From great muffins to great minds

You’ll find the Edmonton Research Park at the junction of Parsons Road and Karl Clark Road.
A linear red and grey building marks the spot. That’s the Advanced Technology Centre where Candace Brinsmead has her office. She is the vice-president of technology advancement with the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation.
Brinsmead describes the ATC, built in the [...]

Powerhouse moves to Ottawa

If history is any indication, the Canadian Nuclear Association is about to get booted from obscurity into the limelight.
That’s because Denise Carpenter is coming on board as the association’s new president and CEO.
No pun intended, but Carpenter is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to getting the message out.
This public relations diva honed her skills [...]

Re-thinking HEMP

Hemp was an important industrial material before World War II, but then it was supplanted by the development of petroleum-based products.
Sixty years later, hemp is making a comeback as an environment friendly biofibre.
The Alberta Research Council has developed a new technology to separate the very long fibres of the hemp plant from its inner core. [...]

BioAlberta

BioAlberta chose National Biotechnology Week in late September to release its State of the Industry 2009 Report. And, to no one’s surprise, the long tentacles of the global recession touched even Alberta’s biotechnology sector
“It’s been a tough year,” says BioAlberta President Ryan Radke.
“The life science industry in Alberta is not immune to what’s going on [...]

Radient Technologies Leaves Lotus Land for Edmonton

Radient Technologies Inc has pulled up stakes and is moving from Vancouver to Edmonton.
This is good news for the Edmonton’s biotechnology sector which has experienced some tough times over the past few months.
Radient has commercialized technology first developed by Environment Canada for use in environmental remediation. Called a microwave assisted solvent extraction process, it [...]

APrON Study Seeks Help from Pregnant Women

What impact nutrition has on the mental health of pregnant women and the development of their babies is the focus of a new study called APrON—Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition.
This study funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medication Research, is currently seeking participants from Edmonton and Calgary, and is designed to follow 10,000 pregnant [...]

Alberta and Texas collaborate on Nanotech and Energy

The two leading nanotechnology research centres in North America are located at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Now, thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Premier Ed Stelmach and David Leebron, president of Rice University, these two research agencies are combining their expertise to advance work on [...]

Goodbye, Alberta Bonjour, Québec

Picomole Instruments Inc. is leaving town.
Company founder and CEO Dr. John Cormier is relocating his company to Quebec City. In the works is an exciting new partnership with a yet to be revealed Quebec company which will help Picomole turn its prototype into a commercial product.
While the move is Edmonton’s loss, this is [...]

Will nano crystalline cellulose save our forest products industry?

According to forestry giant George Weyerhauser Jr., trees will play a big role in the nano revolution, and nano crystalline cellulose will be the hot new raw material.
Nano crystalline cellulose comes from all parts of the tree where cellulose and lignin are broken down into their molecular components. Then through nano fabrication, these molecules [...]

The mystery of misfolded prions

Transmission is a big question for scientists studying prion disease. Misfolded prions are associated with mad cow and chronic wasting disease. What makes the misfolded prion infectious within a species, and what stops it from being transmitted between different species?
In his research, University of Alberta biochemist John Paul Glaves studied fragments of peptide fibrils or [...]