UNews - Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

Alberta Innovates grant facilitates joint research project on the hepatitis B virus

trevor.kenney — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 19:58:21 +0000

Dr. Trushar Patel at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and Dr. Carla Coffin at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary have secured Alberta Innovates funding worth $639,000 to further research aimed at developing innovative strategies to combat hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

HBV is a global public health problem responsible for a million deaths every year, according to the Hepatitis B Foundation.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Dr. Trushar Patel.

“Although we have a very effective vaccine against hepatitis B, there have been over two billion people worldwide infected with the hepatitis B virus,” says Patel. “The vaccine is not useful for people who have already been infected. Globally, over 250 million are chronically infected and at risk of developing liver cancer.”

HBV is transmitted through blood or other body fluids. The most common methods of transmission are from mother to child at birth or in early childhood from close contact with body fluids of an infected individual. Children born to HBV-infected mothers are at high risk of lifelong infection and developing serious liver disease like cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hotspots for HBV infection include Africa, Asia and the Middle East, largely due to sporadic vaccination programs in those areas. In Canada, HBV vaccination in childhood or early adolescence began in the mid-1990s. Most adults born before 1985 have not been vaccinated.

“Despite the significant public health impact, research on hepatitis B has been severely underfunded. We are grateful for this funding as it allows us to continue to contribute to the global efforts to achieve a cure by understanding how to prevent HBV multiplication,” say Patel and Coffin. “Our preliminary results from earlier research show we are already on a positive track.”

Current treatments for HBV include long-term, often lifelong, use of oral antiviral medications or interferon injections. Although interferon is given for one year, treatment has severe side effects and limitations. Patel and Coffin want to help pave the way for new treatments in the future and are pursuing a two-pronged approach.

They first want to identify new targets for treatment on the hepatitis B genome. Secondly, because viruses cannot survive on their own and require proteins from the body to help them replicate, Patel wants to understand how the body and the virus communicate and then block the communication so replication doesn’t occur.

“We have already designed some therapeutic molecules based on our work that was done here in Lethbridge. Dr. Coffin’s lab is currently testing if these molecules can inhibit HBV replication,” says Patel.

Part of the project was supported by Patel’s Canada Research Chair program through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Cumming School of Medicine Clinical Research Fund. The preliminary results from that research were included in the Alberta Innovates grant application.

“Because the results are still preliminary, we can’t make any promises until we have the fully developed story. But clearly the reviewers at Alberta Innovates liked our idea and approaches,” says Coffin. “We hope to have pre-clinical work done at the end of the three years. Then we will move to the next phase of the research, which would mean applying for more funding to improve the molecules we are designing for animal studies.”

“We take this opportunity to thank our collaborators, the U of L and the U of C, as well as Alberta Innovates for their encouragement, support and motivation for our interdisciplinary research work on understanding host-viral communications,” says Patel.

Patel is an assistant professor and a Canada Research Chair (RNA & Protein Biophysics) in the U of L’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and an adjunct assistant professor at the U of C’s Cumming School of Medicine. Coffin is an associate professor of Medicine and a hepatologist (liver specialist) at the U of C.

U of L introduces Dr. Julia Brassolotto as the new AIHS Research Chair in Rural Health and Well-being

trevor.kenney — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 17:42:31 +0000

Dr. Julia Brassolotto has always looked at health policy issues from an equity perspective. That point of view shaped her first research work in rural Alberta and set the stage for her new role as Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions (AIHS) Research Chair in Rural Health and Well-being at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Brassolotto officially began her role at the U of L on July 1, but has seemingly been pointed in this direction since beginning her PhD work at York ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in 2009. The Ontario native earned her undergraduate degree at McMaster ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, followed by master’s and PhD studies at York.

Dr. Julia Brassolotto's work includes looking at the conditions of care work, both paid and unpaid, and how public policy and the allocation of resources affects health and health care in a rural setting.

At the onset of her PhD research, she accompanied her partner to Northern Alberta where he was a teacher in an elementary school. Seeing an opportunity to investigate health equity issues in a rural setting, it set her on a career path that ultimately brought her to the U of L.

Her work in the North, and subsequently in the bordering communities in Northern rural British Columbia, shaped her PhD thesis and gave her experiential insight to the issues rural populations face. These interests persisted during her postdoctoral fellowship in Ontario.

“Living in rural Alberta, I noticed the ways in which rurality was a distinct determinant of health and had effects on other matters of health and health care. The way I had been approaching health equity up until that point hadn’t sufficiently addressed geography or rural Canada, so that was something I really wanted to explore. I got a taste of the distinct strengths and challenges of rural Alberta,” she says. “So, when I applied for this position at the U of L, it ended up being a perfect fit and brought me back to Alberta.”

Faculty of Health Sciences Dean Dr. Chris Hosgood could not be more pleased. He sees Brassolotto’s skill set as an ideal match to the scope of the new Chair.

“We are delighted to welcome Julia as the Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions Research Chair in Rural Health and Well-being. Her expertise in rural health, particularly relating to policy, will be a tremendous asset to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and the province,” says Hosgood.

“Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions is pleased that Dr. Brassolotto is now at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, ensuring equity in health for rural Alberta,” says Dr. Pamela Valentine, AIHS CEO (interim) and Transition CEO for Alberta Innovates. “The work that she is embarking upon is critically important to improved care for older Albertans.”

The (AIHS) Research Chair in Rural Health and Well-being is designed to create a research program focusing on social determinants of health and a big picture approach to rural health care.

“Broadly, it’s about the intersections of formal and informal care for older adults,” says Brassolotto. “I’m particularly interested in older adults with dementia in rural Alberta, looking at how the boundaries between public and private care are organized differently in rural areas than they are in urban areas.”

Her work includes looking at the conditions of care work, both paid and unpaid, and how public policy and the allocation of resources affects health and health care in a rural setting.

“Sometimes policy decisions are made without really considering the demographics and capabilities of the affected communities,” she says. “I want to find the gaps in our knowledge about rural dementia care, build on existing knowledge, and design research for the next couple years so that the research reflects the needs of rural Albertans.”

She says there will be ample opportunity for students to participate in the research work, something she found very valuable throughout her studies.

“I really benefited from that during my grad studies and that was what allowed me to get the experience I needed to be eligible for this position,” she says. “My supervisor for my post-doc and PhD had a CIHR Chair in Gender, Work, and Health, and by being able to take part in her research program, I had the opportunity to get my hands dirty. I’d like to be able to pass along that type of experience to my students.”

Brassolotto’s position is funded for five years, with a two-year option for extension.

Young researcher summer program looks to expand through transition

caroline.zentner — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 16:44:05 +0000

Universities in Alberta will be taking over the popular Heritage Youth Researcher Summer (HYRS) program from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions (AIHS) during a three-year transition period.

“Now, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary are all picking up the program and running it internally,” says Brett Weighill, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge student and HYRS program co-ordinator. “And yet we’ve still been able to increase our intake this year to provide more students with this opportunity.”

The U of L will host seven Grade 11 students this summer and they’ll be working in the labs of six U of L professors in biochemistry and neuroscience. Five are from Lethbridge and two are from Medicine Hat.

“This is our first year accepting students outside Lethbridge,” he says. “There’s still room to grow in smaller communities and get the word out about the program.”The geographic area for U of L HYRS students includes communities south of Claresholm. Plans for the future include putting the application process online, extending the application time period and expanding public and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ collaborations.

The students are paid $2,500 in a research stipend for the six weeks they are on campus. Also scheduled are visits to the Dr. Bertram cadaver lab at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, the Agriculture Canada research station, Animal Disease Research Institute, the Alberta Water and Environment Science Building, the health simulation lab and the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience. They will also attend talks by U of L researchers like Dr. Roy Golsteyn, who will discuss his research on the cancer-fighting properties of the buffalo bean. The six weeks wrap up with a poster presentation and banquet.

Students who participate in the program learn about the kind of research work being done at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and have the opportunity to meet like-minded people.

“The program helps the students know, going into Grade 12, more about what they want to do and what university is like,” says Weighill. “They become more comfortable with the transition from high school to university.”

The program runs from July 7 to August 18.

UNews - Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

Alberta Innovates grant facilitates joint research project on the hepatitis B virus

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U of L introduces Dr. Julia Brassolotto as the new AIHS Research Chair in Rural Health and Well-being

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Young researcher summer program looks to expand through transition

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