{"id":6139,"date":"2015-07-15T16:39:14","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T22:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canadianglycomics.ca\/?p=6139"},"modified":"2019-07-31T14:32:11","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T20:32:11","slug":"the-sweetest-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianglycomics.ca\/fr\/the-sweetest-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"The sweetest thing: Internationally renowned carbohydrate chemist David Bundle reflects on a lifetime of achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bundle-story-for-web\"<\/a>
David Bundle will be honoured at a symposium July 16 and 17 for his achievements as one of the world’s foremost authorities in carbohydrate chemistry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jennifer Pascoe\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When asked about his proudest career accomplishments, David Bundle lights up with an obvious joy that is as much about the achievements of others as it is about his own. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed the successes I have thanks to good colleagues and research group members. I feel sort of like I\u2019m conducting an orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n

A storied career<\/b><\/h3>\n

Bundle first came to Canada from England in the fall of 1971 to work at the National Research Council in Ottawa as a post-doctoral fellow with Harold Jennings. \u201cWe had a number of breakthroughs,\u201d says Bundle. \u201cIt was a very exciting and very productive time.\u201d Bundle worked with Jennings to help launch Jennings\u2019 early work on meningococcal vaccines.<\/p>\n

Bundle then came to the University of Alberta in the early 1970s as a post-doctoral fellow under Professor Raymond \u201cSugar Ray\u201d Lemieux\u2014the pioneer of numerous discoveries including the synthesis of sucrose. While Bundle was teaching immunochemistry, he collaborated with Lemieux on a landmark paper dealing with the first chemical synthesis of blood group antigens. \u201cHe would tell everybody he met, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve got this great guy Bundle working for me.\u2019 Really I hadn\u2019t done that much,\u201d chuckles Bundle, \u201cbut I enabled techniques and new know-how with which he was unfamiliar, simply because I was more familiar with the area of immunochemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his two year post-doc, Bundle returned to the NRC in Ottawa. \u201cI was able to take the things I\u2019d learned here at the U of A with Professor Lemieux and develop my own research program, which was quite successful.\u201d So successful, in fact, that Bundle was honoured in 1988 with the Roy Whistler Award, the top international award in carbohydrate chemistry. \u201cThe work that I did at the NRC culminated in a number of papers including one in Science<\/i> on the first crystal structure of an antibody complex with carbohydrate antigens,\u201d says Bundle.<\/p>\n

Returning to \u201cthe best chemistry department in Canada\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n

In 1993, Bundle was invited back to the U of A, where he has remained ever since. \u201cThe U of A has arguably the best chemistry department in Canada,\u201d says Bundle. \u201cIt is certainly one of the best equipped and operated in terms of infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the U of A, Bundle has continued to enjoy numerous successes including work with his own post-doc, Pavel Kitov, on the E. coli<\/i>toxin, resulting in a paper in Nature<\/i>. That, along with innumerable other publications, ensures Bundle\u2019s lasting legacy as one of the foremost authorities in carbohydrate chemistry.<\/p>\n

Bundle also founded the Alberta Glycomics Centre<\/a> in 2002, where he recruited Todd Lowary, a U of A chemist who had previously completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Bundle. \u201cTodd has been so wildly successful,\u201d says Bundle. \u201cIt has been a real pleasure to see.\u201d Lowary eventually took over from Bundle as director of the Alberta Glycomics Centre before starting the Canadian Glycomics Network, GlycoNet<\/a>, in early 2015, a new research network devoted to driving and maintaining Canada\u2019s status as the international leader in glycomics research.<\/p>\n

Orchestrating the future<\/b><\/h3>\n

Though officially retired as of January 2015, Bundle still continues to work with his research group, currently investigating two main projects. \u201cWe\u2019re working on a new diagnostic for Brucella abortus<\/i>,\u201d he says of the disease that causes abortions in cows, sheep, and goats. \u201cIt\u2019s a serious disease in countries where people live in close proximity to their animals, because humans can contract it as well. \u201cOur goal is to develop an antigen which can be easily made commercially.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bundle and his research group are also studying infections caused by the fungus Candida albicans<\/i> and have licensed a patent for their discoveries. \u201cThe work has been very stimulating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have had a greater life in science,\u201d beams Bundle.<\/p>\n

Brief biography<\/b><\/h3>\n

Professor David R. Bundle received his BSc in\u00a0chemistry from Nottingham University (UK) and\u00a0his PhD in microbiological chemistry at the\u00a0University of Newcastle (UK). He spent the first\u00a0part of his career at the National Research Council\u00a0in Ottawa, Canada, where he served as group\u00a0leader and later head of the immunochemistry\u00a0section. He joined the Department of Chemistry at\u00a0the University of Alberta in 1993, where he\u00a0founded the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for\u00a0Carbohydrate Science (now the Alberta Glycomics\u00a0Centre), serving as its director from 2002 to 2011.\u00a0Professor Bundle is a fellow of the Royal Society of\u00a0Canada and has received many prestigious awards\u00a0over the course of his career for his contributions\u00a0to carbohydrate chemistry. Once Bundle and his research group wrap up their work on Brucella abortus<\/i> et \u00e0 Candida albicans<\/i>, he plans to devote more time to travelling the world and discovering new interests.<\/p>\n

The celebrated carbohydrate chemist\u2014who recently retired\u2014will be honoured at a symposium on July 16 and 17<\/a> at the University of Alberta, featuring colleagues and speakers from around the world<\/p>\n

– See more at:\u00a0http:\/\/uofa.ualberta.ca\/science\/science-news\/2015\/july\/david-bundle<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Bundle will be honoured at a symposium July 16 and 17 for his achievements as one of the world’s foremost authorities in carbohydrate chemistry.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","wpbf-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t