This year's lecturers were Professor��Michael Rosbash, 2012 Canada Gairdner International Award Recipient, and��Professor Cheryl Arrowsmith, Canada Research Chair in Structural Proteomics and a member of the Gairdner Awards Medical Review Panel.��

Michael Rosbash

Rosbash, a researcher with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor in the��Department of Biology at��Brandeis University in��Waltham, MA, has pursued two fields of research: studies concerning the metabolism and processing of RNA, and the molecular basis of circadian rhythms.

It is��his work delving into circadian rhythms –��the built-in 24-hour biological clock that regulates sleep and wakefulness, activity and rest, hormone levels, body temperature and other important functions –��for which he received the Canada Gairdner International award, along with his colleagues��Brandeis University Professors Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young. Rosbash's discoveries could lead to the development of drugs to treat insomnia, jet lag and other sleep disorders.

Rosbash encouraged students to��pursue science as a career, but also told them of the importance of finding balance in their pursuits. “Science, and life in general, is balancing means and ends. Like lab experiments, life is not about the outcome, but about the journey and process of discovery. Find something you love and you will be much better for it, ” he said.

Arrowsmith, a professor and researcher in the Department of Medical Biophysics in the��Faculty of Medicine at the��University of Toronto, is head of the Arrowsmith Lab and the senior scientist in the Division of Molecular & Structural Biology, Ontario Cancer Institute and at the (SGC), a not-for-profit, public-private partnership. “Science is a highly rewarding team effort. Be passionate about your research, share your data with others and you’ll see the world,” Arrowsmith told students.

Cheryl Arrowsmith

As part of her lecture, she demonstrated a portion of her work with the SGC which creates 3D models of proteins that represent potential drug targets. Knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of proteins involved enhances our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer and pharmaceutical agents that could impede disease processes. Arrowsmith encouraged students to “play” with the structures as they are all available online at the website.

Following the lecture, many of the high school groups stayed on campus for a presentation by 91��ɫ’s recruitment officers. Students also took tours of campus guided by 91��ɫ Student Ambassadors and remained on campus for lunch.��Participants were encouraged to fill out reply cards to be kept up-to-date about admission events.

The lecture, which took place Oct. 24, is part of an annual event that brings high school science students to the Keele campus to hear lectures delivered by the world's top scientists and medical researchers.

Visit the website to learn more about the foundation, its work and awards.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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His talk, Circadian rhythms: Molecules, Neurons and Circuits, will take place Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 1:30 to 2:30pm, in the Senate chamber, Ross N920, Keele campus, as part of Gairdner’s National Program lecture series.

Rosbash of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biology, Brandeis University, is the 2012 Canada Gairdner Award winner. He’ll delve into the mysteries of how the human body’s biological clock works. Despite the fact that it’s been known for centuries that the human body is controlled by a biological clock, it has remained a mystery. Rosbash will look at how this internal clock guides the body through the day.

Michael Rosbash

Circadian clocks are active throughout the body’s cells, where they use a common genetic mechanism to control the rhythmic activities of various tissues. This is important as circadian clocks affect patterns of sleep and wakefulness, metabolism and the body’s response to disease. Understanding how the biological clock works has already allowed scientists to pinpoint irregularities in important sleep disorders.

“The opportunity to learn from the world’s greatest medical minds is one we hope will inspire students across the country to be imaginers, innovators, and ultimately, cultivators of the future of medicine in Canada and around the world,” said Dr. John Dirks, president and scientific director of Gairdner. “Gairdner’s National Program is our way of helping to ensure that Canada continues to grow as a global leader in medical science.”

The Gairdner awards are among the world’s most important biomedical research honours and a major indicator of leading scientific discovery. The Gairdner National Program is a month-long lecture series given by Canada Gairdner Award winners to over 6,000 students at 21 universities from St John's to Vancouver.

The National Program reaches students across the country, making the superstars of science accessible and inspiring the next generation of researchers. Along with the Canada Gairdner Awards, the National Program is part of Gairdner's efforts to promote a stronger culture of research and innovation across the country.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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The history of Vietnam lies in this bowl, for it is in Hanoi, the Vietnamese heart, that pho was born, a combination of the rice noodles that predominated after a thousand years of Chinese occupation and the taste for beef the Vietnamese acquired under the French, who turned their cows away from ploughs and into bifteck and pot-au-feu.��The name of their national soup is pronounced like this French word for fire, as Hung’s Uncle Chien explained to him long ago…��

from The Beauty of Humanity Movement
by Camilla Gibb

While most people come home from vacations with inspiring photographs, writers often return with the inspiration for their next novel.��This is what happened to Camilla Gibb (right)��when she traveled to North Vietnam for a much-needed holiday. The result was The Beauty of Humanity Movement, a novel that was on the short list for the Giller Award.��Gibb recently shared her thoughts on this book and the writing experience at the Canadian Writers in Person series.

Gibb��said she��was initially "blown away" by the youth culture of Vietnam.��Her first point of contact was a young man named Phuong who became her tour guide and friend.��In some ways, she said,��he was not much different than a North American person in his mid-20s: he wore Nikes, watched MTV, and was up to date on Western pop culture.��Unlike those of previous generations, he had grown up with a different frame of reference, one based not on war but on consumer desire and entrepreneurial spirit.��As one of her characters states, "we’re not looking for forgiveness, we’re looking for a way forward."

Gibb said that Phuong was nonetheless aware that many Western visitors come with expectations based on the war of��40 years ago.��As a tour guide, he had to take the resulting feelings of guilt and discomfort and make his guests feel at ease.��In fact, Vietnam has a thriving war tour industry, where one can visit old battlegrounds, fire an old Kalashnikov rifle, or even crawl through the same tunnels the Vietnamese soldiers had used.��Gibb recounted to students with some amusement that the tunnels are not exactly the same because they have since been widened to accommodate the North American posterior.

When Gibb began to write her novel, she deliberately didn’t make it about the war: "When you set aside the war, you realize you know nothing. I wanted to start from nothing because then opportunities for other stories open up,"��she said. One of these stories is about Hung, an elderly pho-maker who bridges the gap between the present and the past.��Through his eyes, the reader experiences the vibrant cafe culture of 1950's Hanoi where artists and intellectuals discussed art and politics.��Because of the lack of resource material, Gibb found herself liberated to explore and imagine how this world was rendered.����

Gibb nonetheless had to do some research on the traumatizing land reforms that affected village life in North Vietnam.��She did this because she said that she��"needed Hung to go back, to witness the aftermath.��Otherwise, it would read like a news story and I needed to personalize the history and politics by putting him there."��By doing this, the reader also feels the impact and the story is not felt from the "top down but from character out."

The story has a reasonably happy ending as does the real-life friendship between Gibb and her tour guide Phuong who became the template for a similar character in her book.��As he consulted on the details of her novel, she helped him fulfill his dream of opening his own family pho restaurant.��When he had his first child, he asked Gibb for an English name and he likewise offered a Gibb a Vietnamese name when her child was born, cementing the link between their two cultures.

Through this friendship and the process of writing her novel, Viet Nam became for Gibb��“a country I love.��I can’t claim to know it or its history but I know the characters very well, my ultimate defense as a novelist.��They feel very, very real to me.��Hung in particular is a man I love.��I hope he’s still there, doing what he does, and serving pho.��He feels like everyman to me, every man who has a right to have a story.”

The Canadian Writers in Person series of public readings at 91��ɫ, which are free and open to the public, is also part of an introductory course on Canadian literature. It is sponsored in part by the Canada Council for the Arts.��Readings take place on Tuesdays at 7pm in Room 206 of the Accolade West Building.��On Feb. 7, poet and author Sheniz Janmohamed will read from her first book Bleeding Light (TSAR Publications, 2010).

For more information and a detailed schedule, visit the Canadian Writers in Person website.

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

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