Innovation Anthology #108: Executive Director
Beyond our concern over diet and nutrition, carbohydrates play an important role in the human immune system
Bacteria bind to carbohydrates on our cells, causing infection.
But at the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Carbohydrate Science, Dr. David Bundle’s team is synthesizing molecules that disrupt this process. And researchers may soon have new vaccines to fight disease.
DR. DAVID BUNDLE:An early breakthrough was in designing a potential vaccine for the fungal infection caused by candida albicans. My colleague Professor Todd Lowary has a major program targeting the antigens of microbacterium tuberculosis, and of major concern is the fact that drug resistence is developing. And so Mario Feldman actually has developed ways to express antigens for vaccines in bacteria. Rather than do it synthetically, he uses nature’s machinery which is in a bacteria and he adapts that. He can produce proteins that will be useful as vaccines
Thanks today to Alberta Ingenuity.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Peter Josty, PhD,
THECIS: The Centre for Innovation Studies, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, pjosty@thecis.ca
Sponsor
Alberta Ingenuity
Established in 2000, the Alberta Ingenuity Fund supports science and engineering research of the highest calibre, to create a prosperous future for the province of Alberta. It draws funding from a $1 billion endowment established in 2000 and managed by the Government of Alberta to build the capacity for innovation, especially in areas with long lasting social and economic impact.
Among its many programs, Alberta Ingenuity supports graduate students and university researchers, industrial research and commercialization partnerships, and has established several Centres and Institutes.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, Alberta Ingenuity was restructured and absorbed in the new agency Alberta Innovates Technology Solutions.
Program Date: 2008-02-14