Larry Fowke Receives Distinguished Researcher Award

Posted October 27, 1998


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 23, 1998
98-10-14-OTHER

Biology professor to receive Distinguished
Researcher Award

Biology professor Larry Fowke, whose basic research has led to
promising new tools in both forest regeneration and crop
biotechnology, will be presented with the U of S Distinguished
Research Award at the Fall Convocation.

The award, which carries a $1,000 prize, is presented semi-annually
to a U of S faculty member who has made a major contribution to
knowledge or artistic creativity.

?Dr. Fowke is one of the world?s most distinguished plant cell
biologists,? said Dr. Michael Corcoran, U of S vice-President
(Research). ?Throughout his 30-year career, he has had a reputation
for excellent and innovative work in both cell biology and
biotechnology. His research program is recognized worldwide.?

His basic research has advanced the world?s knowledge of how plant
cells divide and how they take in materials. His lab was the first in
the world to isolate a particular plant membrane-bound structure
called a coated vesicle and show how it takes material into cells.

Wilf Keller, research officer with the National Research Council?s
Plant Biotechnology Institute (PBI), said Fowke has ?played a key
role in the establishment and recognition of Saskatoon as an
international centre for agricultural biotechnology.?

Though he did not set out to do applied research, Fowke and a
former research associate pioneered and patented new methods for
propagating coniferous trees, such as spruce, using a tissue culture
technique known as somatic embryogenesis, a type of cloning. One
seed can be used to produce thousands of identical embryos which
can be grown into trees. Moreover, embryos produced at different
times can be dried and stored and then germinated all at once in the
spring to provide cloned plants of uniform size.

University of Saskatchewan Technologies Inc. (UST), the U of S?s
technology transfer company, has licensed the new methods to a
Western Canadian tree nursery company.

Forestry companies around the world are now racing to apply clonal
propagation on a commercial scale. Synthetic production of tree
embryos would be a major boon to Canada?s forest industry, enabling
nurseries to clone trees with desired traits such as fast growth,
improved wood quality and environmental tolerances. Potentially,
selected genes could be introduced into the cloned embryos, leading
to trees with disease and pest resistance.

At present, Fowke?s research focus is on an exciting development
from his team?s work on cell division. In 1997, research associate
Hong Wang isolated a plant gene which produces a protein that
inhibits cell division. Fowke, Wang (who is now with Agriculture and
Agri-Food Canada), and PBI researcher Bill Crosby co-authored an
article on their findings in the prestigious journal Nature.

?This inhibitor gene has the potential to be an important
biotechnology tool to modify growth and development of crop
plants,? Fowke says.

Fowke, who earned his undergraduate degree at the U of S and a
Ph.D. at Carleton University in Ottawa, joined the U of S in 1970. He
has published more than 100 papers in refereed journals, co-edited a
book and written numerous reviews and book chapters, and has
been an invited speaker at many international conferences.

He is quick to credit the ?dedicated, bright young people? who?ve
made major discoveries in his lab. ?It doesn?t seem fair that I get the
credit,? he says modestly.

Colleagues say his willingness to collaborate with other research
agencies on campus and with international researchers is a model for
the science community.

The Canadian government must not lose sight of the fact that basic
research is the fundamental building block of research and
development, he stresses. ?There?s been a real push by the federal
government towards applied research and I think that?s
overemphasized. It?s important to do basic research. You never
know what the spin-offs are going to be,? he said.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Larry Fowke
Chair of the Biology Department
University of Saskatchewan
Phone: (306) 966-4400

or

Kathryn Warden
Research Communications Officer
Office of the Vice-President (Research)
University of Saskatchewan
Phone: (306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca