Students from Saskatoon, Cape Breton, Winnipeg, London, Charlottetown and Swan River collect Prizes in Canada-wide Competition Judged by Eminent Experts at National Research Council, Ottawa

Genetic research by a 16-year-old Saskatchewan student that could one day help farmers grow “designer wheat” — tailoring the starch content of grain grown for different markets — has earned the top national prize in the 2009 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC).

Grade 10 student Scott Adams of Saskatoon’s Walter Murray Collegiate Institute won the $5,000 national 1st place prize today with a ground-breaking study showing agricultural scientists a novel way to turn off a gene in wheat and alter its starch elements, making it possible potentially to grow wheat customized for different markets ranging from textiles to foods such as pasta and bread.

In addition to the Canadian prizes, Scott and the national 2nd place winner, Joseph McNeil of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, will compete for Canada at the International BioGENEius Challenge in Atlanta, Georgia, June 17-20.

McNeil, 18, a Grade 12 student at the Richmond Academy in Cape Breton, won the $4,000 2nd place prize with a study related to Lou Gehrig’s disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS), using green tea to promote motor neuron growth. Joseph tested different concentrations of two green tea chemicals – one, an anti-oxidant, the other an amino acid – on the cultured motor neurons of mice, looking at the chemicals’ impact over different periods of time. Among his results: an increase in cellular growth by 16 to 30 per cent.

The national final SABC winners were announced at National Research Council Canada headquarters, Ottawa, May 6, at a ceremony attended by Finance Minister, the Hon. Jim Flaherty, Industry Minister, the Hon. Tony Clement, and other dignitaries.

The other top national prizes were collected by:
3rd place ($3,000): Winnipeg
Binudith (Bin) Warnakulasooriya, 17, in Grade 11 at Winnipeg’s Fort Richmond Collegiate, for a project that led to an important discovery about how the flax plant produces SDG lignan, a potent anti-oxidant highly valued as a dietary supplement for cancer prevention and a range of other reported health benefits, from lower cholesterol to anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal protection.

4th place ($2,000): London
Caitlin Martin Newnham, 18, a Grade 12 student at London’s A.B. Lucas Secondary School, who looked for a way to help her mother find a safe alternative pain reliever and successfully pioneered a way to take the burning sensation out of the oil of hot peppers, which has natural painkilling properties. Using leeches, she also created a new humane way to conduct pain research without inflicting it on vertebrates.

5th place ($1,000): Charlottetown
Melanie Gallant, a Grade 12 student at the École François-Buote school in Charlottetown, PEI, who identified how a common agricultural herbicide inhibits the production of androgens, the male hormone, in marine fish.

A special prize of $1,000, awarded for the project with the greatest commercial potential, was won by Kirsten Larson, 18, of Swan Valley Regional Secondary School in Swan River, Northern Manitoba, who determined the nutritional and medicinal properties of a little-known Japanese fruit called the haskap berry grown by her family. She showed that although haskap berries were low in total minerals and vitamin C, they had exceptional levels of cancer-preventing anti-oxidants.

The judges also awarded a special mention for independence and ingenuity to Maria Carolina Festa, 15, a Grade 10 Montreal student, who enlisted a common bacteria to render deadly nitrate-contaminated water fit for drinking. Unlike the other competitors, Maria conducted her research without the help a university mentor; her accomplishment was achieved in her high school lab at Villa Sainte-Marceline School.

Wheat starch research gets a boost
With almost half of the calories in the human diet supplied by starch-based products, and increasing worldwide demand for industrial starches, an ongoing priority for agricultural researchers is adding to their knowledge about starch production in grain crops, specifically how to improve and regulate starch yield and composition.

The latest contribution to this research comes from Saskatchewan’s Scott Adams, 16, whose work demonstrates how turning off a certain gene can be used to better study and potentially control different components of the starch found in wheat.

The component in wheat starch known as amylose, for example, is used in packaging and textiles; amylopectin is found in noodles and other foods, pastes, adhesives and lubricants.

Working with mentors Dr. Pooba Ganeshan and Dr. Ravi Chibbar at the University of Saskatchewan Department of Plant Sciences, Scott used a DNA-related technique (ODN antisense technology) to silence a gene associated with amylose.

In a test tube, Scott mixed two of nature’s wheat nutrients, sucrose and a certain amino acid (L-glautamine), to see if they would encourage wheat’s uptake of the antisense ODNs (a short DNA sequence) and thereby silence the gene responsible for producing amylose.

Then, using another lab technique (called real-time polymerase chain reaction), he observed his success – in all, a scientific first that could one day help agricultural researchers improve the quantity and composition of wheat’s useful elements.

Though he grew up in the province that grows half of all Canada’s major export crops, Scott finds agriculture as a new field of study for him.

“If you live in Saskatoon, you can’t help but be aware of the wheat industry and the biotechnology cluster in Saskatoon,” he says, adding that he hasn’t decided yet whether his future will be in science or some other field. “I still have a couple of years before I have to make that decision and I am keeping my career options open.”

“14 truly cutting-edge biotechnology projects”

“All 15 to 18 years old and enrolled in Grades 10 through 12, remarkable students from every province yesterday presented 14 truly cutting-edge biotechnology projects, mentored by university professors and others who volunteer their expertise and many hours each year to assist these young researchers,” said SABC judge Dr. Roman Szumski, NRC Vice President, Life Sciences.

“The National Research Council of Canada welcomes and supports efforts such as this to raise public awareness, especially among students and educators, about emerging sciences and to encourage more students to consider careers in biotechnology science. I extend sincere congratulations to everyone involved in this competition.”

He also thanked lead competition supporters, Sanofi Pasteur Ltd. and BioTalent Canadafor helping foster an appreciation of science and engineering education.

National competition finalists:
British Columbia: Yang (Linda) Liu, 17, Gr. 12, Sands Secondary School, Surrey;
Calgary: Julie Xu and Annie Wang, 17, Gr. 12, Sir Winston Churchill High School;
Edmonton: Connie Le, 16, Kathryn Chevalier, 16 and Victoria Tian, 18, Gr. 12, Old Scona Academic High School;
Saskatchewan: Scott Adams, 16, Gr. 10, Walter Murray Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon;
Manitoba: Binudith (Bin) Warnakulasooriya, 17, Gr. 11, Fort Richmond Collegiate, Winnipeg;
Northern Manitoba: Kirsten Larson, 18, Swan Valley Regional Secondary School, Swan River;
Western Ontario: Caitlin Martin Newnham, 18, Gr. 12, A.B. Lucas Secondary School, London;
Greater Toronto: Alessandro Caroti, 17, Ellie Shuo Jin, 17, and Hans Tee, 18, Gr. 12, St. Elizabeth Catholic High School, Thornhill;
Eastern Ontario: Sathya Baskaran, 15, Gr. 10, Nepean High School, Nepean;
Montreal: Maria Carolina Festa, 15, Gr. 10, Villa Ste-Marcelline School;
Nova Scotia: Joseph McNeil, 18, Gr. 12, Richmond Academy, Cape Breton;
Prince Edward Island: Melanie Gallant, 17, Gr. 12, École François-Buote, Charlottetown;
New Brunswick: Yoojin Kim, 17, Gr. 12, Fredericton High School, Fredericton;
Newfoundland: Rebecca Hollett, 16, Gr. 11, Holy Heart of Mary High, St. John’s

Please read brief descriptions of the 14 regional SABC projects in the final competition.

Chaired by Dr. Luis Barreto, Vice President, Public, Scientific and Medical Affairs, Sanofi Pasteur Limited, the national judging panel consists of:
· Dr. Roman Szumski, Vice President, Life Sciences, National Research Council Canada
· Dr. Martin Godbout, President, Genome Canada
· Dr. Janet Rossant, Chief of Research, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
· Dr. John Dirks, President, The Gairdner Foundation
· Dr. Peter Hackett, President & CEO, Alberta Ingenuity Fund
· Dr. Ashley O’Sullivan, Board of Directors, BioTalent Canada
· Dr. Alison Symington, Director of Programs, Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Centre
· Maria Merziotis, SABC’s National Winner in 2008, now a first-year student at the University of Ottawa.

Background
Now in its 16th year, the SABC is a high-level competition that introduces students to the real world of biotechnology by carrying out research projects of their own design.

The competition drives students to broaden their horizons and challenge their intellect. Each of the student teams work with a mentor in their community who provides expert advice and access to equipment and supplies. Many of the students who compete go on to careers in biotechnology, healthcare, agriculture, and the environment.

The Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge is a high-level event that introduces students to the real world of biotechnology by carrying out research projects of their own design. Each student team works with a mentor in their community, who provides expert advice and access to equipment and supplies. The projects and presentations are judged at the NRC by senior officials of the federal public service and private sector, and by the previous student winner of the SABC national competition.

A distinguishing characteristic of the competition is the emphasis judges place on the competitors’ communication of science ideas.

More than 100 organizations Canada-wide are partnered in this educational outreach initiative.

National competition supporters:

• Sanofi pasteur and sanofi-aventis
• BioTalent Canada
• National Research Council of Canada
• Genome Canada
• VWR International
• Canadian Institutes for Health Research
• Canada Foundation for Innovation
• Canadian Louis Pasteur Foundation

The project is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Sector Council Program.

Winning student teams share their cash prize with their school. In some cities, regional winners also receive university scholarships or summer jobs.

The competition mirrors the real world of scientific research by:

• Requiring students to submit research proposals for evaluation by a scientific evaluation committee;
• Providing up to $200 in advance funding to approved student projects;
• Assigning mentors to each team to provide expert advice and access to equipment and supplies; and
• Having each student project judged by fellow students (peer review) and by judges representing government, business, academia and the education community.

A distinguishing characteristic of the competition is the emphasis judges place on the competitors’ communication of science ideas.

Many regional competition events include lectures by leading local biotechnology researchers, science workshops for students and teachers, and exhibits on biotechnology.

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About sanofi pasteur and sanofi-aventis
Sanofi pasteur is the vaccines business of the sanofi-aventis Group, the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Sanofi pasteur in Canada has a long history of supporting science education at the post-secondary level. In 1994, it recognized the need to engage younger students in biotechnology education, and the initial SABC program was run in conjunction with the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s first meeting in Canada. Since then, the program has expanded to 14 events across Canada and has involved thousands of students. As lead sponsor of the SABC, sanofi pasteur is proud to collaborate with partners in government, industry and academia to get high school students engaged in biotechnology. Sanofi Pasteur Limited is Canada’s only full-scale vaccine company, researching, developing and manufacturing in Canada a broad range of human vaccines with over 1,100 highly-skilled employees. For more information: www.sanofi-pasteur.ca

About BioTalent Canada
BioTalent Canada helps Canada’s bio-economy industry thrive globally. As a non-profit national organization of innovators leading our bio-economy, BioTalent Canada anticipates needs and creates new opportunities, delivering human resources tools, information and skills development to ensure the industry has access to job-ready people. BioTalent Canada is a Canadian sector council-one of many partnership organizations created to address skills-development issues in key sectors of the economy. For more information: www.biotalent.ca or Colette Rivet, Executive Director, BioTalent Canada, 613-235-1402 x 226; coletter@biotalent.ca

Contacts:
Terry Collins, 416-538-8712 or 416-878-8712, tc@tca.tc
John Chenery: 416-532-8218 or 416-452-6016, jchenery@gmail.com