Media releases

  • Brock teams up with Lincoln Museum on new exhibits

    MEDIA RELEASE: 8 May 2018 – R00101

    You can hear the sense of excitement in Jess Linzel’s voice when she talks about local history.

    The fourth-year Brock History student’s enthusiasm for the past and its impact on the present will be front and centre Thursday, May 10 during an open house at the Town of Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre.

    Made possible through a partnership between the museum and Brock’s Department of History, the event will encourage the public to engage with local artifacts, ask questions and speak with student researchers who contributed to the featured exhibits that will be on display.

    The joint initiative allowed Linzel and fellow History student Derek Friske to dive into the museum’s collection to help create the new exhibits, which focus on the life of First World War veteran Pte. Clarence Huntsman, and the business ledger of settler Michael Rittenhouse.

    “The Department of History is really pleased to have established this working relationship with the Lincoln Museum,” said department Chair Danny Samson. “History and heritage are important in Niagara, and we’re delighted to be working together to generate such exciting projects.”

    The student exhibits “bridge our academic mission with the interests of the broader community,” he said. “The quality is absolutely top-notch, and the people of Lincoln have an opportunity to see their past, and to see it presented to the wider world.”

    As part of her project, Linzel used Brock equipment to digitize Rittenhouse’s ledger for the museum, which plans to make the electronic copy available to the public in the future. Born in Pennsylvania in 1768, Rittenhouse was a Loyalist tanner who settled in Niagara in 1800 and took up work as a farmer and miller.

    “It was interesting to see how he influenced a lot of the farming that took place in Niagara and Lincoln at that time,” Linzel said. Rittenhouse, she added, played a role in laying the groundwork for the thriving agricultural sector seen in Lincoln today.

    Linzel is looking forward to having her work on display in such a public setting, but is most excited to share Rittenhouse’s story with the community.

    “I love that the partnership is helping to make history more accessible to the public.”

    The new exhibits will be on display until the end of August.

    What: Museum open house and exhibit launch

    Who: Brock University’s Department of History in partnership with the Town of Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre

    When: Thursday, May 10 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

    Where: Town of Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre, 4996 Beam St., Beamsville

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

    Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

    – 30 –

    Categories: Media releases

  • Brock prof’s Canada Research Chair position renewed for third time

    MEDIA RELEASE: 8 May 2018 – R00100

    He’s helping to make cancer drugs more effective, and on Thursday, May 3, the federal government announced that Brock University chemist Tomas Hudlicky, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Organic Synthesis and Biocatalysis, has been renewed for a third term.

    For more than 25 years, Hudlicky has studied the use of biological methods to manufacture chemicals with the aim of making “new and active derivatives available for the manufacture of anti-cancer drugs,” he says.

    Through the Canada Research Chairs program, the Government of Canada invests around $265 million each year to fund post-secondary research by some of the top experts across engineering, natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences.

    Hudlicky was first selected for a seven-year CRC term in 2003, and that was renewed again in 2010. His third term will take the Brock researcher into 2024.

    Through his research, the Professor of Chemistry has made a number of breakthroughs. Last year, a team of scientists tested out several variations of the compound pancratistatin (PST) that Hudlicky had created and patented.

    The results of the tests, conducted on 20 different types of cancer cells, showed that Hudlicky’s compound appears to be capable of killing cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. The PST substance is found in the spider lily and been shown to cause cancer cells to die, but its very low rate of natural production is a major challenge to research and clinical advancement.

    The construction of new drugs involves manufacturing what are known as unnatural derivatives of natural compounds such as PST or narciclasine, a congener of PST that is more available from natural sources.

    These derivatives are available through chemical synthesis from Hudlicky’s laboratory. He and other chemists artificially enhance a natural compound’s properties through synthesis of derivatives.

    Hudlicky says it’s still not clear how and why PST brings about cell death, but said some of the new synthetic derivatives made in his laboratory “are actually more potent and more bioavailable than the natural compounds.”

    Bioavailability measures how much of a substance such as a drug is absorbed into a living system and how quickly it is absorbed.

    Hudlicky is continuing research on discovering and manufacturing anti-cancer compounds that can be used in drugs to treat the disease. With funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and a Canadian pharmaceutical company, he is developing derivatives of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, some of which are isolated from daffodils and snowdrops.

    The professor has also formed a partnership with McMaster University Chemistry Professor James McNulty to develop more compounds that can be used in effective cancer treatment, efficient pro-drug design and other commercial uses.

    Brock University holds 10 Canada Research Chairs. In addition to Hudlicky, they include: Julia Baird, CRC in Human Dimensions of Water Resources and Water Resilience; Karen Campbell, CRC in Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging; Stephen Cheung, CRC in Environmental Ergonomics; Vincenzo De Luca, Tier 1 CRC in Plant Biotechnology; Andrea Doucet, CRC in Gender, Work, Care and Community; Michael Holmes, CRC in Neuromuscular Mechanics and Ergonomics; Ping Liang, CRC in Genomics and Bioinformatics; Jennifer Rowsell, CRC in Multiliteracies; and Wendy Ward, CRC in Bone and Muscle Development.

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

    Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

    – 30 –

    Categories: Media releases