November 2020 - Issue 34 In this issue: New quantum tech partnership funded, jigging for health and well- being, masks don't impede excercise, Saskatoon wastewater data predicts COVID case trends, studying cannabis smoke impacts on fetuses, and more! Every month, USask Research Profile and Impact highlights research from across campus. Discovery Digest is a glimpse into how USask research, scholarly and artistic work is making a difference for Saskatchewan, Canada, and the world. Feedback welcome! Get the latest in COVID-19 Updates online. Paper accepted for publication? Get in touch! Contact USask’s Research Profile and Impact unit when you have a newsworthy publication about to come out. We need at least one week lead time to properly support your work, so don’t wait–get in touch early! Email: [email protected] Top Stories USask physicist teams up with U.K. partners in world- first program of quantum technologies As part of a new U.K.-Canada collaboration, a USask quantum physics team led by USask physicist Dr. Michael Bradley (PhD) will develop a highly sensitive and precise sensor for measuring magnetic fields, a technology with potential benefits for geological prospecting, medicine, and quantum computers. Bradley is one of eight winners of the U.K.-Canada Quantum Technologies Competition run jointly by the U.K. Research and Innovation and the federal agency NSERC. Bradley’s $90,000 project involves an academic partner at University of Nottingham and industrial partners M-Squared Lasers Limited in the U.K. and Saskatoon-based Dias Geophysical Ltd. Bradley’s “magnetometer” for detecting magnetic fields would be more compact, cheaper and easier for geophysical companies to use in taking measurements of ore bodies in remote environments than the bulky liquid-helium-cooled devices currently available. Read the details. USask researcher and Métis partners collaborate to jig away cardiac woes In a first-of-its-kind Canadian study, USask Indigenous Early Career Women’s Heart and Brain Chair Dr. Heather Foulds (PhD) will assess the physical, mental, cultural, and social benefits of performing traditional Métis social dances—with the aim of narrowing the health gap between Métis and non-Indigenous people. With more than $1 million from CIHR, Foulds will study recreational and professional dancers performing traditional Métis square dances to assess cardiovascular fitness demands, physical activity (step count), and mental wellness benefits, as well as broader community impacts. Watch dancers perform the Red River Jig and Orange Blossom Special. Read the full story. USask researchers find masks don’t hinder breathing during exercise A USask research team led by kinesiologist Dr. Phil Chilibeck (PhD) and including alumni Keely Shaw and John Ko, Dr. Scotty Butcher (PhD) from the School of Rehabilitation Science, and Dr. Gordon Zello (PhD) from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, has found that exercise performance and blood and muscle oxygen levels are not affected for healthy individuals wearing a face mask during strenuous workouts. Published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the results from testing the type of three-layer cloth mask recommended by Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer did not find evidence that mask wearing during vigorous exercise compromises oxygen uptake or increases the rebreathing of carbon dioxide. The research was also featured in Runner’s World Magazine. Read the details. USask launches first study on effects of smoked cannabis on brain development USask pharmacologist Dr. Robert Laprairie (PhD) will use a Brain Canada research grant to determine how a mother’s use of cannabis during pregnancy affects the brain of the fetus she’s carrying. Laprairie is one of 20 Canadian neuroscientists each awarded $100,000 as part of Brain Canada’s “Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research” program. Read the details. New wastewater surveillance tool provides COVID-19 early warning system Often even before showing COVID-19 symptoms, infected people shed virus traces through their feces. A USask team has analyzed wastewater samples from Saskatoon’s municipal treatment plant and found that changes to the total amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus circulating in the city’s wastewater happen about one week ahead of changes indicated by case counts at COVID testing centres. The new tool, developed by the USask team, has been validated through the Canadian Water Network and is attracting interest from around the world. With partners at the City of Saskatoon and the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the team includes USask researchers Dr. John Giesy (PhD), Dr. Markus Brinkmann (PhD), Dr. Yuwei Xie (PhD), Dr. Kerry McPhedran (PhD), Dr. Jafar Soltan (PhD), and engineering graduate student Shahab Minaei. The research is funded by the USask-led Global Water Futures program. Read the details of the story. The research was covered widely by media including by The Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Global News, CBC Radio, Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine, Water Canada Magazine, Medical Xpress, ProcessWest, Education News Canada, The Battlefords News-Optimist, and Yorkton This Week. NSERC-funded researchers partner with industry to make food and pipelines safer, agriculture smarter Five USask research teams led by Dr. Jerzy Szpunar (PhD), Dr. Matthew Loewen (DVM, PhD), Dr. Cheryl Waldner (DVM, PhD), Dr. Lifeng Zhang (PhD), and Dr. Angela Bedard-Haughn (PhD) have been awarded a total of $1.08 million from NSERC to lead Alliance Grant research projects covering subjects ranging from making Arctic pipelines stronger and safer, to protecting the food supply, to improving crop processing with cutting-edge technology. As well, partner organizations are contributing a total of $600,000 in cash and $340,000 in in- kind contributions to the projects. Read the details. International team tracks record-setting smoke cloud from Australian wildfires The smoke cloud pushed into the stratosphere by last winter’s Australian wildfires was three times larger than anything previously recorded. Measuring 1,000 kilometres across, the cloud remained intact for three months, travelled 66,000 kilometres, and soared to a height of 35 kilometres above Earth. These are key findings of a global team that included researchers with USask’s Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies: Dr. Adam Bourassa (PhD), post-doctoral fellow Dr. Landon Rieger (PhD), and research engineer Dr. Daniel Zawada (PhD).The findings were published in Communications Earth & Environment, Read the full story. COVID-19 Research New CT scanner gives USask’s VIDO-InterVac scientists a window on COVID-19 disease New imaging equipment to help understand COVID-19 infection will soon be coming to USask’s VIDO-InterVac, thanks to a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant announced Nov. 6 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. A team led by VIDO-InterVac Director Dr. Volker Gerdts (DMV, PhD) and VIDO-InterVac scientist and College of Medicine biochemist Dr. Scott Napper (PhD) will use the special CT (computerized tomography) scanner to image animals infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19. This will enable comprehensive, real-time analysis of the disease’s progression and assessment of the safety and effectiveness of treatments. Read the full story. COVID-19 vaccine work highlighted at VIDO-InterVac Community-Liaison Committee online public meeting At an online event on Nov. 12, Dr. Volker Gerdts (VMD, PhD), director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization–International Vaccine Centre (VIDO- InterVac) at USask, discussed COVID-19 vaccine development. The event was hosted by Community Liaison Committee chair Susan Lamb. Watch a recording of the livestreamed talk. Extending the lifespan of N95 masks Through a collaboration between the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO- InterVac), scientists hope to understand the structural changes happening inside N95 respirator masks after being sterilized for reuse. CLS Industrial Scientist Toby Bond is using synchrotron X-rays to see the microscopic fibers of N95 respirators after exposure to various decontamination protocols. The results will enable manufacturers to design more resilient masks and help the medical industry move towards reusable personal protective equipment. VIDO-InterVac supplied three styles of N95s subjected to vaporized hydrogen peroxide decontamination, a method VIDO-InterVac has been using to decontaminate over 13,000 masks for the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Read the full story. Adapting your research in a time of COVID Have you been adapting your research program in innovative ways to pivot to our current pandemic reality? Have you changed your focus to study something COVID-specific? Have you found a new way to conduct your research remotely? Research Profile and Impact wants to tell that story. Send brief examples of how you have been coping to [email protected] Federal emergency research support funding available – DEADLINE NOV. 16 Researchers who have been incurring extraordinary and exceptional direct research costs as a result of COVID-19 are invited to apply to the Canada Research Continuity Emergency Fund. USask has been allocated up to $3.2 million to help researchers address costs related to maintaining or ramping up their research programs during the pandemic. Applicants are encouraged to consider the broad range of factors, including non- traditional and unconventional