He should know: along with fellow McMaster biologist Brian Golding and other colleagues, he has received a Genome Canada grant worth almost $6 million (with matching funding) to continue studies of the functional genomics of a particular bacterium, Rhizobium meliloti.

The group completed work in 2001 on an international project designed to determine the sequence of the entire genome of the bacterium. R. meliloti plays an important agricultural role, forming nitrogen-fixing nodules on the roots of alfala.

Dr. Finan studies the molecular genetics of symbiotic nitrogen fixation and phosphate metabolism.

< BACK TO FACES OF INNOVATION