Unfolding the mystery of misfolding PRIONS

Just mention the term prion and you’ll draw a blank look from most people. But say mad cow, and you’ll get a reaction.
Mad cows have spongy brains. They fall over. And, if you eat their parts, you might get the disease, too. That’s what most people remember of the mad cow crisis that swept Britain [...]

New Mite Species Discovered— Grizzly Bears of the Soil World

The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute has laid out a grid of 1656 points across the entire province, with each point 20 kilometres apart. The data collected from these sites gives scientists a measure of the changing state of biodiversity in Alberta.
When ABMI researchers collect samples from these sites, they check for various kinds of flora [...]

Wheat Straw Panel Board Houses for China’s Earthquake Zone

New homes in China’s earthquake zone will now be made from wheat straw instead of bricks and cement.
A Dutch company has licenced technology developed by the Alberta Research Council to make wheat straw panel board—OSSB or oriented straw strandboard—for the Chinese market.
According to architect Boewer Besseling of Panel Board Holdings, the wheat straw panels are [...]

Data thieves defied by ENCRYPTSTICK

Imagine you’re a medical technician and your laptop just got stolen… Imagine the stress over the fact that it contained samples of about a quarter of a million lab tests for reportable and communicable diseases, plus identifiable names and personal health numbers. Even worse, imagine your name is on the list.
In June 2009, Alberta Health [...]

Social Media 101

The age of participation proves too scary for some.
Life is unscripted, uncontrolled and unpredictable—yet government in general proceeds under the premise it can control all things. This unfortunate reality resulted in a lost opportunity for many elected officials and civil servants who didn’t attend ChangeCamp Edmonton, an unconference in mid-October at the UofA’s Lister Hall. [...]

Taking on Goliath in the Cloud

Tucked away in a non-descript commercial strip on 118th Avenue in Edmonton’s northwest is a 1900-square foot datacentre. It provides web hosting, co-location (server-hosting), web design and data back-up services. You won’t see Telus, Bell or Shaw on the sign—just a rather humble white and red adornment displaying 4Web.ca.
But don’t let that fool you. ”Inside [...]

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 [...]