Media releases

• Brock prof collecting ancient Earth rocks in support of Mars mission

  Tuesday, August 01, 2023 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: Aug 1 2023 – R0062

  A Brock University researcher is among a group of scientists collecting ancient rocks on Earth that will play an important role in the quest to learn more about Mars.

  Professor of Earth Sciences Mariek Schmidt recently returned from an expedition on the Isle of Rum that in addition to Brock included researchers from the University of Glasgow, University of Cambridge and University of Leicester.

  The island off the west coast in Scotland, characterized by dramatic mountains and extinct volcanoes, is one of several sites scientists will be visiting to collect rock samples as part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

  The campaign is assembling a defined set of rock samples from around the world that are comparable to those found on the Red Planet.

  A Participating Scientist with the Mars 2020 mission, Schmidt is part of the team that initially identified and classified rocks collected by NASA’s Perseverance Rover during its exploration of the Séítah Formation within Jezero Crater on Mars.

  Intensive study of the rocks from Rum and other sample sites will crucially help scientists understand what methods of handling, testing and analysis will work best in readiness for when the Martian rocks are scheduled to be brought to Earth in 2033.

  As the first samples from another planet, the Mars rocks are thought to present the best opportunity to reveal clues about its early evolution, including the potential for past life.

  The approximately 90-million-year-old rocks on the Isle of Rum are characteristically very similar to the igneous rocks found on Mars.

  “They have similar mineralogy, texture and chemistry,” said Schmidt. “Both contain the mineral olivine, which is a glassy green mineral that usually crystallizes in a high-temperature magma chamber.”

  In her work with the Mars 2020 mission, Schmidt focuses on using one of the rover’s seven key instruments: the Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), which is an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer used to determine the fine scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials.

  “It was exciting to see rocks like those we encountered on Mars in the field on Earth,” Schmidt said. “We were able to strike them with a hammer, feel their heft and scan a broken surface with a hand lens.”

  Some of the rocks collected from Rum and other sites will go to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California, where scientists will determine how to access samples to minimize contamination, test imaging and other technology, and develop sample analysis procedures.

  Schmidt said scientists will also be able to request rock samples from Earth to demonstrate their proposed work on Martian rocks.

  In total, 200 to 300 kilograms of rock will be collected from each of the five to six sites across the world.

  This October, Schmidt will be leading sample collection from thick lava flows exposed at Hart Mountain in southeastern Oregon.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock researchers explore use of AI to improve drug development

  Wednesday, July 26, 2023 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: July 26 2023 – R0061

  Discovering and developing drugs can be slow, costly and high-risk, but harnessing advances in artificial intelligence (AI) can help with these processes, say Brock researchers.

  Yifeng Li, Canada Research Chair in Machine Learning for Biomedical Data Science, and his Computer Science master’s student Cameron Andress (BSc ’20, MSc ’23) published a recent paper on how AI can better create a drug to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus — responsible for contracting COVID-19 — from entering human cells compared to more conventional methods.

  “This is a unique and important piece of work in the AI for drug design community,” says Andress, who is the paper’s first author. “Our results suggest that AI is capable of producing well-suited drug candidates for a chosen virus, which can significantly accelerate the drug development process and potentially save more lives.”

  Li and his team focused on a substance called an aptamer, which can function as a drug. Aptamers are short, single-strand DNA and RNA molecules that bind strongly and exclusively to a particular protein that has been targeted to treat or prevent illness.

  Aptamer drugs are relatively new and innovative, says the Assistant Professor of Computer Science. They are stronger and more precise than therapeutics known as ‘small molecule drugs’ — such as Aspirin and penicillin — in which molecules can pass through membranes to reach the protein they are targeting.

  Aptamers are usually developed through a series of experiments in which a group of random aptamers is added to a controlled environment containing the virus. Scientists measure how well the aptamer binds to the target protein and will keep making a series of modifications until the bond is strengthened.

  Andress turned to machine learning and created a program that simulates the physical process by generating multitudes of different DNA and RNA sequences and testing how strongly and precisely they bind with the target protein.

  “AI is a new paradigm for drug discovery as it dramatically reduces development time and cost and is able to efficiently search the vast molecular space,” he says.

  Li recalls how he and Andress became interested in creating aptamer drugs to treat COVID-19 in spring 2020 during the onset of the pandemic.

  “We chose COVID-19 because of its urgent nature and long-lasting medical challenges,” says Li. “Our work is among the first to design aptamer drugs for COVID.”

  Li says the team’s model can be applied to address future health crises.

  “For future similar COVID-19 variants or other pandemics caused by other types of viruses, since we have the framework, experience and a team ready, we can replace the current spike protein with the new target protein of interest,” he says.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases