Campus Notices
"Wellness Wednesday" is back by popular demand this fall!
Register for Stress Reduction & Mindfulness in the Workplace beginning on September 8, 2020. This course will take place online weekly for 6 weeks with Jill Stewart.
Are you feeling exhausted and stretched to the limit? Do you feel overwhelmed wondering how you will get everything done in a day? You don’t have to live like this right now. This course will give you information and strategies that will help transform the way you manage yourself.
UPEI employees can take advantage of their professional development funds to register. Click here for more information:
Contract Group Administrative and Professional
Contact pdp@upei.ca for more information.
Applications are open! Atlantic Canada Study and Stay™ - Prince Edward Island Program
The goal of Atlantic Canada Study and Stay™ – Prince Edward Island is to support international students to live, work, and stay in Prince Edward Island post-graduation.
Eligibility: Applicants MUST be beginning their final-year of study in fall (September) 2020 and expect to graduate from their program of study in spring or fall 2021.
Applicants from one of the following PEI post-secondary institutions are welcome to apply:
- The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI)
- Holland College
- Collège de I’île
Students who successfully gain entry into the Atlantic Canada Study and Stay™ – Prince Edward Island program will be provided with enhanced support during their final year of study. This will equip students with the cultural, language, career, and networking skills needed to launch a successful career and fulfilling life in Prince Edward Island.
Review the eligibility criteria and apply here: http://studypei.ca/
Please help us share with your network. Thank you.
Any questions, please contact:
Study and Stay PEI Co-ordinator
Join Accessibility Services for the session, “I've Received an Accommodation Letter Now What".
In this session, Accessibility Services will review the accommodation process, review accommodations that frequently generate questions, and review who is responsible for implementation. The session will take place online on September 2 at 1:00 pm.
To sign up for this session, please complete the following Google Form:
https://forms.gle/zjHNBwH7pdwdeJyWA
Please share with any colleagues you think would be interested in attending. We hope to see you there.
If you have taken the Blackboard Collaborate and/or Creating Interactive Content workshops you have a basic awareness around using Collaborate and H5P. Or maybe there is another topic you would like to dive deeper into with the help of the E-Learning Office? If you would now like to build some more practical skills in using a tool introduced to you by the E-Learning Office then consider getting together a few likeminded colleagues and booking a small group tutorial. These tutorials will provide you with an opportunity to move beyond just listening about the tool or idea to trying things out for yourself.
Group size: 4-6
Duration: 1-2 hrs
Delivery method: Online
Facilitated by: The E-Learning Office
You can provide a list of questions or specific topics you want covered or the E-Learning Office can create a tutorial for your group.
Book a tutorial for your group
Not certain you can get a group together but would still like to sign up? If there are enough individuals who sign up then we can put together a tutorial for you.
The UPEI Alumni Association is calling for individuals to join its Board of Directors for a three-year term, beginning in September, 2020
Nominees must:
- be a graduate of UPEI, SDU, or PWC
- desire to strengthen alumni/university connections
- want to enhance the experiences of current students
- attend 4 to 5 meetings a year
- be willing to serve as chair/member of a committee
To nominate yourself or someone you know, or for more information, contact the Alumni office at alumni@upei.ca. Include name, graduation year, and any experiences/interests that would make the nominee a valuable board member.
Please submit nominations by August 28, 2020.
The Fox & Crow, located in the WA Murphy Student Centre, will open on September 3, 2020, for the season. We are currently getting everything ready to open safely. In the meantime, if your department wants to order a urn of coffee with all the necessities, please contact Mike at thefoxandcow@upeisu.ca.
Troy Life & Fire Safety will be performing the annual fire alarm inspections for the remainder of the buildings on the following dates. As part of these inspections, there will be testing of alarms. There will be an audible notification stating that this is a test at the beginning of testing and again when the testing is completed. The building occupants are not required to evacuate during the testing period. The ringing of alarms is required to test their function and to ensure the speakers work throughout the building. This will be a small portion (up to 2 hours) of the total time they are in the building.
Blanchard Hall: August 12th
Bernardine Hall: August 13th
Wanda Wyatt Dining Hall: August 14th
Bill & Denise Andrew Hall: August 17th - 18th
Atlantic Veterinary College: August 24th - 28th
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Jackie MacPhail at jmacphail@upei.ca.
The UPEI Alumni Association is calling for individuals to join its Board of Directors for a three-year term, beginning in September, 2020
Nominees must:
- be a graduate of UPEI, SDU, or PWC
- desire to strengthen alumni/university connections
- want to enhance the experiences of current students
- attend 4 to 5 meetings a year
- be willing to serve as chair/member of a committee
To nominate yourself or someone you know, or for more information, contact the Alumni office at alumni@upei.ca. Include name, graduation year, and any experiences/interests that would make the nominee a valuable board member.
Please submit nominations by August 28, 2020.
TITLE OF THESIS: Non-Destructive Solid-State Investigation Of PEI Agricultural Soils
Date: Monday August 24th, 2020, 1:00 p.m.
ABSTRACT:
Prince Edward Island is a province commonly known for its visually notable red sandy soil, and their prominence in agricultural growth; most notably, potato farming. Potato growth in PEI has become stagnant over the past 10 years. Phosphorus, one of the three main plant macronutrients, can mineralize through interactions with iron and aluminium in PEI soil. While the distinctive red colour of PEI soil is due to large iron content (hematite), aluminium is our prime focus for fixation of phosphorus due to the pH of PEI soil. Default analytical methods, including NMR, for the analysis of phosphorus speciation within soil typically includes extraction protocols and analyses, which only partially represent interactions within a soil matrix in the natural environment. Understanding the mineral profile of PEI soil is crucial in understanding how phosphorus can interact in the solid state, potentially affecting its bioavailability. Thus, we have taken a non-destructive, solid-state chemistry approach in order to analyze soil. Soil samples were analyzed using 31P and 27Al solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. A 27Al chemical environment was discovered in PEI soil that was not reported in literature as a substantial spectral region,for similar soil types. 27Al nuclear relaxation data was observed to gain further insight into aluminium speciation within PEI soil. Powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD) was successfully utilized to characterize the mineral material structure of PEI soil. The aluminium mineral forms detected by PXRD were assigned to their respective 27Al chemical shift. The effect of default extraction methodology, namely the Mehlich-3 extraction, was also explored using ssNMR and PXRD. Synchotron techniques were also used to analyze the solid-state structure of PEI soil. Namely, x-ray absorption of near edge structure (XANES) and scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) experiments were conducted at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Al K-edge XANES experiments allowed us to examine the overall bulk speciation of aluminium in PEI soil. Al, Fe, and P STXM experiments provided a visual perception to the mineral speciation of PEI soil, allowing us to draw on associations between Al, Fe, and P species present. Our non-destructive analysis of PEI soil allowed us to broaden our perspective of the solid-state structure of PEI soil, while also identifying potential irregularities occurring within it
The presentation and examination will be presented via a web conference. Anyone who wishes to attend the public presentation should contact the grad studies coordinator at gsc@upei.ca to receive the link to the meeting.
The deadline for Animal Care Protocol Submissions (new, renewal, or amendment) is Friday, September 4th for the September meeting.
Please note that as of June 1, 2020 all animal user protocols must be submitted through UPEI Researcher Portal at https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/
For new protocols select ‘applications’ and for renewal or amendment protocols select ‘events’.
To view any UPEI ACC SOPs and Codes of Practice, they can be accessed through myUPEI at https://portal.upei.ca/facultystaff/administrativeservices/AVCAnimalCare/Pages/default.aspx.
Those protocols received after the deadline will be reviewed the following month. The Committee requires at least one month for processing applications.
The deadline for Animal Care Protocol Submissions (new, renewal, or amendment) is Friday, September 4th for the September meeting.
Please note that as of June 1, 2020 all animal user protocols must be submitted through UPEI Researcher Portal at https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/
For new protocols select ‘applications’ and for renewal or amendment protocols select ‘events’.
To view any UPEI ACC SOPs and Codes of Practice, they can be accessed through myUPEI at https://portal.upei.ca/facultystaff/administrativeservices/AVCAnimalCare/Pages/default.aspx.
Those protocols received after the deadline will be reviewed the following month. The Committee requires at least one month for processing applications.
Online Employee and Spouse/Dependent Tuition Waive
The deadline for Fall 2020 Tuition Waivers is August 19, 2020. We encourage you to have tuition waivers
If you have any questions, please contact Heather Walsh at: (902) 566-0514 or HRgeneral@upei.ca.
TITLE OF THESIS: Development & Application Of Biomaterials For Drug Delivery
ABSTRACT
The fields of biomedicine and nanotechnology have mutually benefited from the development of efficient drug delivery system (DDS). DDS are biomaterials with biodegradable, biocompatible, environmentally responsive and targeting properties, which have significantly impacted the modern day health care system.
Since the first FDA approval of a drug delivery carrier, namely PLGA/leuprolide acetate in 1989, more than 10 biodegradable materials are now commercially available for the treatment of cancer, hormonal deficiency, edema, bipolar disorder, and for alcohol & opioid dependence. A range of inorganic (gold, silver, iron, and silica) and organic (polymers, dendrimers, micelles, and hydrogels) biomaterials have also been investigated and are being used as drug delivery carriers in clinical trials.
Biomaterials such as silica microparticles, hydrogels, organic and inorganic nanoparticles have been intensely studied for the delivery of small molecule therapeutics such as chemotherapeutics in research. Recently, proteins and peptide based therapeutics are increasingly recognized as novel drugs with applications ranging from immunological diseases to cancer. The stability and refolding of protein is one major problem in successful delivery of proteins in the human body. Proteins are biological molecules which easily denature by chemical physical and biological stresses. Hence the field of biomaterials provides an excellent platform for successful delivery of protein based drugs in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, thermally responsive hydrogels are being reported as unique macromolecular chaperones, which maintain weak non-covalent interactions with misfolded proteins and refold them into native form as a function of thermal flexibility of hydrogels.
The first chapter in this thesis will briefly review on the history & development of different biomaterials over the past few decades and their application as a drug delivery carrier. The second chapter will describe the research on the development and functionalization of diatomaceous earth embedded core shell materials, which are capable of encapsulating two chemotherapeutic drugs (doxorubicin and paclitaxel) at constant molar ratios, in different compartments of a single drug delivery carrier and show synergistic anticancer response in different cancer cell lines. Physiologically stable and stimuli-responsive β-Cyclodextrin capped diatomaceous earth microparticles are developed by the concept of host-guest chemistry. β-Cyclodextrin capped diatomaceous earth microparticles are prepared by covalent conjugation of adamantane (guest) molecules on silica scaffold, followed by their interactions with β-Cyclodextrin molecules via host guest complexation. Doxorubicin and paclitaxel were then encapsulated at different concentrations and locations within the self- assembled microparticles (shell of β-Cyclodextrin verses core of diatoms) via adsorption. The encapsulation of each drug in different compartments of delivery carrier (core of diatoms versus shell of Cyclodextrin) was then used as a method to control the release rate of both drugs in situ, and to maintain the optimal molar ratios of two drugs required for their synergistic outcomes in vitro. The results suggest that encapsulation of paclitaxel in diatomaceous earth microparticles core and of doxorubicin in β-Cyclodextrin:Adamantane corona, produces synergistic activities at all studied concentrations in cancer cell lines. Paclitaxel encapsulated in diatomaceous earth microparticles core is expected to facilitate slow release of hydrophobic drug in cell culture media as, only 7% of encapsulated hydrophobic drug is released over a period of 24 h, while release of doxorubicin from β- Cyclodextrin:Adamantane shell is complete (100%) within few hours of encapsulation. This difference in release profile of two drugs maintained molar ratio of doxorubicin/paclitaxel of 30 or higher in cell culture conditions, resulting in combinatorial index value of less than one and yielded synergistic response. In contrast, cells treated with doxorubicin loaded diatomaceous earth microparticles core and paclitaxel loaded shell resulted in the combinatorial index value of more than one and showed strong antagonistic activities for all studied concentrations of the drugs in cancer cell lines. The third chapter of this thesis describes the development of thermoresponsive hydrogels and explores the structural changes in hydrogels matrix. Poly (vitamin B5 analogous methacrylamide) P(B5AMA) hydrogels of different net charges, hydrophobicity and cross-linking densities were synthesized by a free radical polymerization method. The role of P(B5AMA) hydrogel for the restoration of enzymatic activity of thermally denatured enzymes (lysozyme and carbonic anhydrase), as a function of temperature and time and for the presence of residual water in the hydrogel architecture were then evaluated. The data reveals that water release efficacies of P(B5AMA)hydrogel at 37 °C are directly related to the enzymatic efficacies of proteins. The refolding efficacies of lysozyme and carbonic anhydrase in the presence of collapsed P(B5AMA) hydrogel (after the removal of free residual water) were 17.58 ± 0.6 and 36.5 ± 1.8, respectively and were comparable to the refolding efficacies of proteins in saline solution. The hydrated P(B5AMA) hydrogels, in contrast showed protein refolding efficacies of 65.4 ± 6.58 for lysozyme and 78.65 ± 1.97 for carbonic anhydrase. The fourth chapter of this thesis provides a brief conclusion and future directions to further explore the field of drug delivery. The facile synthesis and self-assembly of diatoms, β-Cyclodextrin and adamantane provides a great platform to encapsulate different drugs at constant feed ratios and optimize their response as a function of release rate of two drugs from the delivery carriers. The proven biocompatible nature of FDA approved materials utilized during the study suggests their accelerated evaluation and translation into clinical studies. On the other hand, hydrogel with promising protein renaturation efficacies were further evaluated for their interactions with denatured proteins, and the role of thermal flexibility of the hydrogel matrix in protein refolding capabilities was elucidated. Further studies are being conducted to evaluate the role of hydrogels in the restoration of the native structure of amyloid plaques for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Anyone who wishes to attend the public presentation should contact the grad studies coordinator at gsc@upei.ca to receive the link to the meeting.
The deadline for Animal Care Protocol Submissions (new, renewal, or amendment) is Friday, September 4th for the September meeting.
Please note that as of June 1, 2020 all animal user protocols must be submitted through UPEI Researcher Portal at https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/
For new protocols select ‘applications’ and for renewal or amendment protocols select ‘events’.
To view any UPEI ACC SOPs and Codes of Practice, they can be accessed through myUPEI at https://portal.upei.ca/facultystaff/administrativeservices/AVCAnimalCare/Pages/default.aspx.
Those protocols received after the deadline will be reviewed the following month. The Committee requires at least one month for processing applications.
Join Accessibility Services for the session, “I've Received an Accommodation Letter Now What".
In this session, Accessibility Services will review the accommodation process, review accommodations that frequently generate questions, and review who is responsible for implementation. The session will take place online on September 2 at 1:00 pm.
To sign up for this session, please complete the following Google Form:
https://forms.gle/zjHNBwH7pdwdeJyWA
Please share with any colleagues you think would be interested in attending. We hope to see you there.
If you have taken the Blackboard Collaborate and/or Creating Interactive Content workshops you have a basic awareness around using Collaborate and H5P. Or maybe there is another topic you would like to dive deeper into with the help of the E-Learning Office? If you would now like to build some more practical skills in using a tool introduced to you by the E-Learning Office then consider getting together a few likeminded colleagues and booking a small group tutorial. These tutorials will provide you with an opportunity to move beyond just listening about the tool or idea to trying things out for yourself.
Group size: 4-6
Duration: 1-2 hrs
Delivery method: Online
Facilitated by: The E-Learning Office
You can provide a list of questions or specific topics you want covered or the E-Learning Office can create a tutorial for your group.
Book a tutorial for your group
Not certain you can get a group together but would still like to sign up? If there are enough individuals who sign up then we can put together a tutorial for you.
Online Employee and Spouse/Dependent Tuition Waive
The deadline for Fall 2020 Tuition Waivers is August 19, 2020. We encourage you to have tuition waivers
If you have any questions, please contact Heather Walsh at: (902) 566-0514 or HRgeneral@upei.ca.
The deadline for Animal Care Protocol Submissions (new, renewal, or amendment) is Friday, September 4th for the September meeting.
Please note that as of June 1, 2020 all animal user protocols must be submitted through UPEI Researcher Portal at https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/
For new protocols select ‘applications’ and for renewal or amendment protocols select ‘events’.
To view any UPEI ACC SOPs and Codes of Practice, they can be accessed through myUPEI at https://portal.upei.ca/facultystaff/administrativeservices/AVCAnimalCare/Pages/default.aspx.
Those protocols received after the deadline will be reviewed the following month. The Committee requires at least one month for processing applications.
Don and Marion McDougall Hall
Wildwood Masonry will begin brick repointing on the east and south sides of Don and Marion McDougall Hall (original building) on Monday, August 17, 2020 it is expected to take approximately 3 weeks to complete the work (weather dependent).
The grinding work will cause some dust, therefore the contractor will be using a dust extraction system.
The windows in the area should be kept closed during the work to keep any dust outside of the building.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Jackie MacPhail at jmacphail@upei.ca or 902-566-6034.
Starting Monday, August 17, UPEI mail will resume delivery to the campus mailboxes in the Kelley Building. Please use your best judgement on social distancing when collecting your mail as the hallway is quite narrow. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Shipping & Receiving at shipping@upei.ca
