innovatis - august 2006 - web version - prix d'innovation manning
TRANSCRIPT
Inside this issue:
Manning Young Canadian
Innovation Award Winners
Pages 2-3
Manning Innovation
Achievement Winners
Page 4
Happy Anniversary!
Page 4
The 2006 Canada-Wide Science Fair
(CWSF) in Saguenay, Québec was
a fermentation vat of innovation. The 460
finalists presented 369 projects in
areas ranging from
Biotechnology and
Pharmaceuticals to Earth and
Environmental Science.
Manning Innovation Awards
totaling $20,000 went to nine
CWSF finalists.
This year’s science fair, held at
the University of Québec at Chicoutimi
campus in May, was the first ever “zero
waste, carbon neutral” CWSF. Facilitators
and participants joined in an effort to cre-
ate as little waste as possible by compost-
ing, recycling, and using less
printer paper. This summer,
black spruce trees are being
planted to compensate for
greenhouse gas emissions pro-
duced from fair-related travel,
cooking, and heating.
The CWSF is a project of the
Youth Science Foundation of Canada.
This is the 15th year that the Manning
Awards Foundation has supported the fair.
Saluting Young Canadian Innovation
IINNNNOOVVAATTIISS
Volume 7, Issue 2August 2006
Students Give 100 Percent Effort at
“Zero Waste, Carbon Neutral” Science Fair
The Alberta Ingenuity
Fund is helping us to mark
our silver anniversary with
the support of special
events and publicity.
Welcome to the
25th Anniversary
Sponsor
As part of its 25th AnniversaryCelebrations, the Ernest C.
Manning Awards Foundation is hostingthe first interactive presentation eventInnovate! Celebrate!! Educate!!! withpast Manning Innovation AwardLaureates and science students (juniorhigh through post secondary) on theS.A.I.T. campus, Orpheus TheatreThursday, September 28 and Friday,September 29. Laureates will speak withyoung Albertans about their experience
and the process that they followed indeveloping their innovative ideas. Inaddition, six of the 2006 Young CanadianInnovation Award winners will be pres-ent with their winning projects from theCanada-Wide Science Fair.
This will no doubt be an interesting andinspirational program for those who wishto see by successful example how toadvance their ideas and dreams.
Our thanks to Alberta Ingenuity Fundfor their support of the “ICE” program.
Want something cool this fall? “ICE” it…
Ingenuity knows no limit...
Saluting Young Canadian InnovationPage 2
Targeting Cancer Cells
Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Ted
Paranjothy came away with a
Manning Innovation Award for taking
on cancer-treatment at the level of the
cell. He also won the Silver Medal—
Biotechnology and
P h a r m a c e u t i c a l
Sciences for his non-
toxic approach to
chemotherapy.
Paranjothy, now 17, is entering
Grade 12 this fall. He completed his
research at the Manitoba Institute of
Cell Biology at CancerCare Manitoba.
Using genetic engineering,
Paranjothy harnessed the natural anti-
cancer properties of a viral protein to
kill cancer cells. The protein, called
apoptin, can induce programmed cell
death in cancer cells without harming
nearby healthy cells. Natural apoptin
is not useful for cancer-treatment,
however, in part because it cannot pen-
etrate cancer cells.
Paranjothy analyzed the structure of
apoptin to see if a segment of it
could be used to target cancer
cells. He then designed
apoptin fragments that
looked promising and
added a piece of another
virus to allow the apoptin
fragments to get inside tumor cells.
The success of the apoptin-derived
fragments to penetrate cancer cells and
induce their destruction makes
Paranjothy hopeful that a similar tech-
nique could one day be used to treat
cancer patients.
Ted Paranjothy
All Natural Cornboard for
Environmentally Sound Building
Fields of cobless cornstalks were
on Philip Schmidt’s mind
when he developed and
tested cornboard, an envi-
ronmentally-friendly alter-
native to wood and particle
board.
Schmidt, 18, received
the Canadian Commission
for UNESCO—Science
for Peace and Development
Award, and the Silver
Medal—Biotechnology and
Pharmaceutical Sciences in
addition to the Manning
Innovation Award.
Schmidt, who has one more year of
high school in Woodville, Ontario,
invented cornboard for a previous
science fair.
In his most recent science
fair project, he demonstrat-
ed that cornboard has the
benefits of light-weight
particleboard and medium-
density fibre board, without
the toxic, sometimes carcinogenic
chemicals. Cornboard, which is
made of corn fibres and hide glue
left over from agricultural process-
ing, can be more flame-retardant and
water-resistant than traditional boards.
Philip Schmidt
$4500 Young CanadianInnovation Award
Winners
Proud Sponsor of theManning Young Canadian
Innovation Awards
Colby Mainil &Michael Ehman
Donated by The Dave Mitchell Family
Saluting Young Canadian InnovationPage 3
“Rebirthing” Neurons to
Fight Parkinson’s Disease
Sami Obaïd of Laval, Québec, won
a Manning Young Canadian
Innovation Award for showing how the
neural degeneration causing
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) might be
reversed.
PD symptoms result from the
loss of dopamine-producing
neurons of the brain. Without
the chemical messenger
dopamine to carry signals
from one neuron to another,
the patient loses vol-
untary muscle control.
Obaid’s project chal-
lenges the standard
notion that brain damage
is irreversible because
neurons cannot divide.
For his project, which he completed at
the Montreal Neurological Institute of
McGill University, Obaïd
coaxed rat brain stem
cells to develop into
neurons, and then back
again into neural stem cells.
After adding a gene for
dopamine-production, he used
them to grow new adult neu-
rons.
Obaïd, who has a final year
of CÉGEP before university,
won several awards and poten-
tial scholarships for his proj-
ect, Renaissance du neu-
rone!, including the Silver
Medal—Health Sciences
and an Undergraduate
Research Scholarship from the
University of Ottawa.
Sami Obaid
sponsored byThe Arthur J. E. Child
Foundation
Weyburn, Saskatchewan’s Michael
Ehman and Colby Mainil shared
a Manning Innovation Award for their
design of a step-climbing wheelchair. The
chair allows someone in a standard, man-
ual wheelchair to safely climb a single step
or curb in just 30 seconds.
We climb so many steps in a day, notes
Ehman. For someone
in a wheelchair “a
three-inch step can
be like a 10-foot
wall.”
Ehman and
Mainil, now both
18, used Computer
Aided Design (CAD) soft-
ware to design a climbing
apparatus that would need no electronics
or hydraulics. They built prototypes using
two donated manual wheelchairs and
scrap iron and wood. After testing the pro-
totypes they improved on their design and
hit on one that would allow the wheelchair
to easily back up over a step.
The user need only move some pins and
levers to get the chair to climb. The climb-
ing apparatus is easily installed and can be
tucked out of the way when not in use.
Ehman and Mainil, who will be attend-
ing the University of Saskatchewan this
fall, say they want to improve the climb-
ing apparatus by making it even lighter,
safer, and more user-friendly. Even so,
the simple mechanics of the current
design make it inexpensive and effective.
Step-Climbing Wheelchair
$4500 Young CanadianInnovation Award
Winners
Saluting Young Canadian InnovationPage 4
$500 Manning Innovation
Achievement Award Winners
What do photodynamic anti-cancer
therapy, biogas, bullet proof
vests, and teaching tools have in common?
These were the topics tackled by the 2006
Manning Innovation Achievement Award
Winners.
Grade 11 student Kayla Cornale from
Burlington, Ontario won an Achievement
Award for the
second phase
of her teaching
s y s t e m ,
Sounds into
Syl lables™.
The system
employs musi-
cal sounds to
help children
with autism
o v e r c o m e
social and
communica-
tion difficulties.
Cornale also
won the Encana Best in Fair Award and the
EnCana Platinum Award for Best Senior
Project.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’s Benjamin
Leis won an Achievement Award for find-
ing a more effective way to capture energy
from waste. The grade 11 student experi-
mented with ways to optimize the amount
of biogas produced by the microbial break-
down of agricultural waste.
Darren Schulte, a grade 11 student from
Edmonton, Alberta received an
Achievement Award for developing a
unique armored vest. The vest, which is
made of high-strength fibres and polycar-
bonate, held up
in professional
tests.
Sean Bhalla, a
high school sen-
ior from
Miss i ssauga ,
Ontario was
recognized with
an Achievement
Award for his
p r o j e c t ,
“Photodynamic
Therapy: A Red
Light for
C a n c e r . ”
Photodynamic therapy uses light-activated
drugs to destroy tumors. A drawback of the
therapy is its phototoxicity to healthy skin
cells. Bhalla developed and tested two pig-
ment-based drugs, and found one that
specifically targets tumor cells, thereby
reducing the risk of skin damage.
For 25 years, the Ernest C. ManningAwards Foundation has recognized and
encouraged innovation in Canada. The Laureates/Science Student Program will
bring together Manning Award Laureates andstudents for presentations and discussion.
Special publicity will highlight the achieve-ments of this year’s award winners. Publicservice announcements airing across the coun-
try will tell Canadians about their nation’sinnovators.
Production of a video tribute is also under-way. The video will highlight a quarter centu-ry of awards and the contributions of foundersDavid Mitchell and the Honourable Ernest C.Manning. The video will be premiered at theCalgary Awards Gala on September 29th,2006.
Manning
Innovation
Awards
Mailing address:
PO Box 2850,
Calgary AB T2P 2S5
Street address:
38th Floor,
421 - 7th Ave. SW,
Calgary AB
T2P 4K9
Telephone:
(403) 645-8277
Fax:
(403) 645-8320
Established in 1980, theErnest C. Manning AwardsFoundation was named inhonour of, and under the
patronage of, a statesmanwhose own innovative ideasprovided much inspiration
during half a century of public service.
L-R, Sean Bhalla, Kayla Cornale, Benjamin Leis, Darren Schulte
Celebrating 25 Years of Innovation
We’re on the web:www.manningawards.ca