R & D NEWS

University of Quebec Establishes Podiatry School

The Trois-Rivières campus of the University of Quebec (Trois-Rivières, QC) will be home to the first Canadian training program for podiatric doctors with the establishment of its podiatric medicine program.

The program, expected to begin this September, is affiliated with the New York College of Podiatric Medicine (New York, NY) and the Order of Quebec Podiatrists. The four-year program will include 1,770 hours of theoretical and 2,313 hours of practical instruction and will have space for 25 students.

Cancer Medication May Stimulate Heart Cells
A study led by Dr. Chris Glover, a University of Ottawa Heart Institute (Ottawa, ON) researcher, demonstrates that the cancer medication granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) stimulates stem cell production in adults, and may prove promising for those who have suffered heart attacks.

Testing the medication in five heart-attack patients, the study investigators found the results — which showed regrowth of heart cells — so promising that they plan to conduct a larger study of up to 100 patients this spring.

One patient in the current study was a 62-year-old man whose heart muscle had 25 per cent function in one section. Following the study, 45 per cent of the heart muscle in the same area functioned properly. All five patients showed some form of improvement while taking the medication.

Glover cautioned that such recovery can happen spontaneously, which is why further studies will be needed to follow the results. The researchers were able to determine that the medication stimulated stem cell production, but do not know if those cells were heart cells.

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting last November.

Enviro-friendly Diesel Under Development
Working on a more environmentally friendly diesel has won University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK) researcher Ajay Dalai, PhD $240,000 in funding over three years from an initiative between Biocap Canada Foundation (Kingston, ON) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Ottawa, ON).

Dalai’s work aims to produce a biodegradable lubricating additive for diesel engines that will reduce engine wear and improve fuel economy. Dalai’s research has demonstrated that an addition of as little as one per cent of the bio-diesel additive can improve sulphur-reduced diesel fuel’s lubricity, which increases engine efficiency and life.

Heart Attack Gene Identified
The first gene to be directly linked to heart attacks has been identified by researchers from the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH).

A deletion mutation in the gene MEF2A has been found to weaken coronary artery walls, leaving them less able to protect against plaque buildup and heart disease. MEF2A is required to make a regulatory protein, which the study suggests controls the expression of genes in the endothelium, a layer of cells that lines the heart.

The team made the discovery while conducting genetic analysis on a family from Iowa that is prone to coronary artery disease and heart attacks. Those in this family with the mutation have a virtually 100 per cent chance of developing heart disease.

Despite the findings, the researchers noted that many factors, such as blood pressure, diet and body weight, can play a role in preventing the onset of heart disease.

The findings were published in a recent issue of Science.

German Award Honours Toronto Researcher
Tak Mak, PhD has been awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize — a German award honouring biomedical research — for his work involving T-cell receptors.

Mak, a senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Ontario Cancer Institute (Toronto, ON) and a professor of Medical Biophysics and Immunology at the University of Toronto (Toronto, ON), is the first Canadian to receive the honour, which was jointly awarded to Stanford University (Stanford, CA) researcher Mark M. Davis, PhD.

Created in 1952, the award comes with an endowment of 100,000 euros, (approximately $153,000 Cdn).

U of T Researcher Awarded Chair
University of Toronto (U of T) (Toronto, ON) researcher Min Zhuo, PhD has been awarded the first EJLB-CIHR Michael Smith Chair in Neurosciences and Mental Health.

Funding for the chair is provided by an endowment grant of $1 million from the EJLB Foundation, a Montreal, Que.-based private foundation; a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (Ottawa, ON) Establishment Grant of $300,000; and a yearly $50,000 Institute Support Grant from the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (Montreal, QC).

U of T will also be nominating Zhuo for a Canada Research Chair, and will apply for infrastructure funds through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (Ottawa, ON).

Zhuo, who was selected for the chair through an international peer review competition, moved from the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) to U of T to conduct research on cellular and molecular mechanisms of pain at U of T’s Centre for the Study of Pain.

New Bacterium Discovered at Biodôme
INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier (Laval, QC) post-doctoral student Normand Labbé has discovered a new genus of bacterium called Nitratireductor aquibiodomus at the Montreal Biodôme.

The new bacterium, discovered in the waste seawater denitrification system of the St. Lawrence Marine Ecosystem, reduces nitrate levels in water by transforming nitrate into nitrite, which, in turn, other bacteria convert into nitrogen gas.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Ottawa, ON) is currently funding work on the Biodôme’s denitrification system.

New Breast Cancer Gene Identified
Researchers from Canada, France and the U.K. have discovered a gene that may be responsible for non-hereditary forms of breast cancer and some forms of ovarian cancer.

It is already known that faulty BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are linked to hereditary forms of breast cancer, but hereditary forms only account for five per cent of breast cancers. Until recently, researchers had been unable to identify any causes of ovarian cancer.

The newly discovered gene, EMSY, appears to shut down the BRCA2 gene, which normally repairs damaged DNA before it turns a cell cancerous. The research team has also linked EMSY to eight per cent of non-hereditary breast cancers and 17 per cent of ovarian cancer.

The findings were published in a recent issue of Cell.

Canola Researcher Awarded
Gerhard Rakow, PhD, a researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Saskatoon Research Centre (Saskatoon, SK) has been awarded the Canadian Plant Breeding & Genetics Award for 2003.

Rakow’s work producing Brassica juncea, a mustard plant that produces traditional-quality canola seed, has strengthened canola crops by making them better adapted to dryland conditions and more resistant to diseases like blackleg.

Rakow is currently working to improve canola seed quality so that the meal, which makes up 60 per cent of the seed mass, has more utility to animal feed markets.

The Canadian Plant Breeding & Genetics Award, which recognizes a Canadian researcher whose work has contributed to the advancement of plant agriculture, is sponsored by the Canadian Seed Trade Association (Nepean, ON) and Germination magazine.

Cytokine Suppresses T-cells
Researchers have recently discovered that the cytokine IL-27 may suppress CD4+ T-cells, the cells responsible for the immune system’s response to infection, acting oppositely from traditional cytokines.

These findings, published in a recent issue of Immunity, result from research conducted by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), DNAX Research Inc. (Palo Alto, CA), the University of Toronto (Toronto, ON), Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan) and Amgen Inc. (Thousand Oaks, CA).

Working with mice that lacked the protein WSX-1 — a receptor for IL-27 — the research team was able to pinpoint how the immune system worked without IL-27. It appears that the cytokine may play a strong role in regulating the immune system, as it is involved in T-cell differentiation and growth. The animal model immune systems used by the researchers demonstrated that the immune response continued to fight parasites long after the parasites were controlled.

The researchers note that the results may be useful in therapies for autoimmune disorders in which T-cells regulate inflammation response.