obesity Archives | Research & Innovation

Chronic high-levels of stress hormone could lead to heart problems

muellerm — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Chronic high-levels of the stress hormone cortisol could inhibit the growth of blood vessels and lead to cardiovascular complications, as well as poor skeletal muscle blood flow, in people with diabetes, obesity or Cushing’s syndrome, a new study by 91��ɫ researchers has found.

The study by principal researcher Tara Haas of 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science and Muscle Health Research Centre in the Faculty of Health in collaboration with 91��ɫ kinesiology Professor Michael Riddell was published online in the peer-reviewed journal in October.

Tara Haas

“Cortisol is a steroid hormone normally present in our body in small amounts, but a continuous increase in cortisol levels is linked with the development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes,” says Haas.�� The research by her team looked at the effects of sustained increases in the levels of the stress hormone corticosterone (the form of cortisol found in rodents) on the smallest blood vessels, capillaries, within skeletal muscles.

What they found, says Haas, “was a substantial reduction, by 30 per cent, in the number of capillaries within the muscle.” As capillaries bring oxygen and nutrients to the muscle cells, this reduction could have significant consequences for muscle function and perhaps even blood sugar disposal.

“This is important as a reduction in the number of capillaries could influence the ability of a person to be active, which could cause their condition to worsen,” says Haas. The finding may help to explain why people with Type 2 diabetes have difficulty growing new capillaries in other tissues, such as the heart.

Michael Riddell

The researchers then took a closer look at the mechanisms involved in the reduced capillary growth by using cultured endothelial cells – those cells that form capillaries – chronically treated with the stress hormone. They found that corticosterone repressed several major intracellular signal pathways involved in controlling cell proliferation and migration, which likely contributes to the lack of capillary growth.

“This research is significant because it highlights that a chronic elevation of stress hormone can have significant negative consequences to the small blood vessels within skeletal muscle that are in charge of providing much needed oxygen and nutrients,” says Haas. “It also points the way to identifying how cortisol, through its effects on blocking appropriate blood vessel growth, may contribute to cardiovascular complications of diabetes or obesity.”

Skeletal muscle endothelial cells in culture

Haas says the findings warrant further research to determine if treatment with synthetic steroid hormones carries similar risks. The capillaries in the skeletal muscles studied were affected using a low, but continuous exposure, to the stress hormone. The amount of synthetic steroid hormones, such as hydrocortisone, people are usually prescribed to block inflammation in the body, can be 25 times higher than the amount used in the study.

Haas is a member of the newly formed Angiogenesis Research Group, which investigates the adaptation of the skeletal muscle capillary network to physiological and pathological conditions.�� The research was supported by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grants to Haas and Riddell, as well as awards to 91��ɫ students, including Eric A. Shikatani, who was the recipient of a Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario Master’s Studentship Award. In addition, student Anastassia Trifonova was the recipient of a NSERC CGSM graduate scholarship, and Anna Krylova and Andrei Szigiato were recipients of NSERC Undergraduate Student Research awards.

By Sandra McLean, YFile deputy editor

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

The post Chronic high-levels of stress hormone could lead to heart problems appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Faculty of Health to celebrate its innovative research

fmaquito — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Can exercise turn back the clock for aging muscles? Is aerobic or resistance exercise better for decreasing the risk of diabetes in youth? Those are just two of the questions researchers will discuss at the upcoming Faculty of Health Research Celebration.

Robert Haché (left), 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation, and Harvey Skinner (below right), dean of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, will host the Research Celebration, Tuesday, Jan. 17, from 2 to 4 pm, in the Scott Library Atrium, Keele campus.

The celebration will highlight innovation in muscle health research at 91��ɫ and will include talks from four Faculty of Health researchers discussing their work.

"This celebration provides an opportunity for the 91��ɫ research community to share knowledge and ideas and to come together to learn more about the breadth and depth of innovative research taking place at the University,” says Haché.

The four researchers will discuss the role muscles play in everything from obesity and diabetes to osteoarthritis and reversing the aging process.

“Keeping people healthier longer, so that they can age positively and avoid chronic diseases and injuries, is at the heart of this celebration of ground breaking research underway in the Faculty of Health,” says Skinner.

Professor Rolando Ceddia, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator, will discuss “Improving Muscle and Adipose Tissue Function to Treat Obesity and Diabetes: The Role of Exercise and Diet”.

“My research investigates the molecular and physiological mechanisms by which obesity induces dysfunctional metabolic alterations in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle; two tissues that play crucial roles in regulating energy and glucose homeostasis,” says Ceddia, of 91��ɫ’s Muscle Health Research Centre in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

Left: Rolando Ceddia��

“We study the effects of exercise, either alone or in combination with nutritional and pharmacological interventions, on glucose and lipid metabolism in diet-induced obesity.”

The presentation will look at the adaptive responses induced by chronic endurance training in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue metabolism, as well as the implications for whole-body energy expenditure. The main goal is to understand the role of exercise and diet in the prevention and/or treatment of obesity and its co-morbidities.

Professor Jennifer Kuk (right)��of 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science will look at “Aerobic Versus Resistance Exercise for Decreasing Diabetes Risk in Obese Youth”. The focus of this talk is to examine the effectiveness of aerobic and resistance exercise for improving insulin resistance in youth using a randomized control design.

Insulin resistance at the site of the muscle is one of the hallmark characteristics of pre-diabetes and Type��2 diabetes, says Kuk. Increasingly, youth are presenting with insulin resistance. It is increasingly important to develop non-pharmacological interventions for treating insulin resistance.��

Aerobic and resistance exercise help improve insulin resistance in adults. Aerobic exercise improves muscle glucose metabolism and resistance exercise increases the muscle mass available for uptaking glucose.��

Biology Professor David Hood (left), a Canada Research Chair in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, will discuss the topic, “Can Exercise 'Rescue' Aging Muscles?” Skeletal muscle occupies about 40 per cent of body weight and is a major contributor to whole body health and metabolism.

“As we age, we lose muscle mass, and this is apparent in elderly, frail individuals. The mechanisms of how this muscle mass is lost are not completely understood, but a prominent theory involves the increasing malfunction of mitochondria within muscle cells,” says Hood. “Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, the organelles which supply the energy for cell survival.”

With age, mitochondrial content within muscle declines and they begin to produce molecules called “reactive oxygen species” which inflict damage on cellular DNA. If the DNA in any cell breaks down, the cell dies. In the case of muscle cells, they atrophy or shrink. If many cells atrophy, the body loses muscle mass.

“Research has shown that exercise is a potential non-pharmacological therapy which can be used to reduce the loss of muscle mass by improving mitochondrial function, thereby preserving muscle function as we age,” says Hood.

Professor William Gage (right), associate dean research & innovation, will examine “Muscles and Sore Joints: Arthritis and Muscle Activity”. The knee and hip joints experience large loads when a person walks, says Gage. To deal with those loads, the joints and surrounding muscles act together to allow a person to move, while protecting the joints from the loading that occurs during movement.

As a person moves, their muscles are activated or turned on at the right time by the right amount so their joints will not only move, but their limbs won’t collapse under the weight, says Gage. Sensors in the joints contribute to the nervous system’s knowledge of when and how the muscles should be turned on.

Previous research has shown that when a joint is painful or swollen the sensory information coming from these joint sensors is affected, which in turn affects the activation of the muscles around the joints. A long-term outcome of this response may be osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, affecting more than 50 per cent of those over the age of 65.

“Recent research in our lab has examined how different strategies during walking may influence the amount of loading in the knee joint and how muscles around the joint respond to loads that are imposed on the knee joint,” says Gage. “Future work in our lab will explore how loading and muscle activity are affected by changes in the sensory information that arises from the knee joint.”

To RSVP to Lia Novario, by Friday, Jan. 13, or call ext. 33782.

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

The post Faculty of Health to celebrate its innovative research appeared first on Research & Innovation.

High doses of vitamin D might affect Lou Gehrig's disease

fmaquito — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

High daily doses of vitamin D may improve the quality of life for patients diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, a study at 91��ɫ has found.

Using an animal model, the study’s researchers found that the motor performance and muscle endurance of mice with ALS improved when they were given higher than normal doses of vitamin D.

“We are the only group in Canada that is looking at the connection between dietary interventions and the effects on the ALS model,” says 91��ɫ kinesiology Professor Mazen Hamadeh (left)��of the University’s Muscle Health Research Centre in the Faculty of Health. Hamadeh supervised the research led by 91��ɫ master of science degree students Jesse Solomon and Alexandro Gianforcaro in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

The researchers conducted three different studies looking at different amounts of vitamin D. The first looked at the effects of 10 times the adequate intake of vitamin D on the ALS animal model – the equivalent of 8,000 IU/day in humans. Results showed an improvement in both motor performance and endurance, but no change to disease outcomes, such as onset, progression or lifespan.

“We followed up with another study because we thought we didn’t give high enough amounts of vitamin D,” says Hamadeh. In the second study, the amount of vitamin D was increased to 50 times the suggested adequate intake amount or the equivalent of 40,000 IU per day in humans. Again, there was definite improvement in functional outcomes, but not in disease outcomes, confirming the findings of the first study, he says.

The researchers then thought that perhaps the recommended adequate intake amount of vitamin D was set too high and there was already an overabundance of vitamin D being administered. That led to a third study where only one fortieth of the recommended adequate intake amount was administered using the animal model, which induced a vitamin D deficiency. This study was published in PLoS ONE, an international online peer-reviewed journal, on Dec. 27.

This third study produced some interesting results, says Hamadeh. When vitamin D deficiency was induced before disease onset, disease severity was reduced, but after disease onset, it was worse. “So at very low levels there is something happening in the cell that is causing them to function better only for a little bit of time, only until disease onset, than they progress regularly,” he says.

The key now is to find out what molecular changes are occurring in the muscle, spinal cord and brain when vitamin D is administered, and that is what Hamadeh and his students are currently working on.

“ALS is the most common motor neuron disease and up until now there is no cure for it. It is also a fast-progressing disease. Between diagnosis and death, there are usually two to five years. We are trying to see whether by modulating the diet, by changing the diet, we can influence not only when the disease starts, but how fast it progresses and whether it can affect lifespan,” says Hamadeh.

“To find a dietary intervention that could influence a fast-paced disease after diagnosis of the disease, meaning after some irreversible damage has happened, means this particular nutrient has to be very powerful to either halt or slow the pace of the disease.”

The model Hamadeh works with suffers from heightened oxidative stress, a state of increased levels of free radicals or oxidants that are produced naturally inside the cell during normal functioning and metabolism. There is an association between oxidative stress and chronic, metabolic, autoimmune, neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases, including ALS, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

Hamadeh hopes his research and that of his students will help not only ALS, but many other similar diseases that share common mechanisms with ALS.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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

The post High doses of vitamin D might affect Lou Gehrig's disease appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Fat and healthy? 91��ɫ-led study finds slim isn't always superior

fmaquito — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:00:00 +0000

A study at 91��ɫ has some refreshing news: Being fat can actually be good for you.

Published in the August issue of the��journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, the study finds that obese people who are otherwise healthy, live just as long as their slim counterparts and are less likely to die of cardiovascular causes.

“Our findings challenge the idea that all obese individuals need to lose weight,” says lead author Jennifer Kuk, a professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health. “Moreover, it’s possible that trying – and failing – to lose weight may be more detrimental than simply staying at an elevated body weight and engaging in a healthy lifestyle that includes physical activity and a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables,” she says.

Kuk’s team looked at 6,000 obese Americans over a 16-year span, comparing their mortality risk with that of lean individuals.

They found that obese individuals who had no (or only mild) physical, psychological or physiological impairments had a higher body weight in early adulthood, were happier with this higher body weight, and had attempted to lose weight less frequently during their lives. However, these individuals were also more likely to be physically active and consume a healthy diet.

Right: Individuals should consult their physician about whether or not they need to shed the extra weight

Researchers used a newly-developed grading tool, the Edmonton Obesity Staging System (EOSS), which has been found to be more accurate than body mass index (BMI) for identifying who should attempt to lose weight. Developed by University of Alberta researchers, it is modelled on staging systems that classify the extent and severity of other diseases such as cancer, mental illness and heart disease. It offers five stages of obesity based on both traditional physical measurements such as BMI and waist-to-hip ratio, plus clinical measurements that reflect medical conditions often caused or aggravated by obesity (such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease).

Kuk stresses that in order to determine whether or not they should lose weight, individuals should see a physician to be evaluated using the EOSS criteria.

The study, “Edmonton Obesity Staging System: Association with Weight History and Mortality Risk,” is co-authored by Chris Ardern, professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health; Timothy S. Church, director of the Laboratory of Preventive Medicine, Pennington Biomedical Research Center; Arya M. Sharma, professor of Medicine & Chair in Obesity Research and Management at the University of Alberta, and scientific director of the Canadian Obesity Network; Raj Padwal, professor, University of Alberta; Xuemei Sui, professor, University of South Carolina; and Steven Blair, professor, University of South Carolina.

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

The post Fat and healthy? 91��ɫ-led study finds slim isn't always superior appeared first on Research & Innovation.

New partnership embeds 91��ɫ researchers at Southlake Hospital

fmaquito — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

A new research initiative involving a partnership between 91��ɫ and in Newmarket will see��feature leading scientists from the University serving as embedded researchers at the hospital.

91��ɫ Professors Chris Ardern, , Paul Ritvo and Lauren Sergio will work on site��for one to��two days a week with hospital clinicians to foster research collaborations and knowledge exchange, and engage in joint knowledge mobilization efforts.

The partnership will realize important benefits to the research communities at both institutions and for the general public, says 91��ɫ Professor (right), associate vice-president research, science & technology, who led the effort to develop the partnership with Southlake Regional Health Centre.

"The embedded 91��ɫ researchers are senior scientists who will explore and cultivate research collaborations between 91��ɫ and Southlake researchers and clinicians," says Siu. "They will act as 'matchmakers' and brokers and will bring��91��ɫ's��research expertise and knowledge to Southlake to��facilitate collaboration.

"The partnership will broaden the research capacity for both 91��ɫ researchers and the Southlake clinicians," says Siu. "91��ɫ does not have a Faculty of Medicine��or��a teaching hospital. As a result,��University researchers do not��have the patient access��they would like to have. By working with Southlake,��the University is enhancing a collaboration that would benefit both parties."

The embedded��University scientists��bring to Southlake Regional Health Centre��their recognized expertise in biomedical and health research. Southlake is the only community-based hospital in Ontario to offer six regional tertiary programs, including child and adolescent mental health, maternal and child,��cardiac and cancer care.

"We anticipate this to be an outstanding opportunity for both Southlake and 91��ɫ," says , director of research at Southlake.

"Serving some 1.5 million people through our regional programs and providing tertiary level care in many areas, the depth and breadth of programs and services, and the unexplored opportunities for reasearch collaboration between Southlake and 91��ɫ are endless," says Clifford.

"Southlake is interested in strengthening its research in terms of breadth and depth and in fact, Southlake is developing a research institute with a plan to��become a teaching hospital with an official affiliation with a Canadian university," says Siu.

91��ɫ is��a preferred candidate for this kind of partnership with Southlake, says Siu,��because the two institutions have shared goals and visions, and a willingness to work together.

The partnership offers exceptional training and educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate��students working in the research teams, says Siu.

In addition, the opportunity presented by the collaboration between the��two institutions��is consistent with the goal of integrating teaching and research with the world outside the University that was articulated in��91��ɫ's recent .

More about the 91��ɫ-Southlake embedded researchers

Chris Ardern (left) is a professor in the School of Kinesiology��& Health Science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health.��His current research��interests include the epidemiology of physical activity, obesity and cardiometabolic risk. His most recent work has focused on the use of risk algorithms, behavioural profiling and trajectory modelling approaches to identify high-risk subgroups for the development of the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease mortality.��Arden is currently investigating the role of geospatial analysis to improve the surveillance of cardiovascular disease in 91��ɫ Region, and is a co-investigator on the Pre-diabetes Detection��& Physical Activity Intervention and Delivery (PRE-PAID) program, a six-month trial of culturally-preferred physical activity.��Ardern will be embedded in Southlake's chronic disease portfolio.

In her research, (right) works on a family of proteins known as nucleoside transporters. These transporters play significant roles in a number of clinical settings because they transport drugs used in cancer and are targets of drugs used in some cardiac care settings. Despite their clinical relevance, Coe, who is a��professor of biology in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Science & Engineering, says researchers��know very little about how these transporters work and how they differ in terms of their distribution, activity and regulation in individual patients.��Using a molecular diagnostics approach, Coe and her team will work with Southlake clinicians from both the cardiac care and oncology��portfolios to investigate the transporter profiles in individual patients and correlate these profiles with drug treatments and outcomes. The ultimate goal of this work is to contribute to the efforts to develop more personalized approaches to the treatment of disease.

Paul Ritvo (left) is a behavioural scientist who will serve as the research adviser, physical and mental health liaison and special projects scientist. A professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, Ritvo’s research interests focus on electronic health interventions that employ cell phones, smartphones and online programs to change health behaviours in diabetics, HIV-positive individuals and individuals with mental health difficulties. Ritvo will work with Southlake clinicians to extend current intervention studies that use Blackberry smartphones and innovative software applications to help patients reduce health risks by way of healthy exercise, diet and improved medication adherence.

Lauren Sergio (right) is a neuroscientist working in 91��ɫ's Sherman Health Science Research Centre. Her��current research projects examine the effects of age, sex, neurological disease and past head injuries (of athletes versus non-athletes) on the brain's control of complex movement. In her role with Southlake Regional Health Centre, Sergio will be an embedded researcher in the chronic disease, emergency medicine and surgical portfolios.��She works with a wide range of adult populations, including professional hockey players and Alzheimer's disease patients. Her findings have implications for neurological disease diagnosis and rehabilitation and for understanding the fundamental brain mechanisms for movement control. She is using cognitive-motor integration research to test if new instrumentation developed in her laboratory can differentiate between��types of dementia. She is also��researching the long-term effects of concussion in young athletes. Sergio is a member of the .

The embedded researcher program at Southlake Regional Health Centre is an example of the collaboration between the Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Faculty of Health at 91��ɫ and is part of an ongoing commitment by the Faculties' deans to work together.

For more information on 91��ɫ's��partnerships with��regional��hospitals, see YFile,��April 17, 2009 and ��April 21, 2009.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor.

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

The post New partnership embeds 91��ɫ researchers at Southlake Hospital appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Research Volunteer Call: Overweight girls needed for pioneering 91��ɫ U research study

fmaquito — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

CIHR-funded study will run at the Hospital for Sick Children

Are obese girls overweight because they eat poorly and don't get enough exercise or because their bodies don't burn off fat properly? asked :

Seems no one knows. But researchers at 91��ɫ want to find out.

They are conducting the first study in the world that looks at how girls burn fat, according to Professor Michael Riddell [School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health], who leads pioneering work on diabetes.

While there have been some studies done on how boys burn fat, with conflicting results, no one has looked at how girls burn fat, particularly during puberty, he said. "It's amazing there's so little done on females," Riddell said. "We're doing cutting-edge research. We're trying to identify why some girls are overweight or obese."

The study is part of a larger [project] funded by the federal government's being run by the .

To conduct their study, the 91��ɫ researchers need to look at the diets and exercise levels of girls between the ages of eight and 16. While they haven't had trouble finding lean girls to participate, recruiting overweight and obese girls has been a struggle.

With the body image problems girls face today, that isn't surprising, Riddell said.

But the girls' identities and all the information researchers gather about them is kept confidential, said graduate student Lisa Chu, who is running the project at 91��ɫ.

Girls who participate in the study will visit the university twice.

During the first visit, they will complete a questionnaire about their exercise and diet habits on week days and weekends and take part in an eight- to- 10-minute cycling test that gets progressively more difficult. The second visit involves a longer but less intense cycling evaluation.

Chu is hoping girls interested in participating may take advantage of March Break next week to volunteer.

The incentive to participate in the study is receiving a custom-made fitness regimen, hopefully something the girls can rely on to lead healthier lives for years to come, Riddell said.

"Having a custom exercise evaluation is something only the very rich can (usually) afford," he said.

Participants will also receive a $20 iTunes voucher.

To volunteer for the study, email Lisa Chu at lisachu@yorku.ca or call Michael Riddell 416-736-2100, ext. 40493.

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

The post Research Volunteer Call: Overweight girls needed for pioneering 91��ɫ U research study appeared first on 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

The post CFI awards 91��ɫ researchers $274,000 in funding appeared first on Research & Innovation.

For 91��ɫ profs, it's science on-demand at Royal Canadian Institute gala dinner

fmaquito — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Have you ever wanted to have dinner with a scientist? Ask questions about Canada’s laser radar on NASA's 2007 Phoenix mission to Mars, the role of human genomes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the consequences of dwindling fossil fuels or perhaps how biochemical pathways affect obesity?

The Royal Canadian Institute (RCI) for the Advancement of Science, Canada's oldest scientific society at 161 years,��is hosting a gala dinner featuring 25 scientists, and guests get to choose which one they’d like to sit with.

Five of the scientists are from 91��ɫ, which is a sponsor of the dinner. They are physics Professor Emeritus Allan Carswell, humanities and science & technology��studies Professor Bernard Lightman, Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino, anthropology and science & technology studies Professor Natasha Myers, and Canada Research Chair in Ecology��& Conservation Biology, Professor Bridget Stutchbury. In addition, Mark Lievonen, president of Sanofi Pasteur Ltd., a 91��ɫ alumnus and member of 91��ɫ's Board of Governors, will also host a table.

Right: Giuseppina D’Agostino

Founder and director of Osgoode's Intellectual Property Law & Technology Program (IP Osgoode), D’Agostino, a recent recipient of the Law Commission of Ontario’s Visiting Scholarship Program, will talk about "Challenges to the Commercialization of Intellectual Property". The commercialization of intellectual property is often said to be indispensable for fostering a vibrant, creative and innovative economy, but many challenges remain before an invention can be brought from the lab into the marketplace.��D’Agostino is currently investigating the intellectual property and privacy aspects of the electronic health record in Canada.

Left: Bernard Lightman

Lightman, editor of the history of science journal Isis, will discuss "Who, Exactly, Was Charles Darwin?��The Making of a Cultural Icon".��Lightman's early work, summed up in his��, centred on the birth of a new form of unbelief in the wake of the debates over evolutionary theory. More recently,��he has tackled the issue of how science was popularized in the second half of the 19th century in Britain. His current project is a biography of the eminent Victorian physicist John Tyndall.

Right: Allan Carswell

Former president of the Canadian Association of Physicists and vice-president of the Canadian Academy of Science, Carswell founded Optech Inc.��in 1974 to develop commercial lidars (laser radar). He and a Canadian team provided a lidar on NASA's 2007 Phoenix mission to Mars as part of a meteorological station, MET, for studies of the Martian atmosphere. After the landing in May 2008,��MET provided measurements of outstanding value, including the discovery of snowfall on Mars. An internationally recognized leader in the lidar field, Carswell will present "Canada Goes to Mars".

Left: Bridget Stutchbury

Stutchbury, Canada Research Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology and a field biologist who has studied bird behaviour and conservation for 25 years, has followed Canadian migratory songbirds to their wintering grounds in Latin America to understand the threats they face far away. She is author of , a Governor General’s Literary Award non-fiction finalist, and the forthcoming T. She will discuss "Conservation Biology Studied Through Birds".

Right: Natasha Myers

Myers' research examines the lively visual cultures that thrive in contemporary life science laboratories and classrooms, with an interest in the artistry, craft and creativity of scientific work.��She will discuss "Art Meets Science".��Myers has been engaged in art-science collaborations for over a decade.��Her most recent project was the 2009 Art Meets Science Series at 91��ɫ, a year-long series of events designed to foster a culture of collaboration among 91��ɫ’s artists and scientists.

Left: Mark Lievonen

Lievonen (BBA Spec. Hons. ’79, MBA ’87), a member of the Board of Directors of Oncolytics Biotech Inc. and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, will talk about the Canadian Vaccine Capability: Collaborating for Continued Success.

In addition, ex-91��ɫie Brock Fenton,��a biology professor at the University of Western Ontario and former chair of 91��ɫ’s Department of Biology as well as former associate vice-president research, will��ask "How do Universities Interact With Society?" He has written several books about bats intended for a general audience, including Just Bats (University of Toronto Press, 1983) and The Bat: Wings in the Night Sky ( Key Porter Press, 1998)).

Right: Brock Fenton

Scientists are chosen from various disciplines and many southern Ontario academic institutions. Each scientist hosts a table of eight.��The gala partners are awarded several places, and their guests, as well as individual ticket purchasers, can choose the table of greatest interest to them.��After a reception of an hour or so, dinner will start. Each scientist will provide a brief overview of their subject and/or current work and guests are then free to ask any questions or suggest topics they would like the host to discuss. For tables and topics, click here. Following the dinner, the president of the RCI will open a general question-and-answer period at which time any of the participants are free to direct a question to any of the scientists present.

The RCI for the Advancement of Science is a not-for-profit organization founded in Toronto in 1849 by a small group of civil engineers, architects and surveyors and��led by Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915) who established the concept of time zones.

The gala will take place Thursday, April 22, from 6 to 9:30pm, in the MaRS Collaboration Centre, 101 College St., Toronto. Tickets are $250. The dinner will help to raise awareness and funds for the RCI's outreach activities, in particular��the��free public lectures it presents every year in Toronto and Mississauga on a diverse range of topics. The fundraising also goes toward providing scholarships for deserving high school students to attend university.

91��ɫ provides the Webcasting and archiving for all the lectures through the support of University Information Technology and the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. Click to view archived Webcasts of previous lectures. 91��ɫ also supplies many of the speakers.��This winter two of the six Toronto were from 91��ɫ.

For more information, visit the Web site or contact 91��ɫ biology Professor Ron Pearlman, a member of the RCI council and the gala organizing committee,��at ronp@yorku.ca.

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

The post For 91��ɫ profs, it's science on-demand at Royal Canadian Institute gala dinner appeared first on Research & Innovation.

91��ɫ flexes its muscle with new research centre

fmaquito — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ is flexing its muscle. With the recent launch of the Muscle Health��Research Centre (MHRC), the University is devoting time and space to understanding what makes us move, reported .

“It’s a centre that brings together about 16 different scientists who all study muscle in some way. Mostly skeletal muscle, the muscles that make us move,” says David Hood, director of the centre.

Besides looking good, muscle is fundamental to our survival.

“Muscle is 40 per cent of your body, so it’s a large amount of your body mass,” says Hood. “It’s involved in metabolism and locomotion and it adapts. So many of us focus on exercise and how exercise promotes adaptations in muscle that make us healthier. It’s not about high-performance athletes. It’s really about the study of muscle and its relation to the health of Canadians.”

Muscle plays a large role in many health ailments. Diabetes, obesity, aging and even cancer are all related to muscle and its prevalence in the body.

“A third of cancer patients actually die of muscle wasting. They don’t die of the tumour. They die because that tumour secretes things that affect the condition of muscle, and eventually, they’ll have respiratory failure because the respiratory muscles aren’t working.”

The MHRC is the only centre in Canada devoted to studying muscle. “There’s plenty of room for lots of research and that’s why a centre like this is important,” says Hood. “We all have different interests in muscle and come from different sides of the coin, but we all study muscle and its implications for health.”

The centre has been in the works for a number of years but officially opened last month, said Metro. Because 91��ɫ doesn’t have a medical school, the centre is more research-oriented. However, Hood is looking to grow.

“My goal is to help this develop from the human side,” he said. “We’ve been studying animal models of muscle disease and dysfunction, and models of exercise for many years, but now we’re going to try to move to the human side of things.”

Part of the MHRC’s objective is to increase the visibility of biomedical science at 91��ɫ, and Toronto in general. “We have a new here at 91��ɫ. The idea is to attract scientists and students from all over the place. To bring people together and increase the visibility of muscle health research in Canada and around the world.”

By Leyla Emory. Reprinted courtesy of .

The post 91��ɫ flexes its muscle with new research centre appeared first on Research & Innovation.

91��ɫ study examines mortality risk associated with obesity

fmaquito — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Being seriously overweight will cut your life short, even if you experience no major health problems as a result of your condition, according to a new study by researchers in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health.

The study examined the mortality risk of more than 6,000 Americans aged 18 to 65 years over a��nine-year span using data from the Third National Health��& Nutrition Examination Survey.

Researchers compared metabolically normal obese people with those who had multiple metabolic risk factors known to increase one’s risk for early mortality. Surprisingly, although both groups were at elevated mortality risk, there were no significant differences in the mortality risk between the groups.

"Our findings challenge the idea of a ‘healthy’ obese person," says the study lead��Jennifer Kuk, a��professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science.��"It doesn’t matter if you currently have no other medical problems. You are still at a similar risk level as someone who has the classic disease states triggered by obesity, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular problems."

Right: Jennifer Kuk

For the purposes of the study, obesity is classified as anyone with a body mass index (BMI) of over 30. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adults. A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.

Respondents were defined as metabolically normal or abnormal based on measures of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose and triglycerides. Only 1.3 per cent of respondents were classified as obese but metabolically normal.

"It’s important to note that metabolicallynormal obesity is an extremely rare subtype, but when it does occur, treatment is absolutely necessary," says Kuk.

"We already know that in addition to diabetes and heart disease, obese individuals are also more likely to die from trauma and have cancer diagnosed at more advanced stages. This research reinforces the seriousness of this condition, and highlights the need for both treatment and prevention," she says.

The study, "Are Metabolically Normal but Obese Individuals at Lower Risk for All-Cause Mortality?", appears in the December issue of Diabetes Care, published by the American Diabetes Association. It is co-authored by Chris Ardern,��a professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

From YFile - 91��ɫ's daily e-bulletin

The post 91��ɫ study examines mortality risk associated with obesity appeared first on Research & Innovation.