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Molecular biologist adds top 40 under 40 to her awards list
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Fiona Brinkman, 604.291.5646 (w), brinkman@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Fiona Brinkman, 604.291.5646 (w), brinkman@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
May 12, 2004
Simon Fraser University’s Fiona Brinkman is on a roll. At the age of 36, the assistant professor of molecular biology and biochemistry has collected her third major career achievement award for work that often takes a lifetime to perform. This time Brinkman has become the third SFU researcher to make Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 list, since its inception nine years ago.
Caldwell Partners International, the first and largest executive research firm in Canada, composes the list of movers and shakers annually; the Globe and Mail newspaper publishes it in its magazine Report On Business. A panel of 31 business and community leaders selects 40 honorees based on five criteria: vision and leadership, innovation and achievement, community involvement, impact and growth and development strategy.
A pioneer in bioinformatics, Brinkman uses high-powered computers to unravel the DNA of living creatures. Brinkman’s research previously garnered her a Science Council of BC Young Innovator award and a spot on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) list of the world’s top 100 young innovators.
Personal experience with infectious diseases has made the Ontario-born scientist a relentless hunter of the proteins that build disease-causing bacteria. "My aunt died of meningitis at the age of two, antibiotics saved me from succumbing to it at the same age, and now I want to protect my 16 month old son," explains Brinkman. Like a hunter, armed with an evolving genetic map, Brinkman isolates proteins that turn harmless microbes into disease spreading bacteria or make them drug resistant. Bacterial proteins can be used to develop vaccines that boost people’s immune systems against infectious diseases.
In the last few years, Brinkman has pioneered a number of developments. They include inventing the world’s most precise program for predicting which proteins are on the surface of bacteria, and could be primary candidates for producing vaccines.
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Websites:
Fiona Brinkman-Molecular Biology & Biochemistry: www.sfu.ca/mbb/mbb/faculty/brinkman/brinkman.html
Science council of BC: www.scbc.org/home.html
Massachusets Institute of Technology: web.mit.edu/
Caldwell Partners International, the first and largest executive research firm in Canada, composes the list of movers and shakers annually; the Globe and Mail newspaper publishes it in its magazine Report On Business. A panel of 31 business and community leaders selects 40 honorees based on five criteria: vision and leadership, innovation and achievement, community involvement, impact and growth and development strategy.
A pioneer in bioinformatics, Brinkman uses high-powered computers to unravel the DNA of living creatures. Brinkman’s research previously garnered her a Science Council of BC Young Innovator award and a spot on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) list of the world’s top 100 young innovators.
Personal experience with infectious diseases has made the Ontario-born scientist a relentless hunter of the proteins that build disease-causing bacteria. "My aunt died of meningitis at the age of two, antibiotics saved me from succumbing to it at the same age, and now I want to protect my 16 month old son," explains Brinkman. Like a hunter, armed with an evolving genetic map, Brinkman isolates proteins that turn harmless microbes into disease spreading bacteria or make them drug resistant. Bacterial proteins can be used to develop vaccines that boost people’s immune systems against infectious diseases.
In the last few years, Brinkman has pioneered a number of developments. They include inventing the world’s most precise program for predicting which proteins are on the surface of bacteria, and could be primary candidates for producing vaccines.
—30—
Websites:
Fiona Brinkman-Molecular Biology & Biochemistry: www.sfu.ca/mbb/mbb/faculty/brinkman/brinkman.html
Science council of BC: www.scbc.org/home.html
Massachusets Institute of Technology: web.mit.edu/