UNews - diseases

Understanding how the student brain works

trevor.kenney — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 20:39:52 +0000

“When we hear “brain-based research,” we tend to think primarily in terms of brain injuries or diseases such as stroke and alzheimer’s, but what is the connection between neuroscience and inclusive education?

As ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Faculty of Education’s Dr. Nancy Grigg explains, “The solid body of research that exists to support the use of various educational strategies is now being enhanced by neuroscience research, contributing unique and important knowledge of how best to enhance student learning."

Dan Vanden Dungen, a longtime educator in the Horizon School Division, is learning how neurological theory can make a huge difference in today's classrooms.

Dan Vanden Dungen (BA ’90, BEd ’92) will be among the first cohort of the Inclusive Education and Neuroscience MEd program to graduate in 2014. Initially, he struggled with how neurological theory would translate to the classroom. In retrospect, he says that knowing how the brain works matters because it allows educators to better identify changes that can be made.

“A key understanding from neuroscience is the building of neural pathways to enhance learning for all students in an inclusive environment,” says program instructor Sue Bengry. “In essence, it’s about understanding how the student’s brain works and tailoring the instruction to relate to that functionality.”

“It’s a less subjective way of working,” explains Vanden Dungen, “I believe it’s made me more empathetic, tolerant and resourceful.”

Working in the Horizon School Division for almost twenty years now, Vanden Dungen has worked with a broad spectrum of children, many from local and migratory Mennonite religious communities. More recently, his work as a classroom support teacher has also included students whose primary language is Low German, at the Horizon Mennonite Alternative Program.

“Inclusion is challenging,” he says. “It’s not the way most of us were taught to teach.”

With its cohort model, the structure of the MEd program has provided him with some unexpected connections.

“My cohorts have been an amazing support,” he says. “Being with the same group for three years has been essential to my success in the program. It’s also meant that I have a network of ‘inclusion professionals’ outside of my school and division.”

As we enter a new era of advancement in brain research, neuroscience is helping to inform learning specialists.

It’s becoming easier for researchers to access and interpret information originating in the brain.

“The basis for variations in learning, behaviour regulation and thinking are now being understood and described as ‘variations in brain processes,’” says Dr. Rob Sutherland of the U of L Department of Neuroscience in the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience. Accordingly, he predicts that “future innovations in education will depend upon understanding and applying what neuroscience has discovered about the developing brain.”

A classroom support teacher can take this specialized knowledge and incorporate it into a customized plan of action that consciously shapes a student’s learning.

“It’s important to provide a solid rationale for your recommendations,” says Vanden Dungen. “To do this, we need to become critical consumers of scientific data and the neuroscience courses help lay that foundation.”

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.

Feast on antioxidants

trevor.kenney — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:59:36 +0000

By DIANE BRITTON

Why not pile your plate full of antioxidants?

Antioxidants are nutrients naturally found in food that help repair damaged body cells, improve immune function, promote health and reduce the risk of some diseases. Here are some foods loaded with antioxidants to fuel your feast.

Carotenoids
These antioxidants are found in vegetables and fruits that are dark yellow, orange and red; and in dark-green leafy vegetables.

Look for recipes that include sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, red and yellow peppers, broccoli, romaine lettuce and spinach.

Snack on orange fruits such as mangos, apricots and cantaloupe for breakfast, lunch or breaks.

Good Old Vitamin C
Helpful in forming connective tissue that holds many parts of your body together, Vitamin C also helps reduce bruising by keeping capillaries healthy and maintains healthy gums so they won't bleed.

Foods rich in vitamin C include red peppers, broccoli, cantaloupe, tomatoes and cranberries.

Eat your colours!
Many new antioxidants have just recently been discovered and each group of antioxidants provides colour to your vegetables and fruit.

There are five main color groups to choose from:
• White – Foods such as bananas, mushrooms, pears and parsnips
• Yellow and Orange – Foods including carrots, sweet potatoes, yellow and orange peppers, lemons and turnips
• Red – Reach for tomatoes, watermelon, raspberries, red apples and pomegranates
• Blue and Purple – Foods such as blueberries, purple grapes, egg plant and purple cabbage
• Green – Foods including broccoli, spinach, green cabbage, brussel sprouts and green onions

Choosing antioxidant rich foods will pack your plate with nutrition power. You can now enjoy any feast knowing it is fuelled by antioxidants.

For an individual nutrition appointment, call the Health Centre (SU 020) at 403-329-2484. Hour-long sessions are $40 for U of L students, staff and faculty.

Diane Britton is the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's registered dietitian

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.

An Apple A Day

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:33:08 +0000

Why not pile your plate full of antioxidants?