News Category: News
SCWIST President Dr. Elana Brief comments on selection of 19 male Canada Excellence Research Chairs
Canadian Universities Pick 19 Good Men
by Kelli Whitlock Burton – May 20, 2010
When the Canadian government created a $200 million pot to attract up to 20 of the world’s best researchers in four target areas, university administrators had no trouble finding 36 stars that they wanted to hire. Diversity was another matter, however as the inaugural class of Canadian Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) have two things in common: They are all illustrious scientists. And they are all men. In fact, not a single woman was even nominated.
“The fact that only men’s names were put forward indicates to me that our ideas about who can succeed in science and who we want to celebrate remain very gendered, and that it runs very deep,” says Elana Brief, president of the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology and a physicist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Joan Herbers, president of the Association for Women in Science and a population biologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, doesn’t mince words. “It’s hard to believe that there aren’t some superstar women out there that Canadian universities might be interested in recruiting,” she says. “I’m very disappointed in the outcome.”
The first group of CERC hires includes scientists from the United States, Europe, South America, and Greenland. Each will set up shop with $10 million over 7 years at one of 13 Canadian universities. The CERC program is administered jointly by Canada’s three research-granting agencies: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. All three are part of the governmental department Industry Canada (IC).
When IC Minister Tony Clement learned that all the CERC finalists were men, he assembled an ad hoc panel to investigate. It was led by Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and included Elizabeth Dowdeswell, president of the Council of Canadian Academies, and Indira Samarasekera, president of the University of Alberta in Canada. The panel found that “the absence of female recipients was not a result of active choices made during the formal review processes of the program,” says Lynn Meahan, IC press secretary.
The awards process had two phases, according to Michele Boutin, executive director of the CERC program. In phase 1, 41 Canadian universities submitted 135 proposals describing the research programs to be created at their institutions, but not the specific scientists they would seek to run them. Universities were allowed to submit more than one proposal. The proposals were reviewed by an international committee of 13 scientists, three of whom were women. This group pared the list to 36 proposals from 17 universities.
In phase 2, universities nominated scientists to go with each proposal. None of the 36 nominees was a women. A second committee-composed of 16 scientists and industry leaders, including three women-chose the 19 CERC winners at 13 universities.
Universities that made it to phase 2 were required to “use a fair and equitable process” to select their nominee, says Boutin. She adds that a senior university official had to attest that the nomination process was equitable.
Although the ad hoc panel cleared the process of any blame, the members did note several elements that may have put women at a disadvantage. For example, the CERC competition rewarded universities who put forth senior researchers as nominees. Because women have not been in the field as long as men, many haven’t yet reached that level of seniority, says Fortier, who led the panel.
“It’s very difficult to compare two types of candidates where both have superb accomplishments but one has 10 years seniority over the other,” Fortier says. “A university putting forward a candidate who has that lesser volume of accomplishments is to some degree taking a risk.”
Fortier suggests creating two tracks of nominees, one for senior-level faculty and another for midcareer scientists. Awards would be given in both categories. The panel also suggested that universities be required to provide documentation of their recruitment process when they submit their nominee.
Although the first class is now history, Brief and others hope the government won’t wait until the next awards cycle in 7 years to address the issue of gender equity. For example, the three agencies that administer the CERC awards could require that universities go further to ensure diversity in the hiring of personnel—including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows—in the labs of the CERC awardees, she suggests. CERC chairs could also create mentoring programs that target junior faculty women in the sciences, to encourage them to seek out such senior positions. If nothing changes, Brief says, “the world could see Canada as a backward nation that doesn’t have an appreciation for the richness of diversity.”
Science magazine
Profiles of recent UBC grads
Alia Dharamsi – Integrated Sciences program
Dharamsi will be moving on to medical school to focus on paediatrics. But her eventual goal is to secure a position with an organization like the World Health Organization or Médecins Sans Frontières.
An appetite for service
by Chris Balma
Calling Alia Dharamsi a ‘foodie’ would be a bit of an understatement.
Dharamsi, a fourth-year Integrated Sciences Program (ISP) student, has turned her passion for all things nutrition-related—the, social, cultural, physiological and developmental impact of food—into a guiding principle.
“We can’t have civil society, we can’t have children learning well in school, we can’t have families functioning together, if people don’t have food,” says Dharamsi, who graduates this month. “Food is the basis of our society—we gather together to share meals, to learn about each other. And it’s at that basic level that I want to have an impact.”
That passion has guided the Wesbrook and Premier Undergraduate Scholar throughout her studies, community service and travels. In 2007 she took on the presidency of the UBC Meal Exchange Chapter, leading the student-driven chapter of the national non-profit to raise more than $54,000 worth of food for local families—placing the UBC Chapter amongst the most successful in Meal Exchange history. The experience—along with volunteering with the Alma Mater Society Food Bank—connected her studies in nutrition and physiology to the day-to-day impact that food security and hunger has on individuals and families.
“I got involved in ISP shortly after joining Meal Exchange. I’m fascinated by the impact that food and nutrition have—not only on society—but on our ability to fight disease, to learn, and to function as living, breathing units. And the great thing about the ISP is that you build your own program, and then rationalize why.”
Dharamsi has also made food a key ingredient in her work as a mentor and tutor in Vancouver’s inner city schools. Through the UBC Learning Exchange’s Trek Program and the Let’s Talk Science program, she not only shares her expertise in science and math with high-school and junior high school students, but also makes sure she conveys the importance that nutrition plays in learning.
“Children need food and proper nutrition to think, and they need to know the importance of this directly. You can’t learn if you’re hungry and can’t be expected to participate in class if your stomach is empty.”
Most of the students Dharamsi mentors are girls, many of whom have all too common mental blocks associated with math. “It’s one of those things that I struggled with immensely early on and had to conquer. And what frustrated me was hearing girls say: ‘Oh girls aren’t supposed to be good at math.’ Math can open so many doors, though young students might not see that immediately. It’s vital to let them know, and see, that university is cool, being smart is cool, and that post-secondary education in science is entirely within their grasp.”
Dharamsi capped off her four years as a UBC undergrad with a service trip to a small village just outside La Antigua, Guatemala—an experience that tied together her passion for helping people acquire the food, water and shelter they need, along with building knowledge and capabilities. Mornings were spent painting the learning centre, updating school electrical systems, and completing cement work at local schools. Afternoons were spent teaching literacy to local students.
To someone already well versed in the impact that food scarcity and poverty have on Vancouver communities, the trip was an uneasy analog. “The parallels between the inner city and developing world are striking. Kids who don’t see their parents. Children who can’t read. Children who don’t have three meals a day. Children and families not meeting their protein or calorie requirements. It was an amazing, humbling experience.”
It’s also an experience that might have helped cement Dharamsi’s long-term plans.
Dharamsi will be moving on to medical school to focus on paediatrics. But her eventual goal is to secure a position with an organization like the World Health Organization or Médecins Sans Frontières, with an eye to help bring a clinical balance to public health policy planning.
“I live and breathe food all the time, and UBC and ISP have enabled me to combine my passions. So I can talk about the science—why our bodies actually need nutrition and the impact it has developmentally—but I can also talk about food from the social sciences perspective, from the humanities and developmental angle.”
Erin Johnston – Electrical Engineering
Johnston is a member of the first Engineering cohort to graduate from the UBC Okanagan campus. Co-op education has proven invaluable for career-planning.
Engineering a first in the Okanagan
by Jody Jacob
When Erin Johnston steps across the stage this June to accept her degree in electrical engineering, she will be part of the first graduating cohort of the School of Engineering at UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna.
“It’s been a really amazing, somewhat unexpected journey,” says Johnston. “I’m really glad I chose to come through this program. The small class sizes were a huge benefit to me, and I built some really great relationships with both classmates and professors.”
A lot of changes have taken place since the School of Engineering was established in 2005, and Johnston has witnessed many of them. The Kelowna native arrived for her first year of studies with a UBC Major Entrance Scholarship of $20,000, and as a student added other awards including the Stantec Scholarship in Engineering, a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Undergraduate Research Award, Canadian Tire A.J. Billes Scholarship, and, most recently, Co-op Student of the Year.
“Definitely I would have to say that co-op education has played a big role in my development,” says Johnston. “When I came to university I wasn’t even sure what stream of engineering I was interested in. I dove in and discovered through co-op education that electrical engineering is where my passion lies.”
Johnston participated in five work terms as an engineering student. They ranged from working with an IT department at an oil mine in Fort McMurray to research-intensive work opportunities in a lab at UBC.
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting research to be my thing,” says Johnston. “But once I became involved with it, I found I really liked it.”
Johnston had such a great experience working as an undergraduate researcher that she has decided to return this September to the Okanagan campus to pursue a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Her interest lies in digital design and micro-computers.
“The co-op opportunity was so valuable. You get the experience and really understand what you want to do,” says Johnston, who has acted as an ambassador for the co-op program over the last few years, mentoring her fellow engineering students. “The School of Engineering is able to connect students with engineering professionals in so many disciplines.”
Over the past five years, some of Johnson’s best memories come from the close-knit bonds with faculty and classmates.
In March, Johnston was part of a group of graduates who traveled to Vancouver to receive their Iron Rings.
“In Canada, when you graduate from engineering you get an Iron Ring,” said Johnston, adding that it is a tradition unique to Canada that serves as a reminder for engineers to live by a high standard of professional conduct.
“I know everyone in the graduating class, which is really nice, and it was a very memorable experience to travel down to Vancouver to get our rings—everyone was so excited. Some engineers from companies in Kelowna came down with us to do the presentation.”
Johnston hopes that after her master’s degree she can use the local connections built through the School of Engineering to find work in the Okanagan, and find a way to give back to the community her heart has always called home.
UBC Reports | Vol. 56 | No. 5 | May. 6, 2010
Student from B.C. names red seaweed after colourful movie director
Bridgette Clarkson titles new species as a tribute to Tim Burton’s ‘strange imagination’
By: Todd Coyne, Vancouver Sun, May 13, 2010, p. A5
Director Tim Burton has won many accolades during his successful career, but a B.C.-born researcher at the University of New Brunswick has honoured the filmmaker with an aptly bizarre tribute—seaweed.
Bridget Clarkston, a 29-year-old UNB doctoral student from Comox, decided to name the new species of red seaweed Euthora timburtonii as a tribute to the “similarly strange imaginations” she said she and the director share.
“I love The Nightmare Before Christmas and I love Tim Burton films because of his visual style,” said Clarkston. “His drawings are always a little bit dark, a little bit strange.”
Clarkston initially discovered the seaweed in 2007 off the coast of Bamfield, just across Vancouver Island from the beaches where she grew up. But Clarkston said that during the peer-review and verification phases since her 2007 discovery, the seaweed has also turned up in Tahsis, B.C., Friday Harbor, Wash., and even as far north as Haida Gwaii.
“There are lots of different types of red seaweeds in British Columbia—it’s very diverse compared to the rest of Canada,” said Clarkston on the phone from Fredericton. “The Pacific is much more diverse than the Atlantic … it’s an older ocean and there was a lot more time for species to evolve over there.”
Two weeks ago Clarkston sent letters to Burton, who is now judging at the Cannes Film Festival in France, by way of his agent and production company to alert them of her use of the director’s namesake. She has not yet heard anything back.
In the meantime, Clarkston already has two other new species and a whole new genus—a species classification—of red seaweed that she said she has discovered in B.C.
She has not yet submitted these species and genus for review but is confident that they are truly unique finds.
Clarkston plans to name her new genus Salishia, after Salish Sea, the alternate name proposed for the waters of the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where the new genus of seaweed species is found.
In keeping with the otherworldly, Burton-esque naming scheme, Clarkston intends to call one of these yet-to-be published species Pugetia cryptica.
The other she will name Beringia wynnei after one of Clarkston’s heroes and marine biology predecessors, American phycologist Michael Wynne.
Though still rare, according to Clarkston, new species discoveries such as these are made increasingly easy to verify thanks to initiatives like the Barcode of Life project led by researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
“It’s a real Canadian-driven initiative to sequence a standard genetic marker for every species on the planet—all plants, animals, fungi, protists. It’s like a global survey of all species,” said Clarkston. “This whole species discovery aspect of my research is all part of that Barcode of Life initiative funded by Genome Canada and the University of Guelph.”
Chief Targets of Student Incivility Are Female and Young Professors
By Peter Schmidt – May 4, 2010
Denver
When it comes to being rude, disrespectful, or abusive to their professors, students appear most likely to take aim at women, the young, and the inexperienced, a new study has found.
The study, presented here on Sunday at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, involved an online survey of 339 faculty members, roughly evenly split by gender, at nine geographically dispersed colleges and universities of various institutional types. It was conducted by three researchers at the University of Redlands: Rodney K. Goodyear, a professor of education, and Pauline Reynolds and Janee Both Gragg, both assistant professors of education.
Most previous research on college professors’ experiences with incivility has focused on their mistreatment at the hands of other members of the faculty. The Redlands researchers’ study focused solely on faculty members’ experiences with incivility at the hands of students, surveying college faculty members of various ranks, from part-time instructors on up.
The study looked beyond the classroom, asking faculty members about their experiences with student incivility in the course of any class-related activities. The types of student incivility it covered included passive behavior, such as sleeping or texting in class; more actively disruptive behavior, such as coming to class late or talking on cellphones in the classroom; and behaviors that appeared directed at the instructor, such as open expressions of anger, impatience, or derision.
Only about 16 percent of the faculty members surveyed reported not having experienced student incivility at all, but that aggregate figure masked a wide gulf between men and women in terms of the likelihood of their recalling such incidents. When the researchers broke their data down by gender, they found that 24 percent of men, and just 9 percent of women, could not recall incidents of uncivil student behavior, Women were also much more likely to report that the uncivil behavior they experienced was severe, or to say that they had been upset by it.
When the researchers broke down their data in other ways, they found that the oldest and the most experienced faculty members they surveyed were the least likely to report encounters with student incivility.
Given the universal nature of some of the student behaviors examined, such as dozing off in class, it may be fair to ask whether some faculty members were just more inclined than others to have let student incivility roll off of them and not recall it or see it as worth reporting.
Other possible explanations were offered by one survey subject who said students “seemed to smell the vulnerability of the professor seeking tenure,” and another who said, “There has actually been a decrease in uncivil behavior in that I grow older and more frightening.”
The Chronicle of Higer Education
Is ‘momnesia’ a real condition or an urban myth?
Vancouver-based researchers investigate the impact of pregnancy, including the child’s sex, on memory and cognition
By Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun – May 8, 2010, p. A23
Liisa Galea is an award-winning researcher at the University of B.C. with a PhD in neuroscience.
So it was more than a little embarrassing for her when, pregnant with her second child, she couldn’t remember where her car was parked.
She knew she’d left it in the parkade across the street from her UBC office. But, for the life of her, she couldn’t recall what level she was on.
Even worse, this didn’t happen to her just once or twice—but nearly a dozen times throughout her third trimester.
Galea is far from the first woman to forget things during pregnancy, a phenomenon so common it goes by many names: “momnesia,” “baby brain” and “dumb Mom syndrome.”
But as an expert in the field of neuroendocrinology—the link between hormones and the brain—Galea was in a unique position to figure out what was going on.
In the decade since her parking problems, Galea has undertaken a number of studies on the impact of pregnancy on the brain, mainly on rats.
She’s found that pregnant rats are worse at making their way through mazes than non-pregnant rats and that their hippocampus (an area of the brain key to memory) is smaller.
And Galea’s just one of several Vancouver-based researchers trying to figure out whether “baby brain” is a real condition or just an urban legend.
Forgetful or just distracted?
On the face of it, the notion that having a child might impact a woman’s brain function is not that surprising. There’s plenty of evidence that hormones can affect thinking. And pregnancy has a uniquely dramatic effect on hormone levels—estrogen, for example, can reach concentrations 1,000 times normal.
When surveyed by researchers, almost all pregnant women say they suffer at least some memory problems and difficulty focusing.
But studies that try to test pregnant women’s memory in the lab have been decidedly mixed: some studies find they perform worse than non-pregnant women while others have not. Carrie Cuttler, a post-doctoral fellow at UBC and a colleague of Galea’s, began to wonder whether the lab itself might be the problem.
In a not-yet-published study, Cuttler and her colleagues asked 60 pregnant women and 24 non-pregnant women to perform a series of memory tests in their lab, such as repeating back a list of words.
As expected, the pregnant women did as well as the nonpregnant women on almost all the tests.
But that wasn’t the end of the study. As the women were leaving, Cuttler gave them a short, one-page questionnaire and asked them to mail it back to her the next day.
“It was stamped, it was addressed, it was ready to go,” said Cuttler. “All they had to do was pop it in the mailbox.”
Which is exactly what 70 per cent of the non-pregnant women did.
And the pregnant women? Just over half of those in their second and third trimester remembered to mail the letter.
And only one in four of those in the first trimester mailed it back.
Cuttler says the fact so many “baby brain” studies are conducted in the lab may be masking the extent of the problem—because for a harried, pregnant woman, a lab may be the first moment’s peace they’ve had all week.
“Pregnant women can perform on these cognitive tasks with little difficulty when they’re in a sterile, distraction-free environment, where they can focus on the task at hand,” she said. “But if you put them in the real world where they’ve got … family issues [and] work issues, their attention is much more divided. They have a lot more going on. That’s when you see the deficit.”
Cuttler said her study also suggests that “baby brain” may have less to do with brain chemistry and more to do with the sheer number of things a pregnant woman has to think about, from prenatal vitamins to doctor’s appointments.
That may explain why women in the first trimester—who’ve had the least amount of time to get used to being pregnant—fared the worst in Cuttler’s study.
A nice thing about her study, said Cuttler, is that it suggests pregnant women’s mental performance in the workplace need not suffer.
“If you put a pregnant woman in a quiet, distraction-free environment she can perform as well as a non-pregnant woman,” said Cuttler. “Maybe just don’t ask her to do a hundred things at once.”
Baby’s sex a factor
How many distractions a pregnant woman has in her life may not be the only thing affecting her brain.
Whether she’s carrying a boy or a girl also seems to make a big difference.
A few years ago, Neil Watson, a psychology professor at Simon Fraser University, conducted a study that looked at how 39 pregnant women—26 carrying boys, 13 carrying girls—performed on tests of their memory from early pregnancy to several months after delivery.
The study found a surprisingly significant gap in memory performance based on the sex of the mother’s fetus: those carrying boys scored about 25 per cent better on memory tests than those carrying girls.
Watson said he’s curious what’s behind the gender gap and is conducting followup research to try to figure out what’s going on.
One of the most puzzling aspects of the original study, he said, is how persistent the gender gap was.
Boys release different hormones into their mother’s system than girls. If that’s the cause of the memory gap, said Watson, you’d expect the gap to be much wider at some stages of pregnancy than others.
Instead, his study found the gap between “boy moms” and “girl moms” persisted from the first test, at eight weeks gestation, until months after delivery.
Which raises another, far more controversial possibility, said Watson: That carrying boys doesn’t necessarily make women smarter. Rather, smart women may be more likely to have boys.
Watson stresses he has no evidence yet to support this hypothesis—and said that, as a father of three daughters, he’s not personally advocating it.
But he notes that, in other species, it’s been shown that females can sometimes bias the sex of their children when having one gender or the other is an evolutionary advantage.
Whether humans might do the same, he said, is a “fascinating possibility.”
The possible reverse effect of motherhood
Having experienced baby brain firsthand, Galea sympathizes with women who worry being pregnant is making them dumber.
And she notes the research on the topic isn’t all discouraging.
For example, take those rats who fumbled their way around Galea’s mazes during pregnancy.
When Galea tests rats later in life, after their children have left the nest, they perform better than rats who’ve never had kids.
And other studies have suggested mother rats are less susceptible to degenerative brain illnesses like Alzheimer’s than non-mother rats.
No study has yet been done looking at the long-term effects of motherhood on the human brain.
But Galea can’t help but think that, if pregnancy impairs memory and cognition, the long-term mental effort involved in being a mother might actually do the opposite.
“When you’re a mom you’ve got to remember your kids’ doctor’s appointments, their dentist’s appointment, their shots,” she said.
“Before you were just taking care of yourself. Now you’re taking care of another human being.”
Projects go ahead despite unknown risk, biologist warns
B.C. government approves independent wind, hydro power developments, then monitors for environmental problems after construction
By Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun – May 8, 2010, p. A16
The B.C. government is approving independent hydro and wind power projects without knowing their impact on the environment, including species at risk, a meeting of biologists was told Thursday.
The province is taking an adaptive-management approach, which means that projects continue to be monitored for environmental problems post-construction and mitigation measures implemented as considered necessary.
Elke Wind, a consulting biologist from Nanaimo, expressed concern about the impact of run-of-river hydro projects on threatened stream-dwelling amphibians in the absence of adequate scientific information.
“When I’m working with clients … I really try to emphasize that they treat each development project like it’s an experiment,” she told more than 250 people attending the annual conference of the Association of Professional Biologists of B.C.
“That’s the only way we can start to learn from these various development projects and figure out whether mitigation is working and what the potential impacts are.”
Charlie Palmer, an ecologist with Vancouver-based Hemmera environmental consultants, has worked on development of B.C.’s first and only commercial operating wind farm at Bear Mountain near Dawson Creek.
He acknowledged “we don’t really know an awful lot” about the impact of wind farms in B.C.
He supported adaptive management because it addresses the environmental uncertainty of such projects and prevents companies from having to spend money on mitigation measures that might not be necessary. In the case of wind farms, mitigation could include slowing down the turbine rotation or even shutting it off during times when birds or bats are particularly vulnerable.
Siting of farms to reduce conflict with wildlife is another form of mitigation done at the outset of the project, he said.
Initial results at Bear Mountain show an average of about two birds/bats die annually per turbine (there are 34 turbines), although further studies are continuing, especially over the impact on resident bats. He noted that recovering carcasses is a challenge in the wooded area around the wind farm.
B.C. has three species of amphibians that breed in mountain streams—coastal tailed frog, Rocky Mountain tailed frog and Pacific giant salamander. All are officially considered at risk and all are sensitive to changes in stream temperature and volume and structure, oxygen levels, siltation and loss of habitat.
Wind said the coastal tailed frog can live more than 20 years and takes three to four years to metamorphose, a time when tadpoles attach themselves with sucker mouths to rocks in fast-flowing streams.
Little is known about the tailed frog in the upper reaches of rivers where run-of-river hydro projects temporarily divert water to create electricity, or about how the alteration of flows and related infrastructure might harm the species as it migrates along the stream.
Since tailed frogs tend to be found in smaller river basins of 0.2 to 10 square kilometres, it’s possible that a diversion project on a larger stream might actually create habitat. “We really don’t know what’s going on in these systems,” she said.
Wind said the consultants hired by run-of-river projects may be trained, say, in fish, but often lack the skills necessary when surveying for frogs during the environmental assessment process. Sampling can also be difficult at deeper water levels and some high-elevation habitats are simply inaccessible to biologists to conduct surveys.
“I have a lot of concern … about the knowledge and skill level of the people out there actually collecting the data. I’ve had instances where I’ve gone in and I’m finding tailed frogs in streams where the biologists for the companies haven’t found them.”
Run-of-river projects also raise concerns over loss or fragmentation of habitat, nonnative species introduction, poaching due to increased access to wilderness areas, water quality and quantity.
“The main concern with a lot of the public is the cumulative impacts of all these potential run-of-river projects and disturbance to pristine watersheds,” Wind said.
The conference heard that the province’s environmental assessment process (which ultimately reports to two cabinet ministers for the final decision) has only ever rejected one development application—expansion of Kemess mine in northern B.C. in 2007—although in some cases proponents back out voluntarily for a variety of reasons, including an inability to meet environmental standards.
Canada Foundation for Innovation funding fuels new labs
More than one million dollars has been allocated to four research teams making breakthroughs related to stroke and Alzheimer’s, cancer and infertility, stem cells and industrial robotics at The University of Western Ontario.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) provided the grants, totalling $1,066,058, through its Leaders Opportunity Fund.
Among the four principal investigators receiving funding are Cheryle Séguin and Bonnie Deroo.
A long-term objective for Cheryle Séguin at Schulich’s department of Physiology & Pharmacology is to generate clinically relevant organ-specific stem cells. She received $194,513 to establish a cutting-edge mammalian stem cell laboratory that will enable her to study the mechanisms that control stem cell fate, and to generate novel and therapeutically relevant organ-specific stem cells through genetic manipulation and three-dimensional tissue engineering.
The unifying goal of Bonnie Deroo’s research is to determine the molecular mechanisms driven by Estrogen Receptor in the ovary. Ultimately, these studies will lead to an increased understanding of the causes of infertility in women. Her co-investigator, Trevor Shepherd, is developing novel research models of ovarian cancer to test the molecular mechanisms underlying the origin and progression of this disease. Deroo is a Lawson Health Research Institute Scientist and Biochemistry professor at Western, while Shepherd is a Translational Oncology Scientist at the London Regional Cancer Program and Obstetrics & Gynaecology professor at Western. Their combined research received $300,723.
Study suggests link between abortion, mental health disorders
Patients showing signs of mood disorders, drug abuse should be screened
By Jen Skerritt, Vancouver Sun, May 1, 2010, p. B5
Depression and substance abuse plague about half of American women who reported having an abortion, according to a University of Manitoba study.
The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Psychology, suggests there’s an association between mental disorders and abortion and that doctors should screen for a history of abortion in women who present symptoms of anxiety, mood disorders and substance abuse.
However, researchers are adamant the findings do not conclude abortion causes mental disorders or drug abuse, saying the study did not examine other factors—including whether the mental disorder existed before a woman had an abortion.
The study analysed data collected from 3,310 women by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Drug Abuse in the U.S. between 2001 and 2003.
Layperson interviewers asked women if they ever had an abortion in their lifetime, and used guidelines from the World Health Organization to assess such mental conditions as major depression, suicide, alcohol abuse and panic attacks.
Researchers found drug and alcohol abuse was more prevalent among women who reported having an abortion sometime in their life. About 25 per cent of women who had an abortion reported some form of substance abuse in their lifetime, compared to seven per cent of women who did not have abortions.
The study also found women who had an abortion had an increased likelihood of mood and anxiety disorders, although the relation is weaker and less consistent. Researchers speculate other factors, such as violence and poor social supports, may contribute to mental disorders.
Natalie Mota, a U of M graduate student who was the study’s primary author, said the findings are unclear.
“You absolutely cannot say from this data that an abortion causes mental illness. There’s an association present, but whether the mental illness comes before or after needs to be further examined.”
The study did not examine what portion of the abortions were medically necessary or elective, and said “unintended pregnancy itself may be a stressful event that can be a confounding factor in the relation between abortion and mental illness.”
Mota speculates the connection between substance abuse and abortion was strong because it’s possible that women self-medicate with drugs and alcohol following an abortion, although the study did not investigate this.
Mota said it’s important the study is not misinterpreted, and that people understand researchers found an “association” between mental disorders and abortions, not a “cause and effect” relationship.
“There is a possibility the person was diagnosed with a mental disorder and 20 years passed and they had an abortion,” Mota said.
Abortion providers worry the study’s findings could be misinterpreted and become fodder for anti-abortion groups.
“I think there are lots and lots of questions about this study and I would like to see some answers to those before I know it has any affect as an abortion provider and the way I provide my service,” said Joan Dawkins, executive director of the Women’s Health Clinic in Winnipeg.
Vision centres of blind person’s brain recycled to help other senses
By Thandi Fletcher, Vancouver Sun April 28, 2010, p. B 3
Despite popular belief, blind people don’t have a better sense of smell than people with sight, a Canadian study suggests.
University of Montreal graduate student Mathilde Beaulieu-Lefebvre debunked the myth that blind people have a more acute sense of smell, finding instead they simply are more conscious of odours around them.
“The urban legend is not true,” Beaulieu-Lefebvre said.
It’s not their sense of smell that’s different, but rather the way blind people use their noses, she said. For example, while a sighted person can simply look at food and tell if it’s gone bad, a blind person relies solely on smell to recognize good food from spoiled food.
“In the absence of vision, [blind people] have to rely on other cues, like smell or sound,” Beaulieu-Lefebvre said.
However, the study did find that blind people process odour information in their brains differently from sighted people.
Using a type of MRI scan, the researchers discovered that when blind people smell something, they use the part of the brain connected to the nose more than other people. They also found that—despite having lost their sense of vision—blind people still use the occipital cortex, the part of the brain used for vision.
“This part of the brain is sort of recycled to do tasks other than vision, such as smelling or touching or hearing,” explained Beaulieu-Lefebvre.
The study’s findings can help researchers better understand how the human brain works, Beaulieu-Lefebvre said.
“This gives hope to blind people in understanding that the brain is not hardwired,” she said. “It can be reorganized to do different tasks.”
The research can also help to develop a rehabilitation program for the blind, where they can learn how to navigate through an environment based on smell, she said.
Mike Potvin, who lost his vision at 25 to a rare hereditary disorder called Leber’s optic neuropathy, is not surprised by the study’s findings.
Beaulieu-Lefebvre will be presenting her findings in June at a conference for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping.
UBC’s Amanda Vincent Named Finalist for the 2010 Indianapolis Prize
Award Celebrates Outstanding Achievement in Animal Conservation
Amanda Vincent, Ph.D., is the reason seahorses are on the global conservation agenda. She was the first person to study seahorses underwater, document their extensive commercial trade and initiate a seahorse conservation project. Because of her tireless devotion, including 12-hour stints underwater and equally long hours in policy negotiations, Vincent, a professor at the University of British Columbia and co-founder of Project Seahorse, is one of six contenders for the $100,000 Indianapolis Prize for animal conservation.
The other Prize finalists are Gerardo Ceballos, Ph.D., leader in conservation strategy; premier elephant expert Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Ph.D.; Rodney Jackson, Ph.D., founder of the Snow Leopard Conservancy; famed cheetah researcher Laurie Marker, D.Phil. and Blue Ocean Institute founder Carl Safina, Ph.D.
“The passion and energy of these six finalists are the essence of the Indianapolis Prize. Their ability to connect conservation with the community has established hope for all species, including us,” said Indianapolis Prize Chair Myrta Pulliam.
“Amanda is a real pioneer and an innovator. Her dedication has helped ensure that marine fishes are now considered wildlife as well as important resources, and seahorses have become a notable flagship for marine conservation,” said Heather Koldewey, curator of aquarium projects at the Zoological Society of London.
Vincent holds the Canada Research Chair in Marine Conservation at the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre and is considered the leading authority on seahorse biology and conservation. She has mobilized a wide array of partners and, with them, made active gains in seahorse and marine conservation, from initiating protected areas and developing alliances of impoverished fishers to regulating international trade in seahorses. Her work has been a reflection of countless hours of underwater and trade research, intense consultation with communities and consumers and dialogue with all levels of government. One result of her pragmatic idealism has been measurably more fish in the ocean.
Vincent was born in Vancouver, Canada, and has lived in other parts of Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and her doctorate from the University of Cambridge (UK). She currently resides in Vancouver, Canada.
The winner of the 2010 Indianapolis Prize receives $100,000, along with the Lilly Medal, to be awarded at the Indianapolis Prize Gala presented by Cummins Inc. The Gala is scheduled for September 25, 2010, at The Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.
The biennial $100,000 Indianapolis Prize represents the largest individual monetary award for animal conservation in the world and is given as an unrestricted gift to the chosen honoree. The Indianapolis Prize was initiated by the Indianapolis Zoo as a significant component of its mission to inspire local and global communities and to celebrate, protect and preserve our natural world through conservation, education and research. This award brings the world’s attention to the cause of animal conservation and the brave, talented and dedicated men and women who spend their lives saving the Earth’s endangered animal species.
Ottawa lays charges against fish-farming company
Justice Department takes over private prosecution launched by biologist
By Judith Lavoie, Vancouver Sun – April 21, 2010, p. A9
Charges of unlawful possession of wild salmon and herring have been laid against Marine Harvest Canada, the largest fish-farming company in B.C.
A private prosecution previously laid by biologist and activist Alexandra Morton was taken over by the federal Justice Department Tuesday, said federal prosecutor Todd Gerhart.
“New information charges Marine Harvest with four counts and deals with two incidents,” he said.
The first incident involves juvenile wild pink salmon, which were mixed in with farmed Atlantic salmon as they were taken off a Marine Harvest vessel in June, and the second incident involves herring, which were discarded from pens in October.
The charges say the company failed to report incidental catches of wild fish and, having caught live fish, the company failed to return them to the ocean in a manner that would have caused the least harm.
Marine Harvest will next appear in court June 22 and Clare Backman, the company’s director of environmental compliance and community relations, said no decision has yet been taken on a plea.
“We will have to wait until we see the information,” Gerhart said.
Morton, an unflagging campaigner against open-net fish farms, is jubilant that the Justice Department has taken over the prosecutions.
“For decades we have heard reports of wild fish trapped in fish farms, eaten by the farm fish and destroyed during harvest,” she said.
Information about specific incidents was passed to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, but they refused to act, Morton said. “Now, government is finally doing its job. This is enormous.”
Honorary SCWIST member Dr. Barbara Moon says you can believe in both evolution and religion
Dr. Barbara Moon recently retired after teaching biology at UFV for more than 30 years. During that time she has had many conversations with students about the debate surrounding evolution and creationism. She says you can believe in both. Since 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, it seemed appropriate to feature the issue in our Sound Off column.
By Dr. Barbara Moon
A scientific theory is a comprehensive explanation of observed natural phenomena that is supported by a large body of evidence. As such, scientific theories only concern the
natural world (e.g., atomic, gravity, evolutionary theories). They can be used to make testable
predictions about natural phenomena or about phenomena that have not yet been observed.
Scientists use the scientific method as an effective way to study the natural world and to develop and test theories. A key point aboutscientific theories is that they are practical
only when they deal with natural causes.
Evolutionary theory provides an explanation for why there are so many different kinds of organisms on earth, how all organisms on earth are related and how they share an original common ancestor. In common with other scientific theories, it does not and can not
investigate supernatural causes of life on earth.
An examination of the various perspectives on creation and evolution has convinced me that the relationship between evolution and creationism is a continuum, not a dichotomy between two irreconcilable opposites. The perspectives range from literalist traditions, which interpret scripture as equivalent to scientifi c explanations of origins, to atheistic ultra-evolutionism, which proposes that the natural world is all that exists and thus nothing supernatural exists. The extremes are indeed incompatible, but there are many positions in between where scientists and people of faith agree. I do not have the space here to go into a description of all the perspectives along the continuum.
You can get detailed explanations in my Powerpoint lecture, which can be found as a link off the following web page: http://www.ufv.ca/biology/Darwin.htm
Theistic evolution is a perspective of which many people are unaware yet is a position where people of faith and evolutionists can come together. It is a view in which God created the laws of nature and thus events in the universe generally unfold with no further divine intervention. This is a view held by many Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish, and Christian biologists. Their approach to science uses the scientific method.
Such a view accepts all the results of modern science, including the Big Bang, random mutation, and Darwin’s notion of descent with modifi cation through natural selection. Furthermore it is the position of most Protestant and Catholic churches (and many other religions) and is the perspective taught at their seminaries. I encourage alumni to not reject evolution without investigating the theistic evolutionary perspective. Many theistic evolutionists are working biologists who uphold both the authority of scripture and the integrity of the scientifi c process. One online group (An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution) is trying to get
beyond the warring positions of “evolution or God” and to critique the commonly voiced positions in which “evangelicals condemn evolutionary science as atheistic; evolutionists mock evangelicals as being little better than medieval religious nutcases” (from Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution website). I invite you to do the same.
The evolutionary perspective holds sway in the modern world for several reasons. First, it is supported by a large array of data collected over centuries. Second, it is accepted by scientists across all fields. Third, it is a highly productive theory that has enabled us to rapidly advance understanding of the natural world. Modern medicine is now at an exciting stage in which the basis of many human diseases and conditions is starting to be understood. However, this knowledge did not arise from the study of humans alone but from experimental analysis of a whole range of organisms such as bacteria, fungi, plants, and small mammals. The findings from these studies are often directly applicable to humans because, since we are all interrelated via common descent, we share most of the molecular systems taking place within our cells. Once a molecular mechanism is found in experimental organisms, there is a good chance it will be similar in humans. The latest manifestation of this process is in the ongoing analysis of the human genome: sequencing the genome was a wonderful technological accomplishment but useless without analyzing gene function.
By comparing a human gene with the evolutionarily similar gene from an experimental organism, a reasonable function can be attributed in humans, and the basis for a disease understood. Some people see the theory of evolution as an amoral position, but evolutionists can have just as strong a moral compass as deists. I also contend that looking at the world through an evolutionary lens can lead to new moral insights. Once one understands that all creatures are interrelated via evolution, one sees that we are all cousins who are very much in the same boat together. This can inspire a desire to care for the earth and everything in it. I
challenge you to investigate further.
Univeristy of the Fraser Valley Alumni magazine Aluminations Fall 09 Volume 10 Issue 1
