Many microorganisms reside in our bodies as part of normal living. For example, bacteria in the gastrointestinal system outnumber our own cells and form a stable connection with the body that persists for life. These resident bacteria are needed for parts of the digestive tract to develop and function properly. In addition, beneficial bacteria attach to the walls of the intestinal tract, preventing harmful bacteria from occupying these surfaces, and protect us from infectious diseases as a result. A lot of research has focused on disease-causing bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella, which are among the leading causes of gastrointestinal illness and death worldwide. Yet little is known about the role of beneficial bacteria in battling these microbes, which is the focus of Inna Sekirov’s research. She is examining what role resident bacteria play during the response of the intestinal immune system to infection and how these bacteria respond to antibiotics used to treat gastrointestinal illnesses. Findings from her research will help to establish whether drugs are likely to have a positive or adverse impact on a patient’s beneficial bacteria, and could also help inform new therapies or dietary regimes that complement or strengthen the ability of these bacteria to help the body fight infection.
Research Location: University of British Columbia - Point Grey
Characterizing British Columbia’s Rural and Northern Home Support Workforce: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Workers and Their Working Lives
BC’s home support system makes an important contribution to the health and well being of the province’s most vulnerable seniors. In 2004/05, home support services were provided to more than 30,000 British Columbians. Most home support users are single senior women over the age of 75, living below the poverty line. Home support consists of personal care services (e.g., bathing, dressing, feeding) as well as basic medical care (e.g., giving medication, keeping wounds clean) provided in people's homes by trained Community Health Workers. Zena Sharman is examining the characteristics and working lives of home support workers in rural and remote BC communities, within the Vancouver Island health authority. She is also investigating factors that contribute to the recruitment and retention of Community Health Workers in rural and remote BC communities. Sharman hopes her research will help improve health services delivery in these communities, particularly in the context of the aging population and related increases in demand for home support services. She also hopes her findings can improve methods of attracting and keeping Community Health Workers.
Systems biology analysis of dynamic cellular pathways
Many diseases, including cancers and autoimmune disorders, arise from malfunctions of complex cellular processes. These processes regulate such things as the cell’s ability to grow, change cell type, and even die. Complex biomolecular networks, consisting of interacting genes and proteins, create the sophisticated information processing circuits within cells that control these biomolecular events. Inherited genetic defects, genetic mutations and some environmental cues can alter these networks to create abnormal cellular functioning leading to disease. Medicines treat and cure disease by controlling malfunctioning biomolecular networks. This requires a deep understanding of how cellular networks function and why malfunctioning networks fail. James Taylor’s research focuses on cellular signaling, the mechanism for processing external information that is the basis for a cell’s ability to sense the environment and communicate with other cells. He is studying how information signals flow through, and are processed by, signaling networks. The research is being conducted with baker’s yeast, a single cell organism that is commonly used for research involving fundamental cellular processes. Using computational, engineering and advanced experimental methods, Taylor is exploring how these networks create normal cell functionality and how changes in these networks lead to disease. By contributing to our knowledge of cellular signaling in yeast cells, this research will shed light on malfunctions of cellular processes in humans.
Testosterone-Dependent Regulation of Arachidonic Acid Metabolism Influences the Development of Hypertension Following Insulin Resistance
Resistance to insulin — the hormone that converts sugar into energy — leads to diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension). Chronic hypertension can lead to cardiovascular complications like heart disease and stroke — two leading causes of death. This is a cause for concern since two million Canadians have diabetes, and this number is expected to rise to three million by the end of the decade. Consuming a diet high in fructose, a sugar used to sweeten soft drinks and other foods, causes insulin resistance and increases blood pressure. Harish Vasudevan has found that differences in gender and sex hormones play a role in the development of high blood pressure. For example, pre-menopausal women are less likely to develop hypertension than men or post-menopausal women. The female sex hormone, estrogen, protects these women against developing insulin resistance and high blood pressure. But the male sex hormone, testosterone, is required for blood pressure to elevate following insulin resistance. Fructose also disturbs the normal relaxation in blood vessels, but requires testosterone to do so. Vasudevan is examining how changes in the blood vessels depend on testosterone and estrogen. This research will further clarify the role of sex hormones in the development of insulin resistance and hypertension, which should, in turn, lead to new treatments for these chronic diseases.
How the eating disorder therapist's personal experience of an eating disorder influences the therapeutic relationship with clients who have eating disorders: A grounded theory
The demand for eating disorders treatment in BC typically exceeds what is available in existing specialty programs. This service gap is often filled by community psychotherapists. Research indicates that eating disorders among eating disorder treatment professionals far exceeds prevalence rates in the general public. This suggests that there are likely to be therapists working in the field of eating disorders treatment who have recovered from, or who many currently struggle with, an eating disorder. Recovered/recovering eating disorder therapists are ethically obliged to evaluate how their personal experience may influence the therapeutic relationship with the eating disordered patient in helpful or harmful ways. Meris Williams’ research aims to enlarge our understanding of the recovered/recovering eating disorder therapist, especially how the personal history of an eating disorder influences the therapeutic relationship with eating disordered patients. She will conduct extensive interviews with 20 psychotherapists who provide services to patients with an eating disorder, and who themselves have received a diagnosis of an eating disorder. The study’s results can enhance the effectiveness of recovered/recovering eating disorder therapists by helping them assess their readiness to work with eating disordered patients. It can also help ensure that therapists’ personal experience is influencing the therapeutic relationship in a manner that benefits patients. The results could also be used to inform the education, training, and supervision of eating disorder therapists-in-training in BC. Ultimately, this research will help people seeking treatment for an eating disorder.
Improving public health through active transportation: Understanding the influence of urban infrastructure on decisions to travel by bicycle
Cycling offers great benefits as an urban transportation option in terms of public health. It’s free of air and noise pollution, and it incorporates physical activity into people’s daily routines, therefore contributing to increases in fitness, decreases in obesity, and potential declines in heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Cycling rates in Canadian cities are very low compared to those in European centres. Despite the room for growth, Canadian municipalities are struggling to accomplish even modest changes in cycling rates. Some cities have sponsored research to understand how to encourage their residents to cycle more, but none have investigated how neighbourhood characteristics and transportation networks are related to cycling rates. Meghan Winters is researching which characteristics influence cycling rates in MetroVancouver. Information about factors such as population density, hills, distances to shops and workplaces, street types and bike routes will be linked to information from more than 2,000 Vancouver area residents about whether they drive, cycle, walk or use transit for their most common weekly trips. She will measure the effect of neighbourhood characteristics and transportation networks on the likelihood of a trip being made by bicycle. By providing evidence on how to build neighbourhoods that are favourable for active transportation, this study will help make the healthy transportation choice an easier choice, thus improving the fitness and health status of the community.
The role of the DOG-1 helicase in repair of DNA interstrand cross-links in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans
DNA damage repair pathways prevent cancer by recognizing and repairing DNA damage. If DNA damage is not constantly and consistently repaired in this way, it can lead to mutations in the DNA, which accumulate over time. Without normal DNA repair pathways in action, cancer will eventually develop. Jillian Youds’ research focuses on the DNA repair pathway involved in the hereditary cancer susceptibility syndrome Fanconi anemia. Patients with Fanconi anemia have unstable chromosomes and commonly develop cancer at a young age. It is thought that these patients are unable to repair cross-links in their DNA, which can prevent essential cell processes from occurring. As these DNA repair pathways are common to many organisms, Youds is using the nematode C. elegans to conduct her studies. Using molecular biology, genetic and biochemistry techniques, Youds will study how DNA cross-links are repaired by the cell under normal circumstances. This research is relevant to patients with Fanconi anemia, and it will contribute to the development of the best possible chemotherapeutics to optimize cancer treatments. Since the loss of functional repair pathways is a contributing cause of cancer and also a means to target cancer cells for elimination during treatment, an understanding of how the DNA cross-link repair pathway works will bring us closer to the ultimate goals of prevention and successful treatment of cancer.
Toxicology of Natural Products and Synthetic Drugs
Adverse drug reactions are a major health risk that contributes to increasing health care costs and strain on the system. They are the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and statistics indicate that the situation would be similar in Canada. There are many types of adverse drug reactions. Liver toxicity (poisoning) leading to fatal liver failure is one of the most common. In most cases, the mechanisms that cause drug induced liver toxicity are not well-known and even less is known about the effects of natural products (herbal products or dietary supplements) on liver function. With the ever increasing demand of herbal products by consumers, there is an urgent need to conduct detailed and systematic scientific investigations on their hepatic metabolic effects. Dr. Chang’s work is aimed at characterizing the effect of natural products and synthetic drugs on liver function and determining how they are able to give rise to damage in liver cells. A better understanding of the mechanisms will contribute to a safer and more rational use of natural/herbal products and synthetic drugs.
Dopamine modulation of prefrontal cortex network dynamics
Schizophrenia is a debilitating condition characterized by cognitive deficits in the realm of working memory, attention and executive function. While these deficits are a core feature of the illness, they are not adequately treated by anti-psychotic medications. The working memory deficits in schizophrenia are thought to involve dysfunction of the dopamine system in the a region of brain called the prefrontal cortex. Dr. Jeremy Seamans is working to understand the neural mechanisms that support working memory in the prefrontal cortex and how these mechanisms are modulated (affected) by dopamine levels. Using computer models, he has been able to link certain phenomena to actions of dopamine at the level of individual neurons and in the synapses between neurons. New computer simulation results suggested an even richer dynamic for how dopamine modulates activity in the prefrontal cortex. By testing the predictions of the computer simulations in a rat model, he will move from describing the known effects of dopamine on single neurons to detailing its impact on large-scale networks of neurons involved in working memory. The work has relevance not only to the theoretical question of how working memory information is coded and modulated but also may provide insight into how variations in the levels and actions of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex produces cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
Effects of exercise on structural and functional plasticity in the aging hippocampus
In the past 10 years we have come to adopt a more dynamic view of the brain. While we used to believe that the adult brain did not produce new neurons, we now know that new neurons are produced continually through out our lives, a process known as neurogenesis. In conjunction with neurogenesis, both new and existing cells also possess the capacity to alter the number and types of connections they make with other cells, a process called synaptogenesis. These processes can dramatically affect our cognitive processing capacities, and current research indicates that abnormalities in either neurogenesis and/or synaptogenesis are linked to a variety of neurological disorders ranging from those normally associated with adulthood (i.e. Alzheimer’s disease. Major depression, and Schizophrenia), to those that are more developmental in nature (i.e. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Fragile-X Syndrome, Rett’s Syndrome. Dr. Brian Christie’s research has targeted how exercise can facilitate learning performance, synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis and synaptogenesis in the brain. He has shown that exercise can induce long-term structural and functional changes in the connections between brain cells. His current work will provide greater detail about the mechanisms underlying the marked effects of exercise, particularly in the aging brain. A deeper understanding of these mechanisms may ultimately result in new approaches for establishing, maintaining, and even enhancing brain cells and their connections as we age.