Anti-HIV medications stop the virus from replicating in the body, prolonging life and preserving health. But, these medications are not a cure. This is because HIV, like all retroviruses, can persist within cells called “HIV reservoirs”, which can reactivate at any time to produce virus. This is why anti-HIV medications must be taken for life.
While taking anti-HIV medications, some people experience something called “persistent low-level viremia” where HIV levels in blood suddenly become detectable for no obvious reason. Historically, this was attributed to difficulties in taking medication daily, or the development of HIV drug resistance, so doctors would try to resolve it by changing the medications. But, this would often fail to resolve the issue, causing great stress. Recently, a major discovery was made: that persistent-low-level viremia can originate from HIV reservoirs. Namely, these cells can make clonal copies of themselves, which reactivate to produce HIV. But, many questions remain, and these new discoveries also need to be translated into practice. I will study a unique cohort of people living with HIV using cutting-edge techniques to advance our understanding of the HIV reservoir and improve HIV clinical care.
CO2 is a common biological gas that triggers adaptive responses in various organisms. In humans, it’s abundantly produced as a byproduct of oxidative respiration and plays crucial roles in health and disease. For example, elevated CO2 levels can lead to airway constriction and respiratory distress. Additionally, pathogens like Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli use CO2 within the human host as a crucial cue to trigger virulence. Targeting these CO2-dependent responses offers significant potential for therapeutic development. However, understanding the fundamental biochemical mechanisms of CO2 sensing is crucial and remains largely unexplored. A promising mechanism involves CO2 forming a reversible covalent bond with specific protein sites, called Prot-CO2, which acts as a regulatory switch. However, this mechanism is scarcely characterized due to a lack of identification methods. Here, we present a suite of innovative high-throughput techniques for discovering Prot-CO2 sites across the proteome and illuminate their detailed biochemical mechanisms of sensing. By studying CO2 sensing in pathogens and airway constriction, we aim to uncover knowledge that can be used to develop new therapeutic approaches targeting cellular CO2 sensing.
Historically, scientific research has been conducted without legitimate engagement with or, in many cases, at the expense of Indigenous communities. To reconcile research relationships, there is growing recognition of the need to engage with Indigenous nations throughout the research process and to pursue questions that are valued by those who live on and care for the lands where research is occurring. An area of shared interest is the health of wildlife and ecosystems; many communities depend on wildlife for sustenance and livelihoods, and, thus, threats to wildlife health extend to impact food security, culture, and wellbeing. Through two days of relationship-building and dialogue with Akisq’nuk First Nation members who live in and outside of community we plan to 1) identify Nation priorities for wildlife health and Indigenous food sovereignty research, 2) develop an engagement protocol guiding future research, and 3) co-create knowledge products describing these priorities for use by the Nation, the research team, and the Wildlife Health Program (Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship). This project will serve as a basis for future community-driven research efforts and inform provincial wildlife health programs.
Schools are a critical site for ensuring Sexual Health Education (SHE) in BC; however, recent increases in anti-SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) organizing threaten youth’s access to 2S;LGBTQ+ affirming SHE. This project brings together an intersectoral advisory group which includes a range of partners working in SHE, health promotion, service delivery, and related areas. We will establish an advisory group to identify research priorities for working across the otherwise siloed sectors of education and sexual healthcare. Together, we will co-create a research agenda that aims to strengthen and support access to 2S;LGBTQ+ affirming sexual health education. Throughout the project we will leverage opportunities for intersectoral learning and lay the groundwork to subsequently develop a range of KTE materials to support sexual health education policy and practice. This project brings experts together to facilitate knowledge sharing across sectors, identify research-informed strategies to improve sexual health education, and co-create future applied research opportunities to ultimately generate resources to support professionals in delivering 2S;LGBTQ+ affirming SHE.
This proposal supports two phases of an art exhibit that brings attention to police violence as a source of public health inequity. Policing practices in Canada have long caused disproportionate harm and can extend to secondary health impacts caused by media exposure to violence. For over two decades, public health scholars in the U.S. have used a public health framing to improve understandings of health outcomes of, and the data that is collected on, police violence. This data is vital to track policing impacts, so if Canadians hope to understand the health outcomes related to police violence, Canadian health scholars will need to advocate for better information tracing and a public health approach to police violence. This proposal will support a community co-created art exhibit that examines health impacts of media exposure to police violence. The show will feature co-created works, an interactive mural, an infographic public report on the health impacts of police violence, a workshop, and a panel discussion with public health scholars. The in-person art exhibit will take place at Gallery Gachet in Fall 2024, the eight (8) subsequent presentations will share the findings to health and media scholars throughout B.C. and Ontario.
This research program aims to tackle the challenge of improving the overall health of the Canadian population, focusing on nutrition. The approach involves using methods from behavioral and data sciences. The study will investigate how small, non-economic encouragements (nudges) and financial incentives can influence people to make healthier and more sustainable food choices over the long term. For example, placing healthy food options prominently at the checkout is a type of nudge. The research involves creating an underlying technological infrastructure, connecting it with data from a grocery store loyalty card program, and analyzing how nudges and economic incentives affect shopping habits over time. The analysis will consider their impacts on total food intake, nutrients consumed, and the environmental impact of food choices. Additionally, the research will examine these influences across different socioeconomic groups to understand and address nutrition disparities. The ultimate aim is to offer practical insights for policymakers and businesses to promote fair, healthy, and sustainable diets.
Cognitive decline is associated with a variety of neurodegenerative disorders and is increasingly prevalent in Canada’s aging population. One of the most effective means to counteract cognitive decline is to maintain or enhance cognitive reserve. Lifestyle factors have been shown to impact cognitive reserve, but this impact varies highly across individuals. Most investigations into the effects of lifestyle factors on behavior and neural function do not capture this inter-individual variability and produced mixed, difficult to reproduce findings. This research aims to reduce this variability by clustering the population into sub-types based on their susceptibility to lifestyle changes before investigating the causal relationships between lifestyle factors, behaviour and neural function. The identified causal relationships will serve as promising targets for future clinical interventions in sub-types of our aging population that can limit the effects of cognitive decline and lower the rates of neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to the classical means of knowledge translation, this research will be shared through public presentations held by the Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology at Simon Fraser University.
Enzymes are biological machines which facilitate crucial processes in the human body. A reduction in the function of a given enzyme, sometimes brought about by an alteration or “mutation” to the underlying genetic code, often results in disease. In Parkinson’s disease (PD), a mutation in the GBA1 gene can cause earlier disease onset and rapid motor decline. Furthermore, the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GCase) that is encoded by GBA1 is less active in PD patients regardless of whether they have a defective GBA1 gene. We hypothesize that GCase is altered or “modulated” by other proteins within the cell. My first goal in this project will be to create improved ways to measure the activity of GCase in live human cells. Previous work has shown that “ratiometric fluorescence sensors” – small molecules which light up when processed by a target enzyme – have high efficacy towards this end. The activity of a large library of existing drug candidates will then be tested for their ability to modulate GCase. Changes measured in GCase activity within cells treated with these drug candidates will help identify these aforementioned unknown “modulators”, thus revealing new insights into the mechanisms of PD and opening new therapeutic approaches.
A holistic, collaborative approach that addresses the interconnections of human, animal, and environmental health (‘One Health’) is increasingly recognized as necessary for the management of ongoing and emerging health threats. This requires effective knowledge sharing and communication strategies between government agencies and One Health practitioners (e.g., physicians, veterinarians, and environmental scientists). Using a community-engaged approach, we will describe the scope of One Health issues in two Canadian provinces – British Columbia and Ontario – and review how One Health information is currently shared. Through engagement with a diverse community of stakeholders in academia, government, and practice, we will assess information and policy needs, priorities, and possibilities within local contexts and explore how One Health Communication strategies can be deployed and sustained at a regional level. By combining One Health systems science and communications research, this project will improve our ability and capacity to provide relevant and timely information related to human, animal, and environmental health and mitigate emerging health threats in Canada.
Cancer is the leading cause of mortality in British Columbia. Whereas the immune system has long been recognized as an effective protection against infections, recent breakthroughs have demonstrated that the immune system also has the capacity to control cancer progression. Thus, cancer immunotherapies are being developed as a new type of treatment that acts by boosting the natural capacities of the immune system and directing it to destroy tumors. Amongst the different types of cells composing the immune system, professional phagocytes have the unique capacity to eliminate cancer cells by engulfing and digesting them. Subsequently, they are able to activate other immune cells, called lymphocytes, to mount an immune response specifically directed against the tumor. However, new evidence suggests that mechanical cues and physical constraints prevent phagocytes from using their anti-tumor potential. The goal of this project is to understand how phagocytes sense, respond and utilize mechanical forces to overcome physical constraints, with the aim to harness these mechanisms to develop more effective cancer immunotherapies.
