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Ancient stellar collisional ring galaxy forms stars 50 times faster than Milky Way

Ring galaxy James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions

Researchers have found a rare and massive collisional ring galaxy from some 10.8 billion years ago that is forming stars 50 times faster than the Milky Way, says York University Postdoctoral Fellow Leo Alcorn of the Faculty of Science.

These kinds of ring galaxies are formed when one galaxy collides with another galaxy that passes through its centre.

“The aftermath of the collision leaves behind a ring of diffuse light around the galaxy, a density wave of stellar material,” says Alcorn, a co-author on the paper, “A giant galaxy in the young Universe with a massive ring,” published in Nature Astronomy.

An artist’s impression of the ring galaxy. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions
An artist’s impression of the ring galaxy. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions

She adds that “this collisional ring galaxy is believed to be the most distant collisional ring confirmed to date.”

The discovery could shake up theories about the earliest formation of galactic structures and how they evolve.

Little is known about distant collisional rings, but with this finding the research team, led by researcher Tiantian Yuan of Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, can provide what it believes is the first detailed study of a ring galaxy from 10.8 billion years ago.

“It is a very curious object that we’ve never seen before,” says Yuan, who is based at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology. “Most of that activity is taking place on its ring – so it truly is a ring of fire.”

The researchers found the massive collision ring galaxy, named R5519, while searching for spiral galaxies.

“These systems are rare in the local Universe but finding one at a lookback time of 10.8 billion years ago, is unexpected,” says Alcorn. “We were not expecting to see a system like this so long ago given the rarity of these events in the local Universe.

She says the importance of this finding is it will allow researchers to study significantly more about merger-driven star formation and how disk galaxies evolve and interact with their environment, as well as with neighbouring galaxies.

This galaxy is similar in stellar mass to the Milky Way, but more than one and a half times larger in stellar half-light radius. It also has a clear ring structure and large diffuse disk, resembling a giant donut. It may be the most distant collisional ring confirmed to date. The closest thing to it in the local Universe is the well-known Cartwheel Galaxy, also a collisional ring galaxy.

The hole at its centre is three million times bigger than the diameter of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier 87, which in 2019 became the first ever to be directly imaged.

The team worked with colleagues from Australia, the United States, Canada, Belgium and Denmark. Spectroscopic data was gathered by the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii and images recorded by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to identify the unusual structure of the galaxy.

To view an animated GIF of the ring galaxy (Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions), visit https://news.yorku.ca/files/Ring-galaxy-animated.gif.

New paper in Nature’s Scientific Data describes ins and outs of Ontario Climate Data Portal developed at York University

research graphic

In 2018, scientists at the Laboratory of Mathematical Parallel Systems (LAMPS) at York University launched a user-friendly, accessible Ontario Climate Data Portal to provide the most robust climate change projections for Ontario. Now, the team has published a paper in Nature’s Scientific Data to describe, for the first time from a more scientific perspective, the portal’s structure and functions, extensive datasets and data development methodology.

Huaiping Zhu
Huaiping Zhu

Professor Huaiping Zhu in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics (also director of LAMPS and the Centre for Disease Modelling and Tier 1 York Research Chair in applied mathematics) is lead author on the paper. Co-authors include other York colleagues in LAMPS (Ziwang Deng, Xiaoyu Chen and Xiaolan Zhou), Lassonde School of Engineering (Jinliang Liu), and the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (Richard Bello), and Xin Qiu at SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd. Zhu also led the development of the portal, which hosts terabytes of data that cover 120 years (from 1981 to 2100).

The paper outlines how the portal provides a super ensemble of projections under various greenhouse gas concentration trajectories adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, offering users thousands of static and interactive maps, trend lines, summary tables, reports and down-scaled data. It also describes the sources of data used to develop the projections, including conventional weather station observations, comprehensive reanalysis and down-scaled data.

“We also discuss how we are striving to improve the portal to expand its capacity, like the inclusion of historical analyses and enhancing its functionality for those accessing the portal through mobile devices,” said Zhu.

So far, 10,000 users have accessed the portal, including academics, practitioners from governmental agencies (federal, provincial, regional and municipal), consulting companies and others from the private sector, and significant figures like the former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario and the spokesperson of Environment and Climate Change Canada. These robust climate projections have been used to assess risk and guide climate change policy and adaptation plan development.

“One of our motivations for developing the portal was our belief that progress on identifying future adaptations to climate change was being hampered by the inaccessibility of authoritative information to the non-specialist,” added Zhu. “As well, the portal will fill an important gap by serving as an invaluable source of data and training for undergraduate and graduate students.”

The paper, The Ontario Climate Data Portal, a user-friendly portal of Ontario-specific climate projections, was published on May 19, 2020.

Success of Ontario’s re-opening will depend on testing rate and contact tracing

Image: CDC
An image of the COVID-19 virus. Image: CDC

Enhanced testing and contact tracing for the coronavirus in Ontario could allow physical distancing measures to be relaxed, while keeping the reproduction ratio under one and preventing a second wave of infections, says corresponding author of a new modelling study Distinguished Research Professor Jianhong Wu of York University’s Faculty of Science.

The de-escalation would include three phases – a re-opening of workplaces, a resumption of public events and activities, followed by the opening of schools. The researchers modelled the requirement for testing, contact tracing and quarantine for each phase.

To be successful in the first two phases, the current time for diagnosis needs to be maintained and almost 60 per cent of exposed contacts would have to be traced, quarantined and isolated. Although, if some level of social distancing is maintained, that could counter any decrease in quarantining.

In the third phase, the researchers found that 70 per cent of exposed contacts would need to be isolated to avoid a rebound, a value they say is unrealistic. The use of masks and personal protective equipment during de-escalation, however, could be an important tool in helping to prevent a rebound.

“Our analysis can help inform public health and policy makers on best future actions and interventions to control the outbreak while relaxing physical distancing,” says Wu, director of the Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation Program.

The researchers looked at different possibilities and scenarios involving de-escalation of the current physical distancing and isolation rules for all of Canada, but particularly in Ontario. The province closed schools on March 14 and declared a state of emergency on March 17 with the closure of non-essential workplaces as of March 24.

The study estimated the effectiveness of interventions in terms of contact rate, probability of transmission per contact, detection rate, and proportion of isolated contacts. They concluded that a feasible de-escalation approach is to reverse the steps taken that led to most workplace and school closures.

In the future, the researchers say a transmission model involving age-specific contact mixing could be used to determine logistic implementations of a wider range of de-escalation strategies that would be dependent on a person’s age and the setting, whether a school, workplace, the home or community.

The research was published in the journal Biology.

Ozone-depleting chemical alternatives getting into our food and water

An international environmental agreement to regulate the use of chemicals depleting the ozone layer may have inadvertently allowed higher levels of other harmful chemicals to flourish, new research co-led by York University and Environment and Climate Change Canada has found.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was designed to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), such as freon used in older air conditioners.

But these replacement compounds, thought to be a better alternative, degrade into products that do not break down in the environment and have instead continually increased in the Arctic since about 1990.

Cora Young

“Our results suggest that global regulation and replacement of other environmentally harmful chemicals contributed to the increase of these compounds in the Arctic, illustrating that regulations can have important unanticipated consequences,” says Assistant Professor Cora Young of the Faculty of Science and the paper’s corresponding author.

It is important to study these products of CFC replacement compounds, short chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (scPFCAs) before more of them are phased in over the next few years as they can adversely impact human health and the environment. They are part of the perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) class of man-made chemicals used in commercial products and industrial processes that are currently receiving a lot of attention.

Ices cores the team drilled in the Arctic ready for shipping. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta
Ices cores the team drilled in the Arctic ready for shipping. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta

These scPFCAs are products of chemicals used in the fluoropolymer industry in automotive, electrical and electronic applications, industrial processing and construction.

“Our measurements provide the first long-term record of these chemicals, which have all increased dramatically over the past few decades,” says Young. “Our work also showed how these industrial sources contribute to the levels in the ice caps.”

They can travel long distances in the atmosphere and often end up in lakes, rivers and wetlands causing irreversible contamination and affecting the health of freshwater invertebrates, including insects, crustaceans and worms.

Current drinking water treatment technology is unable to remove them, and they have already been found accumulating in human blood as well as in the fruits, vegetables and other crops we eat.

Team members prepare ice cores in the Arctic. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta
Team members prepare ice cores in the Arctic. Photo credit: Ali Criscitiello, University of Alberta

The researchers measured all three known scPFCA compounds over several decades in two locations of the high Arctic and found all of them have steadily increased in the Arctic, particularly trifluoroacetic acid.

The researchers acknowledge the importance of the Montreal Protocol’s positive impact on the ozone and climate but point out that even the best regulations can have unintended negative impacts on the environment.

The research is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Faculty of Science produces hand sanitizer for York University campuses

hand sanitizer
The Faculty of Science Stores’ hand sanitizer
The hand sanitizer made by the Faculty of Science Stores' staff meets WHO guidelines
The hand sanitizer made by the Faculty of Science Stores’ staff meets WHO guidelines

Staff in the Faculty of Science have produced hundreds of litres of hand sanitizer for the York University campuses to use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following a formulation recommended by the World Health Organization and reagents already in stock in the Science Stores, Director of Safety and Business Operations Brad Sheeller, HazMat Technician Zhibin Wu and Storekeeper Sherryl Deane have generated almost 400 litres of sanitizer. Production involves mixing ethanol, glycerol and hydrogen peroxide in carefully measured amounts, followed by quarantining the final containers for 72 hours to inactivate any bacteria that may have contaminated the solution.

The sanitizer has been distributed to Facilities Services and is being used by staff still working on campus and students staying in residences. So far, the Faculty of Science has produced enough sanitizer to last a few months, and it will continue to make more on an ad hoc basis to help keep the campuses safe.

Mom genes: What makes a bee brain buzz?

Small carpenter bees
Small carpenter bees
Small carpenter bees
Small carpenter bees (genus Ceratina)

The extremely common “small carpenter bee” (genus Ceratina) can be found all over the world.

Sandra Rehan, an assistant professor of biology at York University who has dedicated much of her career to studying the species, describes them as “often overlooked,” and a very abundant and critical wild pollinator.

These solitary, typically not aggressive bees couldn’t hurt you with a sting even if they tried – but maybe that’s just the way their mothers raised them.

Sandra Rehan

As the principal investigator at The Rehan Lab @ York, Rehan is directing research into the origins of social behaviour in bees like the small carpenters. By observing the bees in their natural environment (living inside sticks) as well as studying comparative genomics in the laboratory, Rehan and her team of researchers are discovering the vital role mother bees play in the genetic and social development of their young.

“There are genes for behaviour,” Rehan explained. “When an individual (bee) forages, guards or cares for offspring, we are interested in what is underlying each heavily regulated trait.

“In terms of studying the evolution of social behaviour, this bee is extremely useful,” said Rehan, noting that the species operate in a malleable system with both solitary and group roles, that provides opportunities to observe long-term parental care. “Not everyone is doing the same thing all the time, so we can look at differences due to ecological factors but also at differences in real-time gene expression and what underlies these different traits.”

Much of what can be learned about bee behaviour begins by “experimentally modifying the social environment,” as Rehan described it. “You can look at a normal system and not know how it works,” she said. “You have to start testing each component to see.”

Small carpenter bee
Small carpenter bee

Having established a baseline of how the bees behave and which genes react when they do, the researchers attempt to perturb the social system and observe how it, along with the bee’s brain, changes.

The work is based on seminal research involving mice and rats which showed a connection between mothers licking and grooming their offspring and a low-stress, low-anxiety, “normative and tolerant” brain.

“When you take away mom, licking and grooming, they become very anxious, avoidant and aggressive with each other,” Rehan explained. “Not being cared for fundamentally changes their behaviour.”

Intrigued by these findings, Rehan has been testing the theory with populations of small carpenter bees.

“It turns out, they tell the same story,” Rehan said. “We can use these bees to understand effect of maternal care on offspring behaviour.”

Female small carpenter bee in a stick nest
Female small carpenter bee in a stick nest

In a study titled “The effect of maternal care on gene expression and DNA methylation in a subsocial bee” published in Nature Communications, Rehan and her team found that when mother carpenter bees are removed from their populations, otherwise calm and tolerant bees begin to avoid each other or become aggressive to one another.

This change can be observed easily in the bees’ behaviour when the mother is gone, but in order to see it in gene expression, Rehan and her team need to look at what the bees’ brains look like frozen, literally, in time.

The field aspect of this research involves translocating the bees’ stick habitats for observation, watching individuals interact, and identifying a bee, or bees – in this case, the mother – to remove from the group.

A subject is put in a small container, the kind takeout dipping sauce comes in, where it can be paint marked, measured, examined for wear and then either kept in observation nests for further study or frozen so its brain can be extracted.

Bee brain layer map
Bee brain layer map

Once a bee brain is frozen and removed, Rehan and her team are able to examine thousands of genes regulated under different conditions to determine which genes and regulatory networks are associated with certain social behaviours and their related social environment.

This is how they can see that the presence of a mother has a significant impact on the makeup of a small carpenter bee’s behaviour.

The researchers’ conclusions aren’t just limited to small groups of the species; they also found that the same gene regulatory networks underly both simple and complex societies, suggesting that this kind of “hard wiring” is in place well before the elaboration of queen and workers castes – a foundational finding for this field.

For Rehan, this demonstrates that the presence of a mother and maternal care for an otherwise solitary being is fundamental to accepting a society and wanting to be with kin. She believes that as species develop their social structures, maternal care may be a critical first step.

genus Ceratina
genus Ceratina

“That could be the golden ticket to understanding how societies evolved,” she said.

Rehan, who joined York in 2019, hopes to continue studying bees from novel perspectives, such as exploring how they are interacting with increasingly urban ecologies, and believes the interdisciplinary nature of her lab positions her researchers to answer complex questions with a collaborative approach.

She noted that, likely due to general concern that bees aren’t doing well, everyday people seem much more interested in bees than they were a decade ago. “They think they are cute, they are important, they want to learn about them,” she said.

While many academics and enthusiasts typically focus their interests on non-native honeybees and pollination systems, Rehan’s lab is unique in specifically studying native species including the small carpenter bees from this perspective.

“There is so much untapped potential,” Rehan said. “It is a unique niche that students come to me to work on. There are so many open questions.”

By Aaron Manton, communications officer, YFile

Faculty of Science’s new fund supports students taking summer courses remotely

Tables piled with books
Tables piled with books

York University’s Faculty of Science has launched a newly created $50,000 fund to help its students succeed in remotely delivered summer 2020 courses. Dubbed the York Science Summer Student Success Fund, or S4F, the initiative will provide up to 1,000 students with a $50 discount when purchasing required or recommended textbooks (including e-textbooks) for their 2020 Summer term courses.

Rui Wang
Rui Wang

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created a challenging situation for our students as they deal with uncertainty, personal and financial stress, and so much more,” said the Dean of Science Rui Wang. “By helping our students cover some of the cost of their textbooks, we hope that we can take some of the pressure off as they work to complete their courses during this difficult time.”

S4F is open to current undergraduate and graduate students in the Faculty of Science who are enrolled in a course for the Summer 2020 term. Upon completing a simple application form to confirm eligibility, students will receive a bursary code for a one-time $50 credit that can be applied towards their textbook purchase from the York University Bookstore.

The application form will be available starting May 1, until May 30; however, the application process is on a first-come, first-served basis until all funds are depleted.

All details about S4F, including the application form, are posted on the Faculty of Science website.

York University Libraries create a new, globally accessible COVID-19 research guide

typing writing computer

Responding with agility to the COVID-19 pandemic, York University’s Dean of Libraries, Joy Kirchner, has spearheaded the production of an innovative new resource that will be of tremendous use for researchers inside and outside of the University, including collaborators and partners across the globe.

“A library-wide effort, this research guide was largely an exercise in capturing to what extent COVID-19 research is available open access (without cost to view),” Andrea Kosavic, associate dean, Digital Engagement and Strategy explains. “That the guide has so much to highlight speaks to a commitment to open access on a global scale, one that York University formalized publicly when the Senate passed our Open Access Policy in June 2019.”

The resource also highlights research available to York community members that is purchased by York University Libraries and available through databases and e-book platforms.

From left: Joy Kirchner and Andrea Kosavic
From left: Joy Kirchner and Andrea Kosavic

York University is a leader in this area. “York is committed to disseminating the research performed at the University in ways that make it widely accessible, while protecting the intellectual property rights of its authors,” Kirchner emphasizes. “Opening boundaries to access research could not be more relevant today. The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic demanded that we get this new resource up and running swiftly.”

The need in the research community is great. “With the plethora of information and research being released around COVID-19, this new resource will be of tremendous use for researchers inside and outside of York, including collaborators and partners across the world,” said then-interim vice-president Research & Innovation Rui Wang. “In response to the pandemic, York has already produced peer-reviewed research in areas like mathematical modelling, social and psychological ramifications of COVID-19, and emergency planning. This new resource will capture all of these efforts in one spot.”

typing writing computer
This new resource will be of tremendous use for researchers inside and outside of York, including collaborators and partners across the world

Comprehensive guide, instantly understandable

This guide offers a number of recommendations on main sources to consider when conducting research on COVID-19. Importantly, it is co-authored by Librarians Peter Gorman, Walter Giesbrecht, Rosa Orlandini, John Dupuis and Minglu Wang, with contributions from Dany Savard and Anna St.Onge. It consolidates and draws on  international resources compiled by many other librarians, archivists, scholars and others.

The guide is structured into various sections, including:

  • Core Sources, which breaks down into categories:
    • A featured resource – currently showcasing the COVID-19 Global Health Portal, created by the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research;
    • COVID-19 databases and publication lists, such as LitCovid, a curated literature hub for tracking up-to-date scientific information about the 2019 novel coronavirus;
    • COVID-19 and open science, including a resource from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) that looks at how funders, governments, libraries and research communities are advocating for more access to information to support research on COVID-19 through formal calls to action;
    • COVID-19 and misinformation – essential in this era of fake news;
    • Public health authorities – public information resources, including the World Health Organization and the Government of Canada; and
    • Other resources and research tools.
  • Research Data Sources, which falls into the following categories:
    • Data dashboards and visualizations;
    • Data sets and sources – Canada; and
    • Data sets and sources – International.
  • Literature Searching, which includes information on the most current PubMed search results in this area, and pre-populated searches on the topic in different databases.
York University has led the way in open access. It is committed to disseminating the research performed at the University in ways that make it widely accessible
York University has led the way in open access. It is committed to disseminating the research
performed at the University in ways that make it widely accessible

Open access policy at York speaks to core values

This new resource reflects York’s dedication to open access, which is embedded in the University’s core values at the highest levels. The Open Access Policy at York supports the advancement of the University Academic Plan (UAP) 2015-2020 priority to advancing exploration, innovation and achievement in scholarship, research and related creative activities, under which a defined outcome is to: “Expand open access to York research in order to enhance visibility, open disciplinary boundaries and facilitate sharing knowledge more freely with the world.”

This policy also responds to the 2016 Plan for the Intensification and Enhancement of Research (PIER) recommendation that “York should develop transparent open access publishing and appropriate research data management policies that are inclusive and reflect the core values of the University.”

Central to operationalizing our commitment to open access at York University is the YorkSpace institutional repository, which serves as a point of aggregation, preservation and dissemination of the work of York researchers. Here, one can find a wealth of resources, including theses and dissertations, prize-winning student works, researcher communities and publications, artistic works, data and learning objects – all preferentially indexed for heightened discovery in Google. YorkSpace is one of over 5,300 repositories worldwide that seek to offer equitable, barrier-free access to research for the general public and researchers alike.

This new resource will be updated on a regular basis.

To see the new resource, visit the website. For more information on York’s open access policy, visit the website and/or read a related YFile story about it. To visit York University Libraries, go to the website.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca

Hungry galaxies grow fat on flesh of their neighbours

Galaxies in deep space
Galaxies in deep space

Galaxies grow large by eating their smaller neighbours, finds an international research team, including York University.

Exactly how massive galaxies attain their size is poorly understood, not least because they swell over billions of years. But now through a combination of observation and modelling, researchers, including the Faculty of Science’s Leo Alcorn, a York Science Fellow, have found a clue.

Distribution of dark matter density overlayed with the gas density. This image cleanly shows the gas channels connecting the central galaxy with its neighbours. Credit: Gupta et al/ASTRO 3D

Distribution of dark matter density overlayed with the gas density. This image cleanly shows the gas channels connecting the central galaxy with its neighbours. Credit: Gupta et al/ASTRO 3D

The research team, led by Post-Doctoral Researcher Anshu Gupta from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), included scientists from Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Belgium and the Netherlands. They ran their modelling on a specially designed set of simulations known as IllustrisTNG.

In the paper, MOSEL Survey: Tracking the Growth of Massive Galaxies at 2 < z < 4 Using Kinematics and the IllustrisTNG Simulation, published in The Astrophysical Journal, the scientists combine data from an Australian project called the Multi-Object Spectroscopic Emission Line (MOSEL) survey with a cosmological modelling program running on some of the world’s largest supercomputers to glimpse the forces that create these ancient galactic monsters.

By analyzing how gases within galaxies move it is possible to discover the proportion of stars made internally – and the proportion effectively cannibalized from elsewhere.

“We found that distant, massive galaxies, about 10 billion light years away from us, have more chaotic or random internal motions,” says Alcorn. “This is likely because these galaxies have merged with smaller galaxies, producing gravitational disruptions to the orbits of stars and gas. This matter is incorporated into the massive galaxies, growing the galaxy in mass and size.”

Because light takes time to travel through the universe, galaxies further away from the Milky Way are seen at an earlier point in their existence. The team found that observation and modelling of these very distant galaxies revealed much less variation in their internal movements.

“As these huge galaxies gain more stars, they are able to gravitationally attract and merge with more surrounding small galaxies. Over billions of years, these old, massive galaxies grow increasingly chaotic, disordered and large, constantly feeding on nearby neighbours,” says Alcorn.

This is a multi-year, international project that aims to build a series of large cosmological models of how galaxies form. The program is so big that it has to run simultaneously on several of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

Faculty of Science donates medical and lab supplies for national COVID-19 response

Featured illustration of the novel coronavirus
Featured illustration of the novel coronavirus
An illustration showing the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

Researchers and staff at the Faculty of Science have come together to respond to the Government of Canada’s call for supplies to help Canada combat COVID-19.

In March and April, Navdeep Bains, the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, requested postsecondary institutions to identify stocks of personal protective equipment and the chemical guanidine thiocyanate that could be made available to healthcare workers and the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML), respectively.

In response, the Science Stores in the Faculty of Science rounded up more than 50,000 gloves, which were donated to Humber River Hospital. Medical gloves form part of the personal protective equipment used to protect health care professionals and patients from the spread of infection; they are essential for the COVID-19 outbreak.

Additionally, researchers in the Faculty set aside a total of 600 grams of guanidine thiocyanate for donation to the NML. Guanidine thiocyanate is a denaturing agent used to isolate genetic material, and it is a key chemical for testing patient samples for COVID-19 infection. The NML is the only lab where Canadian COVID-19 tests are sent for final confirmation.

“I am proud that members of the Faculty of Science have rallied together during this difficult time to help protect the health of Canadians and healthcare workers during this pandemic,” said Rui Wang, dean of the Faculty of Science. “We all need to do our part to contribute to our country’s fight against COVID-19.”