to implement our research findings into commercial applications of these fungi for plant growth promotion and general plant health.”
Chemist Travis Dudding and his group’s program, “A ‘superbasic’ approach to discovery,” will be using computer modeling to design new chiral molecules, chemical entities whose mirror images are not super-imposable, much like left and right hands.
Chiral molecules are the basic building blocks of life and are found in DNA, amino acids and proteins. That is why most life-saving medicines on the market today – for example, the cancer chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel – are chiral molecules.
Dudding explains that he and his team plan to simplify the “green process” of design by using state-of-the-art computing to model chemical processes for producing chiral molecules. The team will predict what will work experimentally rather than testing reactions in the laboratory “and thinking about how to improve them later,” which is how current chemical laboratory testing protocols are done.
“This research is also helping to alleviate our dependence on metals in organic chemistry by opening up new avenues of reactivity that weren’t available before,” says Dudding. “Overall, the approach we’re taking to chemical synthesis and the production of chiral molecules is setting a new precedent. Moreover, we’re actually opening up new classes of organo-catalysis, which are green catalysts.”
Brock University’s results for the 2014-2019 NSERC Discovery Grants competition are:
• Anco, Stephen (Mathematics & Statistics): “Symmetries, conserved integrals, Hamiltonian flows, and integrable systems”
• Bidochka, Michael (Biological Sciences): “Plant-fungal communication: using an endophytic insect pathogen fungus as a model”
• Bruce, Douglas (Biological Sciences): “The dynamic structure, function and regulation of Photosystem II in photosynthesis”
• Cote, Kimberly (Psychology): “Neurobehavioural and physiological consequences of sleep deprivation in humans”
• Dudding, Travis (Chemistry): “A “superbasic” approach to discovery” Houghten, Sheridan (Computer Science): “Computational techniques for applications in bioinformatics and coding theory”
• Huang, Mei Ling (Mathematics & Statistics): “Semi-parametric and Nonparametric Inference”
• Odesski, Alexander (Mathematics & Statistics): “Algebraic and geometric structures related to integrable systems”
• Pickering, Gary (Biological Sciences): “Taste phenotypes and implications for food and beverage behaviour”
• Tattersall, Glenn (Biological Sciences): “Integrative physiological approaches to thermoregulatory and thermosensory biology”
• Vandenboom, Rene (Kinesiology): “The influence of myosin regulatory light chain phosphorylation on skeletal muscle energetics, mechanics and function”
NSERC’s Discovery Grants Program supports ongoing research programs that have long-term goals as opposed to a single short-term project or collection of projects. These grants “recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances, whether made individually or in teams,” says the agency.
This year, the agency reviewed a total of 3,190 applications from universities across Canada. Results were announced June 26 at Western University in London.
“We are developing, attracting and retaining the world’s most talented researchers who carry out the scientific research that creates jobs and prosperity and improves the quality of life of Canadians,” said Minister of State (Science and Technology) Ed Holder.
“This highly competitive funding for discovery research supports excellence and provides a key advantage to our researchers who want to pursue new knowledge wherever their discoveries and insights take them,” said Janet Walden, NSERC’s chief operating officer.
NSERC also offers awards to master’s and doctoral students. In this year’s competition, nine Brock University graduate students received $479,500 in NSERC funding.
These recipients include doctoral students Scott Behie and Lee Belding, who are working on the Bidochka and Dudding research teams respectively.
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