Upcoming Events

The SPP-ARC team is excited to announce that abstract submissions for our 2026 Ignites Innovation Conference are now open. The conference will be taking place Dec 10 – 12, 2026 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Here are a few key details:

• Abstract submission deadline (oral and poster presentations): October 15
• Acceptance notifications: November 5
• Attendance confirmation: November 13

The integrated trainee seminar is back for the 2026/27 season. Join us on Wednesday Sept. 26 and catch up with SPP-ARC's trainees and their exciting research. Kicking us this month are:

• Kota Norikane (Wille Lab): Developing and Testing of Mucosal Vaccines Targeting Chronic Wasting Disease in Rocky Mountain Elk
• Sandaru Ilperuma (Di Trani Lab): Discovery of inhibitors of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (NQR) that hinder virulence factors

Faculty and trainees are all welcome. Pizza and refreshments will be served. 

Meet Mark

Dr. Kreutzberger joined the university over the summer. He is an assistant professor with the department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology. His lab uses cryo-electron microscopy and other complementary techniques to study the atomic structures of macromolecular assemblies from a wide range of biological systems. One major interest includes understanding the structural details of large protein assemblies on the surface of bacteria including some pathogens. Such assemblies aid bacteria processes such as bacterial adhesion, motility, and biofilm formation. 

Outside the lab, Mark loves spending time with his wife and their pets. Mark enjoys taking his pets  on hikes and wherever else he can bring them (restaurants, parks, etc). He has a strong interest in games, sports, music, and history. As someone new to Alberta and to Canada, he is excited to learn more about the history, culture, and numerous other things which he hopes will develop into new hobbies.

Awards

Marchant Lab

In June, the Marchant Lab received the coveted National Sanitarium Association Innovative Research Program award which came with $1M in research funds. The Alberta Cryo-EM facility was profiled highly in the application, in turn supporting its success. Congratulations to the team and we can't wait to see what comes next in their research!

Recent Publications

• Identification of a potent Pan-Coronaviral main protease inhibitor. – Chen, P., Strunk, U., Arutyunova, E., Lu, J., Chen, S. A., Demmon, S., Maplethorpe, C., Kandadai, A. S., Shields, J., Saffran, H. A., Lamer, T., Fischer, C., Van Oers, T. J., Turner, Z., Leong, P., Iyyathurai, J., Young, H. S., Bai, B., Vederas, J. C., Nieman, J. A., Joyce, M. A., Tyrrell, D. L. & Lemieux, M. J. (2026). Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6c00645  
• Caspase‐mediated cleavage events hidden by secondary proteolysis during apoptosis. – Fotouhi, F., Gomez‐Cardona, E., Patel, J., Julien, O., & Fearnhead, H. (2026). Protein Science, 35(8), e70724. https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.70724
• Substrate and target selectivity of 4′-fluoroadenosine against viral and host polymerases. – Walker, S. M., Loutan, A. J., Tchesnokov, E. P., Kocincova, D., Gordon, C. J., Escobedo, R. A., Jackson, N., Vogel, O. A., Morsheimer, K., Park, S., Gharpure, A., Urbano, I., Heacock, M., Chen, Z., Pathak, K., Wolff, K. C., Huerta, L., Bakowski, M. A., Riva, L.,Gupta, A.K, Yu, C., Das, K., . . . Götte, M. (2026). Journal of Biological Chemistry, 302(8), 113316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2026.113316
• Charge Detection Native Mass Spectrometry for Quantitative Insights into Heterogeneous Protein Interactions.  – Zhang, Z., Bui, D. T., Han, L., Kitova, E. N., Primeau, J. O., Bains, R. K., Schmidt, E. N., Macauley, M. S., Angata, T., Withers, S. G., Young, H. S., Mahal, L. K., & Klassen, J. S. (2026). Analytical Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.6c00996

In the News

To submit stories or events for the SPP-ARC Newsletter, please email Imole Lapite, Communications Coordinator at imoleogo@ualberta.ca at least one week before the third Monday of each month.