All News & Events
Research lends hope to superbug battle
Findings may lead to new therapies, treatment for ailments
Vancouver Sun, December 2, 2008
by Amy O’Brian
Aside from ad campaigns urging people to think twice before taking antibiotics, there is little the medical community has been able to do to prevent the steady march forward of superbugs.
But new research by a team of scientists from several institutions, including Simon Fraser University and the University of B. C., has lent new optimism to the f ight against superbugs, which are caused by increasing resistances to antibiotics.
The scientists’ findings, published Monday in Genome Research , are expected to lead to new therapies and treatments for bacterial infections and diseases.
The researchers were able to pinpoint gene clusters that boost the ability of ordinary bacteria to cause diseases.
“Why this is notable is that previously, people had clues that these little gene clusters are probably responsible for causing disease and virulent strains,” said Fiona Brinkman, an SFU molecular biologist who participated in the research.
“But we are able to show now through infection models and extensive analysis that yes, indeed, these gene clusters are causing this increased ability for this bug to cause disease.”
The findings are particularly significant to children suffering from cystic fibrosis because they are susceptible to bacteria that are ubiquitous in our environment and are therefore very difficult to treat with antibiotics. The bacteria lead to infections that are often fatal, but the team’s research — which included genome sequencing — showed that the bacteria aren’t necessarily to blame.
“What we found was these sort of gene clusters in the genome that seemed to cause enhanced ability of this bug to compete against other strains,” Brinkman said. “ We think that these gene clusters are the critical feature that’s causing this to have an increased virulence.”
The research has not immediately generated a way to treat the infections to which cystic fibrosis patients are susceptible, but it could lead scientists to a way of treating them without depending on antibiotics.
Learn How to Network workshop - February 10, 2009
Are you looking for a job? Does everyone tell you that you need to network? Are you in need of some practical, helpful networking advice?
Then, come out to a SCWIST and JADE sponsored event and learn how to network.
Speakers Elana Brief and Oanh Dang will share with you their tried and true methods on 1) how to build up your network, 2) how to maintain your network, 3) how to ensure that your network is useful and 4) how to continue to expand your network.
Learn how to network workshop
Tuesday February 10, 2009
5:00-7:30pm
Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe
1118 Denman Street
Pre-register here.
SCWIST members: $5
Non-SCWIST members: $10
Sweet and savory nibbles will be provided at the event.
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Elana Brief is a physicist by training. Using her amazing networking skills, Elana is now the Research Director for the Women’s Health Research Network.
Dr. Oanh Dang was trained as a molecular biologist, but decided that business development was her true calling. She found this out by developing and learning from her network.
This workshop is possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Jade Project (http://www.jadeproject.ca/)
Wrestler-turned-lab technologist loves her job
Growing up in small town B.C., she never imagined working in a big-city hospital
By Carmen Cheung
Vancouver Sun, November 29, 2008
As a high school student, Jenny Orr spent her weekends travelling to provincial and national wrestling competitions.
When it came time to choose a post-secondary career path, she chose the kinesiology program at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont. It seemed only natural for the wrestler to pursue a career in health care, while being able to wrestle on Lakehead’s varsity team.
Little did she know that she’d graduate four years later with an anthropology degree, and, by the age of 28, be working as a laboratory research technologist in the molecular genetics lab at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
“This was all by fluke,” admits Orr.
Though she’d always wanted to work in the health care industry, she never imagined herself working in a lab setting.
“I thought [kinesiology] was a good idea at the time,” she says with a light laugh, “I really enjoyed the anatomy courses and the biology … but by second year I just decided that that was enough.”
She opted to switch into a general program for a few months, not knowing what she wanted to do.
It was a forensics course taught by a particularly inspiring professor that changed her mind. Taking an anthropology course, taught by the same professor, was enough to motivate her to change her major to anthropology.
Orr’s first experience in a lab setting came through the internationally renowned Ancient DNA Internship at Lakehead’s Paleo-DNA Laboratory.
Her internship led her to a summer job opportunity as a DNA technician in the student DNA lab at her university, as well as the opportunity to be a team leader at the same internship program the following year.
“It’s just so fortunate and fluky how everything happened,” she says.
When Orr decided to move to Toronto, though, she struggled with finding a job in her field. She even resorted to working at a local pastry market, but quit about three months later. “I absolutely hated it!” she recalls.
She eventually got a job offer for a DNA lab technician at the downtown Toronto children’s hospital.
Originally from the small community of Salmon Valley, B.C., located just north of Prince George, Orr never imagined “in a million years” that she’d live in a big city like Toronto. She’s grown to love working in a big hospital though and understands that Sick Kids is a positive environment for children who need help.
After two years in her role as a technician, she moved up into her current role of lab technologist in the molecular genetics lab, and absolutely loves it.
Her job consists of breaking down diseases to find which genes the disease affects. She then researches the genes to find the specific information required to make primaries (“little pieces of DNA”). All her tests, research, and findings are then passed into the clinical lab.
“It’s amazing to know that we can help families determine or decide what their future plans are going to be,” says Orr.
Right now, Orr is busy starting her work on a new disease—a kidney disease called MPGN (Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis).
She says the busy work is the gathering of research papers to prove that the genes are in fact the ones that affect the disease.
Busy work or not, Orr says she loves her job. “It’s amazing!” she says, her voice getting animated. She thinks about moving away from Toronto, but says she can’t imagine the prospect of leaving her job.
– - –BEING A LAB TECHNOLOGIST
How to get here: “Try to get any experience you can in the lab setting. Volunteering, be a summer school student, co-op program. There are many resources in place . . . our lab (at Sick Kids) is a teaching lab so we always have fellows, but we also get a lot of co-op students.”
Salary range: Orr says technicians are usually in the $40,000 to $50,000 range, and technologists in the $50,000 to $70,000 range, depending on educational experience and seniority.
University student finds bits of meteorite
The discovery on Thursday was part of a 10-ton fireball that lit up the prairie sky last week
By Keith Gerein and Luke Simcoe
Vancouver Sun, November 29, 2008
A University of Calgary student got the thrill of a lifetime when she found bits of meteorite from a fireball that lit up the sky over Alberta and Saskatchewan last week.
Master’s student Ellen Milley was travelling with meteorite expert Alan Hildebrand south of Lloydminster on Thursday afternoon when she noticed some dark bits on a small frozen pond.
The first dark mass they investigated was a disappointment—it turned out to be a leaf. But the next one proved to be a cosmic treasure: a 250-gram piece of black space rock, part of the 10-ton meteorite that fell from the sky.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” said Milley. “It’s a very unique opportunity, because not many meteorites are found in Canada.”
Milley actually spotted the first remnant and calls it “a very big moment in a very short career.” She won’t, however, attempt to claim a $10,000 reward offered for the first piece of the meteorite.
“We’re in it for the science,” she said.
They have since found more fragments spread over a cold cattle pasture 40 kilometres southeast of Lloydminster, on the border with Alberta about 270 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
The duo is now conducting a search of the area to collect some of the estimated thousands of meteorite fragments densely strewn over an estimated 20-square-kilometre area.
Arizona’s Robert Haag, who operates the websites http://www.meteorites.com and http://www.meteoriteman.com, has made a living for the past 30 years buying and selling meteorites and other space debris.
The famous asteroid hunter has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can find a one-kilogram chunk of the meteorite, and says he’ll come to Saskatchewan once the first piece is located.
Witnesses from across Saskatchewan and Alberta saw the fireball on Nov. 20 in a brief but spectacular display.
The property where the meteorite fragments were found belongs to rancher Ian Mitchell. He didn’t see the fireball in the sky on Nov. 20, but planned to go hunting for space rocks after he heard the meteor may have exploded into thousands of pieces in the region.
Now that he knows he has meteorites, he isn’t sure what to do with them. They belong to the owners of the land on which they fall.
Scientists hope to find much larger pieces, and Mitchell said he might sell those if people are willing to pay. Smaller fragments probably will be donated to universities and research groups, he said.
Engineers Without Borders: Sharing the Same Sky
by Ka-Hay Law, BASC’03
My legs ache, my feet are sore and my throat is parched. It is night time and I am in Chikupili, a rural village in the central province of Zambia. In the privacy of the bathhouse – three brick walls and an old maize bag posing as the fourth – I am trying to wash away the day’s dirt with water drawn from the nearby stream. It’s been a long day, learning about rural livelihoods through conversations with dozens of farmers, and harvesting groundnuts and sugar cane with my host family, the Mwansas.
I pour cupfuls of cool water over my head but the remnants of the day’s punishing heat are winning the tug of war and I feel my body slowing down. Then my eyes catch the sparkles of hundreds of stars scattered across a pitch black sky. The melodic voices of Mrs. Mwansa and her daughters singing Bemba folk songs flow into the night, and the unrestrained laughter of children enters into my soul, lifting the veil of exhaustion from my bones. This moment, like countless others, reminds me of two very important things. First, despite the obvious disparities in opportunities between me the Mwansas, we are similar at the core. We share the same night sky, a similar love of music and joy of their children, who remind me of my nieces and nephews. Second, I am extremely fortunate to have an opportunity to do what I love.
I’m currently living and working in Zambia and Malawi with Engineers without Borders (EWB). In February of this year, I began working with an amazing team of dedicated young Canadians managing our work in agricultural value chains. That I am working in international development is a surprise to many, perhaps most of all to me.
I am a pretty ordinary Canadian. I was born and raised in Wallaceburg, a small town in rural Ontario. My parents immigrated to Canada 35 years ago from Hong Kong and had more traditional plans for me and my brothers. When I started engineering at UBC nearly ten years ago, the continent of Africa was nothing more than the National Geographic poster of elephants and giraffes that hung on my brother’s wall during my childhood years. Now, like many others, I would like to see a more equitable world where statements like “one billion people living on less than $1/day,” or “800 million will go to bed hungry tonight” are no longer fact.
So how did this small town girl end up in Zambia? I suppose it comes down to two things: opportunity and EWB.
It all began in 2001. I was two years away from graduating from UBC. One day, my friend Robin tapped me on the shoulder and suggested that I check out an organisation called Engineers Without Borders. What I discovered was an opportunity to leverage my engineering training for social impact. More importantly, I discovered an organisation that provides other Canadians who share a belief that a more equitable world is possible, with the opportunities to make it happen.
“EWB is a movement,” someone with decades of experience in development said to me recently, in reference to the focus of the organisation to enable young Canadians. When I think of the opportunities I have had to take action against global poverty through EWB, I would agree.
As leader of the UBC chapter, I met a group of passionate people. Together, we launched Bridging the Gap, which has become an annual conference at UBC. That experience led to an opportunity to work with EWB in Ghana, and there I fell in love with the continent and people. It was also there that my perception of business changed from one where economic growth equalled exploitation, to one where economic growth could be used for poverty reduction. This understanding led to my interest in leveraging business for social impact. When I returned to Canada in 2004, I worked as an advisor with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility. In early 2007, after two years working with some of Canada’s largest companies, I went with EWB to Zambia to help on a project to improve market opportunities for farmers, which led to where I am today.
Engineers Without Borders provides these kinds of opportunities to its members and alumni. There is Andrew Young, who first became interested in high school when he won the 2004 essay competition. Andrew is now the president of the UBC chapter, leading a team of students who embody UBC’s vision of global citizenship. There is Monica Rucki, BASc’04, EWB UBC’s first volunteer. After working in East Timor and Ghana, she is now leading EWB’s work in engineering education in Malawi. There is Robin Farnworth, BASc’04, the friend who tapped me on the shoulder in 2001. After managing EWB’s work in West Africa for two years, she is now managing EWB’s overseas training program. There is Mike Quinn, BASc’03, who after working with EWB in Ghana and Zambia, finished his MBA at Oxford on a Skoll Scholarship for Social Entrepreneurship and is about to return to Zambia to explore enterprise opportunities. There is Mike Kang, BASc’08, who served as president of the UBC chapter last year. As I write this, Mike is preparing to join our water and sanitation team in Malawi.
These are all examples of people whose EWB experiences have led them to contribute overseas. Now, however, there are growing numbers of people like Doris Tang, BASc’04, and John Terborg, BASc’03. They both work fulltime in Vancouver while volunteering with EWB Vancouver to engage the local professional community in development issues. Both are EWB UBC alumni who are demonstrating that global citizenship does not end after you leave university and that there are opportunities to contribute right here in Canada.
The ripple effect of EWB carries with it the hope of the future. The vision that we all share – of a more equitable world, where the Mwansas have the same opportunities as you and I – is possible. EWB, with its 35,000-strong membership, will help lead the way.
Ka-Hay Law works with Engineers Without Borders in Zambia
Published in the Fall 2008 issue of the UBC Alumni magazine Trek.
Science, technology funding to drop in 2008-09: StatsCan
Statistics Canada reported Thursday that federal spending on science and technology is expected to decline this fiscal year for the first time in five years, a result at least one analyst says isn’t likely to change given the chilly economic climate.
The federal government is expected to spend about $9.9 billion on science and technology in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, a drop about three per cent from the previous year, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.
If the forecast holds, it would represent the first decline in science and technology spending after five straight years of increases, according to the federal agency’s Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division.
These forecasts, however, don’t always hold, as the government can often announce funding plans before or during the announcement of the federal budget, but after Statistics Canada completes its assessment and government agencies provide the agency with their numbers.
One example where the forecast underestimates funding — pointed out by a number of research analysts — is that it does not include the $95 million in funds added to Canada’s three university granting councils for direct and indirect costs in the last federal budget, an amount that would have come in after the agencies provided Statistics Canada with their projections. The addition of these funds alone would temper the projected decline to two per cent.
Last year the government agency’s forecast was similarly conservative in its projection for the fiscal period ending on March 31, 2007, projecting $9.5 billion in spending for that year. The preliminary results for that year, however, suggest the government actually spent about $10.1 billion.
“The results do tend to be higher than our forecasts because government departments tend to forecast prudently,” said Louise Earl, one of the authors of the report.
But some of the increase can be explained by one-time funding plans, said Ron Freedman, the CEO of science and research consultancy Research Infosource Inc.
For example, last year the government announced two weeks before the budget it would give $163 million to establish 11 new centres of excellence for commercialization and research.
The addition of that commitment raised the projected funding handed out to non-profit organizations to $408 million in 2007-08, Earl confirmed. The total handed out to non-profit organizations this year is expected to drop to $245 million.
“These numbers are meaningful because initiatives like the centres for excellence are unlikely to be coming this year from the government,” said Freedman. “We’re in a period of belt-tightening now.”
The Conservative government pledged a number of science and technology funding programs during the fall election campaign, including an additional $850 million on science and technology investments by 2009-10, a $75-million venture capital fund for late-stage technology companies and the addition of $200 million to the automotive innovation fund and the strategic aerospace and defence initiative.
These commitments, however, are not tied to this year.
Hard decisions on spending
In a throne speech delivered Wednesday by Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean, the Conservative government warned that federal departments may have to make “hard decisions” to control spending.
“Departments will have the funding they need to deliver essential programs and services, and no more,” Jean said. “Our government will engage Parliament and encourage members to take a more active role in scrutinizing spending and suggesting areas for restraint.”
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is expected to deliver the government’s economic update next week.
The Statistics Canada study said that 63 per cent of spending will go to research and development, with the remaining 37 per cent going to related scientific activities. In current dollars, the forecast spending in R&D for this year will be four per cent less than last year.
Funding in natural sciences and engineering is expected to be just under $7.5 billion, while funding social sciences and humanities will get an anticipated $2.4 billion.
In a report released last month, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada called on the federal government and private sector to continue to spend on research and development even during the current economic uncertainty, to avoid falling behind the rest of the world.
The report, entitled Momentum, said Canada’s public and private sector spent a combined $29 billion on research and development last year, but would need to increase spending to $70 billion by 2015 in order to keep up with other nations.
By Paul Jay CBC News
Dinosaur eggs mislabelled for years
Fossilized nest in Calgary collection turns out to be one-of-a-kind
Jamie Komarnicki, Canwest News Service
Published: Vancouver Sun, Friday, November 14, 2008
The first clue something was wrong was the shape of the dinosaur eggs—long and pointed at one end rather than smooth and round.
The fossilized nest that contained five of the 12-centimetre-long eggs sat mislabelled in a private Calgary collection for years, its significance undetected.
But a closer look by University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky determined the eggs were not, in fact, the rounded, “dime-a-dozen” duck-billed dinosaur find.
Rather, the eggs belonged to a small theropod, or meat-eating dinosaur, closely linked to birds—making the fossil the first known nest of its kind.
“This is a brand new nest to North America and worldwide,” said Zelenitsky, lead author of a paper published Thursday in the journal Palaeontology.
But the scientific detective work doesn’t stop there.
Researchers still don’t know the exact identity of the mysterious mother who abandoned the eggs 77 million years ago to the swelling waters on a sandy river beach, Zelenitsky said.
But they have picked up clues of her reproductive habits.
The mother dinosaur hunkered down on the banks of a fast-flowing river in the Montana badlands, said Francois Therrien, a co-investigator in the study and curator of dinosaur paleoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
She built a sandy mound, then laid about a dozen eggs, two at a time, placing them in a ring around the nest before climbing atop to keep them warm, he said.
These behaviours are closely identified with the brooding habits of birds—details that further cement the significance of the discovery, Therrien said.
“This nest reveals that modern birds aren’t unique in the way they reproduce; they actually inherited a lot of ways that they lay eggs from their dinosaur ancestors,” Therrien said.
“This tells us what we see as modern birds laying eggs and the way the eggs are shaped, it’s an actual, gradual acquisition of traits through time.”
The fossilized nest was discovered near Cut Bank, Mont., in the 1990s and belonged to a private Calgary collection.
It had been labelled the more common hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur.
Examining the collection several years ago, Zelenitsky noticed the unusual patterns of the eggs. Realizing the significance of the nest if it belonged to a meat-eater, she began an in-depth investigation when the fossils arrived at the Royal Tyrrell.
Researchers have since narrowed the possible mother down to two likely candidates: a small raptor called a dromaeosaurid, or an ostrich-like caenagnathid.
“It’s going to be one of those two; neither one of those two types of nests are known,” Zelenitsky said.
The dinosaur likely weighed about 40 kilograms and was 2.5 to three metres long, she said.
The mother’s identity may only be truly revealed if another nest of this type is discovered with an adult atop, or embryos inside the eggs, Zelenitsky said.
“As more and more of these dinosaur nests are uncovered, it just keeps putting all of the pieces together,” she said.
The fossilized nest goes on display at the Royal Tyrrell at the end of the month.
Ms. Pacman begins eating up the world of video games
Women play bigger role in gaming market
David Wylie, For Canwest News Service
Published: Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, November 12, 2008
When Marcie McIndoe found herself on maternity leave during a snowy Ontario winter, she turned to the world of video games for fun and friendship.
“Gaming has provided a major social outlet for me,” she says. “I was on maternity leave all winter. And when there are feet of snow outside, to be able to turn on the Xbox and laugh with friends is such a joy, and a necessary one.” McIndoe, 33, is no longer considered an anomaly in what was once a testosterone-dominated digital world. About half of those who play who play video games are female, according to recent surveys in both Canada and the U.S.
A new study by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada found that half of Canadian gamers are women. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of Americans who play video games are female, says an annual survey conducted for the Entertainment Software Association. The Ipsos MediaCT survey, released earlier this year, found that women 18 and older represent an even bigger slice of the gaming pie (33 per cent) than boys 17 and younger. “No longer is there a stereotypical gamer,” said Michael Gallagher, CEO of the software association.
That’s a finding McIndoe says she’s experienced while playing games.
“I game with people who dropped out of high school, and with doctors, with single people and with grandparents. I can connect with stay-at-home moms, and with CEOs,” she says. “The one thing that binds us all is that we enjoy playing video games.”
McIndoe, an Ottawa resident, says she was drawn by the social aspect of video games, and is involved in Internet forums and online groups interested in specific games, a gathering known as a “clan.” She also plays with groups of people while at home.
McIndoe says she has been drawn to video games since she was a kid. And it’s a hobby she says has its benefits.
“Things really took off once I met my husband; we didn’t have a lot of money, so we would stay up and play video games together. To be honest, it was him working the controller and me shouting instructions—truly the beginning of a happy marriage.”
The female touch has permeated the gaming community. There are female-focused tournaments, such as the Halo 3-based Fight Like a Girl tournament that benefits breast cancer research; all-girl clans—including the PMS Clan and the Frag Dolls; and the development of many more women-centred games, such as Dance Dance Revolution.
“It’s interactive entertainment, and to me, that has a greater appeal than passive entertainment like watching TV,” says McIndoe.
Brenna Pierson, 23, says she also loves video games, especially the fast-paced frenzy of first-person shooting games. The Canadian turned her love of games into a part-time job in showbiz. Pierson toured Canada in 2007 representing G4 Tech TV, and trying to increase the gaming-focused TV station’s audience here.
She says she isn’t surprised that half of video gamers are women.
“I’m not surprised at all—we are starting to sweep the nation,” she says. “No matter what game I put in my 360, my Wii, even on my PC, there is always lots of girls. I’m glad that more women are getting involved in gaming, it’s so much fun.”
Despite their growing numbers, women are fighting for equality in the digital world, says Pierson.
“The problem today is that marketing is directed more toward males. They don’t make the games as appealing to women, so it’s hard for a non-gaming girl to really see what the appeal is,” she says.
Pierson, who grew up in Alberta, but now lives in New York City, first started playing video games after her dad bought her a Nintendo for her fifth birthday. She says the Internet has played a big role in the increased female presence.
“It brings together women from all over the world into one spot where they can relate to one another with no hassle,” she says.
She also says Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii, has drawn more women into the gaming world, partly because of the ease of its use. The motion-sensing controller has fewer buttons, and Nintendo has introduced games focused on Yoga and getting fit.
”[Wii] brought in a whole new generation of gamers,” says Pierson. “My grandma even plays, she loves bowling.”
Pierson encourages women to try playing.
“Don’t be afraid of what anyone is going to think, do it for yourself, it’s tons of fun,” she says.
UBC Physics and Astronomy Welcome Orientation for Women - January 8, 2009
The University of British Columbia’s Department of Physics and Astronomy will be hosting an orientation event for women interested in learning information about the undergraduate programs in physics and astronomy. Female high school juniors and seniors who have shown curiosity in their science classes are invited to attend this event in order to become familiar with the department and degrees available they register for first year courses.
This five hour event will inform participants about the wide range of undergraduate programs offered by UBC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and include a Q&A session with a panel of women who have graduated with degrees in physics and astronomy as well as tours of several research labs on campus. The diversity of career options open to physics graduates, as well as the scope of multidisciplinary research conducted in the department will be stressed. By attending WOW: Welcome Orientation for Women, it is hoped that female students will feel comfortable and welcomed into Physics and Astronomy.
SCWIST President Dr. Elana Brief will be in attendance.
Date: Thursday January 8, 2009
Time: 11am – 4:30pm (free lunch included)
Location: Michael Smith Labs Theater (2185 East Mall), UBC
More information and registration (deadline on Dec. 14) is available at: http://www.phas.ubc.ca/wow
Congratulations to MSFHR 2008 Career Investigator Award recipients
The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research ensures British Columbia has the research talent it needs to support improvements in health care. Since 2001, it has provided awards to 283 health researchers, including more than 60 recruited from outside BC. The MSFHR also funds researchers to come together in research teams. Pooling expertise and resources across disciplines and organizations, teams drive innovative, new approaches to health research challenges.
Congratulations to MSFHR 2008 Career Investor Award winners:
Biomedical
Caroline Cameron – Science / Biochemistry and Microbiology, UVic
Susanne Clee – Medicine / Cellular and Physiological Sciences, UBC
Suzana Straus – Science / Chemistry, UBC
Allison Kermode – Science / Biological Sciences, SFU
Clinical
Maureen Ashe – Medicine / Family Practise, UBC
Lara Boyd – Medicine / Physical Therapy, UBC
Health Services
Mariana Brussoni – Medicine / Pediatrics, UBC
Barbara Mintzes – Medicine / Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, UBC
Population Health
Sandra Jarvis-Selinger – Medicine / Surgery, UBC
T. Rex had a nose for hunting, Alberta researchers say
In the first study of its kind, scientists at the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta., compared the skulls of a range of prehistoric meat-eating dinosaurs and found that, when it came to a sense of smell, T. rex and its fellow Tyrannosaurs were, indeed, the kings.
The researchers looked at 18 therapods, the group of extinct carnivorous land dinosaurs that includes both T. rex and smaller predators like Velociraptor mongoliensis. They also looked at the primitive bird-ancestor Archaeopteryx and the modern American alligator.
They based their findings on the impressions left in the skulls of the dinosaurs by olfactory bulbs, the part of the brain associated with smell. Even after accounting for the different sizes of the dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaur group of therapods still possessed unusually large olfactory bulbs, suggesting a keen sense of smell, said University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky.
Dromaeosaurids, another group of therapods that includes the velociraptor, also had a relatively strong sense of smell while another group called Ornithomimosaurs, or ostrich dinosaurs, had a relatively low sense of smell.
Zelenitsky and François Therrien, the curator of dinosaur palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and Yoshitsugu Kobayashi from Hokkaido University in Japan published their findings this week in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
T. rex followed nose to food sources
Dinosaur experts have known for some time that T. rex had a good sense of smell, and some have even suggested that its finely tuned sniffer meant it was more likely to have been a scavenger than a predator.
But Zelenitsky said that meat-eating birds alive today are more likely to have large olfactory bulbs compared to their plant-eating kin, so having a keen sense of smell does not necessarily limit the T. rex to scavenging.
She and her co-authors suggest that it may have used its sensitive nose to be active in low-light conditions or to perform certain activities such as locating food sources.
“The anatomical data suggests it was a predator, but it wouldn’t have passed on a dead animal if it saw one,” she told CBC News.
Sense of smell important to primitive birds
Zelenitsky and her colleagues were also surprised that the Archaeopteryx also seemed to have had a strong sense of smell relative to its size and when compared with modern birds.
“Birds aren’t thought to have a keen sense of smell. They are more known for their vision,” said Zelenitsky.
It could be that the sense of smell must have remained important to the first primitive birds, she and her co-authors wrote, though Zelenitsky suggested more work was needed to study how dinosaurs’ olfactory bulbs compare with living birds.
A quarter of the specimens used in the study were found in Alberta, said Zelenitsky, with the remainder taken from fossil finds all over the world, including Mongolia, China, Madagascar and the United States.
MITACS Industry-Academic Networking Event - November 17, 2008
SCWIST is proud to support the Women in Engineering (Vancouver Region)’s Skills Evening of Engineering and Science in BC.
Monday, November 17, 2008
6:30-9:30 p.m.
Volta and Tesla (Rooms 2020 and 2030), Kaiser Building
University of British Columbia
2332 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC
V6T 1Z4
MITACS is a national research network which brings together academia, industry and the public sector to develop cutting-edge tools and technologies that support the growth of Canada’s economy. Success is driven by a team of professionals from coast to coast that facilitates collaborations between Canadian companies and university-based researchers.
WIE is a group of engineering women who are continuing efforts to create a network of women engineers in the Vancouver region.
Register by November 7 here.
For more information, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Wed Feb 01
