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Aylish Marshall, MSc student, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Â鶹ԼÅÄ

How Hidden Chemicals in River Water Can Change Genetic Expressions in Wild and Laboratory Fish

At any given moment, low concentrations of hundreds of different chemicals are present in our rivers, mostly from industrial and agricultural runoff. As fish breed and develop in these waters, the mixture of chemicals can have long-term consequences on their health and survival. However, long-term studies of fish in contaminated waters are difficult and costly. My research aims to use molecular tools to estimate long-term impacts through short-term exposures, which can be used to set pollution guidelines and help protect the health of wild fish.

Jasmine Muszik,ÌýPhD candidate, Department of Animal Science, Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Holy Cow... Just Let Me Go Outside! An Insight into Animal Welfare

With growing public concern on the treatment of farm animals, more efforts have been made to improve welfare practices and increase sustainability efforts, both in research and on farm. Understanding what leads to frustration in dairy cattle, can help farmers gain insight into the mental state of their herd. My work aims to understand how going outside impacts the emotional state of cows, to highlight the significance of considering animals' preferences when making management and legislative decisions.

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Mehtab Singh, PhD candidate, Department of Plant Science, Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Harnessing Gene Editing to Develop Climate-Responsive Oat

Oat is an emerging cereal for healthy lives rich in antioxidants and dietary fibre ‘beta-glucan’ with immense health benefits. Climate change is influencing Canada's agricultural season, which normally runs from May to October. Each degree of rise in temperature affects this window ultimately reducing the yield by impacting the plant’s reproduction. Hence we aim to understand the molecular mechanism of the flowering and fine-tune them to develop sustainable oat crops with improved adaptivity to changing climate using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology.