SFU chemist among Canada’s Top 40 under 40
Contact:
David Vocadlo, SFU Chemistry, dvocadlo@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.3210; marianne_meadahl@sfu.ca
(Note: David is currently on sabbatical in France but reachable via email.)
Simon Fraser University chemistry professor David Vocadlo is one of Canada’s “Top 40 under 40” for 2010, according to the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.
The Globe notes that Vocadlo, 37, didn't start out wanting to be a chemist – he was aiming to be an architect. An article in Scientific American changed his focus. The story was about proteins that regulate genes being turned on and off. He told the Globe: “Thinking of how these tiny proteins bind to DNA in a very specific way and play critical roles in biology was amazing to me.”
Vocadlo’s current research focuses on understanding processes that could enable new treatments for serious diseases such as Alzheimer's and bacterial infections. Specifically, his lab is developing new chemical tools that enable researchers to study the role of specialized sugars in health and disease.
“My longer term expectation is that our research will contribute to improvements in human health. The major broad areas we are interested in now are antibiotic resistance and neurodegeneration,” says Vocadlo. “I hope to see the research lead to practical applications in the not-too-distant future.”
In February, Vocadlo was named one of six recipients of a prestigious E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). The award recognizes outstanding contributions to science in Canada.
Vocadlo is also co-founder of Alectos Therapeutics Inc., a small-molecule drug development company that is a spinoff enterprise from his SFU research.
Previous SFU winners of Top 40 under 40 honours: forensic scientist Gail Anderson (twice, in 1998 and 1999), microbiologist Fiona Brinkman (2003), dialogue leader Shauna Sylvester (2003), chemist Neil Branda (2007), and two people who are no longer at SFU: V-chip inventor Tim Collings (1998) and SFU grad David Granville (BSc ’95), a cardiovascular researcher who won in 2009.