The world’s largest genetic study on asthma has identified five new genes associated with the condition and produced the most comprehensive list of genes and gene locations involved in the development of asthma and allergic disease. These research results open the door to future studies, improved diagnostics and new treatment options, says Denise Daley, an Associate Professor in the Department…
One Wednesday afternoon in November the Honourable Francis Drouin, Member of Parliament for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, sat in the conference room in the DMCBH Koerner Pavilion labs, and listened. In a year when scientists have been rallying in support of the Fundamental Science Review and its implications for Canadian science funding, it was an opportunity to share the importance and broad scope of…
A medication used to treat joint and skin conditions might also help people whose only hope of surviving cancer is receiving stem cells from a donor, according to research by a University of British Columbia scientist. Transplants of blood stem cells, which can differentiate into all types of blood cells, can be a cure for life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia…
A chapter contribution to the Encyclopedia of AIDS by two Simon Fraser University graduate students is helping researchers to expand their knowledge on HIV/AIDS. Anh Le and Aniqa Shahid, who are both completing their Master of Science degrees in the Faculty of Health Sciences, recently made a contribution to an encyclopedic publication that indexes current research on HIV. The Encyclopedia of AIDS…
Microbes exist everywhere – in water, air, soil, plants and animals, and from the coldest regions of the Antarctic to the boiling hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the sea. According to microbiologist Brett Finlay, there are far more bacteria on Earth than there are stars in the sky, and despite their microscopic size, the Earth’s microbes weigh more than…
Heartbreaking loss has led to a leap in progress for beluga whale conservation science: the beluga genome has been sequenced for the first time. BC Cancer’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre (GSC) worked with genetic material from the mother and daughter beluga whales who were cared for at Vancouver Aquarium for almost three decades. The Genome BC funded research…
Right now, 25% of children who survive blood and marrow transplants go on to develop chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGvHD), an incurable condition that can cause lifelong pain and disability. “Blood and marrow transplants can cure cancer and immune disease in patients who have few other treatment options, but they also can cause cGvHD,” says Dr. Kirk Schultz. “We want to preserve…
When we talk about female representation in science, we’re rarely talking about test subjects. We tend to want more women behind the microscope, not under it. Neuroscience is one of the most skewed fields when it comes to testing on female physiology. One review found single-sex brain studies using male animals outnumbered those using females 6.7 to one. Aarthi Gobinath, a…
Qu Biologics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing Site Specific Immunomodulators (SSIs), a unique platform of immunotherapies designed to “reboot” the body’s innate immune system, has just published collaborative research with Dartmouth College detailing the mechanism of action and efficacy of Qu’s lung-targeted SSI, QBKPN, for the treatment of lung cancer. It has long been recognized that acute infection can potentially trigger the…