A university-headquartered national research network devoted to stopping the spread of aquatic invasive species will soon expand its reach all the way from the shores of South of Africa to the coast of Spain.

Thanks to new federal funding, the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network (CAISN) can recruit two new post-doctoral fellows to develop state-of-the-art methods for the early detection of invaders like the round goby, send other postdoctoral researchers to South Africa for a four-month research placement, and organize a workshop in Granada, Spain.

“Stopping the spread of invasive species here and around the world is critical if we’re going to protect the integrity of our waters and the ecosystems they support,” said Hugh MacIsaac, a professor in the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and director of CAISN. “This network has produced some extremely high-impact research and trained more highly qualified people than we originally anticipated, and with this new funding, we’ll be equipping even more people in the fight against aquatic invasive species.”

Dr. MacIsaac recently learned that CAISN – which includes more than 30 scientists at 13 Canadian universities – received more than $270,000 in additional funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research to fund several new initiatives.

One of those includes $200,000 for hiring two post-doctoral research fellows who will study the best ways to use modern genetic analysis techniques for a national surveillance program CAISN is developing for the early detection and identification of aquatic invaders.  Current work has demonstrated that molecular identification of species is more than three times more sensitive to the presence of rare species in lakes than traditional sampling.

The network also received $72,000 from NSERC’s Strategic Network Enhancement Initiative to send several postdocs to the Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology in Stellenbosch, South Africa, which MacIsaac says is the world’s leading facility addressing non-native species. The people going there will develop risk assessment models, as well as study new approaches to detect both native endangered fish and invasive fish species.

The funding will also help CAISN coordinate a workshop in Spain next February that will examine trans-Atlantic invasions between North America and Europe.

“Most aquatic invaders in the inland and coastal waters of eastern Canada either originate from Europe or elsewhere, but have used European ports as a stepping stone to invade our region,” MacIsaac said. “This workshop will help us identify ecological and socioeconomic factors that affect the patterns of biotic exchanges between Canada and Europe.”

Vice-president, research Michael Siu called the funding news “fantastic.”

“Promoting healthy Great Lakes is one of the four grand challenges in this university’s strategic research plan,” said Dr. Siu. “The methods these researchers are developing will help stop the spread of invasive species in other parts of the world, and the knowledge they gain will help in the fight against invasive species here in Canada, so this is tremendous news for Dr. MacIsaac and all of our colleagues and trainees associated with CAISN.”

The funding will also allow CAISN to take part in a summer professional development institute on invasive species issues in the Great Lakes for 35 elementary and secondary school teachers in Burlington, Ontario.

Providing a catalyst for positive change in the world is the operating principle of the Jesse and Julie Rasch Foundation. Widely-known for supporting a broad range of philanthropic projects, the foundation has just approved $80,000 in research funding for biochemistry professor Siyaram Pandey’s project, Evaluation of anti-cancer effect of various compounds against Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

According to foundation chair Jesse Rasch, Dr. Pandey’s research into natural compounds in the fight against cancer is the type of work the organization has a mandate to support.

“I am an entrepreneur and I look at investing in research in the same way my company looks at investing in start-ups and venture capital,” Rasch says. “We provide seed money for interesting ideas that will hopefully be able to attract the larger grants once there is proof of concept to be able to fund clinical trials. We do what we can to get things kick-started.”

Rasch says a media article about Pandey’s dandelion root research caught the attention of the foundation and falls in line with other natural compound research they support.

“This is an opportunity to fund someone who has demonstrated the potential of something that exists within the natural space,” he says. “This is one of our areas of focus.”

Pandey’s work in alternative compounds in the treatment of some cancers first came to the attention of the public following a research grant from the Windsor Essex County Cancer Centre Foundation through its Seeds4Hope program, which provides start-up funding for locally-based, new and innovative cancer research.

The University Players production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress opened Thursday at Essex Hall Theatre. Directed by drama professor Gordon McCall, the wickedly funny continues its run this weekend and next.

Wednesday through Saturday performances are at 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. On Sunday, April 6, a “Talk Back” discussion with the director and actors will follow the performance. For information or tickets, call 519-253-3000, ext. 2808, or visit www.UniversityPlayers.com.