UNews - Tony Montina

Canadian Space Agency grant will help further research into the health effects of space travel

caroline.zentner — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 16:35:05 +0000

Dr. Gerlinde Metz, a neuroscientist at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, and a team of researchers have received a $225,000 grant from the Canadian Space Agency to build a better understanding of how the human body adapts to life in space.

The grant was announced recently by the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, as part of $2.8 million in research grants to 14 Canadian post-secondary institutions.

“Canada’s investments in astronomy and planetary science are a powerful catalyst for scientific advancement and innovation,” said Joly. “These strategic commitments will empower Canadian researchers with the tools and opportunities they need to develop world-class expertise, driving cutting-edge discoveries and technological breakthroughs right here at home.”

“We are grateful for this funding, as it will allow us to determine the complex biological responses to long-duration spaceflight over time,” says Metz. “Our previous research has shown that space travel resulted in sex-specific changes in metabolites involved in energy metabolism, which may be linked to bone loss, muscle regulation and immunity dysfunction.”

Space travel imposes stresses on astronauts, including noise, vibration, loss of G forces and radiation exposure. Numerous studies have revealed physical complications from spaceflight, including loss of bone and muscle mass.

The grant enables the research team, including Tony Montina from ULethbridge’s Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and a collaborator from NASA/Pittsburgh, to participate in NASA’s first comprehensive multi-level analysis of the world’s largest existing group of astronauts.

The research project could also help identify protective factors and ways to counteract the negative effects of spaceflight.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers part of a global team studying the effects of space travel

caroline.zentner — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 20:50:08 +0000

A global group of researchers, including Dr. Gerlinde Metz from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) and Tony Montina from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, is examining the long-term effects of spaceflight.

Dr. Gerlinde Metz, a neuroscientist, has expertise in metabolomics.

Headed by Dr. Afshin Beheshti, a scientist from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Pittsburgh, Metz and Montina, with their expertise in metabolomics, aging and the effects of stress, are the only Canadian researchers in the group. They and a team of ULethbridge students previously collaborated with NASA on analyzing blood samples from astronauts on International Space Station (ISS) missions.

“This groundbreaking work has the potential to significantly advance the understanding of the biological pathways that determine health outcomes associated with human spaceflight,” says Metz, who co-leads the Metabolomics Platform of the Southern Alberta Genome Sciences Centre (SAGSC) with Montina. “Considering the enormous physical and physiological strain induced on the human body by spaceflight, this research is both timely and necessary as societies prepare for longer periods of space travel.”

The Human Adaptation to Spaceflight study will look at a massive amount of data collected over 12 years on the ISS involving more than 70 astronauts. The researchers will determine the key factors that impact astronauts during spaceflight. The health impacts can include bone loss, cardiovascular disease, renal issues such as kidney stones, disruption of circadian rhythms, potential cancer risks and eye disorders.

“Understanding the integrated human system response to spaceflight will exponentially increase our understanding of the risks and potential countermeasures for space travellers,” says Beheshti, director of the Center of Space Biomedicine, associate director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and professor of surgery at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Pittsburgh.

Spaceflight affects mitochondria, which generate energy to power the cell, as well as other tasks like cellular differentiation and controlling the cycle, growth and death of a cell. The researchers suspect that spaceflight disrupts mitochondrial activity, which in turn affects many aspects of the health of astronauts.

The project will use the largest available amount of astronaut data in one analysis and produce new insight into the human response to spaceflight. Various disciplines will collaborate in an unprecedented collaborative effort to make groundbreaking discoveries about the impacts of long-term spaceflight on the human body. In addition, the researchers will use a new machine-learning technique to predict possible drugs that could target the key factors affected by spaceflight and diminish the metabolic changes that occur.

“We are excited to conduct research as part of this international group,” says Metz. “The work we are doing will help us understand how spaceflight affects our bodies and, in addition, how stress can affect those of us who never leave the bounds of Earth.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge study investigates the effects of space travel on male and female astronauts

caroline.zentner — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 22:42:35 +0000

Astronauts blasting into space face a barrage of stressors — noise, vibration, G forces, loss of gravity, radiation, isolation and closed quarters, to name a few. A new study, led by a team around ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge neuroscientist Dr. Gerlinde Metz, is examining what these stressors do to the human body in space and may in turn unlock clues to help mitigate the effects of similar stressors on everyday people.

Samantha Cristoforetti, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, worked with science equipment on board the International Space Station while preparing for her return to Earth in 2015. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Numerous studies have shown physical complications from space flight, including loss of bone and muscle, and impacts on cardiovascular health, vision and more. Female astronauts are more susceptible to radiation-induced cancer risk and, in the first days of flight, they seem to experience space motion sickness more often than their male counterparts.

To investigate how long-duration space travel affects metabolism, an international, interdisciplinary team of researchers analyzed 335 blood samples taken from astronauts before, during and after their space missions. Metz, from the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, in collaboration with Tony Montina from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, partnered with scientists from the NASA Johnson Space Centre and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Bonn. The study was recently published in the journal Cell and Molecular Life Sciences.

NASA collected blood samples from 40 male and 11 female astronauts during four- to six-month missions to the International Space Station between 2006 and 2018. Samples were collected before launch, periodically throughout their missions and again upon their return to Earth. The samples were frozen for later analysis by NASA and shared with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge for metabolomics analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Metabolomics provides a highly accurate picture of the state of the body at the time the sample was taken.

“Using this approach, we saw that space travel resulted in sex-specific changes in metabolites involved in energy metabolism, which may be linked to bone loss, muscle regulation and immunity dysfunction,” says Metz. “Our results also show different metabolic responses, especially during the recovery period, with females needing more time to adjust to their return to Earth.”

The study builds on the understanding of the health effects of space travel and helps inform the development of measures to counteract these effects. Human missions to Mars are being planned for the late 2030s or early 2040s. With the round trip taking about two years, finding ways to mitigate potential health consequences has some urgency.

“We want to really understand well what space does to our body and how we can relieve those stressors to enable us to spend more time in space,” says Metz. “It’s important to understand what happens to the body during space flight and it will also help us understand a lot of the challenges we face on Earth.”

The study of stress and other spaceflight factors might also help us better understand the response to challenges on Earth. The environment aboard a spaceship has similarities to the lockdowns humans on Earth experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the isolation and distance from loved ones. Other situations on Earth, such as floods and hurricanes, also cause very high levels of stress, especially when people suffer long-term consequences like losing their homes and livelihoods and being forced to migrate.

“This type of analysis gives us really good clues about not only the effects of stress, but the origins of diseases and what can cause stress-related diseases,” says Metz.

Research group patenting urinary analysis to diagnose concussion and enhance recovery protocols

trevor.kenney — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 22:21:30 +0000

Sport-related concussion (SRC) or traumatic brain injury (TBI) has become one of the most important issues in sport, affecting everyone from multi-million-dollar athletes to children playing at the minor level. From health to economics, SRC now influences the way games are played and governed and yet, the actual tools available to diagnose concussions are limited and mainly subjective.

Dr. Gerlinde Metz, left, and Tony Montina.

Researchers at the Universities of Lethbridge and Calgary are looking to insert objectivity into that equation with a non-invasive test that examines specific metabolites in a player’s urine. The results not only indicate whether a player is concussed but determine when a player can return to sport and even possibly aid in personalized therapeutic strategies to enhance recovery.

Drs. Gerlinde Metz (Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge), Chantel Debert (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, Alberta Health Services) and Tony Montina (BSc ’08, MSc ’10, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Director Magnetic Resonance Facility, U of L) have an approved provisional patent that allows them to focus on a panel of 18 specific urinary metabolites, which together give a biomarker signature for diagnosing SRC.

“Based on a little drop of urine, we can tell if someone has had a traumatic brain injury with very high accuracy,” says Metz, Board of Governors Research Chair in Neuroscience. “With further testing, we can also say if someone has recovered from their injury and is able to move on with their lives.”

Urine samples, which are fast and simple to collect, are analyzed using proton nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics, which provides a quick and quantitative measurement of the metabolites. The changes observed can indicate the difference between a healthy brain and one suffering the effects of trauma. Metabolomic analysis has proven to be useful in identifying biomarkers for various conditions, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, brain cancer, epilepsy and more, but it has yet to be used as a diagnostic and prognostic tool for SRC.

The ramifications of such a test could literally be game-changing, allowing athletes to be tested quickly and diagnosed with much higher accuracy than traditional subjective tests. Montina, who runs the NMR facility at the U of L, sees the clinical translation of the technology in three parts.

“The first is the immediate, acute phase that most professional sports would be very interested in because it gives that quick diagnosis,” he says. “Our goal is to take this panel of metabolites and eventually develop a field test that would allow for evaluation on site.”

The second phase of the testing is to assess recovery, comparing biomarkers in the metabolites to baseline levels and those in the acute phase, thereby giving a reliable diagnosis for return to play.

“The third aspect we’ve been looking at involves rehabilitation strategies and personalized interventions,” says Montina. “Essentially, it’s looking for biomarkers that indicate the effectiveness of therapy. We’d look for changes in levels to tell us how well a therapy is working, allowing for targeted therapeutics to speed up the recovery process for athletes so they can get back to their sport.”

While urinary analysis has been used to identify one metabolite or biomarker to help diagnose TBI, their group’s use of NMR technology has identified a full panel of metabolites that offer the most predictive fingerprint for TBI.

“By finding these multi-level signatures, we believe these are much more reliable for practical use,” adds Metz.

The next phase for the group is to secure additional funding as they seek licensing opportunities with biotech companies to continue testing and finalize the patent. Their initial work has included samples primarily from 16-year-old male hockey players. Eventually, with more samples and testing, they expect to create standardized curves that represent baseline and acute biomarker levels across gender and age.

“We’re very early in this process and very excited about its potential,” says Metz. “We want our tests to work effectively for males, females, different ages and different neurological conditions. With collaborators, such as Dr. Debert, who have access to different patient populations, we’ll really be able to cover more ground.”

Researchers find potential new diagnostic tool to help pregnant women at risk

caroline.zentner — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 18:38:42 +0000

Collaborative effort between the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and other Alberta universities has identified a new technique to help identify women at risk of metabolic disorders

Between three and 20 per cent of pregnant women in Canada develop gestational diabetes mellitus, or GDM, and the health of both the mother and her developing child can be negatively affected if left untreated.

Hannah Scott

A study by researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, in collaboration with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, has identified a technique that may one day help health-care professionals identify women at risk of developing GDM early in their pregnancy. Their study, Metabolic dysfunction in pregnancy, was recently published by Wiley.

Hannah Scott (BSc '17), a master’s student at the U of L's Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, wanted to know if specific biomarkers could identify a pregnant woman’s risk for obesity and GDM. She and her team obtained urine samples collected through the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study. This long-term study, directed by researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, involves thousands of women from Calgary and Edmonton and is designed to analyze the relationship between pregnant women’s nutrition, their mental health and the health and development of their children. Dr. Brenda Leung, a U of L associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, was involved in starting APrON 10 years ago as a doctoral student at the U of C and she continues to be involved as an investigator. Leung facilitated the collaboration between APrON and the U of L research team.

“We examined these samples for biomarkers of risk using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy,” says Scott. “What we were looking for was a profile, or you can think of it as a metabolite fingerprint, associated with the diseases or the later development of the diseases.”

The urine samples were taken before the development of GDM. By using NMR, the researchers could identify the women who were obese, those who later developed GDM and those who were part of the control group. This study shows it’s possible to predict if a woman will develop GDM based on a urine sample taken before any symptoms appear.

Dr. Gerlinde Metz

“We’ve established that those groups have unique urinary fingerprints or profiles that distinguish them,” says Tony Montina (BSc ’08, MSc ’10), NMR facility manager. “Something chemically or biochemically is different between them and we can accurately detect these differences.”

Using urine analysis for metabolomics is a relatively new field of research; most previous studies have used blood samples. The goal of studies like this one is to create diagnostic tests that can catch diseases early or even before they begin.

“There’s a huge trend now for predictive, personalized medicine and diagnostics,” says Dr. Gerlinde Metz, a professor at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience. “There is a lot of hype around NMR because, not only is it less expensive than other methods, it’s also more accessible.”

Gestational diabetes presents short- and long-term risks to both mother and child. Having a non-invasive diagnostic test available would allow for early intervention through lifestyle recommendations and dietary changes.

Dr. Nicole Letourneau

“This paper shows the best kind of collaborative work where you have outstanding researchers at the U of C, U of A and U of L collaborating to do great work with clinical impacts,” says Dr. Nicole Letourneau, APrON team leader and professor in the U of C’s Faculty of Nursing. “The fact we might be able to predict who develops gestational diabetes mellitus before they do and before we start to see impacts on mom’s health and the child’s fetal development and health outcomes, has tremendous clinical implications. That we in Alberta have collaborated to do that kind of work says a lot about APrON and the quality of people we have here in the province.”

The APrON Study was established by a $5 million grant from Alberta Innovates. This paper was made possible thanks to a grant from Alberta Health Services’ Diabetes, Obesity and Nutrition Strategic Clinical Network.

Novel approach wins Kaden Fujita an undergraduate thesis award

caroline.zentner — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 19:44:22 +0000

Kaden Fujita’s (BSc ’20) curiosity, creativity and perseverance has led to an award-winning thesis, a couple of papers submitted for publication and the spawning of a new collaboration between two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge scientists.

Fujita, now a master’s student in biology, recently received the Dr. Richard C. Playle Award for Outstanding Theses in Ecotoxicology by the Canadian Ecotoxicity Workshop, a first for a U of L student. The award is given to only one undergraduate student each year in Canada.

“I’m extremely honoured to receive this award,” says Fujita. “I’m very grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Steve Wiseman, for all his assistance and to Tony Montina for taking me on as an independent studies student in metabolomics.”

“Kaden is extremely hardworking,” says Wiseman, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “Intelligence is one thing and you can be as smart as you want in science, but it doesn’t really guarantee success. Kaden puts in the hours to be successful.”

“He’s a good scientist, too,” adds Montina (BSc ’08, MSc ’10), an instructor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and director of the Magnetic Resonance Facility. “He doesn’t accept anything we tell him without questioning it first.”

Fujita began his studies at the U of L in the Research Internship Concentration offered in the Department of Biological Sciences. A Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Undergraduate Student Research Award allowed him to spend a summer working with a graduate student to examine the toxicity of diluted bitumen exposed to environmental weathering on zebrafish embryos.

“That, to our knowledge, was the first time anyone had studied the toxicity of weathered sediment-bound diluted bitumen,” says Wiseman. “We saw a variety of effects on developing embryos. What we didn’t know after that study was how those effects manifested — what’s happening at the cellular level that leads to these effects on the embryo, like changes in heart rate and lack of a swim bladder and other malformations. Kaden then used a metabolomics approach in his undergraduate honours thesis to try and figure out why these effects manifest.”

Fujita approached Montina with the idea of doing an independent study in metabolomics. Metabolomics, the study of the chemical composition of fluids that result from cellular processes, gives researchers a picture of how an organism is functioning and helps pinpoint why changes are occurring.

After completing a project in metabolomics in Montina’s lab, Fujita began his thesis work studying the effects of diluted bitumen on the early life stages of zebrafish. He tested several concentrations of diluted bitumen on zebrafish larvae and observed effects on various metabolites.

“Many studies have been done on early life stages of fish, but the molecular mechanisms of toxicity aren’t very well understood,” says Fujita. “I wanted to take a metabolomic approach to get a broader picture of what might be happening under the surface. We found there were various metabolites that were increased or decreased in concentration after exposure to diluted bitumen.”

Largely, amino acids were affected and various deformities, such as yolk sac edema, pericardial edema and uninflated swim bladder, were observed. His work formed the basis for his award-winning thesis and points to areas for further studies.

“There are a lot of questions yet to be asked but I think it gives us a very nice starting point,” says Wiseman. “We know what to look for now, so if we were to follow up with more environmentally relevant studies, we have a really nice platform to jump from.”

An NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship in hand, Fujita is focusing his master’s thesis on UV stabilizers, which are chemicals put into plastics to maintain their stability, with Wiseman and Montina as his supervisors.

Broader community invited to view popular Last Lecture Series as it moves to online format

trevor.kenney — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 17:32:27 +0000

It has become an annual rite of spring for ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students and now, the broader community will have the opportunity to take in an enhanced online edition of the Last Lecture Series.

Presented annually by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Students’ Union (ULSU), the Last Lecture Series has become one of the most popular events of the academic year. It traditionally features three U of L professors talking about life lessons that cannot be learned in the classroom, posing the question to them, “If you could talk about just one thing for your last lecture, what would it be?”

This spring, with an in-person event not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ULSU is co-hosting with the student club PACT (philanthropy, advancement, community, traditions) and taking the event online. They have also expanded the lecturer list to an impressive eight speakers who represent a broad cross-section of disciplines from throughout campus. Celebrating a theme of adaptability, this impressive group will be online Friday, June 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to present their individual thoughts on what adaptability means to them.

“With most end-of-semester events cancelled, we wanted an initiative that could bring the uLethbridge community together,” says Kierian Turner, one of the event organizers and a past PACT president. “The Last Lecture has always been important to students of the graduating class, so we prioritized moving to an online model so that students are still able to get that final takeaway. It was important to have a panel with diverse experiences and research backgrounds so that attendees have the opportunity to connect on a deeper level and have a more holistic experience.”

The speaker schedule is as follows:

Tony Montina (BSc '08, MSc '10) — Introduction

10 a.m. — Adam Letourneau (Dhillon School of Business) — Life can Wonderfully be a Series of Career Changes

10:30 a.m. — Dr. Robin Bright (BASc '79, BEd '82, MEd '88) (Faculty of Education) — Everything I Really Need to Know, I Learned in ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ

11 a.m. — Dr. Shannon Spenceley (BN '84) (Faculty of Health Sciences) — Strange Days - Thriving in Uncertain Times

11:30 a.m. — Dr. Janay Nugent (BA '95) (Department of History) — The Empowerment of Young People in Tumultuous Times

12 to 1 p.m. — Lunch Break

1 p.m. — Don McIntrye (Dhillon School of Business) — Tricksters & Butterflies: Belonging Beyond this Day

1:30 p.m. — Dr. Robbin Derry (Dhillon School of Business) — What to Hold onto When Everything is in Flux?

2 p.m. — Dr. Anne Dymond (Faculty of Fine Arts) — Is it Too Late to Switch my Major? Or How I Learned to Live with Doubt

2:30 p.m. — Dr. Bryan Kolb (Department of Neuroscience) — Adaptability and the Brain that Changes Itself

Tony Montina — Closing

“What I love about our speaker lineup is that each of these professors apply their personal experience and expertise to a theme that is relatable to everyone — adaptability,” adds Turner. “This lineup will truly demonstrate the importance of a liberal education and how you can apply your uLethbridge experience to the many ways you will have to adapt throughout your lifetime. We have world-class faculty, and we are excited to share a glimpse of that with our community.”

The Last Lecture is a book co-authored by Randy Pausch, detailing everything he wanted his children to know after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Pausch delivered his last lecture entitled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams as part of a lecture series where ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ are challenged to think about what really matters to them and give a Last Lecture.

For more on The Last Lecture speakers, follow this link: uleth.ca/alumni/last-lecture. To join the event, check in at go.uleth.ca/LastLecture2020.

U of L study shows ancestral prenatal stress linked to premature aging and increased risk of disease

caroline.zentner — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 21:03:28 +0000

A new ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge study published in Aging shows that experiences in early life may lay the foundation for developing non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes later in life.

Tony Montina, Gerlinde Metz, Mirela Ambeskovic, Slava Ilnytskyy

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death around the world and, given populations are aging, strategies to support healthy aging are urgently needed. A 2016 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 22 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women aged 29 to 60 are likely to die from NCDs.

Risk factors for developing NCDs include lack of physical activity, an unbalanced diet and abuse of alcohol and tobacco. While scientists haven’t identified a single cause of NCDs, studies in both animals and humans have shown that an adverse prenatal environment heightens the risk for increased blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels, obesity and a reduced lifespan in offspring. What’s more, previous studies have shown that adverse early experiences can create a biological signature that is transmitted across generations.

“The current findings open exciting new avenues to understand the mechanisms of NCDs and how we can predict and prevent these disabling health conditions,” says Dr. Gerlinde Metz, a neuroscience professor and Tier 1 Board of Governors Research Chair at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience.

In this study, Dr. Mirela Ambeskovic, a U of L post-doctoral fellow in Metz’s lab, led a team of researchers in a study that examined ancestral stress using a rat model. Offspring of the fourth-generation of prenatally stressed rats were examined.

“Ancestral stress is stress that occurs across multiple generations,” says Ambeskovic. “We looked at multi-generational prenatal stress and our cohort showed an aging health trajectory that parallels the human population. In our study, stressed male rats between 14 and 15 months old, which is equivalent to middle age, were more likely to die from non-communicable diseases such as respiratory disease, tumours, renal disease and heart disease.”

The study results also show the ancestral stress induced different diseases in males and females. Male rats were more likely to have renal failure and female rats had higher incidences of respiratory disease and tumours. Ambeskovic says sex hormones may be involved since estrogen can protect against inflammation. The researchers measured blood glucose levels and found significant body-weight changes in males during their lives.

“The stressed males seemed to have a lower body weight when young and in middle age,” says Ambeskovic. “However, after middle age they got really heavy and almost obese. With the programming of ancestral stress, it seems that not only are these males more likely to die from renal failure and other diseases, but, if they do survive, they may get diabetes or other conditions that can contribute to morbidity and poor health. These stressed old males also became more depressed and anxious. Their mental health declined and their stress-response system was altered.”

The researchers analyzed tissues for specific microRNAs (miRNAs) that may be associated with NCDs. Both male and female rats showed changes in miRNA-150, which is also known as inflammatory microRNA, but the degree of change was greater in males. They also looked at miRNA 21, which is associated with a longer lifespan when down regulated and a shorter lifespan when up regulated.

“In our cohort, we found significant up regulation of miRNA 21 in young males, which may indicate that, somehow, these animals might have been programmed for short lifespans from their ancestors,” says Ambeskovic. “In females, this microRNA was down regulated, which may show early resilience or programmed protection.”

While miRNA information can be transmitted across generations, miRNAs can also be up or down regulated based on environment and experience. Knowing that ancestral stress has lifelong effects, providing an enriched environment early in life could offset some of the risks.

“We need to concentrate on the prevention of disease instead of treatment,” she says. “We really need to focus on these early years and early life environments to help prevent NCDs later in life.”

Stress experienced by pregnant women affects long-term health of offspring

caroline.zentner — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 16:08:11 +0000

A new study by researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and McGill ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ provides further confirmation that stress experienced by pregnant women has a lasting impact on the health of their children.

The study, published in Nature – Scientific Reports, by Dr. Gerlinde Metz, a neuroscientist at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, in collaboration with Tony Montina, NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) manager, and several graduate and undergraduate students, was completed on 32 adolescents, both male and female, born to mothers who lived through the Great Ice Storm of 1998. NMR spectroscopy done on urine samples showed higher risks of metabolic illness such as insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity later in life.

Dr. Gerlinde Metz and Tony Montina used a Bruker 700 NMR instrument to analyze urine samples for biomarkers related to disease development.

The Great Ice Storm left more than four million people without electricity, some of them for more than a month. Eastern Ontario and southern Quebec were especially hard hit. Project Ice Storm was set up by Dr. Suzanne King, a professor of psychiatry at McGill, in the aftermath of the storm to build understanding about the effects of prenatal exposure to stress on children’s development. Nearly 180 pregnant women signed up and researchers have been following their children’s development in subsequent years.

“In this study, two metabolic pathways were affected in both males and females,” says Montina. “These pathways are implicated throughout the literature and all the studies in the risk of the development of diabetes and obesity.”

While the results point to health risks for offspring later in life, Metz says that identifying risks to health is the first step to creating effective therapeutic interventions to minimize them.

“If predisposition to these diseases has been programmed through adverse experience, potentially we can mitigate this risk by beneficial experiences,” says Metz. “So, we hope that through environmental and lifestyle interventions and recommendations, we can reduce the risk of these diseases early on before they come on board."

Similar results have been shown in epigenetic studies but the benefits of studying urine samples, or even blood, saliva or hair samples, is that they can provide the same results using a noninvasive technique that’s far less expensive than epigenetic testing.

“Metabolomic downstream biomarkers that are much easier to obtain in a clinical setting, much cheaper to work with and to process and analyze, hold great potential to triage and diagnose these children who are at risk of developing disease later in life due to adverse experiences in utero or early in life,” says Montina.

The research is very timely, given climate change and the increasing incidence of natural disasters like wildfires and floods.

“We are moving towards personalized medicine and preventative medicine that can help to intervene early in a lifetime,” says Metz. “We do have adverse environments, such as pollutants in the air and water, and adverse experiences that interact with our health. We really need to push forward in understanding how the environment interacts with our health at the basic research level. We also have to take the health-care research step and try to understand, at the biomedical stream of investigation, how we can predict these diseases, diagnose them and intervene.”

Interdisciplinary collaboration leads to research publication

caroline.zentner — Wed, 23 May 2018 21:36:26 +0000

A collaboration between ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and international scientists has led to a prestigious publication for doctoral student Ryan Kung (BSc ’15).

Under the supervision of Dr. Stacey Wetmore, Kung’s research into how the structure of a DNA damaging agent affects biological consequences was recently published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

“It was encouraging and exciting that something I did a lot of work on was published and added knowledge to the field,” says Kung. “I’m really thankful that Stacey set up this collaboration for me and allowed me to conduct this research and expand my knowledge in this area.”

The research involved studying DNA damage related to a class of compounds called aromatic amines, which come from many different sources in the environment, such as vehicle exhaust, oil refining and tobacco smoke.

“We looked at DNA damage that was very similar to an aromatic amine that we know is very toxic and causes bladder cancer. We wanted to know if it would behave the same way if we changed the structure slightly,” says Kung.

Dr. Richard Manderville, at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph, and Dr. Shana Sturla and Florence Berger, at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, created the damaged DNA and marked it with a fluorine atom. The presence of the fluorine atom allowed Kung to gain critical information about the structure of the damaged DNA using both computational and experimental methods.

“Their help was instrumental in the making of the damaged DNA,” says Kung. “The collaboration and the ability to work with these people and learn from them was a great opportunity and I really enjoyed that.”

At the U of L, Kung and Wetmore worked with other researchers within the Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies (C-CRAFT). This state-of-the-art facility provided the high-quality equipment that allowed Kung to make a significant contribution to the research. Kung and Wetmore used powerful computers to model what was happening at the microscopic level.

“The experimental information collected about these systems is complicated and difficult to interpret. Computer modelling therefore plays a critical role in allowing us to understand the effects of DNA damage,” says Wetmore. “The modelling expertise that Ryan has developed thus far in his graduate studies makes collaborations with international, interdisciplinary research groups possible and successful.”

In collaboration with Tony Montina, who is the U of L’s nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) facility manager, Kung also looked at the samples of damaged DNA using NMR spectroscopy.

“The use of fluorine NMR in this project provided a powerful piece of experimental evidence that could be used to confirm the computational work done by Ryan,” says Montina. “This project represents an excellent example of the high quality transdisciplinary research being done by C-CRAFT and the diversity of training that students like Ryan are able to obtain while carrying out graduate studies at the U of L.”

“Using a combination of computational and experimental techniques, we found that there could be two structures, one of them was very similar to undamaged DNA and likely would not have a huge impact on the body,” says Kung. “The other structure we found distorted the DNA more and would likely have more serious consequences. Even a small change in the structure of DNA can have a big biological impact.”

Originally from Linden, a village northeast of Calgary, Kung came to the U of L intending to eventually enter education. He knew he wanted to study science but felt equally drawn to mathematics and chemistry. He flipped a coin and chemistry won.

“As an undergraduate, I was encouraged to do research with different groups and one that really fascinated me was Dr. Wetmore’s computational chemistry,” says Kung. “We focus on the micro level so we can understand small changes. Those small changes can have large effects, such as cancer and other immune disorders. You can’t always predict from the small change what’s going to happen in the large system.”

Kung has been awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Program, Alberta Innovates Technology Futures (AITF) Graduate Student Scholarship and a School of Graduate Studies fellowship.

UNews - Tony Montina

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