The  initiative was created to strengthen interdisciplinary research in areas of strategic importance to the University. The program will provide funding to selected research clusters to support globally leading research excellence that will offer world-class training opportunities for high-calibre personnel. It is also intended to serve as a catalyst to secure future large-scale follow-on funding, through federal, provincial or other external research funding programs, including the Canada Excellence Research Chairs, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund and the New Frontiers in Research Fund Transformation stream. In doing so, this new initiative will scale the development of research teams and clusters to position the University as a key node in national and international networks in strategic areas of interest. It will also enable impactful contributions towards the University鈥檚 Strategic Research Plan, the University Academic Plan and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Eligibility

For the purpose of this initiative, an interdisciplinary project is defined as one that crosses the mandate of at least two of the three federal research funding councils (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) and includes members from at least two Faculties, while a cluster must include a team of at least five researchers, one of whom must be an early career researcher.

Early career researchers are defined as individuals who, as of 2021, have five years or less experience since their first academic appointment, with the exception of career interruptions (e.g. maternity or parental leave, extended sick leave, clinical training and family care) that occurred after their appointment. For all leaves, except professional leaves (such as training-related, sabbatical and administrative-related leaves), the five-year window is extended by twice the time interruption taken.

Research themes

The program will provide funding for a limited number of projects across select thematic areas, including: artificial intelligence and society; digital cultures and fintech; disaster and health emergency; global health; and many more.

To learn more about the specific themes and details to submit a proposal, including the adjudication and reporting process, view the PDF of the call for submissions at .

Key dates and contact information

• The deadline to submit a notice of intent is June 7 by 4:30 p.m.
• Full proposals (by invitation only) are due July 30 by 4:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Mark Roseman, director, Strategic & Institutional Research Initiatives (SIRI), Office of Research Services, at roseman@yorku.ca.

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The results from these Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies research projects could affect the response to and management of COVID-19 now and similar outbreaks of disease in the future.

From CIHR, Assistant Professor , coordinator of the Disaster and Emergency Management (DEM) Program at 91亚色, will receive $499,121 to examine how Chinese diaspora communities in globalized urban centres are coping with COVID-19. From SSHRC, Assistant Professor of the DEM program will receive $428,816 to track how Canadians understand and perceive the outbreak, while Assistant Professor of sociology will receive $176,256, from CIHR,听 to study issues of trust and how it hampers prevention and control measures.

鈥�91亚色 is delighted to learn of CIHR and SSHRC鈥檚 support for three timely projects from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,鈥� said Interim Vice-President Research & Innovation Rui Wang. 鈥淭his exemplifies 91亚色鈥檚 leadership in public health response to COVID-19 and its impact. With this funding, 91亚色 will provide essential insights in the rapid research response to contribute to the global effort to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.鈥�

As the frequency of disease outbreaks increases in a connected world with rapid urbanization, there is a need to understand how public fears, stigmatization and attitudes, along with misinformation, affect public health efforts.

鈥淟A&PS has always been about producing research that has real and immediate impact in the world, and we are incredibly proud of the work of our DEM and sociology researchers in their respective fields 鈥� especially as it concerns public issues as timely as the recent COVID-19 outbreak,鈥� said the Dean of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies J.J. McMurtry.

More about the projects

Mamuji鈥檚 project aims to understand the consequences of COVID-19 as experienced by Chinese communities in Toronto and Nairobi, including the social impacts of discrimination and Sinophobia on personal well-being and livelihoods. Her team, which includes Associate Professor of the DEM program, plans to work with emergency management professionals in both locations to develop a culturally specific public education campaign and knowledge-sharing events to counter misinformation, disinformation, stigma and fear, and to promote community cohesion.

Kennedy鈥檚 project, which will include Associate Professor of 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and Associate Professor of the University of Guelph, will mount a large-scale, two-year coast-to-coast survey to document how Canadians understand the outbreak. It will explore who Canadians trust for information on COVID-19, how they鈥檙e adapting their behaviours, and how their perceptions of risk changes throughout the next couple of years. To participate, people can sign up to be notified () when the survey is released.

Wu鈥檚 research will bring frontline researchers from China together with experts in trust and public health in Canada and Sweden to explore people鈥檚 trust in government, health agencies, and in other people and groups during a time of crisis. He will look at how their level of trust shapes public responses to COVID-19, such as compliance with control policies and methods of prevention, but also, how disease outbreaks affect those levels of trust and can lead to a rise in xenophobia.

Courtesy of YFile.

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Iron is an important component of hemoglobin, the substance in red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to transport it throughout your body. However, it has an often-underestimated downside: it plays a role in cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and more. For example, an abundance of iron can contribute to heart failure.

A groundbreaking new study, led by science Professor Gary Sweeney, examined the impact of iron overload on insulin sensitivity. The study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, involved experimental work by PhD student James Jahng. It was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Ottawa and Ryerson University.

The researchers made a startling discovery, published in EMBO Reports (2019), that could affect future approaches and treatments for patients with heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

From left: Gary Sweeney and James Jahng

Sweeney (91亚色 Research Chair in Mechanisms of Cardiometabolic Diseases) and Jahng (recipient of CIHR鈥檚 Frederick Banting & Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship) sit down with Brainstorm to discuss the research and its far-reaching ramifications.

Q: What were the objectives of this research?

A: Autophagy is a cellular process: each cell has its own quality control mechanism so that if there鈥檚 some stress, some potential damage to the cell, then autophagy is induced to deal with that problem. It鈥檚 like a self-protective process that is able to turn on when stress occurs, and protect the cells in your body when necessary.

We wanted to test the regulation of autophagy by iron, and how it affects insulin-stimulated metabolism.

This research could lead to new treatments in metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease

Q: This is, in many ways, a continuation of your work to date, Professor Sweeney.

A: Yes. We have previously examined the importance of autophagy in regulating metabolism. This brings everything together, but this time in James鈥� paper (Jahng is the first author in this research article) we are looking at the direct effect of iron.

Q: Why focus on iron?

A: The reason we were looking at iron is this: in patients with diabetes and obesity, a lot of them actually have high levels of iron. There are also many genetic diseases of iron overload, which you may have heard of, such as thalassemia. Most of these patients die from heart failure, cardiomyopathy. That鈥檚 largely the result of severe iron overload.

It鈥檚 also well-established that in diabetes and obesity, there鈥檚 an increase in iron levels.

鈥�91亚色 has a strong reputation. We now have a good cluster of researchers working in metabolic disease. This makes 91亚色 a very strong leader in this area.鈥� 鈥� Gary Sweeney

Q: How did you go about the work? Please describe the methodology and the timelines.

A: Over the last two years, approximately, we treated cells with a high dose of an iron solution for a 24-hour time period, then analyzed the results.

Q: What was the main finding? Anything unexpected?

A: The main finding is that iron caused insulin resistance in the muscle cells. It鈥檚 very simple but a strong finding.

It was a little bit unexpected because of the mechanism. When we looked deeper, we found that the cell seems to detect iron as a stress, and our data showed that there was an initial increase in this process of autophagy. But over time, after 24 hours, the iron had completely inhibited autophagy. That鈥檚 where we made the key link to iron overload stopping autophagy.

This was a very striking observation. The data was so clear. The dramatic effect we observed was somewhat unexpected.

鈥淭here鈥檚 exceptional research being undertaken here. The infrastructure, academic expertise and equipment are all superb.鈥� 鈥� James Jahng

Q: What are the ramifications? How might this research one day benefit patients?

A: It could benefit patients in many ways. First, it could bring attention to the potential impact of high levels of iron on metabolic health. This has been known for decades, but it鈥檚 underappreciated. People know it occurs, as a small contribution, but research like this shows that we really must be careful when we consider the effects of high iron in the diet, ultimately in the body, on metabolic health. People could be more aware of iron status, and perhaps control that by dietary or pharmacological approaches.

Autophagy is a self-protective process that can switch on when stress occurs, and protect the cells in your body when necessary

There are a lot of pharmaceutical companies interested in drugs to manipulate autophagy. For example, there鈥檚 one, hydroxychloroquine, which is in clinical trials for cancer treatment right now.

As far as I know, there are no autophagy-targeting drugs in the pipeline for metabolic health. But I think this paper would suggest that one day it might be advantageous to consider autophagy-based therapeutics in treating metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

Q: These results made the research very attractive to a publisher.

A: Yes, these strong results led to publication in a journal with high reputation. Being accepted for publication in a journal like EMBO Reports was fantastic not only because of the journal鈥檚 impact factor, but also because of its worldwide reputation in the scientific community.

Q: Is 91亚色 U a leader in this area?

A: 91亚色 has a strong reputation, yes. In terms of cardiovascular research, which has been one of the strategic priorities at 91亚色, we now have a good cluster of researchers working in metabolic disease. There鈥檚 exceptional research being undertaken here. The infrastructure, academic expertise and equipment are all superb. This, collectively, makes 91亚色 a very strong leader in this area.

To read the article, 鈥淚ron overload inhibits late stage autophagic flux leading to insulin resistance鈥� (EMBO Reports, 2019), visit the . To learn more about Sweeney, visit his . To learn more, visit the .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at ; watch our new , which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity such as artificial intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic for a glimpse of the year鈥檚 successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca.

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These are the questions three Faculty of Science biology researchers, who recently received more than $2.27 million in Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) project grants, will tackle over the next five years.

Professor Chun Peng, along with co-applicants chemistry Professor Arturo Orellana, biology Professor Yi Sheng and chemistry Professor Derek Wilson, will develop ways to inhibit the growth and spread of the most common form of ovarian cancer, epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), which could lead to targeted therapies for EOC patients. Professor Mark Bayfield will look at what goes wrong with the regulation process in healthy cells when they are under stress and how that can lead to cancer and neurodegeneration. Professor Gary Sweeney will try to figure out if excess fat is altering the structure and function of the heart, causing heart failure, and how.

鈥�91亚色 is delighted to see professors Peng, Bayfield and Sweeney receive project grants from CIHR. To award these extremely competitive CIHR grants reflects a recognition of the excellence of 91亚色 researchers in the biomedical and health research field,鈥� said Interim Vice-President Research and Innovation Rui Wang. 鈥淭hese three projects are prime examples of how 91亚色 researchers are focusing on improving health outcomes and bridging new knowledge and applications to improve the understanding, prevention and treatment of disease and injuries, and to provide healthier environments for individuals and communities.鈥�

Peng鈥檚 project, 鈥淒evelopment of novel 脽-catenin inhibitors as potential therapeutics for ovarian cancer,鈥� received a CIHR grant of $879,750.

Epithelial ovarian cancer 鈥� the most common form of ovarian cancer 鈥� has the highest mortality rate of female cancers. The low survival rate for women with EOC results mainly from an inability to detect the disease at an early, curable stage and from the lack of effective treatment for advanced cancer. The Wnt/脽-catenin pathway is known to play critical roles in cancer development, such as maintaining the cancer stem cells, promoting the spreading of cancer cells from the primary tumour into other organs and inhibiting the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapies. Peng and her team searched for novel inhibitors of this pathway and identified two compounds that have strong anti-tumour effects. The team will further characterize the effect of these inhibitors on cancer stem cells, tumour growth and metastasis, and see how these inhibitors disrupt 脽-catenin signalling to exert their anti-tumour effects. They will also generate structurally similar compounds to identify molecules that have better drug-like properties. The research could lead to the development of novel targeted therapies for EOC. Since the Wnt/脽-catenin pathway is involved in the development of many types of cancers, the small molecular inhibitors Peng and her team develop will be useful for targeting a wide range of cancers.

Bayfield鈥檚 project, 鈥淭ranslational Control by the La and La-Related Proteins,鈥� received a CIHR grant of $669,376.

Healthy cells have evolved several ways to respond to their environment and adapt to stresses. One critical way that cells respond to such cues is by controlling the cohort of proteins they synthesize, which allows the cell to adapt to new situations. However, dysregulation of these responses can lead to diseases like cancer and neurodegeneration. One class of factors known to have an important function in the control of protein synthesis is the La and La-related proteins. Dysregulation of function of the La and La-related proteins has been linked extensively to cancer and infection by viruses, but how this happens is not yet understood. In this proposal, Bayfield will identify the genes that rely on these factors, as well the ways in which they control protein synthesis. The research could lead to a substantial new understanding for many challenges to human health.

Sweeney鈥檚 project, 鈥淚nvestigating novel mechanisms of lipocalin-2 mediated cardiac dysfunction and their translational therapeutic potential,鈥� received a CIHR project grant of $722,926.

Many reports have established a correlation between obesity and cardiovascular complications such as heart failure. A causative role of obesity, and the accompanying diabetes, is well known. Heart failure is a progressive problem, which occurs due to changes in the structure and function of the heart, yet the precise mechanisms responsible for regulating these changes in obesity remain to be determined. Given the escalation in the occurrence of obesity, it is imperative to focus on understanding the mechanisms linking excess fat tissue to alterations in the structure and function of the heart to help prevent heart failure and potentially enhance the understanding of how to protect against the progression of heart failure.

For more information, visit the .

Courtesy of YFile.

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Mary Fox

Fox, an associate professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, was awarded a one-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Transitions in Care Best & Wise Practices grant of $100,000 to undertake the research. She will work on this project with a team of key stakeholders from rural communities in Ontario and national researchers with expertise in rural health, aging, intervention research and implementation science.
When there is a lack of preparation, some patients may wait too long to seek medical help, causing their health conditions to worsen. Other patients may visit the emergency room unnecessarily. For patients in rural communities, who usually do not live close to medical services, knowing the signs that their health conditions are worsening and what to do about them is especially important.

In Fox鈥檚 prior research, older rural patients and their families indicated that their most pressing unmet need is how to detect and respond to signs of worsening health conditions, and a health-care service called the Warning Signs Intervention would help meet this need.

The service was designed specifically to prepare patients to detect and respond to the warning signs of worsening health conditions. Patients who received the intervention had more knowledge and confidence in managing changes in their health conditions at home, and had fewer emergency room visits and hospital readmissions than patients who did not receive the intervention.

However, it is not yet clear how best to support health-care providers in implementing the service in rural communities.

鈥淣owhere is this need more urgent than in rural Ontario, where patients have more emergency department visits and hospital readmissions in the first 30 days following hospitalization than urban patients,鈥� said Fox. 鈥淭hese trends highlight the need to address inadequacies in rural transitional care and resolve rural-urban inequities in its delivery.鈥�

In this study, Fox and her team will invite health-care providers to fill out a survey about the intervention and participate in focus groups to discuss the barriers and facilitators to providing the intervention in rural communities.

The team will then review the findings and, using a systematic process, design an implementation plan to support health-care providers in delivering the intervention, with fidelity, in rural communities. The plan is also expected to improve older patients鈥� and families鈥� abilities to manage warning signs at home after hospital discharge, while reducing emergency room visits, hospital readmissions and the cost of care in Ontario鈥檚 health-care system.

鈥淭he study will provide high-quality evidence for researchers, health-care providers and policy-makers to inform new, innovative transitional care research, practices, and policies for older people and their families in rural communities,鈥� said Fox.

The evidence will be used to guide Fox鈥檚 future research testing the effectiveness of the implementation plan in rural communities.

Courtesy of YFile.

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The project being funded, 鈥淩ebooting Infant Pain Assessment,鈥� could give voice to preterm infants鈥� subjective experiences of pain, despite their inability to speak. The study will use machine learning to exponentially improve neonatal intensive care unit practice.

Pillai Riddell is the principal investigator (PI), with Professors Steven Wang (co-PI, Faculty of Science) and Aijun An (co-investigator, Lassonde School of Engineering) and Ian Stedman (Osgoode Hall Law School). Pillai Riddell is leading a team of 16 individuals across two countries and six sites. This is a highly collaborative international venture and it exemplifies cross-Faculty collaboration at 91亚色.

Left to right: Principal investigator Rebecca Pillai Riddell (Health), Co-principal investigator Steven Wang (Science), Co-investigator Aijun An (Lassonde School of Engineering) and researcher Ian Stedman (Osgoode Hall Law School)

鈥淭he AI (artificial intelligence) component in this project is important because it is enabling us to use continuous brain activity in a proposed clinical pain assessment application 鈥� to our knowledge, that鈥檚 a first anywhere in the world,鈥� says Pillai Riddell. 鈥�91亚色鈥檚 partnership with UCL (University College London) and McMaster University in this venture is a fantastic synergy of our combined expertise of behavioural and biological infant distress responses. I am thrilled to then be able to take our health content knowledge and take it to the next level with cutting-edge 91亚色 U artificial intelligence scientists in two sector-leading neonatal intensive care units 鈥� one in Canada (Mount Sinai) and one in the U.K. (University College London Hospital).

鈥淢oreover, this special Tri-Council opportunity inspired us to invite new social scientists at Osgoode Hall Law School (Ian Stedman) and University of Calgary to explore the ethical and social implications of computer-assisted clinical decision-making,鈥� she adds.

Desperate need for a better way forward for infant pain assessment

The need is great. Unmanaged pain in hospitalized infants has serious long-term complications. However, to manage pain, one must have accurate infant pain assessment. Infants cannot self-report their pain and current infant pain assessment tools used by health professionals have major problems because of the lack of specificity of current tools and bias in the caregivers who use these scales.

The researchers believe they have found a path towards a solution. 鈥淥ur international team of knowledge users and health/natural science/engineering/social science researchers have come together to build a machine learning algorithm that will learn how to discriminate invasive and non-invasive distress,鈥� Pillai Riddell explains.

Importantly, this will be the first time brain activity in infants is being considered in a potential clinical pain assessment tool

Three hundred babies and their mothers will be studied

A sample of 300 preterm infants and their mothers will be involved during a routine painful procedure. Pain indicators, such as facial grimacing, heart rate, brain electrical activity and oxygen levels will be used to train the algorithm to discriminate between the different types of distress.

鈥淭he complexity of pain requires a machine learning solution that is capable of modelling individual patterns of brain, behaviour and physiology during pain,鈥� Pillai Riddell explains.

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A country鈥檚 ability to count its inhabitants is essential for serving the general population and ensuring that socially marginalized groups, at risk of being undercounted, receive appropriate health and social services. New research co-led by 91亚色, St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital and Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto sought to alleviate a major problem in methodology: the undercounting of urban Indigenous peoples.

The situation is serious. 鈥淥ur Toronto-based study is a cautionary note on the shortfall of national census data on hard-to-reach听populations in Canada. We saw that when the short-form Canadian census is combined with data from the National Household Survey (NHS) to obtain estimates of the size of the Indigenous community, the result was a severe undercount of the Indigenous population in Toronto,鈥� says Faculty of Health Professor Michael Rotondi, who initiated the research.

This work was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the findings were published in the British medical journal听BMJ Open (2017).

A history of challenges in collecting this data

Today, most First Nations and M茅tis peoples in Canada live in cities, and the urban Indigenous population is rapidly increasing, according to Statistics Canada. But existing research tells us that many urban Indigenous people tend not to participate in the census due to factors such as poverty and its associated lack of a fixed address, mobility between communities and historical distrust of government and colonial policies.

Another issue that adds to the challenges of enumerating this population stems from a highly consequential federal decision eight years ago. Back in 2011, the Canadian government profoundly changed how population data was collected. It eliminated the mandatory long-form census, replacing it with the voluntary NHS 鈥� a decision that was met with grave concerns by statisticians and social scientists across the country.

鈥淭his further complicated the accurate enumeration of Indigenous peoples because questions regarding Indigenous identity were part of the content that was transferred from the long-form census to the NHS, which had a much lower global response rate (69 per cent) than the previous long-form census (94 per cent),鈥� Rotondi explains.

Study sought evidence of the magnitude of the census undercounts

Given these challenges, the researchers wanted to provide evidence of the size and scale of the census undercounts of this hard-to-reach population and, in doing so, improve estimation of the size of the urban Indigenous community living in Toronto.

Community partnerships facilitated participation

The study took place in the Indigenous community living in Toronto. Participants were recruited from March 2015听to听March 2016. The Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto, in partnership with the Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital, recruited Indigenous adults who lived, worked or received health services in the city, using a large-scale, community-based, respondent-driven sampling (RDS) design. RDS is a chain-referral sampling method where participants recruit other people they know. This technique is useful for sampling from hard-to-reach populations and has a number of practical and statistical advantages for studying hidden populations.

A total of 908 adults, ages 15 years and up, participated in this study. They all self-identified as Indigenous (First Nation, Inuit or M茅tis). Study participants were young; more than 60 per cent were under 45 years of age. Household income was low; 60 per cent of the study participants earned less than $20,000 in the year before the study took place. As well as income and age, the researchers also gathered demographic data such as gender, household type and household size.

The key question the researchers asked participants was: 鈥淒id you complete the 2011 census Canada questionnaire?鈥�

Improved methodology realizes double population size, points to policy implications

Using advanced statistical modelling, the researchers found that the most recent Canadian census grossly underestimated the size of the Indigenous population in Toronto.

鈥淯nder conservative assumptions, there are approximately 55,000 Indigenous people living in Toronto 鈥� at least double the current estimate of 19,270,鈥� Rotondi explains.

The methods that the research team used to secure an accurate estimate of the size of the urban Indigenous community will be useful to many. 鈥淭he results of this study may have potential implications for the enumeration of other impoverished or marginalized groups, including homeless people or illegal immigrants who may not have fixed addresses or who may be reluctant to identify themselves,鈥� says Rotondi.

He underscores the policy implications of this research: 鈥淥ur methods, including respondent-driven sampling and census completion information, will have broad impacts across governmental and health policy, potentially improving health-care access and equity for these marginalized communities.鈥�

To read the BMJ Open article, 鈥淥ur Health Counts Toronto: using respondent-driven sampling to unmask census undercounts of an urban indigenous population in Toronto, Canada,鈥� visit the . To learn more about Rotondi, visit his .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Ovarian cancer is the deadliest disease among all gynecological disorders. A recent study, under the supervision of 91亚色 Research Chair and Faculty of Science Professor Chun Peng and led by PhD student Mohamed Salem, offers novel insight into the complex regulatory mechanisms that are involved in the development of ovarian cancer.

鈥淥ur study provides strong new evidence to support a tumour-promoting role of a microRNA, miR-590-3p, in ovarian cancer. We found that miR-590-3p levels are higher in more aggressive tumour tissues when compared to less aggressive tumours. We also identified a gene named Forkhead Box A2 (FOXA2) as a target of miR-590-3p. We provided several lines of evidence to support the idea that FOXA2 inhibits tumour growth in ovarian cancer,鈥� Peng said.

In fact, high levels of FOXA2 in ovarian cancer tumours correlate with improved survival. 鈥淭his suggests that this gene may be a prognostic marker for this deadly disease,鈥� Salem added. 鈥淥n the other hand, miR-590-3p levels are higher in the blood of ovarian cancer patients when compared to women with benign gynecological disorders.鈥� This means that miR-590-3p may be a useful marker for earlier detection, which could improve patient outcomes and save lives.

This study, which was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canada Foundation for Innovation/Ontario Research Fund, was published in听Cancer Research听(2018).

Ovarian cancer survival rates comparatively lower, detection difficult

Ovarian cancer is arguably one of the most serious women鈥檚 cancers because the survival rate is lower than other common cancers of the female reproductive system (Statistics Canada). The five-year survival rate is 45 per cent. An estimated 2,800 Canadian women will be diagnosed with this cancer in 2019 (Ovarian Cancer Canada/OCC).

This research is particularly relevant and promising because ovarian cancer is difficult to detect for the following reasons:

• Some symptoms, such as indigestion, bloating or frequency in urinating, are vague and can be mistakenly attributed to other causes.
• A pelvic exam, transvaginal ultrasound or cancer antigen 125 (CA125) test could help to find ovarian cancer, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, but there is no reliable screening test for it (OCC).
• The only way to diagnose it is through surgery or a biopsy (OCC).

Depending on the stage and type of the cancer and the size of the tumour, various treatments are available. These include surgery to remove the tumour, chemotherapy to shrink the tumour before surgery or to destroy the remaining cancer cells after surgery, or radiation in some cases.

Study focused on the most common form of ovarian cancer

The goal of this study was to investigate the role of miR-590-3p in the development of ovarian cancer.听The research team focused on epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), the most common form of this cancer, which has the highest mortality rate among all gynecologic malignancies.

Two sets of samples (tumours) were used in the study: the first was collected at the Mansoura Oncology Center in Egypt, and the second was obtained from the Ottawa Ovarian Cancer Tissue Bank.

For the first set of samples, control ovarian tissues were taken from women who underwent hysterectomy and/or oophorectomy for benign gynecologic conditions, as a point of comparison. Blood samples were also collected prior to surgery. These samples were used to measure miR-590-3p and FOXA2 levels.

To investigate the role of miR-590-3p in ovarian cancer development, researchers increased the level of miR-590-3p in ovarian cancer cells and observed how tumours were formed and metastasized. They also conducted studies on culture plates and measured cancer cell behaviours when cells have an increased or decreased level of miR-590-3p.

Key findings could lead to improved outcomes, possibly save lives

This study provided original new evidence regarding miR-590-3p and its role in promoting the development of ovarian cancer. 鈥淲e demonstrated that overexpression of miR-590-3p significantly increased cell proliferation, migration, invasion and colony formation听in vitro听鈥� that is, outside a living organism,鈥� Salem explained. 鈥淲e also found that mir-590 promoted tumour growth and metastasis听in vivo听鈥� inside a living organism,鈥� he added.

The team found that miR-590-3p levels were significantly elevated in EOC tumours when compared with normal ovaries, and miR-590-3p plasma levels were higher in patients with EOC than in subjects with benign gynecologic disorders. 鈥淭hese findings suggest that higher miR-590-3p is associated with a more aggressive disease,鈥� Salem explained.

The researchers also discovered the following:

• FOXA2 inhibits versican, a matrix protein that is important for the spreading of ovarian cancer cells into other organs;
• FOXA2 plays a tumour-suppressive role in EOC;
• FOXA2 expression is associated with a less aggressive disease; and
• Patients who have a high level of FOXA2 and a lower level of versican may have a better chance for survival.

The new findings reported in this paper could lead to the development of new markers for ovarian cancer 鈥� allowing for earlier detection 鈥� and this could save lives.

To read the article, visit the听. To learn more about Peng鈥檚 work, visit the听听or her听.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at听, watch the听听and see the听.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色,听muellerm@yorku.ca

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To the public, diseases like Ebola seem to emerge from the shadows and then disappear just as mysteriously. Viruses, vaccines and even epidemiologists (who study the spread of disease) are all invisible actors. Often only health officials take the spotlight at the height of an epidemic.

One truly innovative and interdisciplinary project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), seeks to bring public health into the public eye. Shadowpox: The Antibody Politic is a video game (and an art installation) that imagines a deadly new pathogen made of shadows. The game uses live-animated digital effects to projection map viral 鈥渟hadowpox鈥� onto the players鈥� bodies.

In this interactive scenario, participants choose to 鈥淕et the Vaccine鈥� or 鈥淩isk the Virus,鈥� then watch the results of their decision: how many people around them they protect or infect as they fight the disease. At its core, Shadowpox is about making visible the invisible consequences of our choices, and revealing the constructive role that art can play in global political discourse around life-saving vaccines.

鈥淭he game is one incarnation of a participatory storyworld with a larger purpose: to expand our civic imagination,鈥� says Shadowpox creator Alison Humphrey, a Cinema and Media Arts PhD student and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar. 鈥淚t uses 鈥榗o-immunity鈥� as a metaphor for the power we each have to make choices that will have a destructive or constructive effect on the people and the world around us,鈥� she adds.

To build this bridge between science and fiction, Humphrey collaborated with Professor Caitlin Fisher in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, whose new Immersive Storytelling Lab won a major Canada Foundation for Innovation award; Professor Steven J. Hoffman of the Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School, Director of the Global Strategy Lab, and Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research鈥檚 Institute of Population & Public Health; and technical director LaLaine Ulit-Destajo, a recent Digital Media alumna.

Game emphasizes voluntary participation for the collective good

Shadowpox illustrates what health researchers call 鈥渃ommunity immunity,鈥� the level of vaccination at which a disease can no longer find enough unprotected hosts to spread through a population 听潭 听for polio, this level is 80 to 85 per cent; for measles, it is as high as 95 per cent. Community immunity helps to protect people who cannot get vaccinated, including babies and those with compromised immune systems. Since participation is voluntary, and people are vulnerable to fear and misinformation, vaccination is one of the most complex political dilemmas facing public health.

Hoffman emphasizes that Shadowpox gives participants the chance to play out the invisible consequences of choices made daily by millions of people around the world. 鈥淭he game balances qualitative fun with a quantitative statistical model, developed with the Global Strategy Lab鈥檚 Susan Rogers Van Katwyk, based on real-world statistics for vaccination, health spending, education, and wealth in 193 countries,鈥� he explains.

The player鈥檚 final score transforms into an 鈥淚nfection Collection鈥� or 鈥淧rotection Collection鈥� of virtual trading cards written by Fisher (see ), bringing to life the 99 neighbours who can be touched by a single vaccine decision.

Exhibition premiered in Switzerland, reviewed well in The Lancet

Humphrey and Ulit-Destajo play-tested the Shadowpox story and digital effects in 2016 at a workshop at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and The Art and Science of Immunization symposium at the University of Toronto. Shadowpox: The Antibody Politic then premiered in the 2017 exhibition <Immune Nations> in Trondheim, Norway, which moved to Geneva, Switzerland, for the 70th World Health Assembly. (Additional funds were provided by the Research Council of Norway.)

<Immune Nations> is an ambitious, multi-year collaboration between artists, scientists and policy-makers, described by curator Natalie Loveless as the first of its kind to 鈥渟pecifically address the issue of vaccines from a collaborative, interdisciplinary perspective, attentive to the arts and its many roles for advocacy and political intervention.鈥�

<Immune Nations>, and Shadowpox in particular, received an enthusiastic review in the highly regarded medical journal The Lancet, which called the latter 鈥渦ndoubtedly one of the most powerful and playful ways to illustrate both the individual and population-level implications of community immunity.鈥�

Shadowpox will continue to evolve and transform over 2019

Shadowpox: The Antibody Politic had its Canadian premiere at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa from September 2018 to January 2019, where the show Public Notice explored how contagious disease throughout history, from the Black Plague to Ebola, has fuelled fear and xenophobia. The show marks the centenary of the 1918-1919 鈥淪panish鈥� Flu pandemic, whose sweep across the globe killed more people than the First World War.

The next incarnation of Humphrey鈥檚 doctoral research, Shadowpox: A Spark in the Firewall, is a participatory storyworld co-created with young people in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America in 2019. In this science-fiction scenario, young, healthy volunteers test a breakthrough vaccine at the height of a global pandemic. But their commitment to joining the network of co-immunity is itself tested by a battery of modern anxieties and ancient fears, sparking emergent drama from the tensions between feeling and thinking, individual and community, participation and resistance, vigilance and trust.

To learn more, visit ; or see to explore the evolution of the videogame from 91亚色鈥檚 , to in action at in and , to reviews in , and a feature in .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca

The post Interactive video game highlights the impact of vaccine decision making appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Yvonne Bohr鈥檚 research team

Faculty of Health Professor Yvonne Bohr took a critical look at a 3D video game developed halfway around the world and realized it could have application in Canada. SPARX (Smart, Positive, Active, Realistic, X-factor thoughts) was designed by researchers at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, for Maori youth to help with stress, depression and anxiety.

After a 2012 British Medical Journal article concluded that SPARX helped youth by building resilience, Bohr wondered if this game could be revamped to support Canada鈥檚 Inuit youth. Her team then won funding of over one million dollars from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)听 to investigate this possibility, and launched their study 鈥淢aking I-SPARX Fly in Nunavut鈥� together with Nunavut communities and partners Embrace Life and Pinnguaq.

Bohr sat down with Brainstorm to discuss this hugely promising work.

Q: How did SPARX first come to your attention?

A: In 2012, while I was leading the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research at 91亚色, we secured a contract to provide research services in child and youth mental health to the government of Nunavut (GN). The focus of the contract was on the identification of e-interventions for youth.

鈥淭ruly valuing Indigenous models involves embracing genuine, community-led, collaborative inquiry.鈥� 鈥� Yvonne Bohr

We knew that SPARX had been used successfully with Maori youth in New Zealand and, for that reason, might be suitable for Canadian Indigenous youth who share characteristics, including a history of trauma and oppression. It seemed worthwhile to test this hypothesis, which we initially did with a pilot study funded by the GN.

Q: What were the goals and key findings of your 2015-16 pilot study?

A: GN requested that we engage 20 communities. We did this work remotely by sending laptops, and tele- and web-conferencing. In the end, 22 youth participants and 11 mental health workers, in 11 communities, completed the pilot study.

Using conventional standardized measures, we found that the youth who completed all levels of the game showed less catastrophizing, less rumination and less hopelessness. This was very encouraging.

All participating youth found the game very useful and gave us examples of how the strategies benefited their everyday life. The facilitators also had very positive things to say. However, both groups told us that they would like to see a culture-specific version of this game.

Q: Please explain how cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) builds strategies for when kids are feeling stressed or hopeless.

A: CBT is based on a simple principle: how we think affects how we act and how we feel. For example, if you believe that you鈥檙e not a good student, you will feel anxious when you have a test. You may decide to skip the test, and thus fail the course, which reinforces your negative self-assessment and leaves you feeling lousy.

CBT helps learners challenge such thoughts, to perhaps consider: 鈥淚f I give this test a try, I might just pass. Although I may not do terribly well, I can always improve myself.鈥�

Q: How is the project unfolding and how are you shifting the cultural context from Maori to Inuit?

A: This summer, we travelled to five partner communities, recruiting youth leaders and elders who will be working with us for three years. The youth collaborate with the elders on identifying cultural content useful for bolstering wellness and mental health in the context of the game.

鈥淭he youth who completed all levels of the game showed less catastrophizing, less rumination and less hopelessness. This was very encouraging.鈥� 鈥� Yvonne Bohr

In our first sessions, many productive ideas were generated. Youth and elders have been astute at identifying cultural practices that may be useful for illustrating CBT strategies in view of making I-SPARX a community-centric wellness program. For example, in CBT, breathing strategies are used to help with emotion regulation when dealing with anxiety. The youth suggested we build an episode about hunting into the game, because hunting is very important in Inuit culture. When young people learn how to hunt, they must learn how to be very quiet and to regulate their breathing.

Also, the participants suggested that the environment in the existing SPARX game be altered: Indigenous hunters and fishermen might replace Maori warriors, for example.

Q: Will a new game for Inuit youth be on the market soon?

A: We鈥檝e been gathering information for our partners and technical experts at Pinnguaq, who will work with youth to redesign the game. By spring 2019, we hope to have a draft to present to the youth at a retreat in Iqaluit. They will have opportunity to provide feedback, the game will be finalized, and they will then roll it out and assess its usefulness in their communities.

Q: What kind of difference could this make in Nunavut?

A: Our community partners are very hopeful that this project will provide a platform for youth, elders and community members to come together and have discussions about the role of culture in mental health, using the game as a catalyst.听

鈥淲e are committed to the Two-Eyed Seeing Framework, which integrates Indigenous and Western ways of conducting research, understanding that we can learn from each other.鈥� 鈥� Yvonne Bohr

The communities鈥� focus is on the facilitation of reciprocal interactions in which elders teach youth about culture, and youth teach elders about technology. A large part of this project is about building capacity in communities through youth engagement.

Q: Tell us about your approach to research.

A: Our research team and our community partners are committed to the Two-Eyed Seeing Framework, which integrates Indigenous and Western ways of conducting research, understanding that we can learn from each other. The project鈥檚 framework relies on Indigenous values and models. We are using Inuit philosophies on well-being and leading a good life. We are taking this approach very seriously.

We are also very aware of the challenges this presents to researchers, such as ourselves, who have been trained in Western models for conducting scientific inquiries. However, we are all 鈥� from researchers to community elders 鈥� very committed to this integration.

Q: How can 91亚色 foster Indigenous-informed and -led research?

A: 91亚色 can do this by understanding that truly valuing Indigenous models involves embracing genuine, community-led, collaborative inquiry. This may, at times, test a conventional academic institution鈥檚 tolerance for real evolution and change, which takes time. The journey that we have undertaken with this project presents a worthwhile opportunity for our collective growth in that area.

To read the results of the pilot study, see a technical report on the听. To read the 2012 British Medical Journal article, visit the . To learn more about Bohr鈥檚 work, visit her .

To learn more about Research and Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca

The post Q&A with researcher on fantasy video game to help Inuit youth build resilience appeared first on Research & Innovation.