Senator Simons’ Lab Tour

The highlight of Senator Simons’ visit was her tour of two of our state-of-the-art labs—the Derda Labs and the Klassen Labs at the U of A—where she had the opportunity to see passionate GlycoNet researchers in action. These world-class facilities are at the cutting edge of glycomics research, with scientists and researchers dedicated to pushing the limits of what is possible in this field. Senator Simons met with Mr. Adam brown, Vice-President Marketing at 48Hour Discovery—a start-up company spun out of the Derda Lab—and learned how the company is driving advances in drug discovery Dr. John Klassen, professor at the U of A, also shared with Senator Simons how host glycans (sugars) are differentially recognized by the COVID-19 variants and how this might impact infection. Additionally, Dr. Matthew Macauley, associate professor at the U of A, shared his groundbreaking research on potential drug targets for Alzheimer’s Disease.