Department of Biological Sciences

Sowing seeds of discovery: U of T postdoc makes waves in plant metabolism research

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:29:58 +0000

Sowing seeds of discovery: U of T postdoc makes waves in plant metabolism research

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 12/23/2024 - 10:29

Cutline

Sonia Evans completed her PhD at U of T Mississauga and will continue her research as a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow at U of T Scarborough (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Kristy Strauss

Topic

Our Community

Department of Biological Sciences

Department of Biology

Graduate Students

Research & Innovation

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

Sonia Evans's research is opening the door to novel strategies for engineering crops that are more productive and resilient

Sonia Evans has published in high-profile scientific journals, won several awards and completed a PhD from the University of Toronto, but she traces her achievements to someone who had no formal education whatsoever: her grandmother.

A believer in the healing power of plants, Evans’s grandmother hailed from a southern Nigerian village, and regularly crafted plant-based traditional medicines for ailments ranging from infertility to skin conditions.

“She knew the type of plants to go to, and made different concoctions for us,” says Evans, who defended her PhD in U of T Mississauga's department of cell and systems biology in November and is poised to continue her research as a postdoctoral fellow at U of T Scarborough. “She never knew the names of the plants, but she knew the types of plants to put together to get the result she was expecting.”

Evans, who was born and raised in Nigeria, completed undergraduate studies in plant science in her home country before earning a master's degree in plant biology in Israel. With a growing interest in plant metabolism, she decided to pursue a PhD at U of T Mississauga under the supervision of Michael Phillips, an associate professor in the department of biology.

“[Phillips] was really involved in plant metabolism… and really trying to understand how plants make chemicals that are important not just for their growth, development and for photosynthesis, but also for us,” Evans says. “These are chemicals that we use as drugs, flavours, fragrances, cosmetics and biofuels. I was really interested in that part of the research.”

Since joining the Phillips lab, Evans has focused on how plants control carbon supply towards the production of isoprenoids – high-value compounds that are critical to plant growth, defense and crop productivity and also have a range of industrial and pharmaceutical applications.

Her research has had a huge impact on the field. In 2024 alone, Evans published two papers in the prestigious Nature journals, as first author.

The most recent paper, published in Nature Plants in October, sheds light on a decades-old mystery: the origins of pyruvate, a vital precursor for production of isoprenoids, amino acids and fatty acids in chloroplasts, which are responsible for plant photosynthesis. The research revealed that Rubisco, a critical enzyme that’s responsible for fixing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, also plays a secondary role in supplying pyruvate.

This discovery not only redefines how scientists understand plant metabolism, but also solves a long-standing paradox of the origin of pyruvate, with Evans’s findings providing a critical link between photosynthesis and the production of isoprenoids. By uncovering how plants channel carbon toward these valuable compounds, her research opens the door to innovative biotechnological strategies for engineering crops with enhanced productivity and resilience.

The previous paper, published in Nature Communications in February, laid the groundwork for how a key metabolic pathway could be engineered in plants for synthetic biology applications.

All the more impressive: Evans managed these accomplishments while carrying out her responsibilities as mother to a young child – which she credits to a strong support system of family, her spouse, friends and peers. “It’s been a learning curve… but I have tried to take everything one step at a time, and check myself every day,” she says.

Evans’s scholarly excellence resulted in her earning the Roberta Bondar Graduate Student Excellence Award last fall. She was also named a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow, and will carry out her postdoctoral research in the lab of Eliana Gonzales-Vigil, assistant professor in U of T Scarborough's department of biological sciences.

Reflecting on her decision to come to U of T, Evans reveals she doubted her chances of being granted admission to Canada’s top-ranked university. “I was like, ‘Oh my God – who am I to be at the University of Toronto?’” she says. “But I wanted to be at a very good university, and I had to keep trying to aim higher and higher for myself.”

Aspiring pharmacist hopes to use inclusive excellence award to share knowledge, build bridges

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 20:52:54 +0000

Aspiring pharmacist hopes to use inclusive excellence award to share knowledge, build bridges

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 01/15/2024 - 15:52

Cutline

U of T Scarborough student Ifedinma Agbatekwe is the inaugural winner of the Inclusive Excellence Award in Biological Sciences (all photos by Don Campbell)

Alexa Battler

Topic

Our Community

Department of Biological Sciences

Diversity and Inclusion

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

'Seeing someone who looks like you in the space you want to go in – sometimes that can be all the encouragement you need'

It was the height of the pandemic when Ifedinma Agbatekwe walked up to the owner of a Shopper’s Drug Mart and asked to work in the pharmacy.

Then 17 years old, Agbatekwe was trying to decide on a career path. She had been encouraged to explore three options if she wanted to be successful: doctor, lawyer or engineer. None were the right fit, but a career in health care did seem appealing, so Agbatekwe resolved to find her own way into the field.

She landed a co-op placement in the pharmacy and, as wave after wave of COVID-19 hit, worked her way up to overseeing all asymptomatic testing. It was chaotic, she says, and she loved every minute of it.

“I really saw the impact a pharmacist can have, and I thought, ‘This is something I can see myself doing for a long time.'"

Agbatekwe, who is now in her second year at the University of Toronto Scarborough, where she's pursuing a double major in molecular biology, immunology and disease and psychology, is the inaugural winner of the Inclusive Excellence Award in Biological Sciences. Launched by U of T Scarborough’s department of biological sciences, the award includes a $1,000 cash prize, a year-long meal plan, a paid research opportunity and one-on-one mentorship.

Agbatekwe is being mentored by Professor Maydianne Andrade, a world-renowned evolutionary ecologist whose lab investigates mating habits of black widows. While she was willing to give spider research a try, Andrade helped her find a placement with a stronger connection to her goals – she’s now working in the immunology research lab of Professor Bebhinn Treanor, where she helps take care of the lab space, attends daily meetings and is learning fundamental lab techniques.

She has embraced the chance to learn from graduate students at the lab – they’ve recommended courses, discussed the pros and cons of graduate studies, recounted how they got into research and offered insights into their lived experiences as people of colour in academia.

Agbatekwe has brought that knowledge to bear on her work as a member of the campus’s Biology Students’ Association (BioSA) and the Bio Sci EDI Committee. She laughingly says she wants to “be like Oprah” for people of colour in science – someone who advocates, acts as a bridge for individuals and information, and widely distributes the tools needed to thrive.

“As Black individuals, one thing we lack is information about how to navigate our different options, because we don’t have a lot of people in this specific field,” she says. “If we know how to better navigate the spaces we’re in, we can succeed faster and we can succeed more.”

Ivana Stehlik, a professor in the department of biological sciences and chair of the EDI BioSci committee, says Black and Indigenous students have been underrepresented in the program due to systemic racism and limited access to financial resources and networking opportunities. “This award was made to remove barriers Black and Indigenous students face, and help them feel heard, worry a little less financially and to – very critically – benefit from networking with a research faculty as a member of their research lab,” Stehlik said.

Agbatekwe has contributed as a mentor herself. After immigrating to Oakville, Ont. from Nigeria at age 13, she spent her high school years volunteering with the Big Brother, Big Sister program, which had her support elementary school students with their academics and personal lives. She then joined the non-profit’s cultural mentorship program and worked specifically with Black students, before getting involved with the Imani Black Academic Mentorship Program at U of T Scarborough. Agbatekwe has since guided Black girls at a local high school, and became an assistant with the program.

“After George Floyd, I felt like I needed to focus more on Black students and helping them navigate the Black life, because it’s challenging,” she says. “Seeing someone who looks like you in the space you want to go in – sometimes that can be all the encouragement you need.”

Agbatekwe is now applying for the doctor of pharmacy program at U of T's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, though she has no plans set in stone — just an overarching goal.

“When I do leave U of T Scarborough, I want to be able to say I made an impact, and see my impact,” she says.

Most species evolve by adapting to similar, large-scale environmental pressures, study finds

lanthierj — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 12:45:44 +0000

Most species evolve by adapting to similar, large-scale environmental pressures, study finds

lanthierj Mon, 01/02/2023 - 07:45

Cutline

The Amazonian bird Lepidothrix natererei, better known as the snow-capped manakin, and its close relative were among 3,000 pairs of animals studied (photo by Maya Faccio).

Alexa Battler

Topic

Breaking Research

Department of Biological Sciences

Biology

Research & Innovation

U of T Scarborough

Since the days of Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have widely believed that most new species form because they’ve adapted to different environments – but a new University of Toronto study suggests otherwise.

The study, published in the journal Science, sheds light on what researchers have dubbed a “blind spot” in our understanding of why new species form.

“We found species are actually consistently adapting to similar environmental pressures,” says Sean Anderson, who co-authored the paper with Professor Jason Weir while earning his PhD at U of T Scarborough. “They're undergoing classic Darwinian adaptation, but they're not doing it in very different environments.”

While it’s generally agreed that populations must be physically separated to begin evolving into new species, researchers say what happens during that isolation has been murky. For decades the prevailing theory has been ecological speciation – that groups evolve because they migrate to different environments and experience pressures the rest of their species don’t face, be it new food sources or predators. Called divergent adaptation, environmental features then drive the natural selection that causes a new species to form. Darwin’s finches, which developed beaks that were better suited for seeds than they were insects, are one example.

Sean Anderson defended his PhD in May while working with Jason Weir at U of T Scarborough (Submitted photo).

But it’s also common to see species that have evolved to the point they can no longer breed with their closest relatives, yet still share most of the same traits as their counterparts. That gave researchers the hunch that the environments in which evolution took place, though geographically distant, may not have been so distinct. It’s an established but less embraced explanation known as parallel adaptation.

“Ideas of divergent adaptation have been dominated to a considerable extent by the study of model organisms – the species that have these great ecological differences,” Anderson says. “We wanted to see what patterns we could find by studying as many species as possible.”

The researchers used the largest and broadest dataset of divergent traits found in species and their closest relatives – called sister pairs – ever assembled. They also created a statistical model that can, for the first time, estimate whether a species evolved under parallel or divergent adaptation. Across almost 3,000 sister pairs of birds, mammals and amphibians, species overwhelmingly evolved under similar large-scale environmental pressures.

“We found this really consistent signature where parallel adaptation seems to be what dominates – and it doesn't matter what traits you look at, it's the same in just about every group of species pairs you've got,” says Anderson, who is now completing post-doctoral research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “We were surprised at just how consistent this signature was.”

Lepidothrix iris (left) and Lepidothrix natererei (right), two species of manakin, descended from populations that began to evolve in separate environments (photo by Maya Faccio).

Anderson says that, in some cases, species may be evolving similar traits while undergoing changes at the genetic level. That can lead them to become different species.

“It's often not just one pressure – species are facing a whole collection of pressures that are similar,” Anderson says. “And the external environment is not the only thing that can throw challenges at a species. Its own genome can do that by producing things like selfish genetic elements.”

The results could have far-reaching implications since theories about what causes species to evolve help biologists draw conclusions about biodiversity. If most species evolve under divergent adaptation, building biodiversity requires diverse habitats with different resources and challenges. But if it’s parallel adaptation, biodiversity depends on geographic distance and time apart.

“The impact I hope this will have is that people will not assume necessarily that divergent adaptation drives speciation,” Anderson says. “These results might also change the way we look at how biodiversity evolves, and the factors that we think are most important.”

A night of big ideas: Celebrating 50 years of the Connaught Fund at U of T

mattimar — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 19:15:26 +0000

A night of big ideas: Celebrating 50 years of the Connaught Fund at U of T

mattimar Mon, 12/12/2022 - 14:15

Cutline

From left: Renée Hložek, Maydianne Andrade and Ronald Deibert discuss the importance of university research and the next big ideas to influence our society, with journalist Mary Ito (all photos by Polina Teif)

Mariam Matti

Topic

Breaking Research

Department of Biological Sciences

Leah Cowen

Vice-president of Research and Innovation and Strategic Initiatives

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Citizen Lab

Connaught Fund

Faculty of Arts & Science

Political Science

President Meric Gertler

Research and Innovation

U of T Scarborough

The dangers of international digital espionage. The earliest moments of the universe. How scientists can also be activists and changemakers.

These were some of the topics University of Toronto researchers delved into at a recent event celebrating the impact of the Connaught Fund, which has supported research excellence and innovation across the university for 50 years.

Members of the community gathered at Convocation Hall to hear Ronald Deibert, Renée Hložek and Maydianne Andrade discuss the impact of their research and the role of university researchers in society. A professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Deibert is also director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Hložek is a cosmologist and associate professor at the Dunlap Institute and the David A. Dunlap Department for Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science. Andrade, a University Professor in the department of biological sciences at U of T Scarborough and an expert on the black widow spider, is a leading advocate for equity and inclusion.

Over the years, the Connaught Fund has supported the pathbreaking work of all three researchers – part of what President Meric Gertler called the fund’s “extraordinary legacy” in his opening remarks.

“Not only does the Connaught Fund support research excellence from diverse disciplines and across different career stages it also supports inclusive excellence,” he said.

President Gertler said the Connaught Indigenous Funding Stream, which supports Indigenous community-driven research at U of T, and the Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers, which will strengthen the research capacity of U of T’s Black academics, are two initiatives that deepen the university’s commitment to education and discovery.

Created in 1972 from the sale of the Connaught Laboratories, the Connaught Fund has since given out more than $179 million to researchers across myriad disciplines – and is Canada’s largest internal university research funding program.

“The program supports global challenges, community partnerships and offers dedicated funding streams to help increase the research impact of PhD students, Black and Indigenous researchers and U of T-led startup companies,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

Andrade, renowned for her research on sexual selection, mating behaviour and the biology and ecology of black widow spiders, focused her presentation on activism in science and how she has leveraged her platform to create change.

“Scientists should stay in their lane – I’ve heard this a lot,” she said. “Our job is to create solutions and knowledge that other people who understand policy will then apply. But of course, advising solutions is not the same as solving a problem.”

As the co-founder and president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network and founder and co-chair of the Toronto Initiative for Diversity and Excellence, Andrade has worked to increase inclusion within institutions across Canada through education and advocacy.

Deibert, meanwhile, has contributed to the publication of more than 120 reports covering research on cyber espionage, commercial spyware, internet censorship and human rights. His talk explored Citizen Lab’s research into targeted digital espionage against civil society, outlining major cases that have received international attention and have prompted scandals in countries such as Greece, Spain and Mexico.

In her work, Hložek uses statistical methods and precise observations to answer cosmic questions.

“I’m interested in what the universe is made of, how it’s changing over time and then eventually how it’s going to end,” she said.

Hložek presented some of the observations used to put together the puzzle pieces of the universe and emphasized the importance of telescopes in her research.

The presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion hosted by broadcast journalist Mary Ito. Audience members had a chance to ask questions and the researchers discussed the importance of university research and the next big ideas to influence our society.

“I’m really encouraged by the growth of the field which I’m a part of,” said Deibert. “We are seeing a healthy community worldwide of people who are involved in this type of digital accountability work. The hope I have is that the field continues to grow.”

“I think it’s a responsibility of the universities to do this type of public accountability research.”

With the flip of a switch, UV-LED lights could be used to kill coronaviruses and other germs: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 15:30:59 +0000

With the flip of a switch, UV-LED lights could be used to kill coronaviruses and other germs: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 03/29/2022 - 11:30

Cutline

U of T researchers found that virus-containing droplets exposed to UV light lost around 90 per cent of their ability to infect after about 30 seconds, suggesting an 'underutilized' tool to combat the pandemic (photo by Douglas Sacha/Getty Images)

Topic

Department of Biological Sciences

Research & Innovation

U of T Scarborough

Lighting used in offices and public spaces could potentially be used to destroy coronaviruses and HIV.

In a study published this week in Virology Journal, researchers at the University of Toronto killed both viruses using UV-LED lights, which can alternate between white light and decontaminating ultraviolet (UV) light.

Moreover, the UV-LED lights could also be used in many standard lighting fixtures with a cheap retrofit, giving them a “unique appeal” for public spaces, says the study’s senior author Christina Guzzo.

Christina Guzzo

“We’re at a critical time where we need to use every single possible stop to get us out of this pandemic,” says Guzzo, an assistant professor in the department of biological sciences at U of T Scarborough. “Every mitigation strategy that can be easily implemented should be used.”

UV lights kill viruses through radiation. Working with PhD students Arvin T. Persaud and Jonathan Burnie, Guzzo first tested the lights on bacterial spores that are notorious for their resistance to this radiation (known as Bacillus pumilus spores).

“If you're able to kill these spores, then you can reasonably say you should be able to kill most other viruses that you would commonly encounter in the environment,” says Guzzo, principal investigator at the Guzzo Lab.

Within 20 seconds of UV exposure, the spores’ growth dropped by 99 per cent.

The researchers then created droplets containing coronaviruses or HIV to mimic the typical ways people encounter viruses in public, such as from coughing, sneezing and bleeding. The droplets were exposed to UV light and placed in a culture to see if any of the virus remained active. With just 30 seconds of exposure, the ability of the virus to infect dropped by 93 per cent.

Upon testing the viruses at different concentrations, the researchers found that samples with more viral particles were more resistant to the UV lights. But even with a viral load so high Guzzo calls it “the worst-case scenario,” infectivity still dropped by 88 per cent.

While the lights themselves aren’t harmless – UV radiation damages nucleic acid, and repeated, prolonged exposure is harmful – Guzzo says they could be easily employed when public spaces are empty – such as on vacated buses that have finished their routes or empty elevators travelling between floors. Escalator handrails, meanwhile, could be continuously disinfected by putting UV lights in the underground part of the track, cleaning it with each rotation, she adds.

Safe Antivirus Technologies, Inc., a Toronto-based start-up company that partnered with Guzzo for the study, is developing unique UV-LED lighting modules. With motion sensors, the lights automatically switch to UV light when a room is empty, then turn back to regular light with movement.

Though it wasn’t included in the study, Guzzo and her students compared UV light to two heavy-duty disinfectants used in lab research. They found the lights were similarly effective in their ability to deactivate viruses.

“I was really surprised that UV could perform on the same level of those commonly used lab chemicals, which we regard as the gold standard,” Guzzo says. “That made me think, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is a legitimate tool that's really underutilized.’”

While the lights left a small percentage of the virus viable, Guzzo says they could contribute to the “Swiss cheese model” of defence against COVID-19: Every strategy to fight the spread has its holes, but every layer is another chance to stop straggling virus particles.

Repeated exposure to UV light is key to catching those missed particles – and, fortunately, it’s as easy as flipping a switch. Guzzo notes that UV-LEDs are cheap and could be easy to retrofit in existing light fixtures, and that the bulbs are long-lasting and simple to maintain.

“You could disinfect in a way that wouldn’t be infringing on people’s enjoyment of that everyday ‘normal’ life that they long for,” Guzzo says.

The lights also benefit from automation. A standardized, germicidal dose of light can be delivered each time, while the process of wiping down spaces with disinfectants leaves room for human error. Plus, chemicals and waste from these disinfectants also end up in watersheds and landfills as hands are washed and wipes thrown away.

Guzzo says the research, funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Alliance COVID-19 Grant, suggests UV-LEDs are a tool that could be used to help prevent a future pandemic.

“Worldwide events like the COVID-19 pandemic, as terrible as they are, hopefully can still be learned from,” Guzzo says. “One thing we learned is that this is an underutilized tool we should think more about implementing.”