The first year chemistry program is currently accepting applications for undergraduate teaching assistants for the fall and winter terms (CHEM 1A03/1E03 and CHEM 1AA3).   Applicants should have completed a minimum of 5 chemistry or chemical biology courses that include a laboratory component.   Please complete the application and submit your cover letter and resume/CV here.   A link to the full job description is included here.

 

 

To all students in chemistry, chemical biology and sustainable chemistry programs:

First, a big welcome to our in-coming level 2 students! We will be sending you much more information about our exciting programs in the near future, once program selection is completed. And a big shout-out to everyone for managing to get through the unprecedented experience at the end of the winter term, not least the graduands!

We have been hard at work planning for the Fall term, both before and since the formal announcement by the University that fall will be primarily off campus. The course outlines are being altered to provide as much information as we can to help you select courses; these outlines will be available on the department website before registration starts, and we strongly recommend reading the outlines to ensure you understand how courses are expected to run.

While the outlines will provide the formal arrangements for courses, we have had a number of inquiries from students who are looking for information to plan their semester and year. This note provides an update of what we expect for required Fall courses, but again the course outlines will supersede the information provided, and of course there may be further unavoidable changes. For the courses listed, lectures will be provided by either on-line (asynchronous, view when you want) or virtual (synchronous, scheduled into your timetable) formats, or in many cases a combination of both approaches. Course outlines will provide details of this information. Also please note that you should ask other Departments for information about their courses: we cannot provide this to you directly.

CHEM 2OG3- two in-person labs on Monday afternoons of weeks 3 and 5; OR weeks 4 and 6. Tuesday and Weds. sections cancelled, must do Monday. Possibility of doing both labs same day (Mon. am and pm) if your schedule allows, to help out-of-town students.

CHEM/CHEMBIO 2A03- virtual labs, with some lab activities moved to 3AA3 in following year.

CHEM/CHEMBIO 2Q03- synchronous activities, scheduled for Thursday & Friday afternoons.

CHEM 3II3- lectures only

CHEM 3LA3- moved from Fall to winter term

CHEM 3OA3- lectures only

CHEM 3PC3- lectures only

CHEM 4OB3- was winter, moved to fall term

(CHEM 4OA3- was Fall term, moved to winter)

CHEMBIO 3OA3- labs cancelled. Lectures only

CHEMBIO 3P03- lectures only

CHEMBIO 4Q03- synchronous activities, scheduled for Thursday & Friday afternoons.

CHEM/CHEMBIO 3EP3 and 3RP3- cancelled for Fall. Expected to run in Winter term.

CHEM/CHEMBIO 4RP6- cancelled for 2020/21.

CHEM/CHEMBIO 4G12- currently expected to run, with students allowed on campus for the purposes of the course only. Once the course is underway, students can expect to be able to complete the course even if they are subsequently prevented from working on campus, as determined by the supervisor, through activities such as literature research. Thus they can expect to graduate.

A team of researchers at McMaster has developed a reliable and accurate blood test to track individual fat intake, a tool that could guide public health policy on healthy eating.

Establishing reliable guidelines has been a significant challenge for nutritional epidemiologists until now, because they have to rely on study participants faithfully recording their own consumption, creating results that are prone to human error and selective reporting, particularly when in the case of high-fat diets.

For the study, published in the Journal of Lipid Research, chemists developed a test, which detects specific non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs), a type of circulating free fatty acid that can be measured using a small volume of blood sample.

“Epidemiologists need better ways to reliably assess dietary intake when developing nutritional recommendations,” says Philip Britz-McKibbin, professor in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at McMaster  and lead author of the study

“The food we consume is highly complex and difficult to measure when relying on self-reporting or memory recall, particularly in the case of dietary fats.  There are thousands of chemicals that we are exposed to in foods, both processed and natural,” he says.

The study was a combination of two research projects Britz-McKibbin conducted with Sonia Anand in the Department of Medicine and Stuart Phillips in the Department of Kinesiology.

Researchers first assessed the habitual diet of pregnant women in their second trimester, an important development stage for the fetus. The women, some of whom were taking omega-3 fish oil supplements, were asked to report on their average consumption of oily fish and full-fat dairy and were then tested with the new technology.  Their study also monitored changes in omega-3 NEFAs in women following high-dose omega-3 fish oil supplementation as compared to a placebo.

Researchers were able to prove that certain blood NEFAs closely matched the diets and/or supplements the women had reported, suggesting the dietary biomarkers may serve as an objective tool for assessment of fat intake.

“Fat intake is among the most controversial aspects of nutritional public health policies given previously flawed low-fat diet recommendations, and the growing popularity of low-carb/high-fat ketogenic based diets,” says Britz-McKibbin.

“If we can measure it reliably, we can begin to study such questions as: Should pregnant women take fish oil?  Are women deficient in certain dietary fats? Does a certain diet or supplement lead to better health outcomes for their babies?”

Researchers plan to study what impact NEFAs and other metabolites associated with dietary exposures during pregnancy, might have on childhood health outcomes in relation to the obesity, metabolic syndrome and chronic disease risk later in life.

The study was funded by the NSERC and Genome Canada.

BY MICHELLE DONOVAN
MAY 15, 2020

“We have almost made it! Classes, labs, assignments and midterms have now been completed. Only final exams are left now. I know that this still seems like a daunting task but know that we are all still here to support you. Please make sure that you reach out to your instructors, coordinators and teaching assistants to answer any questions that come up while you are studying for your final exams. We have found new ways to communicate with one another and we encourage that you continue to use these during the final exam period.

As I reflect on the changes that have happened over the past month, I have realized that the human interactions that take place on our campus is what makes education such a special journey. For the time being, these interactions have changed format but they remain just as important as ever! You are not alone! We are always here to help because it is what we love to do!”

- Kylie Luska, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Students in McMaster’s Faculty of Science are greatly missed by all our faculty members and staff. Look for more #MacSciCares messages of reassurance and hope in the days ahead. For the latest McMaster COVID-19 updates, please go to covid19.mcmaster.ca.

Written on 15 April 2020.