Animal and Plant Science out on the street for Science Rendezvous with CSB
The Science Rendezvous open air festival provided CSB staff and students a chance to bring our science outside to share with the general public. Even as the sunny skies turned to rain, we stuck to our tents on St George Street and chatted with our visitors.
Kenana al Kakouni and Daniel Gaim showed the wonders that can be seen in a drop of water. Visitors lined up to look under the microscope at slides of Daphnia, C. elegans and other tiny animals.
Kenana explained how tiny organisms are used for teaching in our undergraduate labs and Daniel demonstrated low-cost microscopes that give extraordinary detail of small samples.
Arthur Siu, Ryan Huang and Josheen Kour revealed two-headed flatworms to our visitors, and talked about the regenerative powers of flatworms that allow them to regrow a full body from a morsel of tail.
Scientists can test the signals that promote regeneration by disrupting the process, and two-headed worms are just one result that comes from a deepening understanding of regeneration.
Neil Macpherson showed the differences between plant and animal cells by displaying models of cells and the organelles that make up the cell. He explained how chloroplast organelles make leaves green, and delved into the details of how information is stored in the nucleus.
Our younger visitors made soft models of an intriguing organelle or used their imagination to make new organelles. Mitochondria and chloroplasts were a favourite, once visitors learned that chloroplasts make sugar, and that mitochondria give people energy by breaking down sugar.
Iris Low was able to show what happens when mutant plant seedlings have no chloroplasts. After a burst of growth from the nutrients stored in the seed, her white seedlings arrested their growth while the green seedlings thrived. There were long queues at the microscope to look at these tiny mutants.
Mariia Cherednychenko demonstrated two ways plants can be used in at-home science experiments. She showed that red cabbage leaf juice can change colour based on whether you add acidic lime juice or basic baking soda. Our visitors were excited to squish bananas in plastic bags, and Mariia guided them to add special solutions to make clouds of banana DNA in the bag.
We were glad to meet hundreds of visitors, demonstrate our exhibits and talk with them about our shared enthusiasm for discovery!
Excellence and excitement at CSB Research Day 2024
The wide variety of cutting-edge science in the Department of Cell & Systems Biology was on full display in the distinguished halls of Hart House at CSB Research Day on May 3, 2024. Grad students from all three campuses shared their findings with faculty, staff and fellow students at talks and poster presentations.
We welcomed invited guests who shared vivid insights. Keynote speaker Matthieu Piel presented a fascinating talk on how how mechanical constraints influence cell behaviour, particularly in cancer and immune cells.
CSB graduates Michael Martin, Rosiey Yang, Jennifer Doucet and Ahmed Hasan detailed their career paths and shared advice with current CSB students for our Career Panel, along with Paul Pease of LUMICKS. We are immensely grateful to CSBGU, LUMICKS and Active Motif for their generous support to this event, and to their representatives who engaged our students in lively discussions.
From the excellent oral presentations in the Great Hall, there were three winners whose research covered drought response, neuroscience and immunology respectively:
Hasna Khan (Provart Lab at UTSG) earned her award for “Lost in translation: Drought stress-induced alternative splicing remodels the guard cell transcriptome through distinct gene regulatory pathways”
Milena Russo (Liu Lab at UTM) presented her discovery that “An inhibitory pathway mediates motional contextual modulation in the midbrain”.
Serene Moussaoui (Terebiznik Lab at UTSC) revealed her findings on “When macrophages bite off more than they can swallow - dealing with Aspergillus fumigatus”.
Attendees streamed into the Music Room and Debates Room for the poster presentations, with fascinated crowds learning about advanced techniques and new lines of inquiry. Awards were presented for research on mRNA splicing, neuroscience, insect behaviour, virology and plant-fungi communication:
Sanjana Bhatnagar (Calarco Lab at UTSG) showed the development of “A parallelized reporter screen to uncover tissue-specific splicing activator and repressor sequences in a multicellular organism”.
Drake Mark (Koyama Lab at UTSC) revealed that “Electrophysiological interrogation of V2a descending neuron dynamics in zebrafish illuminates the mechanism for developing flexible locomotor sequences”.
Anhad Singh (Senatore Lab) showed the results of “Exploring the Evolutionary Origins of Ionotropic Glutamate Receptor Function and Ligand Activation from the homologues of the Early Diverging Animal Trichoplax adhaerens”.
Mila Gorchkova (Anreiter Lab) dug into the details of “Variation in the foraging gene and its pathways; how a conserved protein kinase regulates social behaviour in larvae”.
Arvin Persaud (Guzzo Lab at UTSC) revealed how “Virion-incorporated CD14 Facilities LPS Binding and Inflammatory Signaling by HIV-1”.
James Bradley (Lumba/McCourt Labs at UTSG) found that “The plant hormone, strigolactone, inhibits the yeast phosphate transporter, Pho84, by regulating transporter localization”.
There were networking opportunities throughout the day, with excited conversations lasting until the winners were presented with their well-earned awards. Congratulations to everyone who skillfully presented their work, and especially to all our award winners!
This event was planned by a dedicated committee of thirteen graduate students, advised by faculty and staff, and led by Co-chairs Andreea Bosorogan and Cindy Hong. Thank you to everyone on the committee on your excellent work!
Life sciences students honour CSB Teaching Assistants with Teaching Excellence Award
Congratulations to this year’s TA Teaching Excellence Award winners, Ruby He, Mary-Elizabeth Raymond, Andrea-Aditi Taylor and Kathryn McTavish!
Students taking classes in Molecular and Cell Biology (BIO130), Techniques in Molecular & Cell Biology (CSB330) and Methods in Genomics and Proteomics (CSB474) singled our their Teaching Assistants as exceptional in their knowledge, learning environment and teaching skills. Selected quotes are given below:
Ruby He taught BIO130 with a “dedication and passion to maximizing our learning experience [that] extended beyond the lab, as she often encouraged us to explore research avenues and approach her with any lingering curiosities.”
Students in Mary Raymond’s CSB330 labs found that she “had a great in-depth knowledge about both the course content and laboratory techniques. This knowledge allowed many students to ask more questions and develop a strong understanding of topics.”
Andrea-Aditi Taylor’s BIO130 labs “were enjoyable because of the safe and respectful environment she cultivated. Andrea explained the connection of our experiments to her lab work and why she thought they were both interesting for us to research but pertinent to what we were learning in lecture.”
CSB474 students confided that “The stress of grad school applications and our impending futures outside of academics often got to us but Kathyrn [McTavish] always provided us advice to alleviate these worries by sharing her experiences.”
Congratulations on the outstanding work that earned this student-nominated award!
Remembering the wisdom and curiosity of Professor Yoshio Masui (1931-2024)
We are sad to share news of the passing of Professor Emeritus Yoshio Masui, FRS, OC on April 18, 2024. Prof Masui was a valued colleague in the Departments of Zoology (1968-2006) and Cell & Systems Biology (2006-2024) at the University of Toronto. His discoveries revealed important details of how an egg becomes an adult, and gave clues as to how cancer can arise from uncontrolled cell growth.
Born in 1931 in Kyoto, Japan, Masui received his undergraduate (1953), master’s (1955) and doctoral (1961) degrees from Kyoto University. In 1961 he started his own lab at Konan University, beginning his work on frog eggs and embryos at different developmental stages.
Masui arrived at U of T in 1968, in search of “freedom for research – neither interference with nor solicitation for choices of research projects”. His area of expertise – developmental biology – was practically unknown. The study of development in living organisms would soon become an essential discipline and Masui himself would be cited in his Order of Canada as “one of Canada’s finest scientists”.
Answers to worthy questions
Professor Masui was curious, wise and kind. He was propelled through setbacks or self-doubt in his research by a “strong curiosity to get answers to worthy questions”. As a young researcher attracted by the idea of an “organizer” in amphibian embryos, Masui confronted problems with poor sensitivity in biochemical assays and with tracking proliferating cells during multicellular development.
In an early demonstration of his deep wisdom, Masui determined that the best approach was to start with the simplest animal model he could find, unfertilized frog eggs. By initiating growth of the egg, he could find what organized the divisions and development of these single cells into complex organisms.
The freedom provided by U of T allowed him to make good use of his curiosity and led to many significant insights. Working with basic equipment, Masui and his students were able to pinpoint two factors that govern cell proliferation.
The first factor, maturation promoting factor (MPF), initiates cell division; the second, cytostatic factor (CSF), stops it. Masui displayed technical as well as scientific skills by developing a microinjection technique to transfer controlled amounts of MPF and CSF directly into cells.
Masui and others showed that MPF and CSF were proteins, the first proteins shown to regulate the cycles of cell division. MPF was just one of a class of proteins called cyclin-dependent kinases which control many aspects of cell division in both embryonic and adult cells.
Masui’s citation for the Order of Canada notes “The discovery of MPF and the characterization of its biochemical properties marked the start of all modern-day research on the regulation of cell division. This work has been critical to understanding the causes of diseases like cancer.”
Deep knowledge and insight
Masui’s kindness was experienced by everyone in the Department who met him. Graduate students in Cell & Systems Biology benefit every year from scholarships that he generously established with money from his many awards. Although he was too humble to promote his own accomplishments, he always had time to exchange ideas with students and to mentor colleagues.
His colleague, Prof Rudi Winklbauer relates that “After hearing a research presentation, he often asked a single polite yet piercing question which went right to the heart of the matter. We wondered how he did this. I think his basic instinct was to always paint the big picture, placing any subject in the large background available to him, and then see how it holds up to stringent logical examination.”
Masui read widely and was deeply cultured. Prof Winklbauer fondly recalls “He made reading suggestions to the students in my lab. I overheard him advise one student to read Descartes and interrogate another about Chinese novels. Of course, there had to be fun in all of this. One late evening in a restaurant with our lab members, he was moved to belt out the song "Am Brunnen vor dem Tore" by Schubert - in German…and in tune.”
A lifetime of honours
Over his long research career, Masui received many prestigious awards, including the Manning Award for Innovation (1990) for what the judges called “a major step forward in the battle against cancer.” He also earned Canada’s Gairdner International Award (1992) for “contributions in the field of cell cycle regulation”, and the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award (1998; often called America’s Nobel Prize) for “pioneering genetic and molecular studies that revealed the universal machinery for regulating cell division”. Masui was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1998 and in 2003 was awarded the Order of Canada.
Masui has long been retired from teaching, but his insightful questions were a constant presence at Departmental seminars. He is survived by his wife, Yuriko and his children Hitoshi and Sayuri. Everyone at Cell & Systems Biology will miss his kind smile and his wise insights. Colleagues and friends who wish to honour his legacy may choose to add to the Yoshio Masui Prize for Graduate Students.
With files from the Faculty of Arts & Science and from Fernando Valencia
Undergraduate researchers reveal exciting project results at year-end poster session to earn F Michael Barrett Award
On Friday, April 5th, 2024 students from the CSB497, 498 and 499 independent research programs presented their project results in a poster session held in the Ramsay Wright Building. We would like to thank our judges for their time assessing the posters and presentations. The students who excelled at presenting their projects were awarded the F Michael Barret Award, with Prof. Dinesh Christendat hosting the awards ceremony.
Winning posters covered cell biology over a wide range of sizes, from small molecules to individual cells and on to whole organisms.
Yu Li undertook "Development of an in planta screen for small molecule inhibitors of plant pathogens" in the Yoshioka Laboratory
Bryan Guo performed "Functional investigations of rhodopsin variants" in the Chang Laboratory.
Hongyu Zhu from the Mitchell Laboratory presented on "Investigating the long-range regulatory potential of synthetic enhancer sequences".
Daphne Jiang determined that "Force sensitive actin polymerization is required for cell fate commitment in response to profibrotic cues" in the Plotnikov Laboratory.
Arthur Siu asked "How does ECF viscosity regulate cell behaviour?" in the Plotnikov Laboratory.
Gary Chatha worked on "Elucidating Cysts and Bazooka's Contribution to Tissue Growth Regulation" in the Tepass Laboratory.
Alexander Olander took on "Investigating the role of Endoplasmic Reticulum-plasma membrane contact sites in shaping the early drosophila melanogaster embryo" in the Harris Laboratory.
Asia Anwary presented research on "Using conditioned place avoidance to study learning and spatial cognition in young zebrafish" from work done in the Lin Lab.
Thank you to Kenana Al Kakouni, Anna Kozelj and Sam Delage for helping with this year’s poster session. A very special thank you to Melissa Casco and Genna Zunde for all of their hard work in organizing this event.
Congratulations to our award recipients!
Appreciative students present award for teaching to Professor Kenneth Yip
Professor Kenneth Yip applies a visible passion to his teaching and shows genuine concern for his students. His enthusiastic presentations earned him this year’s Ranjini (Rini) Ghosh Excellence in Teaching Award from the Arts & Science Student Union.
Students first encounter Yip’s teaching through University of Toronto’s largest life sciences courses, BIO130: Molecular and Cell Biology and BIO230: From Genes to Organisms. Yip takes the time to explain and highlight important concepts and connects them to practice by bringing in real examples from laboratory research, industrial biotechnology and healthcare.
Yip also prepares incoming first-year students for what to expect in their classes through Arrive Ready for Life Sciences, a free online program.
The Ghosh award is made on the basis of excellence in teaching and contributions to undergraduate education. The nominations received for this year’s award describe Yip as a humble and caring instructor who is committed to ensuring that his students understand the material and succeed.
Yip is honoured that former students would take the time and effort for these nominations. “Fundamentally, I aim to foster an engaging and positive learning environment that promotes enthusiasm and genuine interest in cellular and molecular biology.” explains Yip. “I try to make adjustments after every class as well as improve my courses year after year.”
Yip collaborates with other Professors in Cell & Systems Biology to centre their teaching around evidence-based practices. Yip attributes a lot of his success to mentor and colleague Prof Melody Neumann, so he was excited to share the news of his award with her.
“Over the past year, I was driven to contemplate whether I am truly teaching, connecting with, and inspiring students at the level they deserve,” confides Yip. “This recognition is reassurance that I’m still on the right track to positively impact learners.”
Congratulations to Professor Kenneth Yip on this important recognition from his students!
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 hormones in skeletal muscle and relating it to how androgens might regulate plasticity in brain cells.
In high school, Barsky was a junior gymnast competing for Canada, so building healthy skeletal muscle capacity was an important consideration for her. Her studies since then have focused on how exercise and aging affect muscles, and how these responses differ between males and females.
The Monks lab studies the role of hormones in the brain, in behavior and in sexual reward. Barsky studies on the role of androgen hormones, namely testosterone, in building muscle mass. Barsky focuses on the effect of changes to the androgen receptor, the protein that detects androgens, throughout exercise modalities, including endurance training.
Barsky pays close attention to sex-specific differences in muscle development. She found that the effects of very high changes in androgen receptor content in muscle is most pronounced in male rats, but can be effective for female rats at specific ages in terms of muscle growth and fat loss.
“Exercise and muscle physiology for a long time excluded females because of changes in estrogen and progesterone that happen throughout the menstrual cycle,” Barsky explains, “but the fluctuation of these hormones don't seem to actually play as much of a role in mediating acute performance or muscle anabolism as was previously thought.”
In a recent paper, Barsky found that the massive changes seen in body composition through puberty and the fat reduction that we see in exercise training is only partly mediated by the androgen receptor in skeletal muscle.
This elegant collection of experiments challenges what you might hear from physiotherapists or trainers in the gym. She shows there is nuance involved in androgen action on building muscle, which has implications in steroid use for treating muscle-wasting diseases like sarcopenia or in combination with resistance training to improve physique.
Muscle satellite cells maintain and build skeletal muscle, whereas neural stem cells build and maintain the nervous system. Although they are different, the two tissues share some similarities, like their ability to respond to different environmental, behavioural, and hormonal cues throughout life.
The paper that earned her the Hone-Buske Award focuses on the effects of androgens on neural stem cells compared to those on muscle satellite cells, and discusses how muscle can be leveraged to help unravel androgen action in the brain.
Congratulations to Sabrina Tzivia Barsky on earning the Christine Hone-Buske award!
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 the Department of Cell & Systems Biology (CSB) studies the chemical signals that are released into soil by plants, which is one way they communicate with each other. Healthy sorghum plants, for example, release these signals to indicate to other sorghum seedlings that conditions are good for growth. Striga seeds have evolved to sense these signals and use them to sprout.
Dr Mutinda has identified unique sorghum varieties that are resistant to Striga and will be working with CSB scientists to determine what chemical signal allows this variety to be resistant, so that the resistant trait can be isolated and used to develop resistant crop plants.
When a crop like sorghum or rice starts to grow, Striga seeds can sprout in adjacent soil, and their roots dig into crop roots to steal nutrients and water directly from the sap. This process fascinates Dr Mutinda, and she became skilled at the histology of distinguishing parasite cells (P) from host cells (H). She became passionate about combating Striga when she witnessed the emergence of Striga's beautiful but sinister purple flowers during field studies.
“As a research assistant with Professor Steven Runo and Dr. Jacinta Kavuluko, I participated in a number of trips to Western Kenya. That's when I had the opportunity to appreciate the adverse effects that Striga has on its hosts,” Dr Mutinda explains. “I could see school age children unable to attend school as they're busy weeding for Striga. And these are some of the regions that are really poverty stricken in Western Kenya.”
One way sorghum crops can resist Striga is by changing the signal that promotes sorghum growth so Striga cannot detect it. This trait is known as pre-germination resistance. This chemical signal detected by Striga is called strigolactone, and two of the most studied isomers are 5-deoxystrigol and orobancol.
Normally, pre-germination resistant strains produce orobancol, but Dr Mutinda was surprised to find that one of her resistant strains produced 5-deoxystrigol. She reasoned there could be another interacting compound mediating resistance. Since there can be multiple chemicals exuded by the plant root, she worked in collaboration with Professor Salim Al Babili to test her strain’s root exudate for a second compound, ABA, which is also associated with resistance.
Dr Mutinda was puzzled to find that ABA was not a significant component of the root exudate. However, this is an exciting finding since identifying a new naturally-produced Striga resistance chemical from her strain could be a breakthrough for preventing Striga infestation.
The Lumba lab has a synthetic biology assay that detects strigolactone. Dr Mutinda will exploit this assay by testing fractions containing the different compounds in the root exudate of her resistant strain.
A second resistance mechanism is post-attachment resistance, which comes through different modes, such as cell wall reinforcements to resist penetration, or localized death of infected cells through hypersensitive response.
In gene expression studies with Professor Runo, Dr Mutinda found that resistant sorghum express genes for multiple resistance modes in contrast to the commonly held narrative that one mode of resistance dominates. These crops had evolved so that if, for example, pre-germination resistance was insufficient, the plants could still deploy post-attachment resistance genes.
Dr Mutinda will be using her skills in gene expression analysis from this study complemented with the Lumba lab synthetic biology assay to study fungal responses to sorghum exudates. She is looking forward to experimenting with the Lumba Nanopore sequencer, as it is also possible to conduct experiments with this palm-sized genome sequencer in crop fields. At Prof Lumba’s lab, Dr. Mutinda will acquire high-level skills in a range of disciplines from ‘omics’, genetics, and biochemistry.
Dr Mutinda has been reading up on Toronto from her lab in Kenya. “I have learned that Toronto is a multicultural city, “says Dr Mutinda. “So, I am really looking forward to interacting with people from diverse cultures and enjoy their cuisines and get to learn more from them. I can’t wait to explore the treasures in the heart of downtown Toronto among them, concerts at Roy Thompson Hall.”
Congratulations to Dr Mutinda on earning a Provost Post-Doctoral Fellowship and we’re happy to welcome you to Toronto!
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 in the Banting and Best Institute in 1988. He worked in the Krause lab on early development of the fruit fly embryo, focusing on the fushi terazu gene, also known as ftz. “We would label ftz DNA nucleotides with radioactive phosphate and write down the sequence in our lab book” notes Strome. “In 2024, we just put the DNA in a tube, send it for fluorescent sequencing and receive the data file.”
Starting in 1995, Strome began work on Alzheimer’s and prion diseases at the Tanz Centre for Research into Neurodegenerative Diseases (CRND). He was lab manager for the Westaway lab, which also allowed him to develop skills in people management.
Strome was part of a team that created mice which developed symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. These models allowed researchers to develop treatments for human sufferers of Alzheimer’s. His genetic engineering skills were key, as every tool used to alter the mouse genome had to be the correct sequence, with no errors. By rigorous adherence to protocol, Strome ensured every transgenic generated would have no reason to go wrong.
Through this careful work, the CRND developed a mouse model that is still the world standard for Alzheimer’s studies. The CRND website notes (under Breakthroughs) that “This mouse is now being used by numerous academic and industrial researchers to investigate the mechanisms of nerve cell injury and the effects of potential new therapies.”
As lab manager, part of Strome’s job became transferring breeding pairs of these mice to academic labs and pharma companies that were developing Alzheimer’s treatments.
“One of the most meaningful parts of my work at CRND was hosting tours for donors to Alzheimer’s research.” Strome shares. “Many had loved ones that were affected by dementia, and we could show them their contributions were leading to progress in understanding and treating dementia.”
With funding cuts after the Great Recession, Strome’s job at CRND ended and he was hired to be lab manager for Cell & Systems Biology’s Moses lab in the Earth Science Building. The Moses lab uses AI models to study the evolution of cellular regulatory networks, and Strome validates those models in living systems.
People can stay for 35 years at the University, but the buildings often decay and fall. Strome started in the historic C.H. Best Building, a moldy brick structure with rusty pipes that has since been replaced by the Schwartz-Reisman Building.
During his Alzheimer's work, Strome would take lunch breaks next door in the University's desert and tropical greenhouses and made friends there with the University horticulturalists. However, these stone and ironwork greenhouses were eventually replaced by the Pharmacy Building.
When Strome moved into the Moses lab, he found out that the plants from the desert and tropical greenhouses were now located on the roof of the Earth Sciences Building. He became joyfully reacquainted with his old horticulturalist friends, and made new friends who share his passion for guitars. They sometimes play on the roof by the greenhouses, where they've added a drum kit.
Strome’s old work on neurodegenerative diseases is also coming back into play, as prion proteins that result in neurodegenerative diseases possess similar properties to the class of proteins being studied in The Moses Lab.
Congratulations on 35 years at UofT, Bob Strome!