Because two brains gained is better than one

When Matt Rise heard the good news over e-mail, he swivelled around in his chair to tell his wife, Marlies. The couple, who met at school in Victoria, B.C., where she took postdoctoral studies in forest-tree propagation and he studied Atlantic salmon genomics, were sharing a cramped office at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Matt was a faculty member at the Great Lakes WATER Institute, and Marlies was doing unpaid research as an affiliate.

Marlies, a Sydney Forks, N.S., native, had been waiting a year for her work permit to come in and was getting antsy. She was thrilled that Matt had landed the Canada Research Chair in Marine Biotechnology at Memorial University and that they’d be moving to St. John’s. Matt, a 42-year-old B.C. native, studies the molecular biology of fish and how they respond to diseases or environmental stress, to better understand which genes are important in fostering healthy aquaculture. The research from his lab helps put Atlantic Canada on the global map for fish genomics; later this year he’ll be presenting his work at international conferences in San Diego and Nashville.

Though Marlies was working in the forestry industry in B.C., the 36-year-old became interested in aquaculture after researching in Wisconsin. Upon relocating to St. John’s in 2006, she was invited by the Ocean Sciences Centre at Memorial University to be a visiting scientist and began working with Atlantic Cod Genomics and Broodstock Development Project (CGP), a four-year Genome Canada-funded project to help strengthen the Atlantic cod aquaculture industry.

Six months later Marlies became project manager of CGP; she’s once again working with her husband, who is one of eight co-investigators on the project. CGP is responsible for 85% of the information scientists worldwide have about the publicly available DNA sequence of cod genome. “Genome Atlantic is proud of this dual brain gain,” says Sue Coueslan, Genome Atlantic’s director of communications and government relations. “They enjoy working as a team and could play their careers out anywhere in the world.”

Now both Rises have offices next to the ocean, a far cry from their industrial surroundings in Wisconsin. Though Marlies says the new view takes their breath away, the pair has gained valuable insight from sharing the small space. “That was the training ground to learn we can work together, not just as husband and wife but professionally,” she says. “Our ideas and approaches are complementary but different enough that I learn from him and he learns from me.”