CFI Archives | Research & Innovation

CFI awards 91��ɫ researchers $274,000 in funding

fmaquito — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Funding will support three projects in biology, kinesiology and psychology

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has awarded 91��ɫ $274,689 in infrastructure funding to support the research of three 91��ɫ professors.

, professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health and a member of the Muscle Health Research Centre, will receive $79,260 to support his research on muscle microcirculation in health and diseases. Birot’s research examines how peripheral vascular disease (PVD) affects key molecular mechanisms that regulate the formation of blood vessels in muscles. PVD is characterized by insufficient blood supply in leg muscles, leading to suffering, reduced mob ility and eventually amputation. PVD affects more than one million Canadians and is a frequent complication for patients with obesity, Type 2 diabetes or chronic heart failure.

Right: Olivier Birot

Nicholas Cepeda, professor in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Health, will receive $100,777 to establish a developmental cognitive neuroscience laboratory for research on learning and memory, cognitive flexibility and musical training. His research has shown a 300 per cent improvement in students’ long-term recall of factual information, merely by changing the timing of when a particular curriculum item is taught and re-taught − with no increase in teaching time. The project’s musical training research will provide information about the brain functions of musicians and non-musicians, including processing speed, working memory, inhibition, attentional control and task-switching skills.

Left: Nicholas Cepeda

, professor and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator in the Department of Biology in 91��ɫ's , will receive $94,652 to support multi-faceted research in integrative neuroendocrinology and physiology. His research on the neuroendocrine regulation of growth, reproduction and body weight in fish could help aquaculture industry to improve the feeding, growth and reproduction of cultured fish. The funding also provides critical equipment for cutting-edge research on the neuroendocrine defects underlying diabetes and obesity, and may help to develop innovative pharmacological and cell-based therapies to help Canadians and others in their fight against these metabolic diseases.

Left: Suraj Unniappan

“These projects demonstrate 91��ɫ’s excellence in health and science research,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “The questions Professor Birot's and Cepeda's projects explore concerning muscle health and learning and cognition reflect the relevance and disciplinary strengths of our psychology and kinesiology researchers, while Professor Unniappan's project illustrates the industrial applications that may flow from support for basic research. We fully support the importance of the CFI’s investments in state-of-the-art infrastructure and the world-class research they enable at 91��ɫ.”

91��ɫ’s projects were part of a in 's Leaders Opportunity Fund, which provides Canadian researchers with the necessary tools to carry out a range of frontier research. The funding supports 339 leading researchers and 245 projects at 48 Canadian research institutions.

Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science & technology), made the announcement in Ottawa, Ontario on Jan. 21. “Supporting science is key to Canada’s future economic growth,” said Goodyear. “Our government's commitment to helping universities attract and retain world-leading research talent will lead to discoveries that improve Canadians' quality of life and create new jobs."

“Access to modern, cutting-edge equipment and facilities is imperative in the 21st century," said Gilles Patry, president & CEO of the CFI. “For more than a decade, the CFI has provided thousands of world-class researchers with the tools they need to do their work. Without the right infrastructure, they simply wouldn't be in Canada.”

A complete list of CFI recipients is available on the website.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of Janice Walls and Melissa Hughes

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Professor Michael Jenkin's AQUA robot gets four flippers and a clever brain

fmaquito — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:00:00 +0000

A team of researchers from 91��ɫ has helped created a robot with the smarts to think for itself as it swims underwater, wrote (Canada) Dec. 7:

The team, led by , a computer science professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, is working together with teams from McGill University and Dalhousie University to build the highly advanced AQUA robot, which resembles an otter and uses flippers to propel itself around underwater. Despite its cute, toy-like appearance, AQUA is intelligent enough to understand visual commands and perform complex under water manoeuvres.

Jenkin's team recently created an underwater control tablet that lets an operator interact with AQUA directly and much more quickly – a crucial feature when investigating dangerous, unknown environments like shipwrecks. “We want to make vehicles that are more intelligent, that understand their world better and can interact with the world better. The underlying goal is to enhance our understanding of how to build intelligent, autonomous systems,” Jenkin said.

Jenkin, a member of the , is one of the researchers based in 91��ɫ’s new state-of-the-art Sherman Health Science Research Centre, which officially opened on Sept. 14. He leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics laboratory, which is based on the building’s main level.

The centre is supported by a grant from the . The AQUA project is funded in part by the .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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Video: Professor Laurence Packer on why and how to make your garden bee-friendly

fmaquito — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Without bees, we wouldn’t have coffee to drink at breakfast, tomatoes in your sandwich at lunch or fruit for a snack on the go. While bee populations all over the world are in trouble, there are lots of things individuals can do to create bee-friendly gardens — even if your personal green space is limited to a condo balcony.

Here's Professor Laurence Packer from 91��ɫ’s Department of Biology in the on what you can do to help the world’s bees in your backyard:

Packer travels the world tracking many of the 19,500 described species of wild bees. While his perspective is international, Packer’s backyard is a great example of a bee-friendly space and is featured in the video. He is also the author of . All proceeds form his book will be directed toward bee conservation research.

In 2010, Packer was featured on CBC’s The Nature of Things, hosted by David Suzuki. The episode, “”, highlights dramatic declines in North America’s wild bee and honey bee populations, and explores what the disappearance and decline of these insects tells us about larger ecological problems. The episode is also available for download on. Packer’s segment runs from the 3:30 mark through to 6:30.

PhD student Jason Gibbs, who works in Packer’s laboratory and has collaborated with him on research publications, also recently made national news headlines by documenting 19 new bee species, one of which he discovered during his commute from downtown Toronto to 91��ɫ.

To read more about their work, visit Packer’s Website or search for past stories in the Research News archive using the and tags.

Packer's research is funded by the (NSERC) and the (CFI).

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

Video production by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, Elizabeth Teodorini, alumni communications manager, and Robert Denault and Perry Walker in the Learning Technology Services unit.

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Professor Dorota Crawford's research shows misoprostol prevents cell communication

fmaquito — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Drug has been linked to neurodevelopmental defects associated with autism

A 91��ɫ study has shown for the first time how the drug misoprostol, which has been linked to neurodevelopmental defects associated with autism, interferes with neuronal cell function.

It is an important finding because is similar in structure to naturally occurring prostaglandins, which are the key signalling molecules produced by fatty acids in the brain. The drug is used to prevent ulcers in people who take certain arthritis or pain medicines, including aspirin, that can cause ulcers. It protects the stomach lining and decreases stomach acid secretion.

Past clinical studies have shown an association between misoprostol and severe neurodevelopmental defects including autism symptoms. Those studies looked at cases in Brazil in which women misused the drug early in pregnancy in unsuccessful attempts to terminate their pregnancies.

The 91��ɫ study examined mouse neuronal cells to discover how the drug actually interferes at a molecular level with prostaglandins, which are important for development and communication of cells in the brain.

“Early in the first trimester of pregnancy, neuronal cells reach out to communicate with one another,” says Dorota Crawford, a professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health. “Our study shows that misoprostol interferes with this process by increasing the level of calcium ions in neuronal extensions, which reduces the number and length of these extensions. It prevents the cells from communicating with each other. If changes in prostaglandin level alter the development or differentiation of cells, it may have a physiological impact.”

Left: Dorota Crawford

Crawford and Javaneh Tamiji, who undertook the research for her master’s thesis in the Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Program at 91��ɫ, co-authored a study published online in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications: “Prostaglandin E2 and misoprostol induce neurite retraction in Neuro-2a cells”.

There is no indication that women in Canada are misusing misoprostol to terminate pregnancies, and in fact the drug is used safely for other purposes such as treatment and prevention of gastrointestinal ulcers. However, during early neuronal development the drug misoprostol or other environmental factors such as infections or inflammations, which can also increase the level of prostaglandins, may interfere with normal brain function, says Crawford.

Right: Javaneh Tamiji

Crawford and Tamiji focused on the drug misoprostol because they had evidence from clinical studies of the neurotoxic effects of the drug. They used misoprostol and the naturally occurring prostaglandins side by side in their study and found that both compounds produced the same effects on neuronal cell function.

The study shows that misoprostol interferes with the prostaglandin pathway in a dose-dependent manner – in other words, the higher the dose, the greater the problems created.

“What that indicates to us is whether it is infection that will activate it or whether it is the drug, it will cause the same effect,” says Crawford.

Now that it has been shown that misoprostol affects interaction between cells, the next step will be to do animal studies on mice to examine the physiological impacts on particular parts of the brain, she says.

Crawford’s lab is one of very few in the world that has adopted a multidisciplinary approach to the study of autism spectrum disorders, using molecular techniques to understand the link between causative biological factors (genes and environment) and the behavioural expression.

This research was funded by the . The provided equipment used in the study.

It has also received coverage on MedicalNewsToday.com:

A 91��ɫ study has shown for the first time how the drug misoprostol, which has been linked to neurodevelopmental defects associated with autism, interferes with neuronal cell function.

91��ɫ Professor Dorota Crawford, of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Science & Enginering, and graduate student Javaneh Tamiji, who undertook the research for her master’s thesis in the Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Program at 91��ɫ, co-authored a study published online in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications: “Prostaglandin E2 and misoprostol induce neurite retraction in Neuro-2a cells”.

By Janice Walls, media relations officer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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91��ɫ hosts its first Neuroscience Research Day

fmaquito — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The first cohort of students graduating from 91��ɫ’s Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Program will present their leading-edge research today as part of the University’s first Neuroscience Research Day. The presentations will take place from 9am to 3:30pm in 163 Behavioural Sciences Building on 91��ɫ's Keele campus.

Fifteen students will offer summaries of their research. The students come to the program from different backgrounds, including computer science, psychology, biology, and kinesiology & health science.

"This day marks the culmination of two years of intense neuroscience studies for our first group of students," says Professor Doug Crawford (left), and the program’s coordinator. "They are a wonderful group and I am extremely proud of them"

Today’s presentations cover a wide range of approaches to neuroscience, ranging from research on molecular and cellular mechanisms in nerve cells and the relationship between the elements of neural systems, to the study of behaviour of whole organisms.

Psychology Professors Shayna Rosenbaum and Kari Hoffman have been hard at work coordinating the Neuroscience Research Day. “We began a neuroscience graduate diploma program at 91��ɫ in 2008. It combines the interests of the psychology, biology, and kinesiology & health sciences program,” says Rosenbaum. “This is the end of the second year of the program, which is a two-year consecutive program that is done in conjunction with the graduate students’ home department and their degree. [They are given a diploma in addition to their degree.] While the Neuroscience Research Day program is focused on the students, the event is also a celebration of the wide range of research interests among our neuroscience research faculty.”

Above: The class of 2010 and neuroscience faculty

The graduating students will be presenting a range of projects, says Rosenbaum, that draw on different methodologies. Some students will be showcasing work done using a molecular approach, while others will be presenting research that looks at neuroscience from a systems focus. Other students, says Rosenbaum, have relied on neuroimaging methods and some have done their research with patient populations. The breadth of projects that will be presented during the research day, says Rosenbaum, mirrors the program faculty's multidisciplinary approach to neuroscience.

Left: Shayna Rosenbaum

The following is a snapshot of some of the 15 research projects that will be presented today:

David Cappadocia (BSc Spec. Hons. ’08), is a second-year master's student working with Crawford. Cappadocia will present on his research into how the brain remembers different features of an object, so that when it is time to act on the object, it can be discriminated from other similar objects.

Caitlin Mullin (MSc ’08), a PhD student, is studying how different parts of the brain form representations of the visual world around us. Mullin is using transcranial magnetic stimulation to apply a brief magnetic pulse to a specific part of the brain. This temporarily deactivates the brain region, allowing Mullin to determine how it functions. Mullin is supervised by 91��ɫ psychology Professor Jennifer Steeves.

PhD student Krista Kelly will present her research that looks into the effects of losing one eye early in life. Specifically, Kelly is researching how that loss affects brain organization and visual ability. Working under the supervision of Steeves, Kelly is using functional brain imaging to correlate findings with behavioural measures of performance.

Master's students Javaneh Tamiji (BSc Spec. Hons. ’08) and Shannon Lozinsky are working with kinesiology Professor Dorota Crawford. They will present their research on the causes of autism, a disorder of the brain. Using state-of-the-art equipment funded by the , Tamiji and Lozinsky are investigating how environmental agents, such as drugs taken during early pregnancy, affect function and communication of cells in the brain. The goal of their project is to achieve a better understanding of what is different or missing in the brains of individuals with autism.

91��ɫ PhD student Debi Stransky (BSc Spec. Hons. ’06, MSc ’08) is investigating stereoscopic depth perception across a large range of depth offsets under the supervision of 91��ɫ psychology Professor Laurie Wilcox. There is convincing evidence that there is a separate depth processing mechanism for images that cannot be fused into a single percept. Stransky is determining the quality of depth perceived from such stimuli and if these percepts are subserved from distinct neural mechanisms. Her work is funded by a postgraduate fellowship from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

91��ɫ PhD student Inna Tsirlin (BSc Spec. Hons. ’04, MSc ’06) is studying depth perceptions from monocular occlusions. These are regions in a scene that are visible to one eye, but not to the other because they are occluded, for instance by objects in the foreground. For many years this information was considered noise. Tsirlin's work has shown that monocular occlusions help define the boundaries between objects and backgrounds, and can even provide quantitative depth information. Tsirlin is working under the supervision of Wilcox and her work is funded by a postgraduate fellowship from NSERC.

Left: Kari Hoffman

PhD student Stephanie Hornyak, who specializes in clinical neuropsychology, is investigating how brain regions communicate with each other to support spatial memory of well-known environments learned long ago. Under the supervision of 91��ɫ psychology Professor Shayna Rosenbaum, she has used an innovative method of combining functional MRI with multivariate statistics, which will help predict how brain networks may break down in patients who suffer from spatial disorientation.

91��ɫ master’s student Adrian Bartlett (BA Spec. Hons. ’08) is studying how the eye movements we use to scan the environment may shape the neural basis of object recognition. Using spectral analysis of neuronal population activity, his research has revealed that eye movements help coordinate the activity of neurons, leading to a stronger, more efficient code of what we’re viewing, Bartlett is the recipient of an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship and is supervised by psychology Professor Kari Hoffman.

“All the research being presented is very exciting and it is also an important year because 91��ɫ has acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology,” says Rosenbaum. “The day also offers students another forum for networking and will help them build future collaborations.”

Everyone in the University community is invited to attend the presentations. The deans of the , and Graduate Studies will also give presentations.

For more information, visit the Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Web site.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professors developing radar stations to predict storms like recent Leamington tornado

fmaquito — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

says things like, “It might turn out to be a red herring,” and “We’re still learning,” and “A lot of this is speculation,” wrote the London Free Press June 9:

But despite all those cautious caveats, the local scientist says something happened high in the sky over southwestern Ontario on Sunday that just might help researchers predict the type of violent winds that wreaked havoc in Leamington.

“We don’t want to say there was a definite correlation, because we’ve only seen this twice,” says Hocking, adjunct professor in 91��ɫ’s and a professor at the University of Western Ontario. “But it looks like this might be an interesting forewarner of tornadoes.”

Along with a consortium of scientists from 91��ɫ, Western and McGill universities, Hocking has set up a network of highly sensitive “wind profiler” radar stations in Ontario and Quebec.

Although researchers traditionally connect violent wind storms with the clash of warm and cool streams of air, Hocking says the Harrow instruments indicate that unstable air from the jet stream, which normally flows at an altitude of about 10 kilometres, spread uncharacteristically downwards and hit the ground.

Along with principal investigator , professor of atmospheric sciences in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, Hocking has been instrumental in building five of these radar sites (including north of London, Walsingham, Wilberforce and Negro Creek), which were funded by a $2.5-million grant from the .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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