From left to right, Andrea Ladouceur, Rana Ahmed, Paula Pineda Sanchez, Ghosoun Alomari

Ahmed is part of a team of three, with two other members being Ghosoun Alomari and Paula Pineda Sanchez. Alomari and Sanchez are two undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science. When Ahmed pitched their idea, she was competing against seven more teams. All of which had innovative ideas to tackle real-world problems and positively impact communities.

Selecting the winner was not an easy task for the judges. All the teams had brilliant ideas and worked relentlessly on their pitch. However, one could see how everyone was moved by Ahmed’s pitch. At the end, “A Smarter Way to Stop Cholera Outbreaks – No Antibiotics Needed” won first place. 

“We were over the moon… I didn’t expect that because all the finalists were excellent”, said Ahmed in her interview with the Faculty of Science. She mentioned their team has heard from the Bioscience Association of Manitoba to see how they can advance the project. For the future, Ahmed and her team would like to apply to the Lab2Market program at UM. They hope to get funds, proceed with the idea, and see it come to fruition in real-world applications.

To learn more about the project, watch the full interview on the Faculty of Science’s YouTube channel. 

UM’s Eric Collins, Canada Research Chair in Arctic Marine Microbial Ecosystem Services, at the Churchill Marine Observatory on the western shore of Hudson Bay // Photos by Katie Chalmers-Brooks

“So, the intention is to monitor waterways that are in their jurisdictions. And so, we have several community partners around the Prairies North region. And those partners will be leaders in helping us guide the research. So it’ll be particularly impactful for them because it’s designed that way.”, says Eric Collins, principal investigator of the project.

Collins is an assistant professor at the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources and holds a Canada Research Chair in Arctic Marine Microbial Ecosystem Services at the Centre for Earth Observation Science, Environment and Geography.

Three researchers from the Microbiology Department at the Faculty of Science are also involved in the project as co-principal investigators: Marike Palmer, assistant professor; Ayush Kumar, professor and associate dean of strategic initiatives; and Miguel Uyaguari, assistant professor and Indigenous scholar.

The project consists of 3 themes. 1) Reciprocal Ecologies, 2) Altered Landscapes, and 3) Human-Constructed Systems.

Marike Palmer and a student in the field. Photo credit: Aman Verma

“My own research is very much tied to the research theme one to this project, focused on the biodiversity exploration and understanding what the different microbial communities look like and how they change over time. Where we’re basically trying to uncover any microbial novelty and at the same time trying to see how those microbial communities differ over time and trying to figure out if we actually need active conservation efforts for the biodiversity captured in those environments”, says Palmer, who is involved with theme one, exploring the microbial community diversity in natural waterways.

Theme two focuses on monitoring invasive species in rehabilitated lakes and is in collaboration with the Experimental Lakes Area.

Theme 3 looks at the role of the antimicrobial resistance genes and other potential pathogens in municipal water systems in First Nations communities. Both Kumar and Uyaguari are involved with theme 3. Kumar’s research is regarding mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Ayush Kumar

“We are interested in antibiotic resistance, which is considered a silent pandemic. Globally, antibiotic-resistant infections kill about 1.3 million people every year. So, looking at the prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in the environment is very, very critical when it comes to how to address the problem. And one way of doing that is by looking at the present in the environment that may encode for various antibiotic resistance. The aspects that we are involved in this project can help coming up with ways where we can improve the safety of the water and spread of antibiotic resistance”, says Kumar.

Uyaguari’s research focuses on antimicrobial-resistance genes that could be present in water and wastewater treatment facilities in Indigenous communities.

Miguel Uyaguari

“My involvement is to look at antimicrobial-resistance genes that could be present in water antimicrobial-resistance genes that could be present in water and wastewater treatment facilities in Indigenous communities to evaluate the discharges from, wastewater facilities and oxidation lagoons in these communities, as well as evaluate the water cycle in general from a microbiological perspective.”, says Uyaguari.

The grant also creates opportunities for graduate students to get involved in the project through the various principal investigators.

To learn more, please watch the full interview on the Faculty of Science’s YouTube channel and visit the Genome Canada website.

Oobleck pool!

Science Rendezvous is hosted by the UM Faculty of Science along with our campus and community partners. But the stars of the show are the more than 400 fantastic volunteers who make the event possible. We cannot wait to welcome you back for an exciting day filled with engaging science shows and booths. This is Winnipeg’s biggest and most remarkable science outreach event of the year!

Giant bubble trap!

Ready to get your hands dirty? Trap a person inside a giant bubble made of soap, water and glycerin. Run fast over our popular oobleck pool and don’t stop, or you will sink (up to your ankles)! Use plastic spoons to catch and release various critters from Oak Hammock Marsh.

Need a less messy activity? Visit us at the “Atomic Curiosities” booth to learn about radioactivity. Explore the “Math Mania” booth for brain-boosting math puzzles and games no matter how old you are. Or join us for a calm space to look at jaw-dropping rocks and fossils!

Look at the sun through the telescope!

This year’s theme is Wonder! We invite you to fuel your curiosity and look through our telescopes to view the sun. Learn more about polar bears at the “Polar Bears on Thin Ice” booth. Challenge yourself to code and move a pre-built robot arm. Or use small solar panels to light up little lights and sound buzzers!

Chemistry show!

With more than 50 science booths, our volunteers are excited to show kids the magic of science. But they are also secretly hoping to see the spark of curiosity and delight on adults’ faces, too. Whether you are bringing kids or coming on your own, we have something for you, and we are excited to see you there!

This event is FREE to attend, and no sign-ups are necessary except for science shows. To learn more, visit our website.

To listen to the entire conversation, please follow the link to CBC Manitoba Radio Noon. 

Undergraduate Student Sustainability Award

Sahand Babaie, Undergraduate Sustainability Award Winner

The Undergraduate Sustainability Award recognizes an undergraduate student who has led an initiative or project to advance sustainability. This initiative or project can be part of course work or take place outside of the learning environment.

Award Recipient: Sahand Babaie, Faculty of Science B.Sc. (General)

Sahand Babaie has been an active volunteer on sustainability projects across campus, including as president of the Science Student’s Association, where he led the work of digitalizing services to help decrease paper waste and shifting away from plastic cutlery to sustainable options. Babaie’s additional volunteer experience includes as a sustainability ambassador with the Office of Sustainability, recycling wood furniture with the Sustainability in Action Facility (SiAF), as social media coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) HUB, and as a student representative on the Sustainable Building Manitoba Board.

Recently, Babaie has been a participant in the SDG youth certificate classes put on by the Canadian Sustainable Development Solution Network and will be receiving his certification this spring.

Graduate Student Sustainability Award

Heather Eckton, Graduate Sustainability Award Winner

The Graduate Sustainability Award recognizes a graduate student who has led an initiative or project to advance sustainability. This initiative or project can be a part of course work or take place outside of the learning environment.

Award Recipient: Heather Eckton, Faculty of Education, PhD program

Heather Eckton is a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Education, the Climate Action Team Leader with Seven Oaks School Division, and the founder and program coordinator of the Sustainable Living Academy Manitoba in the Seven Oaks School Division. She is also a member of the Expert Advisory Council on the Environment and Climate Change and is a founding member of the Educators for Climate Action Manitoba.

Eckton’s doctoral research focusses on excellence in climate change education and transformational learning. She proposes to build capacity among MB school teachers towards climate change education.

Student Group Sustainability Award

The Student Group Sustainability Award recognizes a group of students who have led an initiative or project to advance sustainability at UM. This group also has made and will continue to make a lasting positive impact on the environmental, economic and social well-being of students at the University of Manitoba.

Prairie iGEM, Student Group Sustainability Award Winner

Award Recipient: Prairie iGEM

Prairie iGEM is a multidisciplinary student group targeting UN sustainable development goals through science and technology. Over two consecutive years, Prairie iGEM dedicated the team’s efforts to solve the polylactic acid (PLA) plastic pollution problem in Manitoba, by developing an engineered plastic eating bacteria that could improve PLA composting under challenging conditions.

The team researched waste management approaches used both within the university and across our province and created educational materials and programs for university members and visiting school students. Through these initiatives and in cooperation with different faculties and organizations, Prairie iGEM has contributed to the development of new strategies to manage waste in Manitoba.

Faculty Sustainability Award

The Faculty Sustainability Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated exceptional and continuous integration of sustainability into their teaching, research and engagement activities. This individual creates engaging opportunities for students through experiential learning, course design, innovative research and assignment creation. This person also shows a keen interest in campus related activities and sustainability as a whole.

Award Recipient: Dr. Joe Curnow, Educational Administration, Foundations & Psychology, Faculty of Education

Dr. Joe Curnow, Faculty Sustainability Award Winner

Dr. Joe Curnow has a track record of impactful research, community education, and international sustainability leadership. Curnow’s research explores how environmental activists learn through participation in social movements. Through participatory action research with fossil fuel divestment activists, her study examined a climate campaign with the potential to reveal both how mainstream environmental spaces become default spaces of Whiteness, masculinity, and settler-coloniality, as well as how these groups can become politicized, resisting social relations of dominance and centering reconciliation in their approach to climate justice.

Curnow’s research on sustainability learning has garnered prestigious awards. Curnow’s recent community-based education initiatives support sustainability organizing in Winnipeg. As part of the UM Social Justice Hub launch, she facilitated a Direct Action Organizing intensive workshop with cycling activists from UM and across Winnipeg. She has mentored community leaders as they develop practices to scale up their advocacy for sustainable transport infrastructure and safety policies.

For more than twenty years, Curnow has been active in sustainability and environmental activism.

Staff Sustainability Award

Debbie Armstrong, Staff Sustainability Award Winner

The Staff Sustainability Award recognizes an individual staff member’s efforts to educate, advocate and advance sustainability within their department and/or unit. This person shows a keen interest in campus-related activities and sustainability as a whole. Sustainability may or may not be defined in this person’s job responsibilities.

Award Recipient: Debbie Armstrong, Centre for Earth Observation Science, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources

Debbie Armstrong goes above and beyond to make UM a more sustainable place through her initiatives, teaching and research. Armstrong was instrumental in applying for and receiving a Strategic Initiative Fund to install a first of its kind solar panel system at the Sea-Ice Research Facility. She advances sustainability through cutting-edge environmental research in the ultra-clean trace elements laboratory, where she monitors pollutants and climate change indicators. And as an instructor, Armstrong is sure to include teaching on climate change and sustainability aspects in her courses.

Collaborative Sustainability Award

Period Poverty and Equity on Campus and Beyond, Collaborative Sustainability Award Winner

The Collaborative Sustainability Award recognizes a unique collaborative effort between students, faculty, staff and community members to integrate sustainability into a project or initiative. This unique category puts emphasis on interdepartmental interactions at UM in efforts to find solutions to sustainability-related challenges.

Award Recipient: Period Poverty and Equity, on Campus and Beyond

The Period Poverty and Equity, on Campus and Beyond (PPECB) project is a collaborative project based at the Center for Human Rights Research (CHRR). The PPECB project utilizes a menstrual justice lens to bring together faculty, staff, students and organizations to address period poverty (the increased economic vulnerability resulting from the financial burden posed by the need for menstrual supplies) and promote a broader vision of menstrual justice.

The PPECB was initially funded by a University of Manitoba Strategic Initiatives Award. This one-year project was anchored by an interdisciplinary and inter-faculty research team consisting of CHRR manager Dr. Pauline Tennent, Dr. Adele Perry (Arts), Dr. Julia Smith (Arts), and Dr. Lindsay Larios (Social Work), and supported by Heather Stark of the Office of Sustainability. The PPECB employed two graduate students, Chloe Vickar (Master of Human Rights) and Mikayla Hunter (Master of Community Health Sciences) and three undergraduate students: Bethel Alemaio (Arts), Hannah Belec (Arts), and Victoria Romero (Arts). The PPECB project has engaged approximately 80 volunteers, many of them students and a smaller number of staff and faculty.

Interested in nominating an individual or group for the Sustainability Awards? Keep an eye out for next year’s call for nominations in early 2026.

When COVID-19 emerged in March 2020, Canada’s health-care system was confronted with a unique challenge.

As emergency rooms swelled with patients, there was intense pressure to come up with a vaccine to protect people and reduce the strain on hospitals.

Canada’s vaccine research and development capacity was lagging. “COVID-19 exposed the fact that we had no capacity to manufacture a vaccine in-house,” says Dr. Peter Pelka, a professor in the department of microbiology at the University of Manitoba. “It was immediately recognized [that]… we couldn’t prioritize our own citizens.”

Ultimately, the federal government purchased vaccines from manufacturers located outside of Canada. Without domestic capacity to quickly create vaccines, valuable time had been lost. Hospitals were overwhelmed, stretching resources and staff beyond their limits.

It was clear Canada needed to ramp up its capacity to produce its own vaccines.

The Solution

Fast forward to 2025, and scientists from across the Prairies have mobilized with a sole focus on being ready to produce vaccines when needed.

The project, led by Pelka, is a partnership between UM and the Universities of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Calgary to conduct world-leading vaccine and biomanufacturing research.

To enable that, the federal government made a historic $57-million investment, announced in May 2024, to build two innovative facilities at UM. These state-of-the-art labs – one on the Bannatyne campus and the other on the Fort Garry campus – will play a key role in addressing future pandemic threats in Canada and around the world.

“That will give us the platform we need for quick vaccine developments,” explains Pelka. “The goal would be to develop new viral vector vaccines quickly, hopefully in 100 days or less. Being part of this Prairie Hub will allow us to do research, and to manufacture vaccines in-house. The big thing is we will be able to develop vaccines quickly and safely.”

Not only that, but the next-generation vaccines produced at the UM labs will be delivered in a more effective manner.

“Unlike the older vaccines, new vaccines won’t require cold storage,” Pelka says. “They will be administered orally or nasally, with no needles required and at a much lower cost to manufacture. Our research is focused on exploring innovative technologies to produce safe and effective vaccines for diverse populations right here at home.”

The Impact

The major impact of the new research partnership and the facilities at UM will be that should another pandemic arise, response time will be greatly reduced, with the ability to create and produce made-in-Canada vaccines for Canadians who want them.

There will be economic benefits that come with the new facility as well, says Pelka.

“Construction will create jobs initially. Then, once the facilities are up and running, there will be lots of growth opportunities in Manitoba – new jobs in research and manufacturing, as well as training for the next generation of innovators.”

In essence, being a central part of viral research and vaccine development will add a new dimension to Manitoba’s health-care system and economy. 

Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, associate professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases

Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, UM Canada Research Chair in the molecular pathogenesis of emerging viruses, associate professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and a lead member of the Prairie Hub, says the world-leading research and facilities will take vaccine development and delivery to a new level.

“These new, cutting-edge facilities will provide a unique opportunity for rapid identification of new emerging public health threats and inform the design and development of new therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines to increase epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response in Manitoba,” says Kindrachuk.

“Beyond the scientific advances, the facilities will make Manitoba more competitive in attracting and retaining top research talent to study and work here.”

“Lessons have been learned,” Pelka says. “Research is going well. We’re entering an exciting time for the university and country. If another pandemic happens, we’ll be ready to make a vaccine quickly and stop it as soon as we can. And the university, along with its partners, will play a big role in making that happen.”

For nearly 150 years, the University of Manitoba has transformed lives through groundbreaking research and homegrown innovation. We push the boundaries of knowledge and do the hard work here in Manitoba to move our community and the world forward. Our researchers tackle society’s most pressing challenges, from health care and sustainability to Arctic accessibility and security, delivering solutions that make a real impact. With a spirit of determination and discovery, we are shaping a better future for our province and beyond.

Read The Free Press story here. 

“One proven approach in drug discovery is to find the proteins that play a key role in a disease or help harmful microbes survive. If we can target those proteins with the right small molecules, we can disrupt the disease process”, says Hamid Hadipour, data scientist.

Hamid Hadipour, Data Scientist

Hadipour conceptualized the idea and designed the algorithms along with Dr. Pingzhao Hu. Hu is an adjunct professor at UM Max Rady College of Medicine.

Hadipour explains that GraphBAN predicts if a small molecule can bind to a protein. It can also tell us which parts of it the protein interacts with. This deep learning model speeds up the prediction process by doing a visual test using AI. It saves time and money, helping researchers focus on the best drug candidates. These can be antibiotics or cancer treatments.

Hamid Hadipour and Dr. Silvia Cardona

GraphBAN reflect a strong interdisciplinary collaboration between chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology and computer science. The project was made possible with Dr. Silvia Cardona‘s contributions and co-supervision. Cardona is a professor and associate head graduate at the Department of Microbiology. Her lab studies molecular microbiology and microbial genomics. All with a focus on antibiotic discovery. Cardona tells us that we are going to see more AI predictions in science. Predictions that we then have to confirm with experimental research. In a way, AI won’t replace experimental research but rather complement it.

GraphBAN has recently been published in Nature Communications. To learn more about GraphBAN and the team behind it, watch the full interview on our YouTube channel.

However, many people carry Streptococcus pyogenes on their bodies, and it doesn’t make them sick. Some of the big questions in the field are when, how and why does it make you sick? And why does Streptococcus become a pathogen?

In answering these questions and to understand how phages transform Streptococcus into a deadly pathogen, Dr. Gerd Prehna and his lab have been studying the phage protein paratox (Prx). Two graduate students, Tasneem Hassan Muna and Nicole Rutbeek from the Prehna Lab have discovered that phages use paratox to control the metabolism of Streptococcus, redirecting DNA processing pathways for the benefit of the phage. With help from undergraduate student Julia Horne, the team was able to demonstrate that paratox also likely regulates when it is time for the phage to leave Streptococcus and go on to infect new bacteria. Muna and Horne now have a protein named after them, JM3 which stands for Julia Muna construct 3.

Prehna goes on to tell us that this discovery, published in the Journal of Nucleic Acids Research, has opened many doors for future research projects.

“What’s neat about this project is that it just keeps giving and it keeps opening more doors. We’ve discovered that it binds a whole bunch of other proteins. However many of these proteins are in regulatory pathways that control the biology of Streptococcus in ways that are completely unstudied and not understood at all. Now we have to characterize all these new brand-new proteins and brand-new pathways and understand how they affect the biology and metabolism of Streptococcus”, says Prehna.

Watch the complete interview on the Faculty of Science’s YouTube channel.

Sign up to volunteer for Science Rendezvous!

Discover Days 2025, an invite-only version of Science Rendezvous, intended for schools only, happens April 29th and 30th this year. We encourage you to also choose to volunteer for Discover Days when you are filling out the Science Rendezvous volunteer application.

We have heard concerns about the rise of antibiotic resistance. How does your research address it?

The challenge of antibiotic resistance is a critical one, and new approaches to discovering antibiotics are desperately needed. If you ever wonder how scientists hunt for new antibiotics, you may know some serious detective work is involved to find and understand how new compounds kill infectious bacteria. 

Can you expand on how antibiotics kill bacteria?

Yes! An antibiotic kills bacteria by binding to and disrupting a part of their cellular machinery. The target machinery typically performs a process that is essential for survival, so when the antibiotic inhibits this machinery, the cell dies.

How did you apply this concept to your research?

Reducing the abundance of an antibiotic’s target can cause a cell to become hypersensitive to the antibiotic. Dr. A. S. M. Zisanur Rahman, a recent PhD graduate in my lab, applied a clever new technique using CRISPR tools to identify the target of antibiotics by lowering the abundance of different cellular machinery and looking for hypersensitive bacteria. This was quite a lot of work that involved coordination with MSc student Jules Novomisky Nechcoff and Mitacs intern Archit Devarajan.

You mentioned CRISPR, the gene-editing tool. What makes your CRISPR tool different? 

We use CRISPR-interference (also known as CRISPRi) instead of regular CRISPR because this technique does not cut DNA, but instead reduces the expression of a gene. If we consider regular CRISPR as a mute button, CRISPRi is like turning down the volume. This allows us to study essential genes without killing the cell we want to analyze.

Why focus on essential genes? 

Because targeting essential genes is a good strategy for developing new antibiotics. If you interrupt a critical cellular function, the bacteria can’t survive. Makes sense, right? Hitting them where it hurts.

Can you elaborate on how you applied rational design to build a mutant library?

For sure! Traditional pooled libraries suffer from uneven growth of mutants, leading to the loss of important targets. Zisan built a super-efficient library of CRISPR mutants called CIMPLE, which means: “CRISPRi–mediated pooled library of essential genes”. It’s a fancy way of saying a collection of bacteria, each with a different gene knocked down. By carefully analyzing the growth characteristics of individual CRISPRi mutants, we could predict which mutants would be underrepresented in a pooled system. We used CIMPLE on a completely new growth inhibitor, previously discovered by AI, a mystery drug!

And how did you apply your new tool to antibiotic discovery?

We used CIMPLE on a completely new, uncharacterized growth inhibitor, a mystery drug! We found that the new compound targets a peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase, or Pth, which is an essential bacterial enzyme that helps with protein synthesis. To continue the work on this target, we collaborated with an expert in these types of enzymes: Dr. Yury Polikanov, from the University of Illinois Chicago.

How significant is this research for the field of antibiotic discovery? 

The development of CIMPLE provides a more robust and efficient method for identifying novel antibacterial targets, which is crucial given the urgent need for new antibiotics to combat drug resistance. The discovery of Pth as a target for a novel antimicrobial is a direct result of this improved methodology. So, in essence, this paper presents a new, powerful tool for antibiotic discovery, and it identified a new target for antibacterial compounds. 

To learn more about Cardona’s research, please visit Cardona Lab’s web page.