Summer Research for Undergrads! NSERC USRA Applications Due Jan. 22, 2018

Summer Research for Undergrads!  NSERC USRA Applications Due Jan. 22, 2018

NSERC – USRA SCHOLARSHIPS

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY DEADLINE – MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018

- Official transcripts required (Wait until January to request one so the Fall grades appear)

- All printed application material must be submitted to Marlene Bezaire, room #273-1 Essex Hall no later that Monday, January 22, 2018

For more information, please click here!

or visit: http://www1.uwindsor.ca/chemistry/summer-research

Biochemist to study how proteins contribute to neurodegenerative diseases

Biochemist to study how proteins contribute to neurodegenerative diseases

UWindsor biochemistry graduate student Cody Caba and professor Bulent Mutus display the crystal structure of protein disulfide isomerase. Mutus received an NSERC Discovery Grant to examine cell proteins and structures and how they contribute to diseases.

Bulent Mutus is a micro mechanic.

But instead of fixing cars with wrenches and grease, the biochemist rolls up his sleeves and chops up and rebuilds proteins using microscopes and Petri dishes.

“If this enzyme were a car we would know where the engine is, but now we are looking at turning that engine off so the pathology will go away,” the UWindsor professor said.

Dr. Mutus recently received a $100,000 Discovery Grant over five years from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to examine cell proteins and structures and how they contribute to diseases like cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer’s.

The human body is made up of about 10 trillion cells that intricately interact with one another to ensure the body functions properly. When cell-to-cell and internal cell signaling is disturbed, the body cannot function properly, and acute diseases and physiological or neurological disorders occur.

“It’s similar to a teeter-totter, wherein a normal situation everything is balanced,” Mutus explained.

Every cell contains strings of amino acid molecules that fold onto themselves, forming structures called proteins.

The crystal structure of protein disulfide isomerase is pictured in this computer visualization. 

“If there’s something that messes up the balance within the cell, then the proteins don’t fold properly, and you get something called unfolded protein response,” he said.

Diseases reactive to the unfolded protein response include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s — as well as many others.

Proteins are encoded from DNA instructions and form in ways that allow them to combine with other substrates to perform work. When proteins do work, they are called enzymes and help the body to function properly.

Mutus’ NSERC research focuses on a sequence of amino acids containing sulfur, called cysteine amino acids, and the role they play in the regulation of enzymes. In the sequence, called the CXXC motif, two amino acids represented by the letter C for cysteine, are separated by any other two of the 23 amino acids, which are represented by X. These cysteine amino acids have a sulfur group that often binds to itself to create a stronger bond or fold within the protein structure.

Mutus said the sequence affects structure which in turn affects the function, and so improper sequences or structures can cause harmful pathologies in the body.

“Structure is related to function, and so if you build a building and you don’t have any doors it’s not going to be very functional,” the researcher said. “The same goes with a protein, and if a sequence works well in one particular protein, then it’s copied and repeatedly used somewhere else.”

By studying this CXXC protein sequence and its function in various cellular pathways, researchers can develop therapies to treat diseases caused by improper function.

Mutus’ lab has created probes that will bind to CXXC enzymes within the cells which can be followed to see their functions in internal cellular pathways.

He said an example of this is found in patients with cystic fibrosis. Within these patients, an enzyme called S-Nitrosoglutathione Reductase (GSNOR) is unable to form at appropriate levels in the lungs and can’t function in ion transport.

“If that ion transport protein can’t mature and enter into the cell membrane where it belongs, then fluid essentially starts to accumulate in the lungs and leads to infections,” Mutus said. “So if an enzyme contains this CXXC motif, and we think we can tweak onto something that’s a very small run of four or five amino acids, where we can play with one of the amino acids and really regulate the enzyme, like turning a car engine on and off to control negative pathologies in the body.”

Mutus’ research will eventually have implications in drug design as a means of controlling these important enzymes involved in pathologies and diseases that may affect all of us.

See the full story at the UWindsor Daily News

Attention all Chem/Biochem Students: NSERC and CIHR Scholarships Info Session - Sept. 22 @ 1:00 PM

Attention all Chem/Biochem Students: NSERC and CIHR Scholarships Info Session - Sept. 22 @ 1:00 PM in 109 Essex Hall

IF ANY STUDENTS ARE APPLYING TO NSERC, CIHR, (PGS, CGS, VANIER) SCHOLARSHIPS, DR. MACDONALD IS HOLD AN INFORMATION/WORKSHOP FOR THE APPLICATIONS PROCESS. 

Dr. Macdonald has booked Essex Hall Room 109 from 1:00 - 2:30 PM on Thursday, Sept 22, 2016 in order to hold an information session/workshop for any students from Science who are planning to apply for NSERC or CIHR graduate scholarships (PGS, CGS, Vanier) this year.  He intends to provide frank information and helpful hints to all applicants in order to maximize their chances to secure scholarships.

For more information, contact Dr. Macdonald:

Charles L. B. Macdonald, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry
Associate Dean of Science – Graduate Studies
cmacd@uwindsor.ca

NSERC Scholarship Information Session - Sept. 12, 2016 at 9 a.m.

NSERC Scholarship Information Session - Sept. 12, 2016 at 9 a.m.

ATTENTION:  4TH YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS, MASTER'S AND PHD STUDENTS

If you are planning to apply for NSERC graduate scholarships/fellowships for next year (2017), please plan to attend the following information session:

Date:  Monday, September 12, 2016

Time:  9:00 a.m.

Location:  McPherson Lounge, Alumni Hall, 750 Sunset Avenue

This session will be an overview of the various scholarships available, including the Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s), Postgraduate Scholarships, and Postdoctoral Fellowships

In preparation for the session, please visit the NSERC website and view the resources available on-line (tutorials, videos), as follows:

Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC):

(Canadian or Permanent Residents only)

Doctoral  http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/students-etudiants/pg-cs/bellandpostgrad-belletsuperieures_eng.asp

Master's:  http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/students-etudiants/pg-cs/cgsm-bescm_eng.asp

NSERC Resource Videos:  http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/Videos-Videos/Index_eng.asp

If you are unable to attend at this time, we will have the presentation materials available afterwards on our website (http://www.uwindsor.ca/grad).

Note that these scholarships are available only to Canadian citizens and Permanent Residents. 

Attention: Undergrads interested in summer research - NSERC USRA deadline is Thurs. Jan. 7, 2016

Attention: Undergrads interested in summer research
NSERC USRA deadline is Thurs. Jan. 7, 2016

You need to have a supervisor and they need to complete Form 202 Part 11.

A printed copy of the application (Form 202 Part 1), Department Ranking form (attached) and the official transcript, should be given to Marlene Bezaire, room #273-1 Essex Hall by January 7, 2015.

Please follow instructions provided by Faculty of Graduate Studies and submit applications to Marlene Bezaire, Essex Hall, Room 273-1.

Visit this link for more info:

http://www1.uwindsor.ca/chemistry/summer-research

Windsor Research Spotlight - Stretching the Limit

NSERC Research Spotlight - Stretching the Limit

A research team at the University of Windsor has found that working with a problem, instead of against it, can result in incredible breakthroughs. Chemistry professor Tricia Carmichael and co-investigator Heather Filiatrault have successfully created stretchable electronics able to continue conducting electricity even after stretching to the point of cracking.

Stretchable light-emitting devices are the building blocks of foldable and expandable display screens and electronics-integrated clothing, as well as other soft devices designed to go inside a body, like a stretchable balloon catheter that can mend damaged areas of the heart.

“The dilemma with the design of these devices is that when we use electrically conductive materials, like aluminum or copper, these materials will crack when stretched even a minimal amount,” says Dr. Carmichael.

Stretchable electronics integrate a thin film of electrically conductive material with a film of rubber, but the conductive materials crack when they are stretched, which breaks the circuit and renders the device useless.

Carmichael and her lab team investigated the theory that when a rough surface is stretched it generates multiple micro-cracks, instead of a few large debilitating cracks. To manipulate the cracking, she simply added a layer of inexpensive white glue before the thin sheet of metal was attached.

“Instead of eliminating cracks, we encouraged a lot of cracking, like a spider web of cracks that don’t form a continuous pathway through the sheet,” says Carmichael. “The cracks purposefully interfere with each other, relieving the strain, so the current can flow along a jagged but continuous pathway.”

The glue layer is watered down to control the film thickness. It is spread over the rubber layer and creates the required roughness by forming blobs. Members of Carmichael’s lab built a strain sensor out of rubber, glue and gold and wrapped it around a thumb. The sensor successfully monitored when the digit was extended, and when it was not.

Carmichael says this is a low-cost, green solution, which uses simple components that could potentially scale up to larger surface devices.

“We made the system more defective in order to make it work better,” she says. “I love this concept of embracing the natural tendency of cracking, and then pushing it further.”


This research is published as the cover story in the September 30th edition of  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 

To see the original story on the NSERC web site, click here.

Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunities

Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunities

Interested in doing summer research?

Most of our faculty members will be accepting undergraduates for summer research positions.  Click the link below to see our list of active researchers and their research areas:

http://www1.uwindsor.ca/chemistry/chemistry/research-faculty-0

The deadline for the NSERC USRA scholarship if Feb. 20, 2015.

For information on how to apply, click the link below:
http://www1.uwindsor.ca/chemistry/chemistry/summer-research

Note: You must contact a faculty member to support you for this application!  Follow all instructions, and contact mbezaire@uwindsor.ca if you need more information.

Graduate Scholarship Deadlines - 2015-2016 - External Scholarships

TO ALL FACULTY, GRADUATE STUDENTS AND 4TH YEAR UNDERGRADUATES

Below you will find information regarding the 2015-2015 External Scholarship Award applications along with department deadlines for submission.

If you have any questions regarding any of these awards, please let me know.

Marlene Bezaire
Graduate Secretary
mbezaire@uwindsor.ca
519-253-3000 x3520

Vanier CGS, CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC,  and OGS) 2015-16

The deadlines for receipt of applications in our office for the external graduate scholarship competitions are listed below.

Here are some reminders to departments whose students may be eligible to apply to more than one agency (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC):

1.  Students may submit an application to only ONE tri-agency (CIHR/NSERC/SSHRC).  This can happen especially when doctoral students apply to CIHR, which they do so directly, and then to NSERC or SSHRC through the university.  

2.  Students may apply to one of the tri-agencies as well as OGS and Vanier.

3. Students should select the most appropriate agency for their research. If they, or you, are not sure which is the appropriate agency please contact CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC.  Applications submitted to the wrong agency are rejected.

4. Students nominated for a Vanier CGS at one agency can apply only  to that agency’s postgraduate scholarships programs, not to another agency’s postgraduate scholarship programs.
For example, a student nominated for a 2015 NSERC Vanier CGS can apply only to the 2015 NSERC PGS/CGS program, not to the SSHRC or CIHR postgraduate scholarship programs.


EXTERNAL GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINES (for scholarships tenable in 2015-16):

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Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Doctoral Research Awards:
Deadline for receipt of applications directly to CIHR:  October 1, 2014

Instructions and application information are available on the ResearchNet website:https://www.researchnet-recherchenet.ca/rnr16/vwOpprtntyDtls.do?prog=2097&view=currentOpps&org=CIHR&type=EXACT&resultCount=25&sort=program&all=1&masterList=true

NOTE: Students submit applications directly to CIHR, but must obtain an institutional signature from the Graduate Studies Office by September 29, 2014.

OPEN ONLY TO CANADIAN APPLICANTS

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Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS) for Doctoral students - NSERC and SSHRC
Department Of Chemistry & Biochemistry Deadline – Thursday, October 2, 2014.  
Submit completed applications to Marlene Bezaire, room #273 Essex Hall.


Instructions and application information are now available from the Vanier CGS website:  http://www.vanier.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.aspx

Applications are completed on-line by the student and referees, and printed off for the review of the department.  
Graduate Studies will forward all of the referees reports directly to the department.
The department reviews the applications and selects one nomination for NSERC or SSHRC (we have no allocation for CIHR)
Nominations are forwarded to Graduate Studies.

Departments whose disciplines span all tri-council agencies may forward one nomination for each as appropriate, but note #4, above.

OPEN TO CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS

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Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Doctoral Scholarships:
Department Of Chemistry & Biochemistry Deadline – Thursday, October 2, 2014.  
Submit completed applications to Marlene Bezaire, room #273 Essex Hall.

Instructions and application information are available from NSERC's website: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/students-etudiants/pg-cs/bellandpostgrad-belletsuperieures_eng.asp

Applications are completed on-line by the student and the referees, printed off and submitted to the department for review, along with supporting documentation.
Department designate uploads students' transcript to NSERC's on-line site.
Graduate Studies will forward all of the referees reports directly to the department.

Department submits paper copies of the eligible applications to Graduate Studies, along with a ranked list (free-form) of the applicants .

Additional information and instructions from our office will follow.

OPEN ONLY TO CANADIAN APPLICANTS

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Master's scholarships for:

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)

Department Of Chemistry & Biochemistry Deadline – Monday, November 24, 2014
Submit completed applications to Marlene Bezaire, room #273 Essex Hall.

Instructions and information are available at:   http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/students-etudiants/pg-cs/cgsm-bescm_eng.asp

Additional information and instructions from our office will follow.

OPEN ONLY TO CANADIAN APPLICANTS

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Ontario Graduate Scholarships (OGS) for Master's and Doctoral students in any discipline:  

Department Of Chemistry & Biochemistry Deadline – Wednesday, January 14, 2015


Instructions and application form will be available from the Graduate Studies website later in the Fall.

OPEN TO CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS

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Summer Research for Undergraduates: NSERC USRA application due Feb. 3, 2011

Interested in doing some research this summer?

NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Assistantships (USRA) are due in the Chemistry Office by Feb. 3, 2010.

For more information, please visit our NSERC USRA page by clicking here.

October 1 - NSERC post-graduate scholarship internal deadline

NSERC: All scholarhips - Department Deadline - October 1, 2010Application information is available on NSERC's website. http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/BellandPostgrad-BelletSuperieures_eng.asp

Forms are completed on-line and printed prior to submission to the department.NSERC has changed a lot of the process this year. See description below.

--

The Department deadline for NSERC applications is Friday, October 1, 2010.
Several changes to the application process have been made this year. Please carefully read the information below.
Highlights of the memo are:
*Faculty-The reference forms submitted for the students cannot be viewed or proof read before being submitted. Please use extreme caution when submitting the letters. Check that the student names are correct, both in the body of the reference, and the top portion. No corrections can be made after submitting.
*Students - must request original transcripts from the Registrar's office and give to Marlene, room #273 Essex Hall.
*Students - print the application before submitting and give to Marlene

TO ALL FACULTY AND GRADUATE STUDENTS

PLEASE READ THE VERY IMPORTANT MEMO BELOW
Important information regarding NSERC applications
This last Friday, NSERC, finally provided instructions and updates to Ontario Universities for the current application round. This comes late in the season! The number of NSERC scholarships awarded is going down this year - the government's temporary boost of 400 to meet the challenge of the economic downturn will not be renewed. Our allocation will shrink accordingly.
Applications are all on-line this year. Like the Vanier process last year, this new e-application process has not been piloted, is being implemented very quickly, and very late. It is fraught with errors, omissions, oversights that we are going to have to deal with locally. Applicants need to get onto the applications early since there WILL be wrinkles that we will need to iron out with NSERC.

You may submit only one application per academic year to NSERC or CIHR or SSHRC.
Regarding NSERC-assigned PIN (Personal Identification Numbers) numbers:
1. Former applicants MUST use their PIN numbers from prior years, and if they do not have them, they need to immediately contact NSERC to get them
2. New applicants now leave the PIN number field blank
3. If new applicants leave the PIN number field blank, and the application process stalls mid-way, then it is likely that there is anther prior candidate with a similar name, or the e-application is flawed at the NSERC end of things. Contact the Program Officer at NSERC to clear things up (schol@nserc-crsng.gc.ca).

Transcripts
Transcripts will be scanned and uploaded for you by your Departmental Graduate Secretary (Marlene Bezaire). It is important that you give them ALL of your transcripts together - they need to be scanned and uploaded as a single contiguous file, and the system permits them to upload only once.

Fast track PhD students
If you were accelerated from the MSc to the PhD program (didn't complete the MSc) be sure to specify your conversion date - this is important for ensuring that you are eligible for the maximum number of years.

PhD students
There are two places where you enter information that are "free-form" and uploaded as text files. It is safest to ensure that the uploaded files have headers with your name and PIN numbers on them. The first section pertains to work already completed, and would entail a brief outline of MSC work (title, significance etc as per instructions) but you can also install PhD work completed to date. The second section is the PhD proposal. DO NOT repeat what is put on the first section, but outline the scope of the project, objectives, and where you are going next.

Countdown Clock
There is a due date countdown clock on the NSERC application website that is confusing and will be removed.

Recommendation letters
Only the referees and the Scholarship Liaison Officer at Graduate studies can see and print off the referee reports. She in turn will have to provide these in either electronic or paper form to the ranking committees at the departmental and university levels.
Contact Svetlana (svetlana@uwindsor.ca) to request a copy of your applicants' reports for your committee's rankings.

Is your proposed research related to health?
The following are considerations when preparing or assessing the eligibility of the subject matter of applications related to health:
Eligible for NSERC support:
* Research in animal health and veterinary medicine.
* Research in nutrition related to food components, nutraceuticals1 or functional foods.1
* Research seeking to further our understanding of fundamental processes in humans.
* Research whose primary purpose is the development of monitoring and diagnostic technologies (such as health IT, in-vitro diagnostics, diagnostic imaging, patient monitoring and endoscopic devices) unless it is at the clinical trial stage. The research challenge must lie within the NSE.
* Research whose major challenges lie in the NSE (materials science, engineering, computer science, chemistry, etc.) which could eventually lead, among other applications, to the treatment or prevention of human disease.
Not eligible for NSERC support:
* Research involving the refinement of already existing technology for facilitating clinical therapies or health delivery systems.
* Research whose primary purpose is the investigation or development of vaccines, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), or other therapeutic agents for human applications.
* Research whose primary purpose is the investigation or treatment of injuries or human performance.
* Research seeking to develop animal models of human diseases in order to study, primarily, the disease state, or treatments for injuries or diseases represented by the model.
* Applied research for disease treatment, diagnosis or prevention.
* Research involving clinical trials.2

Start early and let us know when things go wrong (They will! This has not been well thought out or implemented) so that we can intervene to help.

NSERC contacts you via email if successful. Address changes must be made to your online account by March 1st, or you risk missing notification and forfeiting your scholarship.

From: Michael Crawford Ph.D.
Associate Dean Graduate Studies

Student chemist perfecting data transfer for electronic devices

[Excerpt from the University of Windsor Daily News]

To read the full article, click here.

Silicon-based integrated circuits currently used in cell phones and mp3 players are about as small as they’re going to get with current technology. Now, in response to consumer demand for even faster, more efficient electronic devices, chemists are racing to develop tiny molecular structures that would process data instead—and a UWindsor PhD student in chemistry has joined the race.

"Everyone knows that if we want data to be transferred faster we need to make things smaller, but we’ve almost reached the limit now with how small we can go," said Mike Miller, who recently won a three-year post-graduate doctoral scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council worth $63,000.

Miller, who works under the supervision of associate professor Tricia Carmichael, said many scientists are trying to create molecular wires and resistors by linking together chains of functional molecules that could be lined up in such a way so that one day, data could be transferred through them and they could replace conventional circuits. Miller’s attention, meanwhile, is devoted to studying ways to smooth the surfaces those molecules would bond with, as a way of ensuring better conductivity and data transfer.

To read the full article, click here.

NSERC Graduate Awards

Chemistry had a great showing this year, with five graduate NSERC awards!

PGSD3 - Bushnell, Eric (Gauld)
CGSM - Caputo, Christopher (Loeb)
CGSM - Filiatrault, Heather (Carmichael)
PGSD3 - Miller, Michael (Carmichael)
CGSM - Vukotic, Vedran (Loeb)

Congratulations to all of our awardees!

Undergraduate Summer Research Awardees

Congratulations to our Undergraduate Summer Researchers, who obtained scholarships from NSERC to support their work in our department this summer:

Carolyn Adams (Loeb)
Ryan McLarty (Mutus)
Chris Mireault (Schurko)
Phillip Tremblay (Pandey)
Alex Reidel (Schurko)
Jordan Prince (Vacratsis)
Jennifer Nguyen (Macdonald)
Jessica Smith (Pandey)
Michael-Anthony Ferrato (Carmichael)
Gyllian Porteous (Carmichael)

Undergraduate Research Presentations

Are you interested in summer research opportunities? 59-410 research project? NSERC undergrad summer research assistantships?

Undergraduate Research Presentations will take place on January 15th in room 186 (Essex Hall) starting at 3:00 pm. Pizza and soft drinks will be provided. Come meet the faculty who will be taking on undergrad researchers!

Greg Welch awarded NSERC doctoral prize

Greg Welch is one of the two NSERC Doctoral Prize recipients for 2009 in the category of Natural Sciences. These prestigious awards honour the achievements of Canada's most promising scientists and engineers, and are awarded annually to up to four doctoral students in sciences and engineering at Canadian universities. Greg Welch graduated in October 2008 with a doctoral degree in Chemistry under the supervision of Dr. Douglas Stephan. He is currently an NSERC Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Congratulations, Greg, on this great recognition!

Click here to see the posting on the graduate studies website.

NSERC and OGS awards

Congratulations to our chemistry and biochemistry graduate students who obtained graduate scholarships from NSERC, as well as Ontario Graduate Scholarships.

NSERC scholarships, 2009-2010
There were 19 successful awards out of 28 applicants.

CGSD2 Hatnean, Jillian JA Chemistry and Biochemistry
CGSM Bushnell, Eric EAC Chemistry and Biochemistry

CGSD2 Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral (2 years, $35,000 per year)
CGSM Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's ($17,500)

OGS winners 2009-2010
There were 73 successful applicants out of 243 applications.
BOLLA, Michael
BUSHNELL, Eric
COOPER, Benjamin
HAMAED, Hiyam
HATNEAN, Jillian
HILDEBRAND, Marcel
NTAGANDA, Rukundo
RENAUD, Justin

Undergraduate Summer Research Assistantships

Attention all undergraduate students!

Apr. 23: Undergrad research information session

Feb. 3: Deadline for USRA applications.

Are you interested in summer research? Then please take note of the important dates and information below:

1. The Undergraduate Research information session will take place on Friday January 23 from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. in 186 Essex Hall. Pizza and pop will be served! Please attend this session to meet the professors and see what undergrad research opportunities are available for:

• Fourth year honors projects, 2009-2010 (59-410)
• Summer research opportunities
• Outstanding scholars

2. NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Assistantships (USRAs) are due in the chemistry office on Tues. Feb. 3, 2009. You must hand in the NSERC application, the Chem/Biochem form, and an official transcript.

Click here to visit the website for all official links, forms and information.