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Feature

Rapid Response

When COVID‑19 hit, the U of A, home to one of the world’s pre-eminent virology institutes, was ready

By Gillian Rutherford

Photo by John Ulan

When COVID‑19 hit, the U of A, home to one of the world’s pre-eminent virology institutes, was ready

By Gillian Rutherford

June 22, 2020 • 15 minute read

As most of us were blithely welcoming the new year of 2020, word was just starting to get out in medical and scientific circles. A virus that had never been seen before in humans was making an alarming number of people in Wuhan, China, desperately ill with pneumonia.

Soon the worst was confirmed: the new virus was exceptionally virulent and contagious, spreading quickly within China, then to other countries. Nowhere was safe.

Within weeks, the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID‑19, had been sequenced and shared online, launching an unprecedented worldwide co-operative effort among scientists, public health officials and health-care workers, all focused on stopping the virus’s deadly progress.

At the U of A’s Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, researchers were paying attention. They had been preparing for this moment.

Ready to pivot

The Li Ka Shing Institute was formed in 2010, bringing together top researchers to tackle the world’s deadliest scourges: infectious diseases like hepatitis, human immunodeficiency virus, Ebola and coronaviruses. They knew the next one could be the big one — a pandemic that would bring the world to a halt.

But they had never seen anything quite so vicious as COVID‑19.

When virologist Michael Houghton first heard about COVID‑19, he thought it might be like the SARS epidemic of 2003. “You know, SARS was a major problem but it went away quite quickly,” he says. “Of course, I and everyone else soon realized this is much worse than SARS.” [UPDATE: In October 2020, Houghton was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Read more here.]

Which is why, once the genome was public, Houghton and many others at the Li Ka Shing Institute jumped straight to work brainstorming new ideas and re-examining old ones, pivoting to focus their expertise and laboratories on the novel coronavirus. Over the course of a weekend, federal officials reviewed research proposals — record time in the world of scientific funding — and in early March, five U of A projects received federal dollars and the green light. Before the end of the month, 11 U of A projects were awarded a total of $5.8 million through the rapid response COVID-19 fund in a partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Alberta Innovates — the highest number of funded projects at a Canadian institution. Philanthropists saw the need, too: soon after the pandemic began, one anonymous donor stepped forward with a $100,000 investment in promising COVID‑19 research across the university. 

Across faculties and disciplines, researchers and others have responded, ready to apply their expertise in any way they can.

Among them are some of the world’s foremost experts, who are hunting for three important weapons against COVID‑19: tests, treatment and, of course, the Holy Grail — a targeted vaccine.

Quest for a vaccine

Here is the traditional approach to making a vaccine. First, grow the virus in a cell culture. Next, purify it, then chemically inactivate it and, finally, inoculate people. Those people will now produce antibodies that, when exposed to the active virus, help shut down any potential infection and prevent disease. The downside? This approach requires a very large biohazard manufacturing facility, which we don’t have in Canada.

Another common method involves weakening the virus before inoculation. This is the type of vaccine given routinely to Canadian children to prevent diseases such as measles, mumps and chicken pox. But it can take a long time to develop a safe version — a big risk when there is no approved treatment for COVID‑19.

And time is something we don’t have.

That’s why many of the COVID‑19 vaccine projects underway around the world are taking new tacks to produce effective antibodies. Some will isolate and inject a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) from the virus in order to trick the body into mounting an immune response even though the whole virus isn’t present. Others will use a harmless, defective “vector virus” that acts as a delivery vehicle for the surface spike protein of the coronavirus — again tricking the body into creating antibodies against just part of the virus.

Houghton is taking his own approach, which his many years of experience tell him is the best way to produce viral antibodies. And he knows a thing or two about infectious diseases. He is the co‑discoverer of the hepatitis C virus. In collaboration with Lorne Tyrrell, ’64 BSc, ’68 MD, founding director of the Li Ka Shing Institute, Houghton developed a hepatitis C vaccine that is headed for clinical trials next year.

When Lorne Tyrrell, founding director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, first heard about COVID‑19, he pulled together more than 20 members of the institute, including some of Canada’s top virologists, to brainstorm how they could help combat the pandemic. Photo by John Ulan

“We can save time by transferring the technology we developed for the hepatitis C vaccine into the COVID research,” Houghton says.

Their approach is to make the sticky spike proteins themselves. These are the “awesome-looking mushrooms” on the virus’s surface, Houghton says, as seen in many illustrations of COVID‑19. When viewed on an electron micrograph, they look like a halo or “corona” around the virus, hence the name “coronavirus.”

Houghton used the same “subunit protein” method to find a prototype vaccine during the SARS epidemic, when he was working for a pharmaceutical company in the United States. The vaccine was shown to produce protective antibodies to the SARS virus, which would have prevented infection.

While a SARS vaccine wouldn’t have been a perfect fit against COVID‑19, Houghton believes there are enough similarities between the two viruses that it would have at least slowed the current pandemic down. But when SARS faded thanks to public health measures, the $150 million needed to develop a new vaccine just wasn’t worth it with only private sector funding, he says.

The good news is that the previous research is providing a foundation for the work today — work that could help the world rein in COVID‑19.

Promising results for treatment

It could take anywhere from six months to two years to create, test, make and begin to distribute vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, and that’s if we can find one. So researchers are searching for treatments to help reduce the impact of the virus in those who get sick.

It may seem strange, but some of the most promising weapons against the new virus are drugs that were developed to bring down past scourges. One of these is a drug called remdesivir, which you’ve likely heard about in the news. Made by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Gilead, the drug was first tested to treat Ebola, a virus that causes a horrifying death by internal bleeding in up to 50 per cent of patients. During the most recent Ebola outbreak in 2019, remdesivir proved to be less effective than two other treatments.

But when COVID‑19 emerged, a research team at the U of A that was already studying how remdesivir worked wondered whether it had potential against SARS-CoV-2. The fact that remdesivir has already been used in humans gives it a huge advantage over anything that might be developed from scratch during the pressure-cooker time frame of a pandemic.

Matthias Götte, chair of the U of A’s Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and an expert in HIV and hepatitis C, retooled his lab a couple of years ago to study the World Health Organization’s list of top pathogens likely to cause severe outbreaks, including coronaviruses. 

Götte’s lab is focused on viral polymerases, which are key enzymes involved in the replication mechanism of viruses. Polymerases are kind of like the engines of a virus: if they’re not in working order or given the right fuel, the virus can’t go anywhere in the body.

The lab last year showed how remdesivir, a polymerase inhibitor, works on Ebola. A fast-tracked paper in late February then showed how the drug works against SARS and MERS. By April, after COVID‑19 reared its head, the team had shown remdesivir also works against SARS-CoV-2.

Remdesivir shows enough promise as a treatment that clinical trials are already underway around the world. One randomized trial has announced the drug reduced recovery time from 15 to 11 days. Based on this data, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency use authorization in May, making remdesivir the first treatment to be made available, even though it’s not officially approved.

And that means that Götte’s work on remdesivir is done. He is what’s known as a bench scientist — a researcher who works in the lab — so while others take up the torch on remdesivir and clinical trials, he is back at the lab bench, starting to test other potential antiviral agents.

One of the reasons research like Götte’s could move so quickly is that he started the groundwork years ago. That’s the thing about research: a success in the lab is anything that can be proven or recreated, no matter how seemingly small to the layperson. Results don’t necessarily mean cures for disease, but every confirmation or discovery adds up — and it often lays the path toward something else. The work happening now on COVID‑19 wouldn’t be possible without all the work that went before.

Building on past research

Other U of A researchers are also dusting off and revisiting past work in the hunt for a treatment.

Biochemist Joanne Lemieux, who usually works on proteases involved in diseases such as Parkinson’s and urinary tract infections, is building on research first done at the U of A during the 2003 SARS epidemic. A team of researchers studied a mechanism that stopped the virus from replicating, using compounds known as protease inhibitors. The approach was never developed into a drug, but veterinary scientists have since used it to treat and cure a virus that causes fatal peritonitis in cats.

Like polymerases, proteases are involved in the replication of a virus when it infects a body, in this case helping to cut the viral proteins into pieces so they can reproduce, kind of like scissors. Proteases are key to many body functions and are common targets for drugs to treat everything from high blood pressure to cancer and HIV.

Lemieux, Tyrrell and chemist John Vederas combined their labs’ efforts to test the SARS protease inhibitor against the COVID‑19 virus. Within a couple of months, they discovered the feline drug does inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 virus from replicating in cells. They hope to take the drug to clinical trials as soon as possible.

“Our lab worked as fast as we could to get our results out,” says Lemieux. “We did not take weekends. The days of the week blurred.”

The non-stop work can take its toll, but Lemieux says it’s worth it. Despite the impediments of physical distancing on her lab’s day-to-day work — cumbersome personal protective equipment and staggered shifts — and the fact that she leaves her scientist husband behind to work from home and home-school their three children, Lemieux says she’s proud to add her expertise to the anti-COVID‑19 effort.

“My kids are excited about it, too. They say ‘Go to work, Mom, we want you to get this done.’ ”

Advising the community

Lynora Saxinger finds herself checking the online editions of medical journals before she goes to bed each night, just to be sure she hasn’t missed anything new. The associate professor of infectious diseases has become an almost-nightly feature on CBC News and other media ever since COVID‑19 restrictions began, doing her best to explain the latest developments in layperson’s terms. She is the epitome of calm, clear authority in the face of constantly shifting science.

Saxinger acknowledges it can be frustrating and confusing for the public to try to keep up with changing messages from health officials. “That’s why I decided when this thing started that I was going to be accessible to answer questions, as we need to work together and trust each other right now,” she says. “That puts me in the uncomfortable position of looking like I want to be a TV doctor, which I don’t — I can’t even watch myself!”

The audience responds to Saxinger’s quiet assurance, and so do the public health experts who are shaping Alberta’s response to the pandemic. Saxinger was tapped to co‑chair Alberta Health Services’ Scientific Advisory Group on COVID‑19, which reviews and assesses the new medical information coming in daily from around the world.

The science of COVID‑19 is a moving target, which is why the public sometimes hears new directions from health officials or sees very different takes on the same topic, and why Saxinger will continue to explain the nuances of COVID‑19 rather than making definitive statements. “The biggest red flag for me is when someone says something that is certain with COVID.” Saxinger laughs. “I’m like, ‘OK, I don’t trust you now.’ You just can’t say anything with certainty when it comes to this virus.”

Many U of A experts are applying their knowledge to help deploy health-care resources, even as that knowledge changes daily.

Stephanie Smith is ensuring that health-care workers know how to protect themselves and their patients from the virus. In normal times, Smith — as director of infection prevention and control for the University of Alberta Hospital and Mazankowski Heart Institute in Edmonton — devotes about 30 per cent of her time to infection control. “Now I’m pretty much doing infection control 120 per cent of the time,” says Smith, who is also an associate professor of medicine at the U of A. All the while, she continues to see patients remotely and to conduct research. “The attention to detail that is necessary in this situation, where we have no immunity, is unprecedented,” says Smith.

Like Saxinger, Smith advises public health officials daily — in her case, the Public Health Agency of Canada — interpreting the latest knowledge about how the virus is spread and the most appropriate protective gear and systems to prevent it. She also oversees local patients enrolled in the worldwide clinical trials for treatments. She knows hopes are high for all the trials but cautions we must be careful as studies come out fast and furious from all over the world. “The methodology in some is not quite as rigorous as we would like, so we have to be really careful about drawing definitive conclusions based on these studies.”

What’s next?

As we contemplate the reopening of business and society — and possibly a new round of restrictions — so many questions linger about the virus and how it will behave. For the foreseeable future, public health officials will continue to hold the key to where we can go, whom we can spend time with, how we behave. We’re told that life will never be the same post-COVID‑19. It’s certain to change in ways we can’t even anticipate.

Helping us navigate this future will be a host of U of A researchers and experts, who will continue to seek and share knowledge, comment, guide and participate in the public discussion about how to move forward in a safe, fair and humane manner.

Perhaps near the top of that list will be Carole Estabrooks, ’87 MN, ’97 PhD, a U of A nursing professor whose work will help us understand why the pandemic took hold so fiercely in Canada’s long-term care homes, where nearly 80 per cent of all deaths have occurred.

Estabrooks, the Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Translation, is calling for co-ordinated national and provincial reviews of nursing homes. She’s asking for facility upgrades, better training and equipment, more support for families, and improved working conditions for nursing home staff, who are at the bottom of the ladder in terms of pay, benefits and status within the health-care system. She wants nursing homes to be places where quality of life is primary. “[The elderly] have no voice, they’re frail, they have dementia,” she says. “But these people built this country, so it seems to me that since we’re all going to be there [one day], we might want to think differently and use this tragic pandemic to make fundamental and lasting changes.”

The forward-looking research taking place now is broad and deep. Across the U of A, scholars are digging into topics like how being stuck at home is affecting the movement of toddlers and preschoolers, how to combat misinformation around the origins and treatments of the virus, the impact of COVID‑19 on pregnant women, and the stigmatizing of people of East Asian descent.

As for Houghton, he’s hopeful the world will be much better prepared next time a virus runs rampant. And that we will learn from what we did — or didn’t do — after past major virus infections.

Researchers are striving to figure out how the COVID‑19 virus works, an essential step in developing therapies to boost the immune system’s defence. A research assistant analyzes proteins of infected cells in virologist Tom Hobman’s lab at the Li Ka Shing Institute. Photo by John Ulan

It was the work of Houghton and his colleagues, remember, that back in 2003 found a vaccine shown to produce protective antibodies to the SARS virus. But when the SARS threat faded, so did the will to fund development of a vaccine.

This time, it has to be different.

“[In 2003] the governments of the world should have said, ‘We will fund you to make a stockpile,’ ” Houghton says. “Not enough to give to everyone in every country, but enough so that if a related virus outbreak occurs, we’d have enough stockpiled to give it to the first responders, the vulnerable elderly in long-term care homes, the relatives of those infected to stop familial transmission and so on.”

He predicts this isn’t the last time we’ll have to respond to the threat of a pandemic. 

“When you look back at infectious disease over the past 30, 40 years, it’s apparent that every few years we will be under major threat from virus infection. Thanks to the hard lessons learned from COVID‑19, we will be able to respond faster and better.”

Götte agrees. He revels in the remarkable co-operation that COVID‑19 has created among scientists and public health officials around the world, and he’s hopeful it will continue. “It is a highly collaborative international scientific environment right now and that’s a good thing,” he says. “It helps to explain the incredible pace of research.

“It’s very clear that there will be a lot of support to cross the finish line to find treatments and vaccines this time.”

 – with files from Michael Brown

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false
Thesis
What if Here is All We Have?
false
Society
What Does ‘Defund the Police’ Really Mean?
false
Continuing Education
A Weight on My Shoulders
false
Feature
Rapid Response
false
Living
Do You Dream of Being Stuck on Vacation?
false
At Work
COVID-19 Dispatches: An ER Doc’s New Routine
false
At Work
COVID-19 Dispatches: Behind the Screens With a Grade 5 Teacher
false
At Work
COVID-19 Dispatches: On the Front Lines at an Emergency Shelter
false
Relationships
Love in a Dangerous Time
false
Health
How to Help Seniors Feel Less Isolated
false
Did You Know
This Newb’s Playlist Helps You Understand (=Love) Classical Music
false
Thesis
Change How You Think
false
Continuing Education
Bring Out the Boy Scout
false
Just For Fun
A Case of Misattribution
false
Feature
The Power of One (Multiplied by 32)
false
Living
Handmade Tales
false
Continuing Education
Making Solid Contact
false
Did You Know
Healthy Living, North of 60
false
Living
Making Room for All Kids to Thrive
false
At Home
Tiny Gets Real
false
Tech
The Life and Death of a Very Good Satellite
false
Energy
Friction Is a Drag
false
Energy
What’s Coming Up on the Energy Horizon
false
Energy
Old Tech, New Tricks
false
Energy
These Bacteria Eat Gas for Breakfast
false
Money
Eight Ways to Save at Tax Time
false
Health
You Can Be Overweight and Too Lean at the Same Time
false
Environment
How to Keep Unwanted Urban Wildlife Out of Your Yard
false
Living
How to Keep Mom and Dad in Their Home Longer
false
Relationships
How to Have Tough Conversations
false
DIY
How to Make Bitters
false
Living
How to Prepare Emotionally for Retirement
false
Continuing Education
Pickled Pink
false
Living
Whether You’re After Boots, Heels or Loafers, Here’s How to Find the Right Shoe for Your Foot
false
Business
Reverse Mentoring Is Changing the C Suite
false
Relationships
Become a Better Bystander
false
Thesis
Our Daily Bread
Alumni Awards
For a career of coaching excellence
false
Continuing Education
Creature of Habit
false
Living
How to Support a Loved One With Dementia
false
Health
It Takes a Village: Dementia Is Becoming Everyone’s Concern
false
Money
The Six Best Ways to Screw Up Your Retirement
false
Thesis
Does Your Dog Really Love You?
false
Continuing Education
Colouring Outside the Lines
false
Profile
Unexpected Insights From an AI Rock Star
false
Did You Know
4 Things You Should Know About AI
false
Tech
Researchers Create ‘Smart’ Bionic Limbs
Tech
The advance of AI: should we be worried?
false
Money
5 Tips From a First-Time Home Buyer
false
Did You Know
Why You Remember the Things You Do
false
Did You Know
Forget 6 Degrees of Separation
false
Tech
How Handheld Devices Can Cause a Pain in the Neck
false
Profile
Welcome to Stump Kitchen
Illustration of a man looking at an opening in a bookshelf that is shaped like a grad cap by Eva Vasquez
Just for fun
Home Sweet Second Home
Continuing Education
A Shoulder Check On Attitude
Living
Whatsoever Things are True: A place of pride
Alumni Awards
For being a pillar of Little Italy
Alumni Awards
For a Life of Compassionate Service
Alumni Awards
For advocating for women in STEM fields
false
Profile
Community Minded
false
Feature
Exposing Five Myths About Indigenous Peoples
false
Feature
Question Period: Spencer Sekyer, ’91 BPE, ’92 BEd
false
Feature
Moving Forward With the Calls to Action
Feature
The Power of Creative Expression
false
News
Alumni in the News
false
Health
Your Phone Can Improve Your Mental Health
false
Discovery
Remote Electricity
Commentary
'We Need to Work Together. That's How it was Meant to Be.'
false
Just For Fun
Why Mountains Matter
false
At Work
Always Choose Adventure
false
Environment
Aged Ice
News
Campus News
false
News
Campus News
false
Profile
Redefining Ability
Just For Fun
U of A Goes Hollywood
false
Health
Igniting the Body's Immune System Against Cancer
false
Society
A Voice for Young People
Did You Know
Uncovering Campus Treasures
Discovery
News Briefs
false
Discovery
Composing to the Sounds of Space
false
Discovery
Did Hawking say 'no black holes'? Well, not technically
false
Money
Crowdfunding Gives Student Projects a Head Start
false
Feature
Take your kids to a gallery
false
Profile
Where Arts Meets Anatomy
false
Did You Know
Growing Hope in India
false
Society
U of A Comes a Long Way to Show Its Pride
false
Living
Helping People Find Their Voice
false
Did You Know
PAW Project Begins
false
Environment
Cool Literature
false
Discovery
A Mass-ive Discovery
false
News
Sports Savvy
false
Just For Fun
Dodge Ball Redux
false
Just For Fun
Happy 60th Birthday Rutherford
false
Profile
Polar Attraction
false
Notes
Campus Connections
Notes
Press'd Sandwiches
Notes
An Alumni "Operation" in Ecuador
Notes
Top 40 Under 40
false
Tech
The Wayback Machine
false
Discovery
Mussel Man
false
Feature
Hall of Famers
false
Health
Magical Moments
false
Tech
Thinking Big
false
Tech
Sweet Tweet
 low-angle photo of a medical chart and blood vials
Health
Five Lessons From Startup Founders Trying to Fix Health Care’s Prevention Problem
colour photo of Linda Ogilvie, dark green background
2024 Distinguished Alumni Award
A Rising Tide Lifts All Nurses
Colourful portrait illustration of Abbas Mehdi
Profile
Mover, Shaker, Protein Maker
Illustration of two men playing golf, one is a large Falstaffian character, the other is wearing a cloak and hat, resembling Sherlock Holmes
Continuing Education
Book, Meet Cover
Illustration of a woman curled up dreaming
Thesis
The Brain’s Pain
Photo of a businesswoman standing at a flip chart leading a meeting
Alumni Impact 2024
Four Ways for Women — or Anyone — to Take the Lead
false
Trails
Why Don’t Sheep Shrink When They Get Wet?
false
Alumni Impact 2024
Helping Young People Find Their Voices
false
Living
How to Face Failure
 a man doing paperwork in front of his laptop
Did You Know
Five Tips to Prepare for the Inevitable
Colourful illustration of woman’s side profile with hair flowing behind her
Feature
The Power of AI Is In Our Hands. What Do We Need to Know?
false
Health
Hope in Motion
a photo of Bruce Ritchie
2023 Distinguished Alumni Award
A Champion for People With Rare Blood Disorders
.
Thesis
For Want of a Nail
Two female businesswomen working at a desk
At Work
Who Wants To Be an Entrepreneur?
Girl with her ear up to a large metal sculpture
Living
How to Appreciate Sculpture
John Acorn holding and inspecting a rock in a creek bed
Just for Fun
Take a Walk on the Wild Side
false
Did You Know
Six Facts About Pollinators You Won't Bee-lieve
false
Profile
Legendary Links
false
Did You Know
Five Tips for Learning and Teaching Mandarin
Illustration of farmland with crops, animals, and farmers.
Environment
Pesky Pests and Other Threats
false
Tiny
Little Wonders
false
Relationships
Four Tips to Nurture a Relationship
false
Tiny
Time Machines
false
Distinguished Alumni Award
This Man Makes Medical Treatment Better For Us All
Common Vampire Bat
Continuing Education
Bloodthirsty Behaviour
false
Feature
Rural Frontiers
false
Did You Know
City Dwellers
false
Thesis
Engineering Student Groups Make Their Own Chances
false
Tech
Five Things I've Learned About Using AI for Social Good
false
Feature
The Impossible Made Possible
false
At Work
Goodwill Abounds
false
Health
Health Gets More Precise
false
Continuing Education
Think Like a Designer
false
Thesis
Where I Stop and You Start
false
Continuing Education
In the Minds of Mavericks
false
At Work
Five Things I’ve Learned About Working in the Non-Profit Sector
false
Profile
Five Things I’ve Learned About Working Together
false
Just For Fun
The Buzz About Bugs
false
Society
How To Be a Better Treaty Person
false
Health
It’s Got to Be Fun
false
Thesis
When the Master Makes Mistakes
false
Society
The Future of Food Delivers
false
Did You Know
Geared Up for Green-and-Gold
false
DIY
How to Be Wikipedia Wise
false
Society
Leadership in Times of Change
false
Technology
Better With Blockchain
false
Health
Whose Health Is in Harm’s Way?
false
Society
A Reading List for Fresh Perspectives
false
Alumni Awards
Karen Barnes Bolstered Education In the North
false
Alumni Awards
Howard Leeson Played a Key Role in Crafting Our Constitution
false
News
Restructuring Will Make UAlberta More Nimble, Efficient, Says President
false
Just For Fun
Wind Down the Year With Beer
false
Society
Three Paths
false
New Trail Classic
Do Not Bend or Mutilate — This Is a Human Being
false
Walking Together
Let’s Walk the Talk to End Racism
false
Discovery
An Inside Look at COVID-19 Research
false
Feature
The Future of Pandemics is Proactive
false
Living
'With This Hope We Can Do Beautiful Things'
false
Feature
Hope is an Overused Word, But the Real Thing Can be Powerful
false
At Home
A Common Quest
false
Living
Lawyers Get Creative As People Update Wills
false
Health
How to Neutralize Negative COVID-19 Thoughts
false
Living
Tips for Welcoming Refugees to Canada
false
At Home
Quarantine Bookshelf
false
Living
Six Things I’ve Learned About Embracing Discomfort
false
Thesis
Atypical Learning and Remarkable Results
false
DIY
Tuck Shop Cinnamon Bun Recipe
false
At Home
5 Books to Inspire Kids and Their Parents
false
Feature
A Justice for All
false
Thesis
Duplicate Studies
false
Thesis
Fair Play
false
Health
How I Learned to Ask for Help
false
Thesis
The Space Overhead
false
Tech
Inner Space
false
Energy
Indigenous Workers Tell Their Stories
false
Energy
People-Friendly Energy Projects
false
Energy
Powered Up
false
Energy
New Ways to Generate and Store Power
false
Did You Know
Meet Your New Alumni President
false
DIY
Build Your Own Robot From Junk at Home
false
Just For Fun
A Taste of Nostalgia
false
Health
How to Clean Your (Truly Gross, Germy) Phone
false
Money
How to Be Creative and Make Money
false
DIY
How to Make Your Words Last
false
DIY
How to Draw a Barn (on Fire)
false
Did You Know
How to Speak in Public With Aplomb
false
Tech
How Dylan Brenneis Built a Robot From Junk at Home
false
Living
Choose and Care for Your Perfect Christmas Tree
false
Health
Smoking Pot Behind Lister Is Legal
false
Thesis
How Long Until We Eat the Zoo?
false
Thesis
Have Your Burger and Eat It, Too
false
Alumni Awards
‘I think back with horror’
false
Trails
Tilting
false
Feature
Dementia Sets Lives Adrift. Research Is Finding a Better Way Forward
false
Health
The Elusive Cure
false
Thesis
Why You Feel Like Your Friends Are Having More Fun on Social Media
false
Thesis
Where Does Consciousness Live?
false
Living
Tips on How to Stink Less
false
Continuing Education
Five Things I’ve Learned About Perseverance
false
Continuing Education
Grant Me the Serenity to Accept My Inner Volcano
false
Tech
These Are Not Your Average Rabbits
These are not your average rabbits
false
At Work
How to Launch a Career During COVID-19
false
Profile
7 Things You Should Know About Billy-Ray Belcourt
false
Did You Know
What Do You Do When There’s No Reliable Internet?
false
Continuing Education
Check Your Blind Spots
false
Tech
They Saw What on YouTube?
false
Just For Fun
Flashback
Just For Fun
Fashion Sense
false
Discovery
Five Objects That Changed Our Lives
Alumni Awards
For giving Canadians insight into urgent global stories
false
Profile
For Fighting for LGBTQ Rights
Alumni Awards
For Bringing News and Entertainment to Canadian TV viewers
false
Feature
A Call to Bear Witness
false
Feature
Indigenous on Campus
false
Feature
Behind the Bodice
false
Feature
Reading Toward Reconciliation and More
News
Campus News
false
Did You Know
The Gateway's New Identity
false
Living
Put on Your Cape and Pants; It's Time to Go Out
false
Discovery
Research in the News
false
Continuing Education
Findings in the Field
false
Did You Know
Dark Cosmic Mysteries Illuminated
false
Environment
Alumni Among Wildfire Heroes
false
News
Research in the News
false
Discovery
'Welding' Neurons Opens Door to Repairing Nerves
false
Discovery
Paleontologists Discover Complete Baby Dino Skeleton
false
News
Alumni in the News
Did You Know
New Student Residence and Indigenous Gathering Place Coming to North Campus
false
Did You Know
Lecture Hall to Legislature
false
Health
When Food is Your Enemy
Discovery
Research Briefs
false
Environment
Our Man on Mars
false
Discovery
Who's the Boss of Evolution?
false
News
Kim Campbell Heads New College
Did You Know
From the Collections
false
Profile
Learning to Lead
false
Environment
Five Questions About Frankenstorms
false
Discovery
Blue Sky Green Moss
false
Profile
The Road to a Rhodes
News
Campus News
false
Health
A Mighty Heart
false
Did You Know
Medal of Freedom
false
Sweating the Small Stuff
false
Environment
Taking The Initiative
false
Discovery
Cell Mates
false
Did You Know
It Is Brain Surgery
false
In Memoriam
Remembering Robert Kroetch
Notes
Powerful Women
Notes
Royal Society of Canada Honours
Notes
Meet Your Reunion Organizer
false
Health
Treating the King Georges of Edmonton... and Calgary
false
Discovery
Weird Science
false
Feature
Whatsoever Things Are True
false
Feature
U of A's Newest Building
false
Continuing Education
Rhodes Worthy
false
Did You Know
Uphill Racer
false
Profile
PhD Prize Money