Medicine is so much more than lab coats and stethoscopes. The research community at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine is a diverse group of humans, all working with their own unique motivations — and not all of them work in a hospital setting. Get to know what gets these researchers amped about their jobs, what they’re doing, where they’re doing it, and why. Presented by the Office of Vice-Dean of Research, College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.
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- When Can ICU Patients Be Discharged Home?Patients in intensive care units often move to a regular ward before they're discharged, and sent home. But increasingly, hospitals are skipping that step, sending a handful of ICU patients directly home. "We were really looking at analyzing the data of safety in terms of discharging patients home safely in terms of outcomes such as mortality, or a re-admission to hospital," said Ryan Donnelly, who's currently finishing his first year of residency in Regina. He said for young patients without serious co-morbidities, direct discharges to home are an option. "If you have a patient who's in the ICU who has been waiting for a ward bed and ends up getting well enough to go home, it kind of started that way," he said. "The data analyzing it came after the practice started happening already." Under the supervision of Dr. Eric Sy and Dr. Vincent Lau, Donnelly teamed up with Sehar Parvez, who's now in her fourth year of medical school at the University of Saskatchewan's Regina campus. Their work was first published in September 2021 in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia , with a subsequent article published in January 2023's journal of Critical Care Medicine. Although the Covid-19 pandemic limited any direct interviews with patients, Donnelly and Parvez started by combing through more than 8,000 papers that mentioned direct to home discharges. "The evidence that we've gathered from my meta-analysis is that it can be safe," said Donnelly. "It's something that is going to be happening more and more." Their next step was to put together a questionnaire, and sending it to healthcare providers across the country. They received more than 350 responses. "About a third of healthcare providers didn't know that there is an increase in the direct discharge home from the ICU," said Parvez. "I thought that was very interesting." She and Donnelly found critical care providers were more likely to feel comfortable discharging an intensive care patient directly home, especially compared to healthcare workers who weren't as familiar with the practice. Parvez went on to analyze outcomes for 120 patients who were in the hospital between February 2020 and May 2021. Each one was discharged directly home after spending time in the critical care unit. "We found that 32% of our direct discharges to home at that time were from substance overdose," said Parvez. She and Donnelly studied the outcomes for patients, watching whether they had to be re-admitted to hospital within 30 days to a year. Parvez said the practice is safest when a patient has health care support workers checking in with them, documenting and communiating changes immediately to their family doctor. In this episode, both Donnelly and Parvez share what it was like to be a medical school student during a global pandemic, as they learned to do research under the supervision of veteran clinicians at the Regina General Hospital. "We had to learn very quickly though how to do research in a virtual environment," said Parvez. "We didn't know how to use Zoom right away. We didn't know how to share a screen right away, She now is looking at internal medicine as a potential career path. "It informed my desire to want to work on being a mentor, being an educator, and continuing to practice evidence-based medicine," said Donnelly, a family medicine resident. "It was certainly rewarding."0 comments0
- Reversing the effects of Alzheimer's Disease: Dr. Ron Geyer on NeuroEPOFor decades, families have watched Alzheimer's disease steal their loved ones' cognitive function. It's the most common form of dementia; one that affects a third of people over the age of 85. It's a disease Dr. Ron Geyer and Dr. Andrew Kirk want to tackle. Right now, most pharmaceuticals target the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, without addressing its root cause. Most lose their effectiveness after three months. Geyer, a biochemist and professor of pathology at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine, said a novel protein could change that. "They did a first clinical trial with this drug and they showed pretty exceptional efficacy," said Geyer. NeuroEPO, first developed by researchers at the Center for Molecular Immunology in Cuba, stimulates red blood cells in the brain. It's a recombinant form of the naturally produced erythropoietin protein (EPO), which stops neuron cells from dying, promoting their growth and communication mechanisms. During its first round of human trials in early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients, 82 per cent of those receiving the treatment saw stabilization in their cognitive function. For more than half receiving the drug, cognitive function improved. Alzheimer's disease progressed and worsened for almost everyone receiving the placebo. "We decided to move this forward and do a Phase Two trial in Canada," Geyer said. Once the study is approved by Health Canada, trials will involve between 80 and 100 patients. Geyer said so far, everything is on track to begin testing NeuroEPO this summer. The trick, he said, is delivering the drug directly to the brain. "It breaks down in the blood quicker than normal EPO, so that's good in that it doesn't cause side effects," Geyer said. He said his research group has teamed up with Rocket Science Health Inc., a company that's developed a way to deliver NeuroEPO through the nose to the brain. Compared to a Covid-19 nasal swab, Geyer said the delivery mechanism for this drug is 'much more comfortable'. Working with the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, Geyer said his team is also expanding PET scans and neurological diagnostic tools for patients taking part in the study. "We're hoping that with that, with those diagnostic assays, including MRI to measure the total brain volume, that the clinicians can use this information immediately as the trial starts to better diagnose their Alzheimer's patients, provide more clarity on the diagnosis, let them develop a treatment plan earlier." Geyer said patients and doctors in Saskatchewan have already contacted his team, trying to sign up. "We want to make it as broadly available as possible," he said. Still, NeuroEPO will not be widely available, until a third-phase trial in the future which proves the drug's efficacy, shows no adverse effects, and involves at least 300-500 patients with Alzheimer's disease. Geyer said his team is up to the challenge. "It's almost impossible to find someone who doesn't know someone who has some form of dementia," said Geyer. "The ultimate goal is to keep people out of the hospital."0 comments0
- Researchers Under the Scope Feb 5 · 29m From Scratch: Rural Dementia Care with Dr. Debra MorganDebra Morgan grew up on a farm and continued farming with her husband, initially working in nursing in the winter. Nursing shifts took her from neurosurgery to pediatrics, to orthopedics, then to Saskatoon's geriatric units at City Hospital and Royal University Hospital. "I just found that I really enjoyed working with older people," Morgan said. She soon followed her passion for research, opting to study geriatric care as she earned her masters' and doctoral degrees in nursing. Today, she's a professor and chair of rural health delivery at the Canadian Centre for Rural and Agricultural Health. Morgan also serves as the director of the University of Saskatchewan's specialist Rural and Remote Memory Clinic launched in 2004 as a research demonstration project and now funded by the Ministry of Health. She built and leads Saskatchewan's Rural Dementia Action Program (RaDAR) . "Twenty years ago when we started this, there was very little rural dementia research," said Morgan. "We didn't know if the best practices in the literature would work in rural settings, or how." Early on, RaDAR team specialists observed a disproportionate number of rural patients referred to the specialist Rural and Remote Memory Clinic were for less complex diagnoses, where a specialist referral is not typically indicated. Morgan wanted to know why those patients couldn't get care closer to home. “Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common type of dementia, should usually be diagnosed by primary care providers in their community," she said. Often, she found family doctors and nurse practitioners did not feel comfortable making a dementia diagnosis. After a provincial consultation, Morgan realized rural and remote nurse practitioners and family doctors would benefit from working in an interdisciplinary team and from a standardized assessment tool, one connected to the patient's provincial health record. "Rural primary care providers see so many different conditions in a day, they are generalists," said Morgan. "They don't see the number of people with dementia as they would someone with diabetes or heart disease, for example." Starting from scratch, Morgan and her team put together a one-day interdisciplinary rural memory clinic for patients in the Sun Country Health Region, using the town of Kipling, Sask. as its initial base. During periodic memory clinics in Kipling, she'd bring together patients and their families with nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, physical therapists, home care nurses, social workers and family doctors, along with a First Link coordinator from the Alzheimer Society. That team would assesss one dementia patient in the morning, and another in the afternoon. Morgan has been documenting their progress each step of the way and spreading the memory clinic model to other rural communities. Six rural primary healthcare teams are now delivering these clinics and more are planned. "Our research, we try to involve the people who will be delivering or using the services in their rural communities, as they know best what is needed to improve the quality of life of people living with dementia and their families," she said. "Families tell us they really value having that clinic close to home, with healthcare providers that they know," Morgan said. "It reduces that feeling of just being very isolated and alone. In this episode, hear why Covid-19 stalled expansion plans for more than a year, and next steps for expanding the services delivered by both the specialist Rural and Remote Memory Clinic at the University of Saskatchewan, and the rural primary healthcare memory clinics.0 comments0
- Affairs of the (Zebrafish) Heart: Dr. Michelle CollinsIf you've ever sat through a bad date at a restaurant, unsure of what to order, you're still doing better than a typical zebrafish date. Dr. Michelle Collins said without safety precautions, a zebrafish male and female left together overnight often eat their embryos. The assistant professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine has studied zebrafish for years, using them as a model to examine genetic factors in cardiac development. "They're actually quite beautiful," she said. "The embryos look almost like a crystal ball." In this episode, Collins takes us inside her laboratory, where she breeds both typical and genetically modified zebrafish, to better understand irregularities inside the human heart. "We start to see some early changes in the developing heart that just get worse as the fish ages," she said. "You start to see that the heart chambers aren't really contracting properly, they're very arrhythmic," said Collins. "They really model what a person that has something like atrial fibrilation would be experiencing later on in life." In December, Collins published her most recent findings in the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease , noting the public health implications for humans with similar patterns of abnormal heart development. Her interest in calcium stores, and the way they're regulated in ion channels led her to Discovery Grants last year of nearly $200,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC). Collins' first microscope was a Christmas gift. By the fourth grade, she was running experiments at home, thanks to a book from her grandparents "I had some really great science teachers that really helped propel me into scientific research," said Collins, who became curious about developmental biology. Today, she works with real-time video feeds, using a high-powered microscope that allows her and her team members to observe zebrafish hearts at up to 150 frames per second, producing detailed video images of the vascular system in fluorescent colour. "It's very gentle on live samples, which is really instrumental to what we do because we want to look at a beating heart. We don't want to blast it with lasers," said Collins. "We have this sort of a spinning disc, which allows less phototoxicity from the laser, and it also can acquire movies really quickly," she added. Her hope is to one day match mutations in the zebrafish genes with mutations in patients with genetic heart defects. "Can we use these new genes that we've identified to screen patients and figure out if this could be an underlying cause of their cardiac arrhythmia?"0 comments0
- Dr. Darryl Adamko: Little Lungs, Lessons LearnedDiagnosing pulmonary diseases ilike asthma in young children is still largely a matter of trial and error, according to Saskatchewan’s top pediatric respirologist. As viruses and colds tear through schools and daycares across North America, Dr. Darryl Adamko wants to change that. “If you have asthma this year and you're not taking your inhaled steroids, well you're rolling the dice,” said Adamko, who’s watched an influx of young patients over the past few months at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon. In children, problems with breathing are the leading cause of hospitalizations. Undiagnosed asthma and other pulmonary conditions in children mean small patients have a a much tougher fight when they’re infected by Covid-19, RSV or influenza. “You have to be taking those preventative drugs first before the virus finds you,” said Adamko. That’s why he’s pinning down biomarkers for pulmonary disease in a familiar tool for family doctors: urine samples. “We still really don't have a great test for like preschool kids. It's just history for the most part,” he said. Using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, he and his team have spent more than a decade analyzing urine samples and refining their methodology. “Now that we've got enough urine samples analyzed that, I think we've got a good signal,” said Adamko. His research today is aimed at creating a urine test that would give giving family doctors and paediatricians a faster, more efficient way to diagnose pulmonary conditions long before kids arrive at the hospital. In this episode, he explains why a resurgence of RSV after years of Covid restrictions has hit young patients hard. “It's really bad for little babies. It loves the smallest little airways,” Adamko said. “This year the problem is we've got a bunch of two-year-olds, and one-year-olds who have never seen these viruses.”0 comments0
- In the Spirit of ChristmasMay this holiday season find all our Researchers Under the Scope listeners feeling cozy, festive and warm. In the spirit of giving, the Office of the Vice-Dean of Research at the College of Medicine has once again teamed up, to make a donation to students and staff at King George Elementary School in Saskatoon. This is where you can scroll down and find the details you need to make an e-transfer donation. And in the New Year, we resolve to bring you an episode for parents of young children. With Influenza A, RSV, and Covid-19 ripping through schools, daycares and workplaces, we have a preview from our next episode wth Dr. Darryl Adamko. He's Saskatchewan's top pediatric researcher, and a pediatric respirologist at the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon. Adamko is working on a prototype that would allow family doctors to screen young children for asthma and other pulmonary diseases far more quickly and accurately. Thanks again for sharing your ears with us! We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and we'll meet up here again in 2023.0 comments0
- Dr. Scott Widenmaier: Connecting Cholesterol, Obesity and ImmunometabolismWhen Scott Widenmaier left high school, he wasn't sure what career path he wanted to pursue. He grew up in Alameda, Saskatchewan, and soon found work on oil rigs. But by the time he was in his early twenties, he knew it was time for a change. "I realized that winters are just too cold to continue doing that," said Widenmaier. "I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life, but I was interested in biology and human physiology." In his third year as a science major at the University of Regina, he became fascinated by a lab experiment examining how neurotransmitters control heart rates. He then moved west, to graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, studying endocrinology and its role in diabetes. "I really like the elegance of the feedback circuits," said Widenmaier, who went on to land a post-doctoral position with Dr. Gökhan Hotamisligil at Harvard University's School of Public Health. As he discovered the emerging field of immunometabolism, Widenmaier began to see links between the way the gut and the human immune system talk to each other, especially around obesity. "That communication to the immune systems and the metabolic systems is dysfunctional and contributes to a lot of the diseases that we see linked to obesity," said Widenmaier, who studies the way the body manages cholesterol. That's the focus of his work at the University of Saskatchewan as an assistant professor in the College of Medicine's department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology. "There's this transcription factor that sits in a part of the cell and it recognizes when cholesterol's too high," he said. "It changes where it goes in the cell and it regulates a response by the cell to try to prevent the cholesterol from causing damage and stress." Widenmaier has now landed a number of awards, including the Heart and Stroke Foundation's National New Investigator Award in 2020/21. Widenmaier was also named that year's McDonald Scholar. "We've made a lot of progress with understanding the role of NRF1 and NRF2 in the liver," he said. "We've identified some molecules that may be important for protecting cells from too much cholesterol." In this episode, hear how this work has implications for patients with heart and stroke disease, obesity, liver disease, degenerative brain conditions, as well as various forms of cancer. "The issue with cholesterol is that we absolutely need it, but we also need it to be exactly the right amount," said Widenmaier. "There's lots of times where that that capacity gets stretched, especially under conditions of obesity." "What are those natural adaptive systems? If we can find out what they are, can we make them work better?"0 comments0
- Just Give Mutants A Chance: Dr. Linda ChelicoAs a high school student growing up in Melfort, Sask.. Linda Chelico knew she wanted to work in health sciences. She enjoyed biology class, and took an interest in watching nature heal itself. She wanted to find environmentally friendly solutions to health problems. Then, she read a National Geographic magazine about landfills filling up. Chelico began thinking about the environmental footprint of garbage, and about the organisms that could help break down piles of refuse. The idea turned into her Grade 11 science project, where she showed ways micro-organisms could degrade some of the waste people produce. “That's when I decided I wanted to be a microbiologist,” said Chelico. Watching evolving life forms had her hooked. She moved a two-hour drive west to Saskatoon, and enrolled as a microbiology student at the University of Saskatchewan. Within a year, she switched to an honours degree through the College of Agriculture’s Applied Microbiology program. She earned her PhD in Saskatoon studying insecticidal fungal strains, with varied results. “You could kill the insects without putting chemicals in the environment,” said Chelico. As she tested the fungus on arid prairie fields, the effects of its prolonged exposure to sunlight and irradiation intrigued her. “Some of these fungal spores would survive a lot of UV damage,” she said. “It would dry out, it would acquire mutations. And I was trying to formulate it with sunscreens and then in the lab irradiate it with UV radiation, like if you're going to a tanning bed.” Although mutations were generally seen as negative for cell health in her course work, Chelico realized they deserved a closer look. “There's extreme stress on the organisms. They've acquired a lot of DNA damage from this UV irradiation,” she said. “So how do they survive?” In this episode, we hear how Chelico’s interest in damaged, mutant cells morphed into a scientific Hollywood story, after she met Myron F. Goodman, at the University of Southern California’s Los Angeles laboratories. Chelico spent five years of post-doctoral work studying microcellular activity and biological responses to stress in Goodman’s lab. “Everything was unified by the benefit of mutations,” she said. By 2009, Chelico put Hollywood Boulevard in the rear-view mirror, returning to Saskatoon to accept a faculty position at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine. Working as a virologist, microbiologist and biochemist, Chelico and her teams have landed more than $1.6 million dollars in three years, with continuing grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Information. Her laboratory is focused on what key enzyme mutations in viruses mean, particularly for patients with HIV-AIDS, other viruses, and cancer. “In humans, when these mutations happen, usually we see it come out as a cancer,” said Chelico. “It doesn't exist in all of our cells. It exists in the type of [immune] cells that react to environmental stress.”0 comments0
- Researchers Under the Scope Nov 13 · 21m Dr. Oleg Dmitriev on Copper, Platinum and Safer ChemotherapyColour-changing reactions and small explosions punctuated life at Dr. Oleg Dmitriev's home, when he was a boy. He loved trying out chemical reactions, and experimenting. As a teenager, he was fascinated by the science fiction novels his father brought home. "It's all about strange worlds and unusual, strange forms of life," said Dmitriev, a protein biochemist. "I started wondering, why is the life on our planet is the way it is? And what is the chemistry of life?" After earning his PhD at Moscow State University, Dmitriev went on to post-doctoral studies at the University of Osnabrück, followed by years of bench research at the University of Wisconsin. That's where he discovered the potential of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy-- something he uses today to piece together the way copper moves through human cells. "It still fascinates me," said Dmitriev, who moved to the University of Saskatchewan in 2005 to open his own laboratory. "It's a very, very important technical component of my research." Today, as a professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the U of S College of Medicine, Dmitriev has honed in on ATP7B, the protein that transports and regulates copper in human tissuess. "Copper is a very important bioelement that is needed for supplying our cells with energy, but at the same time it also has a dark side," Dmitriev said. "If it escapes, it can start a cascade of damaging runaway reactions." The Canadian Liver Foundation estimates one in 30,000 Canadians inherit a defective version of the protein, causing Wilson Disease. Without treatment, they suffer liver damage and a host of neurological symptoms from an over-accumulation of copper. "There are many entry points for copper," said Dmitriev. "Where does it go from the point where it enters the protein? How does it go across the cell membrane? How is that activity regulated?" Together with Dr. Scott O'Leary, a cell biologist, Dmitriev was successful in securing a $761,176 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 2021 to explore those questions. He said understanding the 'cogs and wheels' of copper transport in the body may also help clarify the way other metals, such as platinum, move through human tissue. Platinum compounds are frequently used in chemotherapy treatments for breast, colon, lung, and ovarian cancer. "They're quite effective, but they're incredibly toxic," said Dmitriev. "They have a lot of really serious side effects." Because platinum uses the same transportation mechanisms as copper, Dmitriev wants to know how to make its journey through the body less harmful. "Can we manipulate those transfer pathways to make sure that platinum chemotherapy drugs get to their target, but do not go astray and poison the patient?" he said. Looking back, Dmitriev said he's glad he landed at the University of Saskatchewan, as it gave him the chance to explore the areas he feels most passionate about. "I would do it all over," he said. "Science is fun. Science is exciting. It's a good life."0 comments0
- What Physics Can Tell Us About Inflammatory Pulmonary Disease, with Dr. Asmahan AbuArishAsmahan AbuArish grew up in Hebron, surrounded by military checkpoints. She knew she wanted to help people, but she had to give up her dream of being a medical doctor early. Fortunately, AbuArish is no quitter. She discovered physics — and later its very real applications in curing inflammatory pulmonary diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Last year, Dr. AbuArish arrived at the University of Saskatchewan to open her own lab, landing $175,000 through the Canada Foundation for Innovation's John Evans Leaders Fund. Today, Dr. Asmahan AbuArish is an assistant professor of anatomy, physiology and pharmacology at the U of S College of Medicine. She is a quantitative molecular biophysicist. AbuArish admits she avoided biology and classes involving memorization during her studies, thinking she'd pursue a career as a teacher. But she kept asking questions during physics labs and eventually had to reconstruct two-dimensional images of the data she'd collected. "This is when I thought, this is my data coming alive and I'm looking at it in 3D," AbuArish said. "This was fascinating. This is when I realized I'm doing something nobody has done before." From that moment, AbuArish said she was hooked. In this episode, she explains why patterns, data modeling and fruit fly models, combined with a super-resolution scanning confocal microscope, will enable her to perform advanced biophysics analyses. Detailed imaging and fluorescent molecular tagging allow AbuArish and her team to figure out which pulmonary medications will — and won’t work. It's work that has immediate implications for patients with CF and COPD. " I'm interested in understanding how does the healthy complete form of the molecule function, and then how does it function? How does the mutant function? How do they behave? What is the difference in their behaviors?"0 comments0
- Using CBD Oil to Treat Severe Epilepsy in Children, with Dr. Richard HuntsmanAs a pediatric neurologist, Dr. Richard Huntsman sees the children with the most medically complex epilepsy "It completely disrupts the life of a family," said Huntsman. "Limitations on what the child can do, limitations on what the family can do." "When the kids have really severe and difficult-to-control epilepsy, It's a huge burden on their parents." Eight years ago, parents started asking Huntsman about whether they could try treating their childrens' seizures -- with cannabis. Back then, Canadian health officials allowed doctors to prescribe the medical use of dried marijuana buds -- which meant smoking them. "No pediatrician would recommend that for a child," said Huntsman, who said any therapeutic benefits and dosages for cannabis products at the time amounted to a big question mark. "I was maybe a little bit skeptical that we would see huge improvements," Huntsman said. As an associate professor of pediatric neurology in the College of Medicine, Huntsman knew CBD and THC contain anticonvulsants. He wanted high-quality, independent data, so he designed an investigator-sponsored study to test cannabis on epileptic children. "I certainly did raise eyebrows when I went to the different funding agencies," he said, crediting his department, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital Foundation for their financial backing. "That took a lot of courage." Huntsman and his team approached Saskatoon-area licenced producer CanniMed, Canada's first licenced producer of medical marijuana, to create a food-grade CBD oil for children with a targeted ingredient list. "We knew exactly what was in it with regards to concentrations of cannabidiol, THC, and to a lesser degree other cannabinoids which are present in these compounds," Huntsman said. He then recruited 20 Canadian children with drug-resistant, medically severe epilepsy started by recording their baseline seizure frequency. Eleven of them attended monthly appointments in Saskatoon, to participate in the study. Parents turned in detailed medical journals each visit, including changes they observed in their child and in their family's quality of life. The CBD oil worked. "The reduction in seizure frequency was around 60 per cent." said Huntsman, calling the findings 'really significant'. Although not all children responded the same way, Huntsman was even more surprised to see a number of children become entirely seizure-free by the end of the study. "These were kids who'd tried multiple multiple medications, had tried ketogenic diets, had tried things like steroids, etc to control their seizures." In this episode, we hear how those patients are doing today, and why one young boy's case became a true 'aha' moment for Huntsman. "He was interacting more, he was laughing at funny bits of movies, which he'd never done before." said Huntsman. Huntsman founded the Cannabinoid Research Initiative of Saskatchewan, hoping to join forces with other biomedical researchers to learn more about CBD and THC, and whether they're more effective in combinations or alone. In this episode, we also hear where Huntsman wants to see more research, with hundreds of cannabinoids and potential compounds to explore.0 comments0
- Hot-boxing Rats and Brain Neuroscience, with Dr. Robert LaprairieResearchers in Robert Laprairie's laboratory are hard to miss, wearing tie-dyed lab coats as they oversee mice and lab rats in iPad-sized chambers filled with cannabis smoke. An associate professor in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, Dr. Laprairie and his team are trying to unravel the mysteries of human neurotransmitters and cannabinoid receptors, and their role in neurodegenerative disease. "Cannabis is challenging. There's a lot of bureaucracy, there's a lot of stuff that gets in the way. So there was a knowledge gap," said Laprairie. Still, Laprairie never thought of himself as a career scientist, and initially enrolled as an Education student. Midway through his studies, he took on a part-time job tending canola seedlings for Agriculture Canada — a job that made him re-think his plans, as he learned more about treating disease in plants. After switching majors and completing his honours degree in biochemistry, Laprairie arrived at Dalhousie to complete his graduate studies, studying how to 'turn up the volume' on damaged cannabinoid receptors in patients with Huntington's disease, and certain forms of epilepsy. "I wanted to focus more on the pharmacology. How does the CB1 [cannabinoid receptor type 1] as a receptor work?" said Laprairie. Patients with Huntington's disease often lose up to half of their functioning cannabinoid receptors without ever knowing it. It's not easy to see that slow degradation happening, Laprairie said. "In animal studies we've seen the animals tend to be more anxious when the [CB1] receptors stopped. They tend to be somewhat spastic and their movements,” said Laprairie. “Their movements can be a little bit less coordinated and they seem to exhibit some of the symptoms of depression." Today, Laprairie holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research chair in Drug Discovery and Development. He and his team are trying to create positive alasteric modulators (PAMs) — drugs that boost, or turn up the volume on a patient's remaining CB1 receptors — without the intoxicating effects associated with marjuana. In this episode, we also hear why communication -- and finding the right mentor -- is crucial for biomedical researchers and scientists with young families. Laprairie jokes that he fathered one child as he completed each degree -- and with three young children, his early career became hectic. "There's just a lot of strain that puts on a family. Communication and scheduling became essential for survival," he said. Crediting Dr. Eileen Denovan-Wright, an 'amazing’ supervisor with helping him through his master's and doctoral work, Laprairie describes biomedical research as 'a team sport' "Her support of me and her acknowledgement and understanding made all the difference in the world. I would not have been successful without that support," Laprairie said. In 2016, Laprairie was the top pick in the CIHR's fellowship program, and he accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute in Florida. Upon his return to Saskatoon, Laprairie went on to work with Dr. Richard Huntsman using cannabidiol, which appeared to reduce the frequency of childhood epileptic seizures when administered orally. "Patients that were tested here at the University of Saskatchewan saw about a 50% drop in seizure activity," said Laprairie. "For someone who is experiencing a lot of seizures that are otherwise untreatable, that's huge.” Laprairie says the pharmacology of hallucinogenic drugs including psilocybin mushrooms and LSD are an area he plans to explore in the future. He believes some hallucinogens could serve as potential anti-depressants, among other therapeutic uses. “There are a lot of unanswered questions there,” Laprairie said.0 comments0
- Dr. Ivar Mendez: The Robot Will See You NowDr. Ivar Mendez is one of the world's leading experts in neuroscience and robotics, neuromodulation, and remote medicine. But nine years ago, the award-winning neuroscientist who founded Dalhousie's Brain Repair Centre faced a career dilemma. Would he accept a senior clinician's position at Harvard University, or would he move to Saskatchewan, to oversee surgery for an entire province? Today, Dr. Ivar Mendez says he's glad he chose Saskatoon. "It's been a privilege for me to work with remote communities in Saskatchewan," said Dr. Mendez, provincial head of surgery and a clinical neurosurgeon with the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Authority. This spring, he published Sariri, a book of essays about his travels to remote communities in Bolivia. He said there are 'commonalities' between Indigenous people in both Bolivia and northern Saskatchewan, in terms of their relationship with the earth and its teachings. "They have a lot of knowledge and healing that we in Western medicine are not using, but it's very valuable," Mendez said. Mendez has made it his mission to bring 'remote presence' robots into nursing stations in 17 fly-in and remote communities across northern Saskatchewan. In this episode, hear why being able to practice virtual medicine paid off during the Covid-19 pandemic, as lockdowns isolated Saskatchewan's poorest, most remote citizens. In 2021, midway through the pandemic, Dr. Mendez took unpaid leave and returned to Bolivia where the coronavirus was ripping through hospitals, killing hundreds of health care workers and thousands of Bolivian citizens. "There were no ICU beds, no beds at all," said Mendez. "Hundreds of thousands of people were dying." After he arrived, Dr. Mendez sent countless families personal protective equipment, Bluetooth-equipped medical devices, and he set up real-time consultations with phsyicians so they could monitor sick patients at home. "They were able to save many lives," said Mendez, noting a 'significantly lower' mortality rate for patients whose family members cared for them at home, compared to those admitted to hospital. In this episode, Dr. Mendez also describes a recent trip to Ethiopia, where prenatal care for rural women was nearly non-existent, until teams from Saskatchewan tried giving midwives portable ultrasound kits. With supervision from obstetricians in urban centres, 17 Ethiopian midwives became 'expert sonographers' offering free pre-natal scans on market Saturdays. Some women walked for more than ten hours, for their first chance to see their baby. "When I went back to Ethiopia a couple of weeks ago, they'd done 3,800 ultrasounds -- more than ten times what we ever thought," said Mendez. "They wanted to know if their babies were healthy." In this episode, hear more about Mendez' initial fascination with the human brain, his push to bring stem cell transplants to patients with brain injuries and disease, and why he cares deeply about bringing health care to impoverished communities. Using 'doc in a box' virtual medicine, clinicians can 'see' patients in 17 remote communities in northern Saskatchewan including La Loche, Pelican Narrows, and Stony Rapids. "We have built the most comprehensive remote presence robotic program in Canada, and one of the most advanced in the world," he said. " Mendez predicts virtual care, robotics and artificial intelligence will 'revolutionize' health care. "It will disrupt the way we practice medicine and I think we will be better, for the way we're using them," he said.0 comments0
- Breakthoughs in Cystic Fibrosis, with Dr. Julian Tam & Juan IanowskiFrom insects and birds, to the underwater world, Juan Ianowski's fascination with the natural world began early. As a biologist, he was drawn to physiological processes, later scrutinizing the kidneys of insects, whose epithelial cells behave in similar ways to those in human lungs. By 2015, Ianowski's research was focused on the pathophysiology of lung cells, and the nerve channels controlling them. He and his collaborators were working with the Canadian Light Source, to get a more accurate picture of the tiny cells involved. But Ianowski had a nagging feeling he was missing the bigger picture. "I had a very large gap in my life," said Ianowski. "I had never seen a patient." That summer, he fired off an e-mail to Dr. Julian Tam, who'd just moved into a new position as the director of Saskatchewan's adult Cystic Fibrosis clinic. They agreed to go for coffee. Tam already knew Saskatoon, after spending his residency in internal medicine here, followed by a fellowship in Respirology. "I liked that I could reason out, based on various principles, how things worked in our lungs," said Tam. "There were a few patients that I looked after with CF fairly early on in my training, and I think they really left a mark on me.” When they met, Tam found Ianowski's work interesting, but saw 'a bit of a disconnect' between the research and his day-to-day practice. Within months, the respirologist asked Ianowski to shadow him during patient visits. Most CF patients take dozens of pills each day, as well inhaling nebulized saline solutions designed to loosen mucous, and reduce infections. “It can be very time-consuming and we would love for their treatments to be as efficacious as possible,” said Tam. To figure out how, and why the saline solution worked — and what could make it more potent, Tam and Ianowski became collaborators on numerous projects supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Information, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and Cystic Fibrosis Canada. With the help of colleagues at the Canadian Light Source and the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, they started finding answers by doing mass spectrometry in real time, in a herd of pigs genetically modified to carry the gene for Cystic Fibrosis. “This is pretty hard because the amount of fluid that we are looking for is very small. So it's about the width of a human hair,” said Ianowski. That work led to numerous publications, and to the University of Saskatchewan’s application for a patent for a better inhaled treatment to treat CF lung disease. Now, Tam and Ianowski also looking at gastrointestinal disease in CF patients, and TRIKAFTA — an innovative class of drugs that’s effective for most — but not all — people with the disease. Today, they’re testing those drugs in the lab to gain a detailed understanding of the effects they produce. A recent CIHR grant will help them better understand the basic epithelia of the lungs. They’re also looking for ways to better treat CF patients who cannot tolerate TRIKAFTA treatments. “Our hope is that some of our work gives us a better understanding of the disease process,” said Tam, as he and Ianowski aim for better treatments, by figuring out which lung cells to target, and where.0 comments0
- Researchers Under the Scope May 8 · 27m Game Changer: Dr. Deborah Anderson on Triple Negative Breast CancerDr. Deborah Anderson has spent her career as a biochemist and cancer cell biologist pinning down elusive targets. Now she’s made a breakthrough in one of the world’s most swift-moving and aggressive cancers: triple negative breast cancer. This form of the disease affects 15 to 20 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s , and is often more prevalent in young women, with a disproportionate number of Black and Latina women. Unlike other forms of breast cancer, it’s not fuelled by the hormones estrogen and progesterone, or by the HER2 protein — and so does not respond to typical hormonal therapies For Anderson, Director of Research at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, unraveling biochemical mysteries has always been a passion. During her third year as a pre-med student at the University of Manitoba, she switched to an honours biochemistry program. “I got to learn more about things like the fundamental processes going on in cells, controlling cell functions, cell behaviour, and this just reinforced my interest and love of science and I was hooked,” said Anderson. After completing her doctoral studies, she went on to work in laboratory of the late Tony Pawson — a scientist Nature magazine calls ‘one of the most extraordinarily gifted and celebrated molecular and cellular biologists of our time.’ “We were just starting to learn how to make controlled, known mutations, to sort of probe what those different mutations would do to the protein that they were in,” said Anderson. “Now you can sequence the whole genome — 20,000 genes and more in a day for a thousand dollars. So the technology has definitely changed what we can do and how fast we can do it.” Over the past decade, Anderson and her research team have looked at CREB3L1, a protein that sits on a person’s DNA and helps decide whether or not to switch on the genes that stop cancer from spreading. CREB3L1 is missing inside metastatic cancer cells, leading Anderson to question which proteins are active there instead. “This is a common thing in cancer where things that put on the brakes are often missing,” Anderson said. She and a team of six researchers have now identified a protein that promotes metastasis — one that’s often observed in triple negative breast cancer. It has no natural inhibitors, and its three-dimensional folded structure is already mapped out. In this episode, she explains the way that's led to therapeutic breakthroughs, and new compounds which could be 'game-changers'. “Patients often ask themselves, is this really worth it to go through all this for the time that it buys me? And if we could offer patients something that was less cytotoxic, that's still providing them with improved survival and benefit in terms of disease control — that would be huge.” Dr. Anderson and her team are also looking at existing pharmaceuticals approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — and whether any of them are effective against triple negative breast cancer cells. To date, she said four drugs look promising, particularly in combination with existing chemotherapy drugs. Because they’re already FDA-approved, it’s a far less onerous process to eventually get them to oncologists and their patients.0 comments0
- Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Chandra Dattani's StoryChandra Dattani's smile lit up the room, and her laughter was contagious. But when the beloved Saskatoon businesswoman and volunteer was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, even her husband, a physician, found very little information about therapies or drugs that could heal her. "There was very scant literature on triple negative, and I was asking them, why?" said Dr. Dan Dattani. Typically, oncology teams target estrogen and progesterone receptors to stop breast cancer tumours from growing and spreading. Unfortunately, those targets don't work for the 15 to 20 per cent of breast cancer patients with triple negative breast cancer, a swift-moving and aggressive form of the disease. Still, Chandra Dattani and her family decided to fight back. They established the Chandra Dattani Memorial Fund in 2010. It's currently endowed with a balance of over 120 thousand dollars, and continues to support critical cancer research on an annual basis. "She was so dedicated to making sure we'd never gave up on ourselves and was really our biggest cheerleader every step of the way," said Seema Jain, Dattani's eldest daugher. In this episode, Jain joins her siblings and her father in unraveling her mother's story, and pushing for more research and therapies dedicated to women with a triple negative diagnosis. "Our biggest hope is hopefully women won't have to suffer the way our mom did," said Dr. Sheev Dattani. "Hopefully there will be better treatments coming down the road."0 comments0
- 'I'm Going To Do This': with Dr. Veronica McKinneyWhen Veronica McKinney was a little girl, she vivdly remembers going to the Saskatoon Public Library, borrowing a Time-Life book about the human body. "I loved that book and I would read it. I would copy the cover. I can picture it even to this day, all the different little cells," said McKinney, now an assistant professor at the College of Medicine. "I was just fascinated by how our body works and how it's just so amazing,” she said, as she recalled borrowing the book over and over, and tracing the pictures on its cover. McKinney also considers herself lucky to have learned traditional ways of maintaining health from her mother. While McKinney’s great-grandmother was Cree, the matriarch lost her status when she married a Metis man from northern Alberta. The family built a house on a road allowance near Midnight Lake in Saskatchewan's boreal forest, where McKinney's mother spent her childhood with her hokum learning healing techniques, how to gather medicine from the bush and how to deliver babies. She passed that knowledge to her daughter Veronica during summers in the north, as they'd visit extended family to fish, and gather berries. "I still to this day use some of it," said McKinney. "A lot of this is more about how you live your life every day, how we connect to the land." By the time she was a teenager, McKinney soon saw disparities in the way people treated her Indigenous cousins, mother and family. "I often thought, like, why are people acting so angry? I couldn't understand that," she said."It was hard to get jobs, even as a teenager, because people wouldn't look at you." McKinney persevered, enroling first in Arts and Science courses at the University of Saskatchewan, then transferring to train as a laboratory technologist, a career that took her west. She remembered patients from diverse backgrounds asking her for help, when the Peter Lougheed Centre first opened in north-east Calgary. "I'd go to poke them in the morning to get their blood, and they'd often kind of grab onto me and look to me to help them," said McKinney, who said most patients just wanted to understand better what was happening to them. “It really touched me,” she said. After several years in Alberta and British Columbia, McKinney returned to Saskatoon to train as a nurse, while she worked up the courage to apply to medical school. "That was sort of my mantra, whether it was nursing or lab tech or medicine, that I'm not taking myself out of this mix. I'm going to keep on trying," McKinney said. "I decided I'd better apply or I'd never get this out of my system," she said. "And they took me!" McKinney is now a family physician with patients at Saskatoon’s West Side Community Clinic. She’s also the Director of Northern Medical Services at the College of Medicine, a role she loves for the practical benefits she can bring to remote communities and northern people. "I like the research that ultimately leads to someting concrete in the communities," she said. In this episode, she explains remote presence technology, and the way it’s lightened the load for caregivers, emergency workers, and families who no longer have to leave their home communities as often to consult with specialists and therapists. Using video conferencing and remote diagnostic tools including ultrasound equipment, patients and their families learn how to observe warning signs, and how to head off bigger health problems. McKinney says that means fewer air ambulance trips, easier recoveries with friends and family nearby, along with improved outcomes for hundreds northern patients, including children and expectant mothers. "There are huge benefits from some of these things," she said. "That also helps with the recruitment and retention of physicians and nurses and various providers, knowing that you can have that backup, that you can connect right away." McKinney’s warm and engaging approach to medicine is centred around connecting patients and care providers, and exploring her curiosity. She sees medicine as ‘a meaningful way’ to give back to her community. "I've fallen many times, no two ways about it," she laughed. "I'm learning all the time."0 comments0
- Physician in the field: Niels Koehncke on the 'flip side' of medicineMost patients at a hospital or a clinic walk in sick. Doctors do their best to treat their ailments. Dr. Neils Koehncke's patients aren't necessarily sick. In fact, most are reasonably healthy and still on the job. But their duties at work often lead to a plethora of risky situations and occupational hazards. "It's the flip side of healthy, or at least people healthy enough to work suddenly being exposed to these environments that are really unusual," said Koehncke, the director of the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA). "It's very intriguing," Koehncke said. As an associate professor, Koehncke teaches occupational medicine at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine, and he sees outpatients in a clinical setting regularly. In Saskatchewan, occupational medicine specialists see a higher proportion of farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers in their case load, along with miners and oilpatch workers. As such, Koehncke wears a number of hats (including a real hardhat), as he collaborates with respirologists, veterinarians, pathologists, neurologists and population health specialists to better understand and mitigate on-the-job hazards. "The team here [at CCHSA] is so remarkable," he said. "If you're practicing occupational medicine in Saskatchewan, agriculture is going to be a big industry that you come across." Koehncke spent nearly two decades as Saskatchewan's chief occupational medical officer, and became heavily involved in fatality and injury surveillance on farms. Through his career, Koehncke also gained practical experience assessing industrial sites through tours and hands-on work at mines, oilfield installations, and foundries. "The safety is sometimes very obvious, you know, you don't want to get run over by that forklift coming towards you," said Koehncke. "But the health stuff is less obvious and is sometimes more insidious. And it was just really fascinating." In this episode, Koehncke speaks about why he became "an occ doc", and about the challenges of compiling and analyzing data from wildly different sources inside workplaces. From noise, vibration, radiation, heat, cold, ergnomic problems. chemicals, dust, fibres, to psychological and biological hazards that can do long-term damage to frontline workers, Koehncke said there's a role for input from workers, followed by careful analysis and data collection. That goes hand-in-hand with outreach work, to convey improvements and strategies keeping workers safer on the job. "Work doesn't have to be a place that actually is harmful to our health over time," Koehncke said. "We come up with better ways of addressing the risks that actually result in a reduction of mortality and a reduction of illness in the workforce."0 comments0
- Community-driven: graduate researchers make a diifferenceTo spread hope and cheer in our city, the Office of the Vice-Dean of Research typically runs a charitable donation campaign at the end of each year, during the Christmas break. Again, distancing, masks and video conferencing dominated the College of Medicine's second pandemic holiday season. That prompted graduate students Stefany Cornea and Nayoung Kim to issue a departmental challenge. Help an elementary school. Cornea and Kim reached out to some of the schools hardest-hit during Saskatoon's Covid-19 pandemic, and asked what their wish lists included. In this episode, hear why Cornea and Kim chose King George School -- and what the donation will change for its 106 students. We hear from both graduate students, along with King George's vice-principal, Anne-Marie Rollo. She said the donation is 'life-changing' for the elementary school. "For many of our young children being socially isolated really disconnected them from their family, their land, their culture," said Rollo. "We are incredibly excited for this opportunity," In December, Kim and Cornea stopped by King George to drop off the $1,300 donated by biomedical researchers. They hoped it would be enough to send the school's Grade 7 and 8 students on an end-of-year field trip in June. But that wasn't where the fundraiser ended. Cornea, who is doing masters' work characterizing the BRK protein prevalent in both breast cancer and gastric cancer, recalls returning to campus in January. In the mailbox, she came across an envelope addressed to Dr. Marek Radomski, the Vice-Dean of Research at the College of Medicine. After she dropped the envelope at his house, Radomski opened it. Inside he found a cheque for $2,000. The money was raised by Dr. Mary Kinloch, alumni of the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine, and members of the Saskatchewan Regional Medical Association. Cornea said Radomski was stunned. "He couldn't believe the number on the cheque. He couldn't believe the generosity," Cornea said. She said in a typical year, the OVDR would raise roughly third of that total. "It kind of sheds a different light on what not just biomedical researchers can do, but what the College and the physicians, what we all can do when we put our minds to it," said Nayoung Kim, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Biochemistry. Kim and Cornea said they plan to keep the OVDR in touch with students and staff at King George School. With a total donation of $3,305, the entire school can now visit Brightwater, a nature reserve just south of Saskatoon. Parents and family members will also be part of the field trip, which is set for June, according to Rollo. Kim and Cornea say the idea is a tangible way of investing in Saskatoon's future. "They're raising people who are going to be providing medical care in our community, maybe raising future students or staff at the College of Medicine," said Cornea. "It's so cool to see that cycle of support."0 comments0
- 'Be Like Bruce': Chris Gordon gives momentum to Saskatoon cancer researchersFrom his time as captain of the Saskatoon Blades, to a career with the Saskatoon Police Service and the law -- Bruce Gordon was the kind of father, athlete and coach who inspired everyone around him. After he was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in 2017, his wife Chris joined family and friends to start a wave of 'Be Like Bruce' fundraisers. "We were stunned and to be given a diagnosis of absolutely zero hope was devastating," said Chris Gordon. In his last months, Bruce spoke openly about his cancer, and how unfair it felt as he went through chemotherapy and tried to make the most of his last weeks on earth. He and his wife Chris both said the sense of love and community support they felt in that time was 'overwhelming'. But Chris Gordon also witnessed the pain her husband endured. "It was excruciating for him," she said. "The treatments, the management for pancreatic cancer. Nobody should have to go through what he had to go through." After he died, Chris Gordon knew donations in Bruce's name truly had to uphold her husband's motto -- "Community Above All Else". "I wanted it to have an impact on the community," she said. "I was able to reach out to the university and that's where I discovered the Cancer Research Centre." Through the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, Chris Gordon set up the Be Like Bruce Memorial Pancreatic Research Fund, with every dollar staying in her city at Saskatoon's Cancer Research Cluster. Over the past four years, private donations to the the #BelikeBruce Memorial Pancreatic Research fund have raised nearly $50,000. In this episode, we hear her story, and from both Dr. Andrew Freywald and Dr. Franco Vizeacoumar, who explain why donations like Gordon's are 'absolutely crucial' when equipment malfunctions, or needs to be replaced. "That definitely helped us to move forward fast and more effectively," said Dr. Freywald. "It helped us also to accelerate pancreatic cancer related work, as well as investigations and other types of cancer." Over time, Freywald and Vizeacoumar and their teams used their findings in targeting pancreatic cancer tumours to leverage more than $1.3M in grants. Those, in turn, led to advances in treating breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer. "Getting that laboratory-based discovery into the clinics and that's really the ultimate goal of any cancer researcher. And that's what me and Andrew are striving for," said Dr. Vizeacoumar. For Vizeacoumar, Freywald and Chris Gordon, the work won't stop anytime soon. They're all motivated to build a better future for anyone diagnosed with cancer. "I don't wish this upon anybody, that any family go through what our family has gone through," Gordon said. "My hope is to bring awareness and insight to people that our donations do make a difference." The University of Saskatchewan continues to be a leader in cancer research. Each dollar donated stays in Saskatoon, and has a vital impact on what researchers like Dr. Freywald and Dr. Vizeacoumar are trying to achieve. To find out how you can ‘Be Like Bruce’ and make a difference, visit the College of Medicine's donation page.0 comments0
- Researchers Under the Scope Feb 13 · 19m Dr. Alex Wong on Sask's rush to drop Covid rulesAs Saskatchewan drops its proof-of-vaccine requirements and masking orders, doctors and nurses are angry and frustrated, as they care for record numbers of Covid patients. "There's this tension of how to manage all of this going forward so that we don't have surge after surge and wave after wave continue to basically crush our healthcare system," said Dr. Alex Wong. The infectious disease specialist based at Regina General Hospital said Saskatchewan politicians ignore medical advice in their rush to drop Covid restrictions. Some, Wong said, have spread half-truths misinformation about the Omicron variant, and the efficacy of the vaccine. Roughly half of adults in Saskatchewan have received a third Covid booster, something Wong said makes a 'colossal' difference with Omicron. "If I could pick one thing to leave in place. It would be the proof of vaccine program," said Wong. Without it, "there's not going to necessarily be that sense of urgency and motivation," Wong said. The associate professor of infectious diseases at the College of Medicine said variants will keep emerging, as the virus circulates through unvaccinated populations in other parts of the world. Wong said public health messaging on masks and vaccines must be clear and it must be driven by scientific principles, not political fear. "It's not really right to let society just forget about people who are on the fringes, who are marginalized, who are medically frail or immunocompromised or vulnerable or kids under five," said Wong. "That's just not okay. That's not what a caring, functional society does." Wong said Saskatchewan's public health message must be clear: get vaccinated. "That is the one most sustainable way out of all of this towards some normalcy."0 comments0
- Phantom Power: Audrey Zucker-Levin on Artificial LimbsAudrey Zucker-Levin estimates it's been more than 30 years since she first poked her head into a researcher's office at New York City's Hospital for Special Surgery. Back then, the clinical therapist spent her days treating hospital patients, stopping by the laboratory after her shifts. "I was very intrigued by the prosthesis, by the mechanical and the physiologic connection," said Zucker-Levin. "I kept basically showing up any time I had spare time," she said. "They just put me to work." After long hours spent studying patients in early video work, Zucker-Levin recalled studying muscle movement and function through patients' knees, hips and lower-leg placement. She learned more about missing feet, and became curious about the neurological connections producing phantom sensations -- messages trying to connect and control the places where limbs once grew. Zucker-Levin went on to study prosthesis innovations, and welcomes today's gait lab advancements. "We were very dependent upon the technology of the prosthesis, as well as the ability of the person, and we were trying to match them," she said. "It was fascinating work." Zucker-Levin enroled in a part-time doctoral program at NYU, but didn't complete it right away. She followed her husband to Bethesda and a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. After a few years, Zucker-Levin, her husband and two young sons relocated to the University of Tennessee in Memphis. She took on a faculty position there, determined to complete her PhD. "We had a babe in arms and a toddler," she said. "And I flew back and forth to New York every other week with the two little ones." Today, she empathisizes with parents who are students. She admits it was not easy finding balance as a full-time faculty member, as a part-time doctoral student, and as a full-time mother. “But I had lots of support," Zucker-Levin said. "I really enjoyed the research. I really enjoyed that ability to try and figure out how to help people function easier, or better." After she and her husband moved to Saskatoon in 2017, Zucker-Levin was hired as a professor at the University of Saskatchewan's School of Rehabilitation Science. The move north gave her research a different direction as she pivoted from helping high-functioning athletes and dancers, to helping more sedentary patients after amputations. With support from the Saskatchewan Centre for Patient-Oriented Research, and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, her team now focuses on improving function in people affected by lower-leg amputations. Zucker-Levin started by assessing rates of amputation in Saskatchewan compared to other countries. From there, her team went on to use MRI scans to assess phantom sensation, watching the neurological connections the brain uses to keep or regain function; they’re also experimenting with exercise programs aimed at using phantom sensations to help patients heal, along with studying a host of other factors affecting post-operative care. She’s the principal investigator in “Wheeling to Healing”; research aimed at healing and preventing diabetic foot ulcerations, and she currently has four publications set for review.0 comments0
- The Kids Are Not All Right, with Ayisha KurjiDr. Ayisha Kurji first noticed the uptick in children and teens admitted to hospital in the spring of 2020. Some had cardiovascular damage. Some had gastrointestinal issues. But it wasn't because of Covid-19. Instead, she kept seeing children and adolescents hospitalized with eating disorders. "They were so sick, so medically unwell," said Kurji. "We started to track it." As familiar routines evaporated and face-to-face interactions vanished after school cancelations, Kurji said across Canada, outpatient referrals for eating disorders shot up 60 per cent, largely driven by an increase in anorexia nervosa. Kurji is one of the only paediatricians in Saskatchewan who specializes in treating children and teens with eating disorders. During the pandemic, she said inpatient hospitalizations for eating disorders tripled. The phenomenon is not isolated, with doctors in Canada and internationally observing the same spike, Kurji said. "In the pandemic where we've seen school closures and things like that, we've also seen more kids with depression, more kids with anxiety, and this eating disorder trend is huge," she said. Kurji shared red flags for eating disorders, and emphasized the need for parents to keep an eye on children and teens who develop new habits around food and exercise. "As a pediatrician, as a mom, we need to be putting our kids first," said Kurji. In this episode, she talks about her path to pediatrics, one that included a bachelor's degree in psychology before she entered medical school at the University of Calgary. Kurji completed her residency in Saskatchewan, and is now an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine. Almost two years into the pandemic, she's now compiling her observations on the spike in eating disorders into an article for peer review. As Omicron infects a growing number of people, she said it's important to learn from the early days of the pandemic. "I think we need to be really careful how we approach things like school closures and delays," she said. "Sometimes they might be needed, but we need to keep in mind that that's going to have an effect on our kids and we need to be prepared." Kurji also said popular culture and social media sites also tend bombard young people with questionable messages about food, body image, and beauty. "When you're watching together, or if you see something like that, it's a good idea that you say 'let's pause this and let's talk about it," Kurji said. She said parents need to actively reframe discussions around outward appearances, in favour of talking about active living, and what a person's body can do. "Eating disorders really speak to me as my special thing where I feel like I can make a difference," she said. Left untreated, she said patients who suffer from anorexia and purging often go on to struggle with food as adults, increasing their risk of death by five per cent each decade. "Catching things early makes a huge difference," said Kurji Further resources are available at The National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC) and at the Kelty Mental Health resource centre.0 comments0
- Behind BRK, Biochemistry and Breast Cancer: Erique LukongDr. Erique Lukong grins, pointing to two bracelets on his wrist. One inscribed with the word 'focus'; the other 'believe'."I'm passionate about what I do,' he said, describing his journey through medicine as a series of lucky breaks. In his home country of Cameroon, Lukong was identified early as a promising scholar. Upon graduating from high school, he won an eight-year government scholarship to master both biochemistry and French linguistics. "They were looking for technical and medical translators to come back to the country," said Lukong, who enroled at Keele University in the United Kingdom, earning double bachelor's degrees. Lukong then moved to the University of Montreal for his masters-level work. But his career path changed, after Cameroon's economic and political crisis during the early 1990s. With a young family to support, Lukong opted to stay in North America. "I had nobody to guide me," said Lukong. "I didn't have somebody who looked like me anywhere." Undeterred, his work on lysosomes and identifying mutations brought him to McGill, Harvard, and finally the University of Saskatchewan. Today his lab focuses on the biochemistry of breast cancer. "From the very first person that I saw, I was already welcome," said Lukong, who vividly remembers the contrast between his job interview in Saskatoon and Quebec. "Everybody was welcoming." Lukong is a biochemistry professor and a member of the University of Saskatchewan's Cancer Research Cluster. His lab aims to pinpoint what BReast tumor Kinase (BRK), non-receptor tyrosine kinase is doing in these patients' bodies. Lukong is also investigating whether its presence is what's leading them to become drug-resistant. "The big problem we have right now is drug resistance," said Lukong. He said nearly a third of breast cancer patients taking Tamoxifen will develop some resistance to it. It's even tougher with Fulvestrant, a secondary treatment, one whose effect wears off in almost all patients over time. "That's the new direction my lab is taking now," said Lukong. Lukong also makes time to mentor his researchers, and to find out what their goals are. For him, one of the most difficult aspects of pursuing a career in biomedical science was that no one else looked like him. Even today, Lukong said a number of promising Black students often drift away from their studies, or give up on academia. "All they need is that role model" said Lukong. Last year, he became the vice-president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network, which is set to hold its first conference for Black Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine/Health next month. The four-day "BE-STEMM 2022" virtual conference begins January 30, 2022. "That's why I'm here. To tell them, you can do it," said Lukong.0 comments0
- Treating diabetes with black bag medicine: Stu SkinnerWithout a car, without childcare, without a grocery store, a pharmacy, or a place to get blood work done, how does a person with diabetes in rural Saskatchewan keep their disease in check? Those are the questions Dr. Stu Skinner and his Wellness Wheel team members face each day, as they treat Cree and Saulteaux patients on the Day Star, George Gordon, Kawacatoose and Muskowekwan First Nations in south-eastern Saskatchewan. "We see a lot of patients with diabetic foot infections," said Skinner, a University of Saskatchewan-trained physician who specializes in infectious diseases and internal medicine. Some of his patients typically walk 5 km or more in a day. Some don't realize their feet are injured until it’s too late -- when gangrene appears. In this episode, he describes the complications of uncontrolled diabetes, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, vision loss, and amputations. Facing tough financial choices, discrimination and long travel times, he said a number of his patients won't seek health care until it's too late. "I always joke that we need to go back to the old doctor model with the black bag where you go to people's houses and you treat them there because that's what works," Skinner said. To build trust and to help patients better control their diabetes, Skinner's team will spend the next year recruiting ‘peer champions’ in the area who also have diabetes — people who better understand what day-to-day life as a diabetic is like. “People who have that lived experience have a lot to contribute and really are key,” said Susanne Nikolai, nurse lead and Wellness Wheel’s clinical coordinator. Nikolai said working with Skinner and his team has been “absolutely the best nursing that I've done in my almost 30 years as a registered nurse." Earlier this year, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation approved a $7,500 grant for 'Culturally Responsive “Diabetes 101” Training and Knowledge Mobilization Among Indigenous Peers Living with Diabetes in Regina Urban Hub and Indigenous Communities'. Skinner plans to use the money to build trust with his patients, to connect them with diabetic peers in their community, and to find out what's stopping them from getting the care they need. "Many of our patients don't have transportation or they need childcare," said Skinner. "If I, as a physician, mail out a letter for an appointment to someone, but they can only check their mailbox maybe once every three to four months, how are they ever going to know about the appointments, even if they could make it there?" Hear why this matters so deeply to Skinner, Nikolai and the Wellness Wheel team in this episode.0 comments0
Podcast hosts
- Jen Quesnel
@jenkew
Keywords
© University of Saskatchewan, College of Medicine Office of Vice-Dean of Research, 2020.
