A significant financial contribution to benefit science discovery at the University of Lethbridge.
The $400,000 donation includes $250,000 from Power Corporation and an additional $150,000 from Canada Life.
The funds, in part, will go to support the Dr. Jim Coutts Prairie Research Program, a research program headed by U of L biologist Dr. Roy Goldsteyn who is studying prairie plants and their medical importance.
He says often when people think about natural products they think about the Amazon or tropical countries, but there are plants in Canada and here in southern Alberta that are unique with very important chemicals in them.
Golsteyn’s lab has also become a space for students from the Blackfoot community who wish to use scientific approaches to study plants they may already know by Traditional knowledge or by knowledge from Blackfoot elders.
He says the hope is that chemicals found in local plants may lead to new and better treatments for eradicating cancer.