. Frosty in Manning Park, among others. Those trips and places had a profound effect on me, a Minnesota boy new to mountains and the sea. I was also mightily impressed that this woman over twice my age could go uphill like a mountain goat.
Kay Beamish introduced me to Platanthera dilatata, Dodecatheon jeffreyi, Carex macrocephala, Saxifraga (now Micranthes) rufidula, Dicentra uniflora, Mimulus alsinoides, Larix lyallii, and many other marvels. I could go on and on, and we did, on some splendid extended field trips. Two in particular I remember. A collecting trip, with Jack Maze and some other students, to northern California—a whole new flora, where we ‘baled hay’ with the best of them. And an expedition up the just-completed Stewart-Cassiar road (now Highway 37), searching for plants and potential ecological reserves, with Keith Wade, Art Guppy, and George Otto. The northern bush was thrilling. We explored, hiked, bushwhacked, camped out in tents, collected and pressed plants well into the evening in the extended daylight, and had convivial times around the campfire.
I remember Kay Beamish most fondly as a mentor, my guide to a new world. I remember how sometimes in her office she would cock her head and get a faraway look, thinking perhaps of a past botanical ramble. Or how she would stand, hands clasping elbows, while gazing from some Chilliwack Valley peak towards Mt. Baker. She was a kind, generous, and good-humoured person who spoke no ill even of unpleasant people; at most she would grimace and shudder with exasperation. I am thankful that I met her, became her student and friend, was inspired by her, and settled in her beautiful province and country.
As of summer 2022, Dr. Alex Moore (she/they) is an Assistant Professor co-appointed at UBC Botany and the Faculty of Forestry. We are thrilled to be working with them!
Moore’s research programme currently focuses on predator-prey interactions in mangrove forests throughout the tropics and will begin to include restoration projects along the coast of BC. These are incredibly important, timely research goals, keeping in form with Moore’s previous experience working as a postdoctoral fellow with the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Given that description, seasoned scientists are likely to have a rough idea of the kinds of decisions and career transitions involved in Moore’s academic timeline. But for younger, newer scientists at the beginning of their journey, Moore’s path might seem hard to parse.
Read on to learn what Moore wants to share with young biologists — about their career path, how they learned research skills, and how work can align with community values.
To an outsider, it can seem like Dr. Moore has been on a linear, well-planned timeline to studying ecological conservation.
Moore elaborated on their timeline by stating that if someone had asked them ten years ago about where they would be now, they wouldn’t have been able to give a good answer. While they likely would have been able to envision themselves doing work related to conservation and the environment, they never would have guessed that they would be faculty.
“Each step along my academic timeline informed what I felt good about and what I didn’t feel good about doing in terms of what I wanted to do next,” they said.
Focusing on what was right in front of them – not what was ten years into the future – allowed Dr. Moore to be an intelligent and disciplined academic, and also gave them the space to figure out if they were enjoying the work. “At the beginning of my PhD I didn’t know what I’d be doing at the end of my PhD. All I was thinking about was, ‘I’m going to do my PhD,’” said Moore.
In fact, Dr. Moore’s path involved a few twists and turns. Check out the graphic above!
As an undergraduate, Moore started off as a chemistry major. It quickly became apparent that even though they earned high grades in the subject, they hated doing the work. Prompted by a sense of unease, they took time to self-reflect. When they thought about what they enjoyed doing and what they were drawn to, some themes arose: nature, spending time outdoors, and encouraging sustainable behaviors. Moore transitioned into the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) major because the degree fit more of their interests.
They then did their Master’s degree in the same program (EEB), picking up key knowledge in conservation genetics and the transferable skill of lab work by working with a species of freshwater snails.
Learning wet-lab research skills was something Moore had to do on-the-fly while in their Master’s program.
“I had to do a lot to catch up to where everyone else was already starting,” said Moore. “People talk about the difficulty of getting into programs, and they also talk about the challenge inherent in academic spaces. But there is less conversation around where people think the starting line is, and whether or not you’re already at that starting point.”
Eventually, Moore realized they were not drawn to lab work. “I knew I was into conservation because I knew of my own personal connections to natural spaces and I knew that I wanted those spaces to persist into the future, but I didn’t really know how I wanted to fit into the field of conservation.”
While taking courses as a Master’s student, a class taught by Dr. Bradley Cardinale really caught Moore’s interest; the course examined the relationship between biodiversity, and ecosystems, and how people value and interact with natural systems. Moore was excited by how these topics prompted a diverse range of people to care about the science behind conservation. They carried this passion forward by incorporating species interactions and ecosystem services into their PhD research. During their PhD, Moore focussed on wetland ecosystems restoration in Connecticut. Instead of the more typical approach to trying to restore the physical parts of the system, such as nutrient availability via waterways, Moore incorporated the biological components of the system, such as interactions between predators and prey.
Moore’s PhD work showed that healthy ecosystem recovery is more likely when biological components of systems are incorporated into restoration. As a postdoctoral fellow, Moore expanded on this work by working on coastal mangrove restoration in the Pacific Islands, where they began to see the importance of traditional ecological knowledge and local environmental stewardship for ecosystems. These areas remain key to Moore’s current research.
However, Moore’s time as a PhD student also brought up some dislikes. They did not feel positively about the structure of academia, nor did their values align with the intense pressure to constantly publish. When pursuing postdoctoral opportunities, Moore decided to look for the opportunity to do “meaningful, impactful work that also supported equity, diversity inclusion for different kinds of communities of people.”
“The reason I took the postdoc position at American Museum of Natural History was because research was only one part of the role. The other part of my role was in teaching students from New York City who typically don’t have access to mentorship opportunities, and being able to do this spoke to the elements I felt were missing in my time in academia,” said Moore.
Moore’s journey through academia helped them identify the aims of the Inclusive Conservation Lab that they started when they arrived at UBC; they focus on applied community and ecosystem ecology research at various scales while incorporating the needs of local communities.
We concluded by asking Moore a few questions:
What would you say to a young scientist who doesn’t feel at home in academia?
Answer: I don’t know if it’s possible to really feel at home in an institution, and if it is possible, then it means that you’re aligned with whatever the institution is aligned with and maybe those alignments are problematic. I think what is possible is to feel at home in the community you decide to build within those spaces. When I was deciding where to do my PhD, a big element of my decision-making process was thinking through whether I would be in a space where I felt like I could have community. I had a terrible, terrible time in my Master’s program because I was brought into a non-inclusive space as a student in a non-traditional pathway; there were faculty members who didn’t think I belonged there or who weren’t convinced of the quality of my work.
While doing my PhD, I found home in people. You’ll always enter into an institutional culture that doesn’t align 100 per cent with your personal needs, but I think you can find trustworthy people that align with what makes you feel safe.
In your view, how did graduate school differ from the undergraduate experience?
Answer: While looking at graduate programs I was really aware of having to obtain financial support, the qualifying exam process, and coursework expectations. These all differ between institutions. I ended up choosing a program that felt right for me — my course load was low and the qualifying exam process was more involved but not as intense as other programs.
A challenge especially for young people coming into graduate spaces after the K-12 and undergraduate experience, where other people have structured your time for you, is being given the freedom to structure your own time while also being expected to complete a large scale research project. One thing you can do to establish some structure is to meet at the right intervals with your advisor. That interval, for me, was twice a month or once every couple weeks.
What is a commonly held belief about being a scientist that you want to dispel?
One of the big myths about what it takes to be a scientist is that you have to be “inherently” smart, that you have to be “inherently gifted”, or that you have to get the best marks on every standardized test you’ve ever taken.
Those things do not actually serve as metrics of whether or not you can be a good scholar. I don’t think that a certain background or mindset should disadvantage a person from being able to participate in this kind of scholarship, and I truly do think anyone could do this type of work with the right kind of support and with the right mentorship. I want more people to believe this!
For Dr. Kaitlyn Gaynor (she/her), Assistant Professor in UBC’s Departments of Botany and Zoology, being able to do research was a key moment of transition in her journey to becoming a scientist.
“I had spent so much time in school reading other peoples’ work. When I began exploring research opportunities in undergrad, I realized that I could be the person that was creating knowledge and writing papers, as opposed to just being a consumer. It was really empowering,” said Gaynor.
Learning that, we got curious about what came before and after Gaynor’s pivotal insight. How did Gaynor get involved in research in the first place? How did her early research experiences lead her to her current interests in the effects of human disturbance on wildlife and to working with us at UBC Botany?
On behalf of young scientists, we asked Gaynor to help demystify her path as a way of offering advice to those who are new to research. The answers are summarized in the graphic above — but the insights don’t stop there. Read on to learn more!
At the beginning of undergrad, Dr. Gaynor didn’t know much beyond the fact that she wanted to do something in the sciences.
She felt a bit “like a kid in a candy shop” with the amount of options for classes that were available and decided to enroll in whatever she could that seemed interesting. This included classes in psychology, archaeology and ecology, and she even considered being a physics major.
Ultimately, one course adjacent to the field of ecology really caught Gaynor’s attention. The class, taught by Dr. Jill Shapiro, examined the history of the human species within ecosystems using the lens of human evolution. Taking into account the fact that she had always loved animals and nature, Gaynor made the decision to major in the department out of which the class was taught: Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology.
“Another deciding factor,” said Gaynor, “was that I felt welcomed, supported and like I belonged in the tight-knit Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology department. I actually came close to being a physics major in my first year, but I didn’t like the large class sizes, the competitive environment, and the hyper masculine culture of the field.”
Exploration remained key to Gaynor’s process.
She continued taking more classes that were slightly outside the zone of her knowledge — such as primatology — leading to her second major in biological anthropology. She also started testing out research opportunities by volunteering in a primate cognition lab, and studying abroad to do archaeology in Ecuador and field biology in Brazil. From these experiences, Gaynor realized that she was really drawn to fieldwork, leading her to travel to Kenya to complete her undergraduate thesis on vigilance behavior in blue monkeys under the supervision of Dr. Marina Cords.
Her undergraduate thesis research was Gaynor’s first taste of independent research: a project that she had designed and executed from start to finish. She was hooked. “I knew that was it. That’s what I wanted to do,” she said.
“After I graduated I went back to that field site in Western Kenya,worked for the professor who was my advisor in undergrad, and managed the research project for a year.”
Gaynor began thinking about graduate school. But before she applied, she wanted more experience as a researcher. She decided to broaden her skill set by working in Dr. Dustin Rubenstein’s lab investigating behavioral ecology (kin selection and social behavior) and genetics in snapping shrimp and starlings.
Her years as a researcher hugely informed Gaynor’s PhD project. While in Kenya, she observed monkeys feeding in trash pits, living in fragmented plantations, and eating the mud from the exterior of houses. In other words, these monkeys were living in anthropogenic contexts that were different from the context in which they had evolved.
“For my PhD, I decided to bring together my interest in animal behavior with my questions about the growing role of humans in the environment, ultimately hoping I could positively influence conservation outcomes,” said Gaynor.
Through continued fieldwork, Gaynor investigated the effects of human disturbance, especially hunting, on wildlife in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. She observed that in some ecosystems, a “landscape of fear” emerged, in which animals respond to human disturbances by changing their behavior by, for example, becoming more nocturnal.
The research had informative results for conservation efforts, so Gaynor was motivated to remain in the same discipline and contribute further knowledge. For her postdoc, she wanted to bolster her data science skills after years of building up expertise in fieldwork, which led her to a three-year residence as a fellow at an environmental data synthesis center.
At UBC Gaynor will use her insights from across systems — from the study of animal behavior, field ecology and data science — to positively influence biodiversity and conservation.
We concluded by asking Gaynor a few more questions.
What tips would you give to students looking for research opportunities?
Answer: I got my first research position working in a primate cognition lab by cold-emailing the professor leading that lab. It was really scary! I understand the fear of reaching out to a professor and the vulnerability required to introduce yourself in an email, but ultimately I think you shouldn’t get discouraged. If one opportunity doesn’t work out, something else will.
Opportunities are not always going to be advertised far and wide, which is a real problem from an equity standpoint. But what this means for you, as a student, is that youoften have to ask your professors and advisers about what opportunities are available. Ask, and then be open to saying yes even if an opportunity isn’t exactly what you had envisioned.
I was open to a lot of experiences that weren’t part of any set plan but which I ultimately found really formative. My first experience with fieldwork came about after I saw a poster advertising a summer program in Brazil that involved research, which I applied and got into. I happened to mention to my academic advisor that I would be going to Brazil for a month out of my summer and that I didn’t know how to spend the rest of my break. My advisor informed me about a course he’d be teaching in Ecuador for the month after, and he encouraged me to apply and join his team as a volunteer, which I did. These international experiences were life-changing, and I wouldn’t have found them if I hadn’t kept my eyes open and asked questions.
Is there a benefit of taking classes outside of your main area of interest? Did you have difficult experiences taking classes you didn’t like?
Answer: There were definitely some classes that I was required to take that I was not enthused about. But, taking classes is all about exploring and defining your interests. You might be surprised like I was. I remember having to take a course in earth and atmospheric sciences, which didn’t seem to apply to my interests as an ecologist, but it ended up being one of my favorite classes because it increased my literacy around climate change, which is of course very relevant to modern ecology.
Not all my classes turned out to be interesting, though. There were aspects of my journey that were hard. There were aspects that were not fun. There were classes that I took that I really didn’t like. In those difficult moments, it can be hard not to take it all as a sign that you should quit.
But struggling in the learning and practice of science does not necessarily mean that it’s not right for you. Sometimes it can be a question of the learning environment. I’m trying to create more inclusive spaces where students can see themselves and feel welcome, and I encourage students to seek those spaces before leaving science.
What is a commonly held belief about science that you want to dispel?
Answer: Science does not necessarily have to happen in controlled settings, i.e. in the lab with microscopes and pipettes. The laboratory is a great way to do science for a lot of people. My method is with my hiking boots on, a pair of binoculars in hand, and a clipboard. Science is about coming up with an idea and finding a way to test it, and this can include other ways of knowing that are currently outside our traditional Western scientific framework.
Finally, I always like to share messages of hope around biodiversity. We are in a giant environmental crisis, but we don’t often get to hear about the successes of conservation efforts. There are a huge amount of people that are dedicating much of their time and energy towards restoring landscapes. And I know that there are students who are waiting to apply their different skills to make things better. I hope I can encourage and help those students.
We’re excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Gaynor’s research program. You can find more information about her ongoing work by checking out:
Dr. Celeste Leander, Professor of Teaching in the Departments of Botany and Zoology, has received a 2023 West Coast Teaching Excellence Award. The honour, awarded to top post secondary teachers in British Columbia and the Yukon by the BC Teaching and Learning Council (BCTLC), recognizes Dr. Leander’s deep commitment to student-centred teaching.
“Celeste makes brave choices in implementing new approaches in the service of supporting students,” said Dr. Simon Bates, UBC’s Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning, pro tem. “She is a role model for students to venture into uncertain territory, take risks, and to view the endeavour, regardless of the results, as a learning opportunity.”
A UBC Killam Teaching prize recipient, Dr. Leander was a pioneer in designing and implementing a flipped classroom in UBC’s first-year biology program. She was also the first in her field to establish and administer cooperative exams. Distinct from two-staged exams, which require students to first turn in their exams individually and then collaborate with their peers to answer the same questions again, cooperative exams encourage collaboration from the get-go. Dr. Leander designed questions that would lend themselves to teamwork through lively discussions, and in some cases, video-graphed answers.
“Celeste makes brave choices in implementing new approaches in the service of supporting students.” Dr. Leander was also the first to adopt “ungrading” in an upper-year biology course. Ungrading shifts the power dynamic between students and teachers by allowing students to submit a suggested letter grade for themselves along with documentation critically evaluating their own work. Her success in implementing ungrading has resulted in a request to deliver the same assessment practice in a large first-year biology course as well.
“We’re delighted to be shining a light on great teaching in B.C. and the Yukon,” said Maxwell Stevenson, chair of the 2023 BCTLC awards adjudication committee. “We received many outstanding nominations for individuals who are all doing inspiring work in our sector. Even though we could only make five awards, we were grateful for the opportunity to learn from each of the nominees.”
Dr. Leander has authored several teaching case studies in the National Science Teaching Association database and has been praised for her kindness and dedication to prioritizing student learning. She has also been credited for creating a welcoming and stress-free classroom environment, with students responding particularly positively to her adoption of the ungrading assessment practice.
The delicate stalk and pretty white flowers of Triantha occidentalis may seem like the perfect place to perch if you’re an insect, but get trapped in its sticky hairs and it will suck the nutrients from your dead corpse.
That’s the surprising new finding by University of British Columbia and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, detailed in PNAS.
Triantha – a species of false asphodel – is the first new carnivorous plant to be identified by botanists in 20 years. It is notable for the unusual way it traps prey with sticky hairs on its flowering stem.
“Carnivorous plants have fascinated people since the Victorian era because they turn the usual order of things on its head: this is a plant eating animals,” said co-author Dr. Sean Graham, a professor in the department of botany at UBC. “We’re thrilled to have identified one growing right here in our own backyard on the west coast.”
The plant grows in nutrient-poor, boggy but bright areas on the west coast of North America, from California to Alaska. For the study, the researchers investigated specimens growing on Cypress Mountain in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
“What’s particularly unique about this carnivorous plant is that it traps insects near its insect-pollinated flowers,” said lead author Dr. Qianshi Lin, a PhD student at UBC botany at the time of the study. “On the surface, this seems like a conflict between carnivory and pollination because you don’t want to kill the insects that are helping you reproduce.”
“We believe that Triantha is able to balance carnivory with pollination because its glandular hairs are not very sticky and can only trap midges and other small insects, so that the much larger and stronger bees and butterflies that act as its pollinators are not captured,” said co-author Dr. Tom Givnish, a professor in the department of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The research builds on previous work in Dr. Graham’s lab, which found that Triantha lacked a particular gene that is often missing in other carnivorous plants.
In order to investigate if the plant was indeed partial to snacking on insects, Dr. Lin attached fruit flies labelled with nitrogen-15 isotopes to its flowering stem. The label acted like a tracking device, allowing Dr. Lin to trace changes in nitrogen uptake by the plant.The research builds on previous work in Dr. Graham’s lab, which found that Triantha lacked a particular gene that is often missing in other carnivorous plants.
He then compared the results with those from similar experiments on other species that grow in the same area, including a recognized carnivorous plant (a sundew) and several non-carnivorous plants as controls.
Isotopic analysis showed significant uptake of nitrogen by Triantha, which obtained more than half its nitrogen from prey –comparable to sundews in the same habitat, and other carnivorous plants elsewhere.
The study also found that the sticky hairs on the Triantha flower stalk produce phosphatase, a digestive enzyme used by many carnivorous plants to obtain phosphorous from prey.
The proximity of Triantha to major urban centres in western Canada and the Pacific coast in the United States suggests that other carnivorous plants – and many other ecological surprises – remain to be discovered, even in well-studied ecosystems.
But if you’re tempted to recreate the film, Little Shop of Horrors, or bring Triantha home to deal with pesky summer fruit flies, the researchers warn the plant doesn’t do well outside of its natural environment and advise admiring its quirks from a distance.
Figure 1: Flower of Triantha occidentalis in a bog at Cypress Provincial Park, British Columbia. Photo: Danilo Lima.
Figure 2: Triantha occidentalis traps insects. Photo: Dr. Qianshi Lin
Figure 3: The bog at Cypress Provincial Park. Photo: Dr. Qianshi Lin
Figure 4: The first new carnivorous plant identified by botanists in 20 years. Photo: Danilo Lima
Massive blocks of genes—inherited together ‘plug and play’ style—may play a larger role in evolutionary adaption than previously thought, according to new research in Nature.
Biologists identified 37 of these so-called ‘supergenes’ in wild sunflower populations, and found they govern the modular transfer of a large range of traits important for adaptation to local habitats. Those include seed size, timing of flowering, as well as the ability to withstand environmental stresses such as drought or limited nutrient availability, among many others.
“We were quite surprised,” says University of British Columbia (UBC) geneticist Marco Todesco. “Cases in which individual supergenes controlled adaptive traits had been reported before, but it wasn’t clear if they were the rule or just a small number of odd exceptions. What found is that supergenes have a pervasive role in adaptation, and can be truly massive.”
Large blocks of ‘plug and play’ genes play a super-sized role in adaption–and may help fill lingering gaps in Darwin’s theories.
The largest of the supergenes identified in the study is comprised of more than 100 million base pairs (larger than many human chromosomes) and 1,819 genes.
The study could help resolve a question left unanswered by Darwin’s theory of natural selection—namely, how populations of organisms that live side-by-side and mate with each other are still able to adapt unique traits and diverge into separate species.
“Initially, evolutionary biologists believed that geographic isolation between populations was required for them to differentiate into ecological races or separate species,” says UBC evolutionary biologist Loren Rieseberg. “But recent research shows that populations that exist side by side can, and do, differentiate.”
“The traits that govern such differentiation often appear to be inherited together as supergenes despite genetic exchange with non-adapted populations that are nearby. In many cases, plants are able to adapt to a new environment by borrowing a supergene or two from a related species that is already adapted.”
Examples of habitats in which supergenes played a major role in sunflower species adaption include the Texas coastal plain, sand dunes, and coastal barrier islands of the Gulf of Mexico. In the latter case, a 30 million base pair-long supergene controls a difference in flowering time of more than two and half months between sunflowers adapted to Texas’ barrier islands and coastal plains. The early-flowering version of the supergene found in the barrier island populations came originally from the common sunflower.
In some instances, the donor species for the supergene might be extinct. “What we think could have happened is that a species arrives in a new habitat, ‘steals’ adaptive supergenes from a local related species, and then replaces that species,” says Todesco. “We could call this a ‘ghost supergene’, the lingering contribution of a species that no longer exist.”
Because of their diversity and ability to adapt also to inhospitable habitats, wild sunflowers have become a model system for evolutionary studies.
“Genome BC has been investing in this work since 2009,” says Lisey Mascarenhas, director, Agrifood and Natural Resources at Genome BC. “A convergence of vision, strategic investments, and scientific leadership has helped propel innovations in sunflower genomics research that will have significant implications for food security and continue to attract global investment to BC.”
The researchers sequenced the genomes of more than 1,500 plants from three wild sunflower species: the common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), prairie sunflower (Helianthus petiolaris), and silverleaf sunflower (Helianthus argophyllus). They then looked at associations between genetic variants and more than 80 traits that they monitored throughout the plants’ growth, as well as with the soil and climate of their populations of origin. The result is the largest and most comprehensive demonstration to date that structural variants–rearrangements of chromosome structure that are largely responsible for creating the supergenes in the first place–play a fundamental and widespread role in adaptation and speciation.
In addition to the supergenes, the study also identified numerous independent genes that appear to confer resistance to the environmental stresses wild sunflowers face, including drought, heat and low nutrient stress. These independent genes will be invaluable to sunflower breeders as they develop cultivars that can tolerate the more extreme growing conditions predicted under future climate change. From an agricultural standpoint, they offer more flexibility than the supergenes.
“Because they work as a package, introducing a supergene into a cultivated sunflower would mean carrying over both the beneficial and detrimental traits associated with it,’ says Todesco. “While supergenes contain several genes that could be beneficial in an agricultural setting, they also contain hundreds of other genes, some of which might not be so beneficial in a crop. For example, by reducing yield or modifying the oil content of seeds.”
Figure 1: Supergenes play an outsized role in maintaining wild sunflowers’ extensive variation. Credit: Marco Todesco, University of British Columbia.
Figure 2: Silverleaf sunflowers found on coastal barrier islands (left) flower much earlier than plants growing in nearby plains (right). Brook T. Moyers, University of British Columbia.
Figure 3: Supergenes help the prairie sunflower adapt to the harsh environment of sand dunes. Credit: Nolan C. Kane, University of Colorado Boulder.
2015 is somewhat of an anniversary in cell biology. 350 years ago, Robert Hooke published the first description of what he called a cell. But it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that we started to look inside cells. Then, in 1898, the Italian scientist Camillo Golgi first described, and gave his name to, a cell structure that is the hero of this story, the Golgi Apparatus. We now know that the Golgi is a stack of flattened compartments like a stack of pita bread. Inside the pita pockets hundreds of chemical reactions occur as the Golgi makes, modifies and packages materials for the cell. Every animal, plant, and fungal cell has a Golgi. In plants, the Golgi is where many key components of the plant cell wall are produced. In humans, defects in Golgi structure or function have been associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, as well as a growing list of less well-known disorders including neurological, skeletal, developmental, muscular, and more. But, despite close to 120 years of research, we still don’t really understand the basic mechanism behind Golgi function, and this is the question that my research is helping to address.
If we cut through the middle of the Golgi, in each pocket we would see a mix of what we call residents and cargo. The residents live in the Golgi; they are the workers that make and modify the cargo. The cargo is what is being modified and packaged before it leaves the Golgi to move somewhere else in the cell. It might help to think of the Golgi as a can of mixed nuts. Some of the nuts are like Golgi cargo, say pecans, and we need to quickly pull them out so they can get to where they need to go. Other nuts are like residents, cashews for example. To carry out their function they have to stay in the mix. But how do we quickly and efficiently remove the pecans while leaving the cashews behind? This question has been extremely difficult to answer because the Golgi is very small, very active, and very efficient. The system I am using, however, allows me to work around these problems and determine how the Golgi functions.
I am mapping the location of residents and cargo within the Golgi. To do this, I have created fluorescently tagged residents that allow me to label the Golgi in plant cells. I can then find these residents and their cargo within the Golgi in high resolution images taken with an electron microscope. I can then compare the location of the residents and cargo and use the information to build a hypothesis about how the Golgi is able to sort through all of its contents, as well as it does. Ultimately, this research could influence an astonishing breadth of disciplines, from medicine to biofuels to beer, simply because the Golgi is such a key player in how all types of organisms function.
We have been collaborating with colleagues in Yunnan Province, China to determine if stomatal frequency in Quercus guajavifolia could be used to estimate palaeo-CO2 levels. The work was spear-headed by Jin-Jin Hu and Zhe-Kun Zhou at the Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming, and at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. Palaeoatmospheric CO2 concentrationestimates provide important palaeoenvironmental information in geological time and also a baseline reference for understanding future climatic change. Atmospheric CO2 concentrationhas been hypothesized to be a primary determinant of global climate change; periods of low atmospheric CO2 concentrations witnessed major glaciations, whereas those with higher CO2 concentrations had warmer conditions. This CO2-temperature relationship is conspicuous during the Quaternary. This relationship has also been confirmed for other time periods: for example, the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) was a brief but intense interval of global warming associated with elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration. Additionally, CO2 levels play a crucial role in affecting ecological and physiological characters of plants. Many previous attempts have been made to estimate palaeoatmospheric CO2 concentration because of the important role of atmospheric CO2 in the Earth system.
In our study we made these estimates of palaeo-CO2 levels as follows. First, we identified leaves of fossil species and then identified a close living relative of the fossil species. In our study we used Quercus preguyavaefolia fossils from two late Pliocene floras in southwestern China, and Quercus guajavifolia (Fagaceae), an extant dominant element of sclerophyllous forests (evergreen trees and shrubs typically with small, hard, thick, and leathery leaves) along the steep altitudinal gradients in the Himalayas, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Hengduan Mountains. Second, we collected leaves of Q. guajavifolia collected from17 field sites at altitudes ranging from 2493-4497 m, mostly from the border regions between Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. A range in altitude is critical because the change in elevation also represents a gradient in pCO2 (CO2 partial pressure). At all locations we collected both sun leaves (collected from outer branches) and shade leaves (from within and beneath canopies) because it is known that light intensity affects these two types of leaves differently and has an effect on the stomatal frequency. In addition we also examined herbarium samples of Q. guajavifolia collected during the time period 1926-1995. Just as a change in elevation provides a spatial change in pCO2, so the years 1926-1995 provide a temporal change in pCO2 levels. Third, we measured the stomatal frequency of all leaves – fossil leaves, living collection and herbarium samples. Fourth, we determined how the stomatal frequency of Q. guajavifolia responded to decreasing pCO2 (increasing altitude) and used this to generate calibration curves of stomatal frequency versus atmospheric pCO2. However, the fossil leaves were identified as sun leaves so the calibration curve for CO2 estimation was prepared exclusively from sun leaves of Q. guajavifolia. The samples collected along the altitudinal gradient provided results consistent with results from the historical herbarium specimens. Finally, we used these calibration curves along with the stomatal counts from the Q. preguyavaefolia fossils to estimate palaeo-CO2 from two late Pliocene floras in southwestern China.
In most previous studies using over 170 plant species, researchers generally detected an inverse relationship between atmospheric CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) and leaf stomatal frequency i.e. stomatal frequency decreased as pCO2 increased has frequently been shown and this relationship has been widely used to estimate palaeo-CO2 levels. In contrast, we detected a positive correlation between pCO2 and stomatal frequency in Q. guajavifolia from both extant field collections and historical herbarium specimens. Applying these correlations to fossils, palaeo-CO2 concentrations are estimated to be c. 180-240 ppm in the late Pliocene which is consistent with most other estimations.
Jin-Jin Hu; Yao-Wu Xing; Roy Turkington; Frederic M. B. Jacques; Tao Su; Yong-Jiang Huang; Zhe-Kun Zhou. A new positive relationship between pCO2 and stomatal frequency in Quercus guyavifolia (Fagaceae): a potential proxy for palaeo-CO2 levels. Annals of Botany 2015; doi: 10.1093/aob/mcv007
Caption: Comparisons of leaf morphology of extant Quercus guyavifolia and fossil Q. preguyavaefolia. (A, B) Branches of extant Q. guyavifolia. (C, D) Cleared leaves of extant Q. guyavifolia. (E, F) and (G, H) are leaf fossils from the Hunshuitang flora and the Qingfucun flora respectively. Scale bars = 1 cm.
Viruses and bacteria fall back to Earth via dust storms and precipitation. 2011 dust storm in the Sahara.
An astonishing number of viruses are circulating around the Earth’s atmosphere – and falling from it – according to new research from scientists in Canada, Spain and the U.S.
The study marks the first time scientists have quantified the viruses being swept up from the Earth’s surface into the free troposphere, that layer of atmosphere beyond Earth’s weather systems but below the stratosphere where jet airplanes fly. The viruses can be carried thousands of kilometres there before being deposited back onto the Earth’s surface.
“Every day, more than 800 million viruses are deposited per square metre above the planetary boundary layer—that’s 25 viruses for each person in Canada,” said University of British Columbia virologist Curtis Suttle (a professor in the Departments of Botany, EOAS, and Microbiology & Immunology, and the Institute for the Oceans & Fisheries), and one of the senior authors of a paper in the International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal that outlines the findings.
The findings may explain why genetically identical viruses are often found in very different environments around the globe.
“Roughly 20 years ago we began finding genetically similar viruses occurring in very different environments around the globe,” says Suttle. “This preponderance of long-residence viruses travelling the atmosphere likely explains why—it’s quite conceivable to have a virus swept up into the atmosphere on one continent and deposited on another.”
Bacteria and viruses are swept up in the atmosphere in small particles from soil-dust and sea spray.
Suttle and colleagues at the University of Granada and San Diego State University wanted to know how much of that material is carried up above the atmospheric boundary layer above 2,500 to 3,000 metres. At that altitude, particles are subject to long-range transport unlike particles lower in the atmosphere.
Using platform sites high in Spain’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, the researchers found billions of viruses and tens of millions of bacteria are being deposited per square metre per day. The deposition rates for viruses were nine to 461 times greater than the rates for bacteria.
“Bacteria and viruses are typically deposited back to Earth via rain events and Saharan dust intrusions. However, the rain was less efficient removing viruses from the atmosphere,” said author and microbial ecologist Isabel Reche from the University of Granada.
The researchers also found the majority of the viruses carried signatures indicating they had been swept up into the air from sea spray. The viruses tend to hitch rides on smaller, lighter, organic particles suspended in air and gas, meaning they can stay aloft in the atmosphere longer.
Two newly discovered organisms point to the existence of an ancient organism that resembled a tiny version of the lumbering, human-eating science fiction plants known as ‘triffids,’ according to research in Nature.
The microscopic protists Rhodelphis limneticus and Rhodelphis marinus are genetically ‘sisters’ to red algae, but couldn’t be more different. Red algae are fleshy, large organisms with a simple genome that perform photosynthesis, just like plants. Rhodelphis are single-cell predators with a large, complex genome.
The two protists have a chloroplast, though it is not photosynthetic anymore, pointing to their close ties with plants in the distant past. They also have flagella, a whip-like structure which allows them to move and hunt for their dinner.
“Rhodelphis shows that there was a period of time when the ancestors of plants and algae probably absorbed sunlight to generate energy, while also swimming around eating things,” says University of British Columbia (UBC) biologist Patrick Keeling, the senior researcher leading the study.
If we think of life as a big family, with algae and Rhodelphis as sisters, their ancient mother was more like a triffid than your standard plant. Triffids are the tall, mobile, carnivorous plants featured in John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids.
This surprising evolutionary twist emphasizes the need for robust sampling in order to reconstruct a more complete picture of life.
“Most people don’t look twice at organisms like this under a microscope, and getting them into culture may be hard work but it’s the only way to really see the true diversity of life,” says Denis Tikhonenkov, the microbiologist who first captured the tiny predators and splits his time between UBC and the Russian Academy of Science.
“There are gems in nature we haven’t found, and sadly the importance of ‘old-fashioned’ exploration is being forgotten,” Keeling says. “These new lineages are a great example — making us realize we were previously seeing things backwards and now we recognize plants had ancestors we couldn’t have imagined.”
Keeling and Tikhonenkov worked on the project with the outstanding Russian Academy of Sciences protistologist Alexander Mylnikov, who died after a long illness shortly before the paper came to press.
“Rhodelphis shows that there was a period of time when the ancestors of plants and algae probably absorbed sunlight to generate energy, while also swimming around eating things.”
An international team of researchers have completed a massive effort to sequence genes from more than 1,100 plant species—an undertaking that saw UBC botanists collect rare mosses from remote corners of BC, and travel to the South Pacific to collect parasitic plants.
“One of the crucial samples we wanted to include was a parasitic conifer shrub, Parasitaxus, which lives by feeding off fungi and another conifer,” says UBC botanist Sean Graham, who coordinated collection of 300 species for the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative (1KP). “Instead of using sunlight to fix energy through photosynthesis, it behaves like a plant vampire.”
It was a particularly challenging sample to collect, says Graham. “Local colleague Adrien Wulff collected it from the field in New Caledonia and we set up an international supply chain to bring our frozen sample from the South Pacific, through the US, and on to Shenzhen, China, where the plant transcriptomes were sequenced. Our vampire plant was a very well-seasoned traveller!”
Our study confirms that the ‘impossible’ moss defines one of the two earliest branches of moss evolution.
Many of key plant species belong to moss families and were found closer to home, including the UBC campus. But collecting British Columbia’s so-called ‘impossible moss’ (Takakia lepidozioides) involved a boat trip and some wading up Jervis Inlet, to reach the southern-most population of this BC moss.
“It seems a bit mad to do an expedition to get this one moss, but it was a key plant to include. Takakia is a kind of living fossil that blends features with other ancient branches of plant life,” says Graham. “Our study confirms that the impossible moss defines one of the two earliest branches of moss evolution.”
The findings, published today in Nature, reveal the timing of whole genome duplications and the origins, expansions and contractions of gene families contributing to fundamental genetic innovations enabling the evolution of green algae, mosses, ferns, conifer trees, flowering plants and all other green plant lineages. The history of how and when plants secured the ability to grow tall, and make seeds, flowers and fruits provides a framework for understanding plant diversity around the planet including annual crops and long-lived forest tree species.
“In the tree of life, everything is interrelated,” said Gane Ka-Shu Wong, lead investigator and professor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Biological Sciences. “And if we want to understand how the tree of life works, we need to examine the relationships between species. That’s where genetic sequencing comes in.”
UBC researchers provided 60 plant samples to the study from across British Columbia, including 30 from UBC Botanical Garden.
“UBC Botanical Garden has fantastic collections of wild plants from around the world, including species from the from southern hemisphere,” says Graham. “This study underscores the importance of maintaining strong research collections around the globe, not only for scientific purposes, but as a way to conserve biodiversity.”
Students also helped out by growing fern species as part of undergraduate labs in the UBC biology program.
“Our inferred relationships among living plant species inform us that over the billion years since an ancestral green algal species split into two separate evolutionary lineages, one including flowering plants, land plants and related algal groups and the other comprising a diverse array of green algae, plant evolution has been punctuated with innovations and periods of rapid diversification,” said James Leebens-Mack, professor of plant biology in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and co-corresponding author on the study.
“In order to link what we know about gene and genome evolution to a growing understanding of gene function in flowering plant, moss and algal organisms, we needed to generate new data to better reflect gene diversity among all green plant lineages.”
The study inspired a community effort to gather and sequence diverse plant lineages derived from terrestrial and aquatic habitats on a global scale. Over 100 taxonomic specialists contributed material from field and living collections that from around the world, including Canadian collections from the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and the University of Alberta. Links to some of the UBC living plants used in the study are posted at the UBC Botanical Garden.
By sequencing and analyzing genes from a broad sampling of plant species, researchers are better able to reconstruct gene content in the ancestors of all crops and model plant species, and gain a more complete picture of the gene and genome duplications that enabled evolutionary innovations.
Cannabis flowers with the most mushroom-shaped hairs pack the biggest cannabinoid and fragrance punch, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.
While the cannabis leaf is iconic, it’s the chemicals produced by the tiny, frostlike hairs on cannabis flowers that give the plant its psychoactive and medicinal properties and distinctive smell.
In a study published in The Plant Journal, UBC researchers have revealed the unique structures and chemical outputs of the different types of hairs, or glandular trichomes, for the first time.
“Despite its high economic value, our understanding of the biology of the cannabis plant is still in its infancy due to restricted legal access.”
Their findings confirm what many cannabis connoisseurs have long suspected: that the largest, mushroom-shaped stalked glandular trichomes are the richest source of THC- and CBD-forming metabolites and fragrance-giving terpenes.
“Despite its high economic value, our understanding of the biology of the cannabis plant is still in its infancy due to restricted legal access,” said co-lead author Teagen Quilichini, a postdoctoral fellow at UBC botany and Anandia Laboratories Inc. “Trichomes are the biochemical factories of the cannabis plant and this study is the foundation for understanding how they make and store their valuable products.”
Previous research had identified three types of glandular trichomes based on their appearance – bulbous, sessile and stalked – but their relative contributions to the chemical production of cannabis flowers were unknown.
For this study, the UBC researchers used a combination of advanced microscope techniques and chemical profiling to examine the internal structures and development of individual trichomes in a fast-flowering hemp variety of Cannabis sativa called ‘Finola.’
They found that under ultraviolet light, the stalked trichomes emitted a bright blue colour and contained a large, distinctive pie-shaped disc of cells. The smaller sessile trichomes, which do not have a stalk, emitted a red colour, had smaller secretory discs, and produced fewer fragrant terpenes.
“We saw that stalked glandular trichomes have expanded “cellular factories” to make more cannabinoids and fragrant terpenes,” said co-lead author Sam Livingston, a PhD candidate at UBC botany. “We also found that they grow from sessile-like precursors and undergo a dramatic shift during development that can be visualized using new microscopy tools.
As a result, Livingston explains, UV light could be used to monitor trichome maturity on flowers and inform optimal harvest times.
The researchers also conducted a gene expression analysis to investigate how instructions in trichome DNA are converted into the plant’s biochemical products. They found that the stalked trichomes in Finola were strongly geared towards making cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and terpenes.
“We found a treasure trove of genes that support the production of cannabinoids and terpenes,” said principal investigator Anne Lacey Samuels, a botany professor at UBC. “With further investigation, this could be used to produce desirable traits like more productive marijuana strains or strains with specific cannabinoid and terpene profiles using molecular genetics and conventional breeding techniques.”
Next, the researchers will investigate how trichomes export and store the metabolites they produce.
“Trichomes store the metabolites in their cell walls,” said Livingston. “And what’s really astounding is that such high levels of product should be toxic to the cells, so we want to understand how they manage this.”
The research was funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and a MITACS Elevate postdoctoral fellowship, in partnership with Anandia Laboratories.
