The 1st Annual 3MT Competition

The First Annual 3MT Competition was held as a part of the Sixth Annual Graduate Students Research Colloquium. The event showcased four 3MT presentations.

The event featured a prestigious panel of judges which included Provost and Vice-President, Academic and International Dr. Neil Besner, Associate Vice-President – Indigenous, Government, and Community Affairs, Jennifer Rattray and Director, Policy and Legislative Affairs at the Council on Post-Secondary Education, Dr. Sarah Whiteford.

For more information on the event, including photos, please visit: NewsCentre.

Winner:

Matthew Turnbull - MSc in BioScience, Technology & Public Policy

In Silico modeling of the endogenous retrovirus K protease

The human genome is filled with ancient retrovirus-like elements called Human Endogenous Retroviruses. Most of these elements are inactive under normal conditions, but some endogenous retrovirus K family members are activated in inflammatory diseases. These genetic elements express classical retroviral proteins: polymerase, capsid and envelope proteins, as well as protease. Protease is essential for the maturation of structural viral proteins. Inhibition of ERVK protease may lead to amelioration of disease outcomes, as it does in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. ERVK protease is poorly inhibited by drugs that target HIV protease; the discovery of new inhibitors is hampered by the lack of a published ERVK protease structure. An alignment of characterized retroviral proteases and prototypic ERVK proteases created using Geneious software was used to evaluate the suitability of ERVK protease for homology modeling.  ERVK protease models will be used to predict in silico the efficacy of novel small molecule inhibitors.

Turnbull won the opportunity to fly to Alberta to compete in the Western Competition at the University of Calgary with the hopes of moving forward to the National Competition hosted by the University of Manitoba.

2014 Presentations

Qianjia (Shy) Huang - Applied Computer Science & Society

Cyber Bullying Detection Using Social Networks Features

Cyber bullying, which often has a deeply negative impact on the victim, has grown as a serious issue among adolescents. To understand the phenomenon of cyber bullying, experts from social science have focused on the personality, social relationships and psychological factors involving both the bully and the victim. On the other hand, recently Computer Science researchers have also come up with automated methods to identify cyber bullying messages by identifying bullying-related keywords in cyber conversations. However, the accuracy of these textual features based methods remains limited. In this research, we investigate whether analyzing social networks features can improve the accuracy of cyber bullying detection. By analyzing on the social network structure between users and deriving social networks features such as number of friends, and network embeddedness, we find that the detection of cyber bullying can be significantly improved by integrating the textual features with social networks features.

Kaitlyn Duthie-Kannikkatt - Development Practice: Indigenous Development

"Our Oldest of Relatives": Seed Conservation and Collaboration for Indigenous Food Sovereignty

There is increasing evidence that Indigenous knowledge systems associated with the production of traditional foods are under serious threat due to a variety of factors including the historical alienation of Indigenous peoples from their lands, neo-liberal government policies, and modern development pressures. In spite of these threats, communities across Turtle Island are demonstrating resilience and innovation in keeping traditional seeds and foods alive through reviving and strengthening networks and relationships. The Anishinaabe Seed Library, developed by White Earth Land Recovery Project, is one such initiative that has revived not only the White Earth Indian Reservation’s “oldest of relatives”, but also a set of stories and traditions that are integral to their assertion of self-determination. This research examines how horizontal networks and intergenerational relationship building is supporting Indigenous seed conservation in northern Minnesota. It also examines the implications of this work for fostering resilient networks of seed sovereignty here in Manitoba.

Sheena Manghera - Bioscience, Technology, & Public Policy

Viruses within Us: Their Re-activation during Neuroinflammation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Retroviral sequences, such as human endogenous retrovirus-K (ERVK), constitute over 8% of our DNA. Re-activation of ERVK has been implicated in neuroinflammatory diseases, notably Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Unfortunately, the signals that re-activate ERVK remain unclear. An inflammatory protein, Nuclear Factor kappa B (NF-κB), is constitutively active in ALS, and may induce ERVK gene transcription by interacting with putative NF-κB binding sites in the ERVK promoter. We have over-expressed NF-κB in astrocytes and neurons using plasmids encoding this transcription factor, and through cytokines – TNFα and LIGHT. Using quantitative real-time PCR and western blot, respectively, enhanced NF-κB levels were shown to augment ERVK RNA and protein levels. Through fluorescent microscopy, we confirmed that increased ERVK expression correlates with enhanced NF-κB nuclear translocation. NF-κB binding to the ERVK promoter will be evaluated using chromatin immunoprecipitation. These findings will allow identification of new therapeutic targets to control potentially pathogenic ERVK expression during neuroinflammation.

For more 3MT Presentation videos, please click here.