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Postdoctoral fellow Stuart Henderson's book examines the hip scene in 1960s 91��ɫville

fmaquito — Thu, 26 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

How is "hip" constructed? Is a culture of dissent ultimately a by-product of prevailing sociopolitical forces? Do countercultural events influence mainstream society?

Those questions and more are at the core of Making the Scene: 91��ɫville and Hip Toronto in the 1960s, a new book by 91��ɫ postdoctoral fellow published this month by the University of Toronto Press.

The book examines the history of Toronto's countercultural mecca, 1960s 91��ɫville. Henderson narrates the development of the 91��ɫville scene from its early coffee house days when it was frequented by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to its drug-fuelled final months.

A cultural historian Henderson is a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of History in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

“I have always found myself drawn to that form of cultural rebellion. I admired the perhaps oversimplified idea of a peace and love movement, and I really loved the music that had been produced from within the ranks of the counterculture,” says Henderson, a self-professed neo-hippie. “So, when I was thinking about how to approach Canadian cultural history, I just aimed straight at this era [the 1960s] and the people I'd always found to be fascinating.”

Left: Stuart Henderson

The true story of the 91��ɫville scene, says Henderson, is about people trying to find a space in which to "perform" a hip identity and stretch the confines that they felt had been imposed on them by society, their parents and other sociopolitical pressures. "They were all looking for something real, something authentic. In their search, they uncovered some pretty amazing stuff and had some really interesting experiences," he says. "But authenticity is elusive and certainly fleeting. It's all about the journey, not the destination, as it turns out. A central point I want people to recognize is that 91��ɫville was not a 'hippie' place. It was a place that came to be closely associated with 'hippies' but people who fit that mold were never the only people hanging around there."

In Making the Scene, Henderson takes a new look at the hip mecca and gives a voice to people not typically heard in the popular stories associated with 91��ɫville – women, working class youth, business owners and municipal authorities. Members of biker gangs, working class kids (who didn't look much like "hippies", says Henderson), media types, store owners, gallery people, artists and musicians were the 91��ɫville neighbourhood. "All of these people were there and few of them would count as 'hippies' in any conventional definition, then or now," he says.

He explores how the 91��ɫville neighbourhood came to be regarded as the symbol of hip Toronto in the cultural imagination. Henderson argues that the popular association of 91��ɫville with the flower power generation was more accurately a close association with the widespread anxiety in the mid-1960s over the "degeneration" of the middle-class baby boomers into unproductive members of society.

The expectation of the time was that the working class and racial minorities would be rebellious and problematic, says Henderson. "The fact that these [hippies] were middle-class teenagers from the suburbs who were dropping acid and growing their hair and losing their virginity was what kept journalists and municipal authorities up at night."

91��ɫville in the 1960s, he says, was always more complicated than the 91��ɫville hippies.

In writing the book, which sprouted from his PhD dissertation, Henderson says there were many memorable experiences. "I got to spend some time with [writer and activist] who was a hero of mine. She was an astoundingly committed philanthropist and activist, and she always positioned herself at the forefront of battles to protect people from a system which had forgotten them," he says. "We spent an afternoon together a few months before she died and I was just so appreciative of her desire to participate in this project at such a late stage of her illness. I'll never forget that when I asked her why she was willing to come talk to a stranger under these circumstances, she just said: 'Oh, well, I trust the process. Write a good book'."

His next project involves a cultural history of the communal residence and alternative education experiment of the era, Rochdale College on Bloor Street. "I am writing a sequel of sorts to the 91��ɫville book. I am working on a book on Rochdale College and what I have termed 'hip separatism' in the 1970s," he says. "While 91��ɫville saw people performing cultural difference right there in the open," he says, "Rochdale remained closed to outsiders and tourists and represents a certain retreat from the integrationist, even evangelical, politics of '60s-era hip youth."

Despite his fascination with the 1960s, Henderson says that if he could dine with anyone, dead or alive, his choice would be Canadian artist Tom Thomson. "I have some good buddies who died too young. It'd be nice to see one of them again, but how do you choose? So, I'll be a Canadian cultural historian and say dinner over a campfire with Tom Thomson somewhere in Algonquin Park on a star-filled night. But mostly because I really like camping."

Henderson is on Twitter under the handle .

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

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

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91��ɫ becomes 17th member of MaRS Innovation

fmaquito — Mon, 09 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ has become the latest member of , the commercialization agent for many leading Toronto-based universities, hospitals and research institutes.

“91��ɫ has become one of Canada’s fastest-growing centres for research and innovation,” said Stan Shapson (right), vice-president research & innovation at 91��ɫ. “We typically get 10 to 20 discovery disclosures a year. Joining MaRS Innovation allows us to deliver the most competitive commercialization services to the researchers making these discoveries. We’re confident that membership in MaRS Innovation will boost that number and accelerate the commercialization of 91��ɫ’s most promising research.”

Earlier this year, 91��ɫ launched its office. Based in 91��ɫ Region, Innovation 91��ɫ works with other partner organizations in the Markham Convergence Centre to build upon research partnerships between 91��ɫ researchers and life science and technology companies based in 91��ɫ Region and the Greater Toronto Area. It’s also making 91��ɫ’s research and infrastructure more accessible to industry, government agencies and community partners.

Joining MaRS Innovation will further extend 91��ɫ’s commercialization contacts. In less than two years, MaRS Innovation has assessed more than 400 research disclosures from members such as the University of Toronto and its 10 affiliated teaching hospitals, as well as Ryerson University.

MaRS Innovation has begun to line up investment funding to take the discoveries with the greatest commercial potential to market, creating companies and jobs, and starting industries. In 2011 alone, MaRS Innovation has spurred the creation of five new enterprises based on the groundbreaking discoveries of its members.

“We’re thrilled that 91��ɫ has decided to become one of our members." said Rafi Hofstein, president & CEO of MaRS Innovation. "91��ɫ’s national and international reputation for groundbreaking discoveries is growing quickly, and many of their research initiatives are highly complementary to the technologies that we’ve been helping to commercialize over the past two years.”

To become a member of MaRS Innovation, an academic and research organization must have intellectual property in life sciences (drug discovery, medical devices, diagnostic imaging, etc.), information and communications technologies (ICT), cleantech and digital media.

MaRS Innovation is supported by the Government of Canada through the (NCE) to focus on turning inventions into real commercial opportunities. Both the Province of Ontario’s (MRI) and Ottawa have provided essential financial support for Proof of Principle programs – NCE, through the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, funded the turning of inventions into real commercial opportunities; and MRI, through Ontario Centres of Excellence, has been supporting MaRS Innovation’s Proof of Principle (PoP) program.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of MaRS Innovation Public Relations department and Media Relations at 91��ɫ University.

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Professor Chun Peng leads research team uncovering how ovarian cancer resists chemotherapy

fmaquito — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ researchers have zeroed in on a genetic process that may allow ovarian cancer to resist chemotherapy.

Researchers in the University’s studied a tiny strand of our genetic makeup known as a microRNA, involved in the regulation of gene expression. Cancer occurs when gene regulation goes haywire.

“Ovarian cancer is a very deadly disease because it’s hard to detect,” says biology Professor who co-authored the study. By the time it's diagnosed, usually it is in its late stages. And by that point there’s really no way to treat the disease. Even when the disease is discovered in its early stages, chemotherapy doesn’t always work,” she says.

Right: Chun Peng

Peng was among a team of researchers that discovered a receptor, ALK7, that induces cell death in epithelial ovarian cancer cells. They have now discerned that microRNA 376c targets this crucial receptor, inhibiting its expression and allowing ovarian cancer cells to thrive.

“Our evidence suggests that microRNA 376c is crucial to determining how a patient will respond to a chemotherapeutic agent,” says Peng. “It allows cancer cells to survive by targeting the very process that kills them off,” she says.

In examining tumours taken from patients who were non-responsive to chemotherapy, researchers found a higher expression of microRNA 376c and a much lower expression of ALK7.

Peng believes that this research is a step towards being able to make chemotherapy drugs more effective in the treatment of the disease.

“Further study is needed, but ultimately if we can introduce anti-microRNAs that would lower the level of those microRNAs that make cancer cells resistant to chemotherapeutic drugs, we will be able to make chemotherapy more effective against ovarian cancer,” Peng says.

She urges women to educate themselves about the risk factors and symptoms of the disease. For more information, visit .

Peng is a world expert in the area of ovarian cancer and the molecular basis of complications in pregnancy. Her research on chemo-resistance has also contributed to knowledge and prediction of pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy disorder that is a leading cause of maternal and perinatal complications and death.

The article, “MicroRNA 376c enhances ovarian cancer cell survival by targeting activin receptor-like kinase 7: implications for chemoresistance”, was published in the Journal of Cell Science.The study’s lead author, Gang Ye, is a research associate in Peng’s lab. Several trainees in Peng’s lab, as well as scientists in Toronto’s Sunnybrook Research Institute and in China also participated in the project.

The research was supported by an operating grant from the (CIHR) and a mid-career award to Peng from the Ontario Women’s Health Council/CIHR. Ye was supported in part by a fellowship from the Toronto Ovarian Cancer Research Network.

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

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Professor Joel Lexchin co-authors study on free journals and costly or problematic drugs

fmaquito — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Medical publications distributed freely to health professionals often promote drugs that are costly or have potential problems, says a new study warning that such practices could influence which drugs doctors prescribe, wrote :

Unlike medical publications that require paid subscriptions, free journals get most or all of their funding from pharmaceutical advertising.

A group of researchers keen to discover what effect industry ties have on the content of published medical journals conducted a detailed comparison of journals that are free, those that have some pharmaceutical advertising and subscription fees, and those that are subscription-only.

Their findings, published on Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, show that free journals are much more likely than other publications to display ads for new drugs that are more expensive than older, generic versions as well as drugs that are linked to some concerns over effectiveness.

But the researchers also discovered that free journals frequently print editorial content that directly recommends the drugs that are advertised in the journal.

“It’s pretty well drug company advertising,” said Joel Lexchin, a professor in the School of Health Policy & Management [Faculty of Health] at 91��ɫ in Toronto and one of the study’s authors. “These journals probably have a role in influencing prescribing behaviour.”

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

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Professor Joel Lexchin: Health Canada should beef up drug-monitoring system

fmaquito — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Health Canada did not pull a pain drug off the market until US officials made the decision to recall it, a move sparking criticism of the government's ability to act independently to protect the safety of Canadians from potentially dangerous medications, reported :

Health Canada and Paladin Labs Inc. announced a recall Wednesday of Darvon-N, the brand name of dextropropoxyphene, also known as propoxyphene, after new research showed the drug is linked to serious abnormal heart rhythms. The announcement came less than two weeks after the US Food and Drug Administration decided the drug should be removed from the market.

But widespread safety concerns about the drug have actually been around for decades, and prompted Britain and the European Union to ban Darvon-N amid fears it was linked to suicide and accidental overdose.

Joel Lexchin, a professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Health Policy & Management, said should have taken an active role with respect to Darvon-N, as well as other drugs. The department's follow-the-leader behaviour exposes major shortcomings and weaknesses in its drug monitoring capabilities, he said.

"This drug should have been off the market 30 years ago," Lexchin said in an interview Thursday. "Unfortunately, it took this long to get it off the market."

Health Canada should beef up its system for monitoring the safety of drugs as well as tracking the number of patients who experience serious side effects, he said.

Lexchin is a co-author of , which calls for sweeping improvements to drug safety in Canada.

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

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Professor Joel Lexchin's co-authored study finds doctors not immune to pharmaceutical promotion

fmaquito — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Pharmaceutical promotion may cause doctors to prescribe more expensively, less appropriately and more often, according to a new study co-authored by physician and 91��ɫ Professor Joel Lexchin.

The findings, published Wednesday in the journal, PLoS Medicine, offer a broad look at the relationship between doctors’ prescribing habits and their exposure to information provided by drug companies. Researchers analyzed 58 separate studies of this phenomenon from Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia, dating from the 1960s.

Left: Joel Lexchin

“Many doctors claim they aren’t influenced by the information provided by pharmaceutical companies. Our research clearly shows that they are – and the influence is negative,” says Lexchin, a professor in the School of Health Policy & Management in 91��ɫ’s and an emergency physician in Toronto.

“Unfortunately, patients are the ones getting a raw deal. If doctors are inundated with advertising from brand- name companies, they are more likely to prescribe that brand name, regardless of whether it’s best for the patient.”

All but one of the studies suggested that exposure to promotional information was associated with lower prescribing quality; the one remaining study detected no association. Findings also show that promotional information led to more frequent prescribing; studies dealing with this correlation either showed a spike in prescribing or detected no association. Researchers also established a link between promotion and higher prescribing costs.

Lexchin says Canadian drug companies spend big money on marketing their products to physicians, to the detriment of other priorities such as research and development.

“In Canada, companies are estimated to be spending anywhere between $2.4 and $4.75 billion annually on promotion, one of the major reasons why spending on brand-name drugs was rising at a rate of just under 10 per cent annually until two years ago,” he says.

A limitation of the research is that most studies were observational in nature, meaning that the majority of physicians who participated were not randomly selected.

The researchers found no evidence that drug companies' promotional efforts improve prescribing behaviour in any way, but, says Lexchin, “that doesn’t entirely exclude the possibility that prescribing might sometimes be improved.” However, he adds, "As a precaution, we recommend that physicians avoid exposure to the information provided by pharmaceutical companies.”

The study, “Information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity and cost of physicians’ prescribing: a systematic review”, was led by Geoffrey Spurling, a professor at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. To read it, visit the website.

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

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Professor Joel Lexchin's report on Health Canada's drug safety system says it favours pharmaceutical companies

fmaquito — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Health Canada’s drug safety system favours the interests of pharmaceutical companies, according to a report that says the department needs to do more to protect Canadians,

In a paper produced by the , Dr. Joel Lexchin writes that while some drugs will always pose risks for some people, it is Health Canada’s job to identify as many potential problems as possible before drugs are approved for sale, to monitor them once they are approved, and to communicate any new safety information about them effectively.

The agency has neither abandoned those responsibilities, nor is it embracing them, the report states. “If we want to ensure that drugs are prescribed and used as safely as possible, then needs to reorient its priorities,” Lexchin said in an interview. “There are things it could be doing right now that it’s not doing.”

Lexchin, an emergency room doctor who teaches in 91��ɫ’s School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health, said there is too much emphasis on getting drugs on the market quickly, and that the financial penalties levied on the department for not meeting time targets – 180 days for reviewing drugs identified as priority drugs and 300 for non-priority drugs – are problematic. “When you’re faced with that kind of thing, people are operating under pressure and they may not do as thorough a job as they think they need to,” said Lexchin.

The majority of Health Canada employees do a good job, he said, but it’s a lack of political will to make the drug regulation system safer and more effective that is at issue.

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

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Professor Joel Lexchin: Some Canadian drugs are overpriced before they are patented

fmaquito — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Canada needs a new system for controlling drug prices that does not depend on whether or not a drug has received a patent, according to an article by 91��ɫ Professor Dr. Joel Lexchin.

Drug prices in Canada can be unregulated for years, a period during which companies may overprice the drugs and market them, says Lexchin, a professor in the School of Health Policy & Management in 91��ɫ’s and an emergency physician at the in Toronto.

Left: Dr. Joel Lexchin.

His commentary, “”, appears in the journal Open Medicine. It is based on new research which examined how many drugs in Canada are marketed before they are patented, whose prices are therefore not controlled by the federal Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. He also looked at the time period between marketing and patenting, and any excess revenue generated before those drug prices were regulated.

In total, 42 drugs were marketed between 2000 and 2008 before being patented, and complete data was available for 33 of those.

“Some of these drugs were potentially being marketed for weeks before they came under the jurisdiction of the review board and had their prices controlled, but some of them may have been marketed for years,” says Lexchin. “Only three of the 33 drugs were found to be overpriced, but the fact that one of the 33 drugs may have been marketed without price controls for more than seven years is troublesome.”

When drugs are finally patented, their prices are reviewed and if a drug is deemed to be overpriced, the review board can order a company to repay any excess revenue to the federal government. The problem is that if companies overprice their drugs, the drugs may not be added to provincial formularies such as the Ontario Drug Benefit Formulary. In Ontario, the government covers most drugs listed on the formulary for people who are eligible, so if a drug is not on the list, the cost will not be covered.

In addition, although excess revenue from the drugs is eventually recovered, it is paid to the federal government, not the provincial governments which fund drugs through their drug benefit schemes, or to private insurers or people who are paying the cost out-of-pocket, says Lexchin.

The best remedy for various problems caused by using patent status to regulate prices is simply to treat all drugs on the market equally and regulate all prices, he concludes.

More about Joel Lexchin

Dr. Joel Lexchin received his doctor of medicine from the University of Toronto in 1977 and for the past 22 years has been an emergency physician at the University Health Network. He is currently a professor in the School of Health Policy & Management at 91��ɫ and an associate professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.

From 1992 to 1994 he was a member of the Ontario Drug Quality & Therapeutics Committee and he was the chair of the Drugs & Pharmacotherapy Committee of the Ontario Medical Association from 1997-1999. He has been a consultant for the province of Ontario, various arms of the Canadian federal government, the World Health Organization, the government of New Zealand and the Australian National Prescribing Service.

He is the author or co-author of more than 90 peer-reviewed articles on topics such as physician prescribing behaviour, pharmaceutical patent issues, the drug approval process and prescription drug promotion. He is a co-author of and author of Drug Therapy for Emergency Physicians.

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

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