UNews - disease

Board approves multiple faculty, staff and administrative appointments

trevor.kenney — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 17:32:07 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Board of Governors recently convened and approved a number of faculty, staff and administrative appointments that are scheduled to officially take effect July 1, 2015.

Following is a summary of these appointments.

Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Academic) - Dr. Lesley Brown

Dr. Lesley Brown has been appointed for a five-year term as the Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Academic).

Currently the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Interim Vice-President (Research) and a professor of kinesiology, Brown first came to the U of L in 1997 as an assistant professor in the department of Kinesiology and Physical Education following her post-doctoral studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Oregon. Brown's research portfolio has been focused on the aging process, balance, falling, fear of falling and Parkinson's Disease.

Brown was appointed Associate Vice-President (Research) in 2011 and served in that role until 2014 when she assumed responsibility as the Interim Vice-President (Research). She has led some very important initiatives while serving in that role, including being the driving force behind the development of AGILITY and its subsequent launch. Her passion for entrepreneurship and innovation will see her play a lead role in the continued development of AGILITY as the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ moves forward.

Dean, Health Sciences - Dr. Christopher Hosgood

Dr. Chris Hosgood has been reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences for a further five-year term.

Hosgood, the former Chair of the Department of History, will be taking on his third term as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences as he presided over the transition of the Faculty from a School in 2009. He played a major role in the expansion of both student enrolments and Faculty programs, including the recent introduction of the Bachelor of Therapeutic Recreation program, and saw the Faculty through its move into Markin Hall.

A Co-Chair on the Health Sciences Placement Network Management Committee as well as a member of the Alberta SPOR Steering Committee, Hosgood was recently appointed to the Alberta Health Research Task Force.

Dean, Graduate Studies - Dr. Robert Wood

Dr. Robert Wood has been reappointed as Dean, Graduate Studies for a further five-year term.

Wood had served in the role of Dean since January 2011 and was previously the Interim Head of the School of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department of Sociology.

A sociology researcher and faculty member since 2000, Wood is the author or co-author of two books and numerous research articles on gambling issues, and has recently produced a trio of journal articles examining various aspects of problem gambling. He is currently the President of the Western Canadian Deans of Graduate Studies, a post he accepted February 1, 2015 after serving the previous two years as the organization's vice-president.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Organizations, Culture, and Society) - Dr. Paul Vasey

Dr. Paul Vasey, a professor in the Department of Psychology, conducts cross-species and cross-cultural research to answer the question: If reproduction is the engine that drives evolution, why engage in non-conceptive sex?

For the past decade he has done research on the development and evolution of female homosexual behaviour in free-ranging Japanese monkeys at various sites in Japan. He also studies the development and evolution of male same-sex sexual attraction in humans at field sites in Samoa, Japan and Canada.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Organizations, Culture, and Society) - Dr. Claudia Malacrida

Dr. Claudia Malacrida is a sociologist and oral historian well-known for her investigations on power and the construction of difference historically and in the present. This focus has led to investigations of eugenics and institutionalization abuses in Alberta at the Michener Centre; comparative projects examining the challenges disabled women face in their sexual, relational and family lives; and, questions of power and medicalization in local childbirth practices.

In each area, she is concerned about how seemingly personal and embodied experiences are constrained and produced through public policy, social attitudes and professional practice.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Earth and Environment) - Dr. Larry Flanagan

Dr. Larry Flanagan, a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences, is being reappointed as a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair. He gained international recognition for his contributions to addressing carbon cycling and climate change.

His research program involves applying a range of techniques from eco-physiology and ecosystem ecology to study how plants and ecosystems acclimate to environmental change. This includes field studies with plants growing in their native habitats, in addition to lab and controlled environment studies.

Understanding these fundamental processes provides the basis for modelling and predicting plant and ecosystem response to global climate change.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Healthy Futures) - Dr. Gerlinde Metz

Dr. Gerlinde Metz is a researcher in the Department of Neuroscience, and is being appointed as a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Health Futures) for a period of five years.

Her research program focuses on the influence of experience and environment on behaviour and brain plasticity. Her work showed that stress affects motor system function, risk of Parkinson's disease and recovery from stroke. This research indicated that adverse experience at any time in life can become a predisposing or precipitating factor of disease. More recently, her laboratory has developed unique models to explore transgenerational inheritance of stress responses. Through transgenerational programming, experience in parents, grandparents and beyond can influence health and disease from early development to old age.

Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Origins and Explorations) - Dr. Stacey Wetmore

Dr. Stacey Wetmore is a recognized leader in computational chemistry, and has been appointed a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Origins and Explorations) for the period April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2022.

She has successfully established a vigorous and prolific research program exploring the reactions between DNA and various harmful chemicals in order to understand how DNA is damaged, and how enzymes in our body repair DNA by chemically removing the damaged sections of DNA.

An understanding of DNA damage and repair processes in our bodies will aid the design of new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease. No other Canadian researcher is studying these important (health-related) areas using computational methods. The range of approaches, close collaborations with experimental labs, and systematic attack of entire classes of biomolecules has distinguished Wetmore's research on the international stage.

Assistant Dean, Northern Campuses - Lorne Williams

Lorne Williams has been reappointed to serve as the Assistant Dean (Northern Campuses) for a further three-year term.

A respected alumnus and member of the U of L Honour Society, Williams was first named Acting Assistant Dean (Northern Campuses) in 2012. He has more than 20 years of U of L experience, including more than a decade of work in the Calgary market as a director, instructor and co-ordinator at the U of L Calgary campus. During his time there, he has won six teaching awards.

Williams consults widely on team building, leadership and corporate culture for public, private and not-for-profit organizations of all sizes. In the past year, he has served as the opening speaker at both the Faculty of Management Student PD Conference and the Canada/China Trade and Investment Forum, and was invited to give the keynote address at the Keeping People Important - MacEwan ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ PD Day.

Associate Vice-President (Research) - Dr. Matthew Letts

Dr. Matthew Letts has been extended as the Associate Vice-President (Research) for a period of six months, June 30, 2015 to December 31, 2015.

A faculty member in the Department of Geography, Letts is an accomplished researcher who is currently working on two projects. One, sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is studying plant physiological response to environmental stress in semiarid ecosystems. He is also part of the team that is currently working on Functional flows: a practical strategy for healthy rivers, as sponsored by Alberta Innovates - Environmental Solutions.

Chancellor Emerita - Dr. Shirley McClellan

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's 12th Chancellor, Dr. Shirley McClellan was named Chancellor Emerita.

McClellan served as Chancellor from 2011 to 2015 and was a strong advocate for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge over that time.

A veteran Alberta politician and former deputy premier of the Province of Alberta, McClellan had long been involved in bringing further education to rural areas, serving on the board of directors for the Alberta Association of Continuing Education and the Canadian Association for Continuing Education.

Taking a Big-Picture Approach to Health Care

david.kirby — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 17:16:18 +0000

For Dr. Brenda Leung, getting sick as a child meant facing a somewhat daunting remedy: a foul-tasting, homemade herbal concoction prepared by her mother that was tough to swallow – but that ultimately did the trick.

Dr. Brenda Leung is the U of L's Faculty of Health Sciences Emmy Droog Chair in Complementary and Alternative Health Care.

“My mom would always brew these hideous teas, you know, noxious liquids, that I had to consume, but they always made me better,” Leung recalls.

That early introduction to traditional Chinese medicine not only helped treat Leung’s ailments, it ignited a lifelong interest in alternative health care and propelled her to study the field at university, train to become a naturopathic doctor (ND), and now, to be appointed the lead researcher and academic in this diverse and growing field at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Leung is the U of L’s new Faculty of Health Sciences Emmy Droog Chair in Complementary and Alternative Health Care. The $2 million endowed professorship is a first for the Faculty and is made possible through a $1 million gift from Alberta businessman Dr. Tom Droog (LLD í06), whose wife Emmy became an advocate for alternative health treatments during her three-year battle with cancer before succumbing to the disease in 2010.

“One of the main objectives of this five-year professorship is to create educational opportunities for health sciences students to integrate complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, strategies and modalities into their practice,” says Dr. Chris Hosgood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

To that end, Leung is developing the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s first courses on the subject that will be introduced in January 2015: Introduction to Complementary and Alternative Health Care, which will provide an overview of CAM therapies the public are using; and Evidence-Based Integrative Therapies, which will focus on the methodological rigour and scientific merit of therapies that have been more widely studied.

“Our graduates will see patients or clients already using some form of CAM, and who will come with questions about how they can incorporate CAM therapy into their current treatment. So I think it’s very important for graduates to have some base knowledge about what clients and patients may be using and how that may affect their care,” she says.

The position’s other priority is to establish an evidence-based research program that explores the issues and care practices associated with CAM. Leung’s plans in this area include supporting CAM practitioners to undertake research projects by mentoring and assisting with developing proposals, applying for grants and conducting studies. She also wants to establish the U of L as an international centre of study on CAM by developing partnerships with researchers in the field across Canada and worldwide. She continues to foster interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists from neuroscience, mental health, maternal and child health, and nutrition.

“I want to develop models and strategies, and determine how evidence from CAM research can be effectively implemented into health care,” Leung says. “We’re looking at the whole body, the mind/body connection, so in order for us to understand what’s going on, we need the experience and knowledge from different fields to get the big picture.”

When it comes to better understanding the approaches and benefits of holistic health care, Leung is more than up for the task. Her academic credentials include a PhD in epidemiology and an MSc in health research from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. She completed her ND at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. Prior to joining the U of L this past July, she was the director of research at the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine, had taught at the Canadian Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and held various positions at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. She is currently a Research Fellow with the Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Technology, Sydney. She has numerous research papers and presentations to her credit, and has received multiple research grants.

Leung’s passion for CAM is fuelled by her innate interest in holistic and personalized health care, and its proactive approach of improving overall health. She’s far from alone: a 2007 report by the Fraser Institute found that in 2006, 74 per cent of Canadians had reported using at least one alternative therapy at least once in their lives. Her goal is to raise the profile of CAM research and provide viable health-care options for the public.

“Health care should be about the person, not just the disease,” Leung says. “I think Canadians want more control over their health, and more input into how to address their care.”

Study to examine how social and economic stressors affect Aboriginal health

trevor.kenney — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:03:05 +0000

In a first-of-its-kind study, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are examining how the social and economic adversity faced by Aboriginal peoples may affect their biological health.

This new study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, will be co-lead by three researchers at the U of L, pulling together research strengths from health sciences, kinesiology and neuroscience.

"Aboriginal populations experience high levels of chronic stress as they are often marginalized both socially and economically in Canada. We know that over time, high unrelenting stress can have a profound influence on biological systems," says study Co-Lead, Dr. Cheryl Currie, who is a public health researcher at the U of L.

Stressful experiences are an inevitable part of life, but repeated and chronic exposure to uncontrollable stressors can disrupt the function of neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and immune systems. Markers of biological disruption can be identified well before the clinical markers of disease are detected.

"We tend to think about social and biological determinants of health separately. Connecting the two is a more comprehensive way to think about health- and may shed new light on why Aboriginal populations are disproportionately affected by chronic disease," says study Co-Lead, Dr. Jennifer Copeland, a U of L kinesiology researcher.

The study will also build on past research by Currie indicating that Aboriginal cultural practices promote resilience against alcohol and drug abuse within Aboriginal populations. In this new study, the team will examine the extent to which Aboriginal cultural practices may promote biologic resilience and improve health. Further, the study will examine the ways in which western approaches to wellness, such as regular physical activity, may also promote resiliency in these populations.

Dr. Gerlinde Metz, a neuroscientist at the U of L's Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience and Co-Lead on the study says understanding the biological effects of adverse social conditions is an important step towards the development of interventions that can improve population health and wellness.

"Information gained from the study will be used to help identify new strategies that can reduce health disparities experienced by Aboriginal populations," says Metz.

The full research team includes Drs. Judith Kulig, Michelle Hogue, and Olu Awosoga from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and Dr. David Olsen from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta. Working together with the Aboriginal community in southern Alberta, this cross-disciplinary team will examine how a range of factors - including adverse childhood experiences, poverty, unemployment, single parenthood, living in overcrowded housing and racial discrimination - impact the stress response and biological functioning among Aboriginal adults living in the Lethbridge area.

The U of L study will commence October 2013 with results expected in 2016-17.

Alumnus Clark returns to CCBN in search of answers to brain's puzzle

trevor.kenney — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 17:41:02 +0000

Every time you turn your head one way or another, the nerve cells in your brain, called neurons, keep you oriented in space.

Scientists have clues about how this brain-based compass works. But the nuts and bolts of the system, and its possible role in the way memories form and fade, are still a puzzle that researchers such as Dr. Ben Clark (BSc '05), are trying to solve.

In particular, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge postdoctoral researcher and Alberta Innovates -- Health Solutions postgraduate fellowship recipient is working to understand if and how the brain circuits that deal with directional information may also impact both memory formation and dementia.

Dauphin, Man.-born Clark began looking at the brain's direction-sensing systems as a graduate student in Jeffrey Taube's lab at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Now back in Canada and working as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Bruce McNaughton's Lethbridge Brain Dynamics lab at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), Clark, who also holds an honours bachelor of science degree in neuroscience from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge (2005), is interested in figuring out whether the same sorts of brain maps are also used to commit new information or situations to memory.

If so, he and others speculate that the breakdown of these maps could also contribute to memory-related conditions, such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Ben Clark earned his undergraduate degree at the U of L in 2005.

The potential links between these two neural functions are complex, Clark explains, but the idea is that the memories rely, at least in part, on the brain's ability to determine direction.

In animals, spatial mapping seems to centre on sets of so-called 'head direction' neurons, brain cells that are electrically active when an animal's head is pointing in one direction but not another -- and 'grid cells,' which contribute to a broader brain-based map of the surrounding environment.

Together, this brain cell activity produces something of an internal compass for understanding our place in the world around us.

The neurons communicating these direction-dependent signals are spread throughout the brain's temporal lobes, which are found just behind each ear, Clark explains.

But past studies suggest that their signals come together in a part of that brain region known as the entorhinal cortex, which also deals with information the brain uses to recognize objects.

There are hints that the entorhinal cortex is among the first parts of the brain to show changes during Alzheimer's disease too, which is consistent with the notion that object recognition and spatial cues may be crucial to memory.

To explore these potential connections, Clark plans to follow the activity of grid cells and head direction neurons, those direction-sensitive brain cells, using a system that lets him physically see neurons' activation.

That's possible because when neurons fire they turn on specific genes. And with a bit of genetic engineering, researchers can couple the gene activation to the production of proteins that glows fluorescent green or red under certain wavelengths of light.

Working with esteemed researcher Dr. Bruce McNaughton, right, the team is searching for ways to combat symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

For the current project, Clark and his collaborators will use two such genes as a means of tracking spatial mapping and head direction neurons in rats as they encounter new objects or spatial situations, for instance.

With slightly different experimental techniques in other experiments, they also plan to follow the neurons that stretch from the entorhinal cortex into other memory-related parts of the brain.

The researchers have done preliminary experiments to ensure that their fluorescent gene scheme will be able to measure neuron activity. Next, they're gearing up to use these tools to test normal rats as well as rat models of disease that show some of the symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Over the longer term, Clark explains, researchers intend to create functional maps of the these animal brains during disease, looking not only at the entorhinal cortex but also at other brain areas that are thought to contribute to dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Story by Andrea Anderson, photos by Trudie Lee. Re-printed with permission from Alberta Innovates -- Health Solutions. This story appeared in the most recent issue of Health Solutions magazine.

5 Questions with Dr. Ute Wieden-Kothe

trevor.kenney — Fri, 31 May 2013 22:32:24 +0000

Dr. Ute Wieden-Kothe joined theDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in 2006 after completing her PhD in biochemistry at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Witten/Herdecke, Germany. Her research focuses on RNA (ribonucleic acid), an important molecule in life that resembles our genetic information, DNA.

Wieden-Kothe is particularly interested in understanding the complex functions of RNA in the cell which go far beyond encoding information. In particular, she investigates the formation of the cellular protein factories that are composed of RNAs and proteins. Wieden-Kothe is a member of the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI), and every second year organizes the RiboWest Conference, which attracts hundreds of RNA researchers from across Canada. Her research is funded by NSERC, Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions and CFI.

Together with enthusiastic colleagues in the sciences and a number of science graduate and undergraduate students, Wieden-Kothe established the Let's Talk Science program in 2010 and now serves as the program's faculty supervisor.

Dr. Ute Wieden-Kothe, right, champions the notion of science outreach.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

In biochemistry, we are investigating the molecular basis of life. In high school, I was absolutely stunned when I learned that we understand perfectly how glucose is broken down in our bodies to provide us with energy. I was deeply impressed that we can follow the fate of each atom of glucose until it is converted to water and carbon dioxide while ATP, the cell's fuel, is formed. It is amazing that science allows us to comprehend the world around us on such a detailed level. The idea fascinates me that by precisely understanding cellular processes, we might ultimately be able to address diseases at their roots, i.e. at their molecular causes, instead of "fixing" the symptoms of a disease.

How is your research applicable in the "real world"?

My research group studies the early steps of forming large machines in the cell, called ribosomes, which ultimately produce all proteins. Interestingly, ribosomes are composed of both proteins and RNAs which are intricately intertwined. By unravelling the assembly of RNAs and proteins, we want to obtain a better understanding of the formation of protein factories. Conducting this basic research is important for the real world in two aspects.

First, these protein factories are essential for rapidly growing cancer cells. Understanding how they are built will ultimately help to inhibit this process in cancer cells and allow us to find novel targets for cancer therapy. At the same time, it is our goal to identify the molecular cause of genetic diseases affecting formation of these protein factories. Second, we are learning how to construct novel molecular machines from RNA and proteins with unlimited functions and applications in nanobiotechnology, including nanomedicine.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

I have received a couple of nice awards, such as the Minerva Mentoring Award and the CIHR Synapse Mentorship Award; however, celebrating students' successes together and seeing a student mature and grow is the greatest honour I can receive. It always fills me with joy when I observe how a student, who didn't quite know where he or she wanted to go, finds a passion and goal in research, science outreach or in teaching. Likewise, I am incredibly proud to help students push their boundaries, take on challenges and achieve more than they ever thought possible. I am at the university because of and for the students, and I am very happy when I can make a difference for these young people.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Students are at the heart of my research program. Biochemistry is a highly collaborative and laboratory-intensive field where many sophisticated experiments have to be performed. This requires a team approach. Also as biochemical processes are often complex, we need year-round thorough discussions of all aspects of the question under study. The daily interaction with my students is thus the most important aspect of my research. I stop by the lab every couple hours to look at data, and every day I am sitting down with at least one student to have in-depth discussions. These conversations with my students are inspiring, creative, thorough and incredibly rewarding.

I am grateful every day to have a fabulous group of students in my research lab ranging from undergraduate to master's and PhD graduate students.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

First of all, I would support all areas of basic research to allow all of us to follow our imagination, to be curious and creative and to explore new ideas. The chances are very good that this basic knowledge will be useful in the long term. So many of our current technologies are based on such research in the past where nobody could envision today's applications.

Second, I would support all areas of science outreach to bridge the gap between research and the general public, in particular the next generation. We need to give children and youth the tools to expand their horizons, to better understand the world, to be confident to ask questions and to search for answers.

This story first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 Questions with Dr. Ute Wieden-Kothe

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:13:41 +0000

Dr. Ute Wieden-Kothe, right, champions the notion of science outreach.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

How is your research applicable in the "real world"?

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

How important are students to your research endeavours?

I am grateful every day to have a fabulous group of students in my research lab ranging from undergraduate to master's and PhD graduate students.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

This story first appeared in the May 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Horns' alumna sees giving back as a natural act

trevor.kenney — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:24:25 +0000

Head coach of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge women's rugby team, Neil Langevin (BA/BEd '91, MEd '10), describes former player and team co-captain, Amanda Riley (nee Richardson, BMgt '10), as "a superstar whose leadership as an athlete has continued on as an alumna."

Therefore it was no surprise when Langevin asked Riley to head an alumni committee for the rugby program that she tackled the task with the same energy and enthusiasm she once used on the field – even in the face of serious health challenges she encountered soon after graduation.

"In 2011, I was diagnosed with Still's disease, which is a rare form of rheumatoid arthritis. Being an athlete, I was used to aches and pains and when I started getting achy and having problems I thought it would go away but it didn't. I have learned a lot from it and I don't take things for granted; I am even happy to do laundry now because for a while there I was having trouble just walking," laughs Riley. "When I was playing rugby, Neil always focused on the power of positive thinking. I think that is one of the really important things I gained from playing on the team. Through everything I have had a positive mindset. It has helped me overcome when my feet did not work for me – and now I am back to exercising and even running a bit."

Amanda Riley, pictured here in her playing days with the Horns women's rugby program, initiated an alumni garden party that netted nearly $10,000 for the program.

With her husband often working out of town, Riley had a tremendous amount of support from her family and friends, especially fellow rugby alumni. It is this shared encouragement and sisterhood, as well as a passion for the game, that inspires Riley to continue her involvement with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's rugby program.

"I initiated some committee meetings last year, inviting local alumni I thought would be interested in helping out. This year we held the first annual Garden Party to raise funds for the program. Because we are strictly a girls' team, we wanted an event that was not a typical dinner. We invited all of the alumni and told them to bring their moms, aunts, sisters, grandmas, anyone they thought would be interested in coming," says Riley. "It was held at a private residence overlooking the coulees. We wore sundresses and sunhats, had appetizers (provided by this year's team) and the coaches and team manager came and served us champagne. It was really nice to meet the current athletes. Now we know who they are when we come and cheer for them at the games."

Money was raised through ticket sales, a silent auction and a 50/50 draw. Bobby Zaremba, a former rugby parent, arranged for Scotiabank to match funds raised through their Bright Future program. The event brought in $9,527, which will be used to support Horns rugby.

The inaugural event appealed to a wide range of Horns alumna, friends, family and supporters of the program.

"As a former athlete I am extremely happy with the support that we received from other alumni and community members. Financially it will give them more opportunities because it supports their general fund. I have heard some of the current athletes can't wait to have their own garden party when they are alumni so we have succeeded in generating interest in supporting the program down the road," says Riley, who is excited to give back to the program that gave her so much.

"Sometimes it was really difficult as a student-athlete, because I had to balance work, school and rugby, but my professors were so good to work with and playing on the rugby team gave me such great opportunities," she says. "I was able to grow as an individual and develop my leadership and communication skills. I learned a lot of invaluable life lessons. The girls I played with have become like family to me. I don't think I could put a dollar value on what I got out of the program."

GET THE FACTS

· Riley played for the Horns from 2005 to 2009 and was a five-time Canada West All-Star and three-time CIS All-Star

· During her time with the Horns, she was on three national championship teams and was a three-time Academic All-Canadian

· She currently works as a staff accountant at KPMG Lethbridge and is articling to be a chartered accountant

This story first appeared in the October 2012 issue of the Legend. To see the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

5 questions with . . . Dr. Roy Golsteyn

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:38:56 +0000

Roy Golsteyn is an associate professor of biology and an Alberta Ingenuity faculty member at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

He directs the Cancer Cell Laboratory where his team studies the problem of how cancer cells escape a cancer treatment. The majority of cancer patients in Canada will receive some form of treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation, and unfortunately these treatments are not as successful as we would like them to be.

To improve them, we need to understand all the steps that occur after a treatment. Golsteyn's research team has developed a new experimental system that uses microscopes and special biological tools to study how cancer cells react to treatments. They have found that after a treatment, cancer cells will divide one more time, a "double-or-nothing" gamble called checkpoint adaptation that may produce cells that are resistant to future treatments.

Dr. Roy Golsteyn directs the Cancer Cell Laboratory where his team studies the problem of how cancer cells escape a cancer treatment.

Golsteyn's laboratory studies checkpoint adaptation in collaboration with biotechnology companies and the pharmaceutical industry, with the goal of helping doctors improve treatments for cancer patients.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

I actually recall clearly when I first became interested in cancer research. I was a research fellow at the Institute Curie. At that time, a medical research laboratory had published the results of a clinical trial in which a new anti-cancer drug was tested. The trial was deemed to be successful, and yet upon studying the results I was stunned to learn that many of the patients in the clinical trial succumbed to the disease. It was then that I realized just how difficult the disease is, and that doctors and patients need better treatments.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

I am a basic research scientist who studies cancer cells. In my laboratory, our goal is to contribute to the cure. Cancer is a major disease that touches many people, including indirectly our family and friends. We sometimes collaborate with biotechnology companies and with the pharmaceutical industry, in which case we focus on real world problems such as improving existing cancer drugs.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

The greatest honour is leading research projects that are funded by charitable donations. People generously give their money without asking precisely how it will be used. We try to meet this honour by doing the best research that we can and by sharing our knowledge as quickly as possible.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Students are the lifeblood of research. When we train them, we quickly see the weak points in our own knowledge. When they become autonomous, they think of questions that we had not yet even imagined and thus they push at the old barriers in science. Finally, the best students have incredible energy and an open mind, something that we seem to lose as we get older. We need students in research.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

Very simple. Rather than funding an area of research, I would fund scientists who are very motivated and propose a well thought-out question. Motivated people get things done, so it seems natural to help them go to work. Our best ideas come from the imagination, not from instructions. Our knowledge about how cancer cells divide came from someone who studied cell division in sea urchin eggs. It was not expensive research, but it was amongst the most valuable and that made it an excellent investment.

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca

This story first appeared in the February 2012 edition of The Legend. To view the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Alumnus Gregg wins prestigious prize

trevor.kenney — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:35:47 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge alumnus, Dr. Christopher Gregg (BSc '98), captured the 2010 Grand Prize in the annual international competition for The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology.

Gregg is being recognized for his outstanding contributions to research on how the parental origin of a gene affects its expression in the developing and adult brains of offspring.

"My interests are now focused on determining whether maternal and/or paternal gene expression programs in offspring are altered according to stresses and environmental effects experienced by parents," says Gregg, a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at Harvard ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. "This is an exciting possibility that could reveal pathways that prepare offspring for the environment into which they will be born."

As the grand prize winner, Gregg receives $25,000 from Eppendorf, and his essay, Parental Control over the Brain, will be published in the November issue of the journal Science. Gregg will join the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Utah as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy next year.

In his award-winning essay, Gregg explains how he and his team at Harvard sort out how mother- and father-specific genetic cues influence their offspring's brains. Gregg describes how the team developed a genome-wide approach to study these parental effects on different regions of the brain during various developmental stages.

Through experiments with mice, they document how rare, epigenetic marks on certain maternal and paternal genes—known as genome imprints—affect the timing of gene expression in the next generation. For example, these researchers have identified approximately 553 genes that are subject to these parental genome imprints at day 15 of embryonic development and just 372 genes under the influence of such parental effects in the adult brain.

"Genes that preferentially express one parent's copy can be especially vulnerable to the presence of a mutation, because the other copy that doesn't have the mutation isn't being expressed, so there is no backup," says Gregg. "This phenomenon is especially obvious in males with diseases involving mutations on the X chromosome. In females, these diseases tend to be less severe, because females have two X chromosomes, but males have only one."

His findings reveal some of the specific parental effects associated with brain development and diseases, such as multiple sclerosis—and they provide a roadmap for future research in this field.

"I believe these effects have major relevance for our understanding of brain evolution, function, and disease," says Gregg.

The Eppendorf and Science Prize in Neurobiology recognizes outstanding international neurobiological research based on current methods and advances in the field of molecular and cell biology by a young early-career scientist.

Debating immunizations and vaccines

trevor.kenney — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:26:58 +0000

Myths and stories abound surrounding the hot topic of immunizations.

If you are looking to debunk some of the myths and try and understand the science of immunization, the presentation, Getting to the Point of Immunizations – Understanding the Evidence and Science Behind Vaccine, is an excellent opportunity.

This free community-focused event will be held Thursday, Apr. 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's 1st Choice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness, room PE250.

The evening is focused on providing health-care providers and the public with evidence-based information around the importance of immunizations.

Speakers from both Alberta Health Services and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge will discuss topics such as:

- Immunizations and populations: The impact of vaccines

- The science of immunity - Effectiveness of vaccines, natural disease vs. vaccines, types of immunity, effects of disease vs. side effects of vaccine

- Breaking down the chemistry of vaccine

- Seeing both sides - Alternative perspectives

- The art of critical thinking - How to make an informed decision, risk assessment, evaluating evidence

- Mumps Measles Rubella (MMR) – Safe and effective

Participants will be invited to ask questions and engage in discussion with the speakers panel following the presentations.

Individuals representing groups with alternative views on this issue have been invited to participate but to date have not responded. In the interest of fairness, a number of common questions will be addressed relating to alternative views of vaccinations.

This event is free of charge and no registration is required.

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