March 19, 2024
EPIC Future Leaders Prize for Dr Jonathan Burnie’s virology research
Dr Jonathan Burnie has earned the EPIC Future Leaders Prize from the Emerging & Pandemic Infections Consortium. Dr Burnie is a graduate from the Guzzo lab who was selected as one of four outstanding PhD graduates who defended their infectious disease-related thesis in 2023. Burnie's research…
March 14, 2024
A role for androgens in building muscle and making neurons: Sabrina Tzivia Barsky earns Christine Hone-Buske Award
Sabrina Tzivia Barsky, a grad student in the Monks lab at UTM, has earned the Christine Hone-Buske Award from Cell & Systems Biology for her publication “Androgen action on myogenesis throughout the lifespan; comparison with neurogenesis”. With this paper she is taking her research on androgen…
March 7, 2024
Blocking the signal: Dr Sylvia Mutinda earns Provost Post-doctoral Award to understand how parasitic plants eavesdrop on crops
Dr Sylvia Mutinda is a scientist from Kenya who works on a parasitic plant, Striga hermonthica, that infests crops in Africa. She will be coming to work on Striga in the Lumba lab in Toronto with the aid of a Provost Post-doctoral Fellowship from the University of Toronto. Prof Shelley Lumba in…
February 12, 2024
Driving discoveries over 35 years: Bob Strome reflects on UofT’s dynamic research community
CSB research technician Bob Strome recently received his pin for 35 years of service at UofT. Through decades of molecular biology research at UofT, he has been at the core of new technology development, seen old technologies sidelined, and has witnessed UofT buildings fall and rise. Strome started…
January 18, 2024
Dr. Ian Tobias on neural stem cell fate and academic career choices
Dr Ian Tobias is a post-doctoral researcher in the Mitchell laboratory in the Department of Cell & Systems Biology (CSB) working on neural stem cells. He is a member of the Chippewas of the Nawash Unceded First Nation. Upon starting his position in CSB, he earned a Provost Post-Doctoral…
December 19, 2023
Professor Maxwell Shafer reveals behavioural changes across extinctions
Prof Maxwell Shafer studies the ways sleep behaviour evolves, including shifts from nocturnal to diurnal activity.His lab records the activity of various species of fish over many days and nights. His recent research integrated these results with previously published data to create an in-depth…
December 11, 2023
Global Biodata Coalition designates UofT’s Bio-Analytic Resource as a Global Core Biodata Resource
The Bio-Analytic Resource for Plant Biology is thrilled to have been designated as a Global Core Biodata Resource by the Global Biodata Coalition. The Bio-Analytic Resource (BAR) at bar.utoronto.ca encompasses and provides visualization tools for large ‘omics data sets from plants. The BAR covers…
December 8, 2023
AI for Protein Structure leads to unexpected biological discoveries and a new seminar course
Cell & Systems Biology (CSB) Professor Alan Moses is using a breakthrough innovation in AI, AlphaFold2, for new directions in both teaching and research. AlphaFold2 is an astonishing development in deep learning that can predict the structure of almost any protein based on its sequence alone.…
November 30, 2023
Gonzales-Vigil lab reveals cuticular waxes as producer of volatile compounds
The lab of Prof Eliana Gonzales-Vigil has released its findings on "Dynamic changes to the plant cuticle include the production of volatile cuticular wax–derived compounds" in the prestigious journal PNAS. The article notes that "Cuticular waxes are widely regarded as physical defenses that…
November 27, 2023
Connaught Award for aquatic VR to understand neural dynamics
A Connaught New Researcher Award to CSB Professor Qian Lin will combine engineering, neuroscience, game design and AI to reveal new insights on how the brain controls movement through space. In an aquarium in Lin's lab, a fish sees two paths and swishes its tail to take the left path. A sensor…