Breakthrough in the Fight against HIV-1
A discovery by a team of researchers at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal(IRCM) could potentially lead to the development of new strategies to combat the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), the causal agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
The research team, headed by Dr. Éric A. Cohen, Director of the Human Retrovirology Research Unit (HRRU) and a professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Université de Montréal, published their findings in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, explaining how the Vpu viral protein binds to and prevents the expression of Tetherin, an important “host factor” that helps inhibit HIV-1 release, on the surface of infected cells. This means that if researchers are able to develop small molecules that prevent Vpu from binding to Tetherin, one of the natural defence mechanisms against the transmission and spread of HIV-1 would be restored.
Ultimately, the study allows a better understanding of the strategy used by HIV-1 to facilitate its transmission and its spread in humans. “Tetherin is a cellular protein that captures viruses forming at the surface of infected cells, thereby preventing viral transmission and spread,” said Dr. Cohen. “This antiviral protein, whose production is triggered by interferon, is an effector of the innate immune response against viral infections. However, viruses, and especially HIV-1, have evolved and developed mechanisms that antagonize this restriction factor. In fact, we have discovered how the Vpu protein neutralizes Tetherin, and as such stimulates HIV-1 production.”
By directly binding to Tetherin, Vpu adversely affects the transport of the restriction factor to the cell surface, which is the site of its antiviral activity. Tetherin is therefore stored within the cell, thus preventing it from playing its role as a “barrier” against virus transmission. “Simian immunodeficiency viruses, considered to be precursors of HIV-1, are unable to antagonize human Tetherin,” said Mathieu Dubé, a doctorate candidate with HRRU and the first author of the study. “It would appear that the emergence of HIV-1 strains encoding Vpu proteins with the ability to perturb the intracellular transport of human Tetherin could have contributed to the pandemic spread of certain groups of HIV-1.”
“We need to better understand how HIV is transmitted in order to develop new HIV prevention and treatment strategies,” said Dr. Marc Ouellete, Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)’s Institute of Infection and Immunity, one of the institutional supporters of this research. “This is a very important finding by Dr. Cohen’s research team and another example of the superb research being done in Canada in this area.”
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Dindial Ramotar.
Canadian Researchers Discover New Gateway to Treat Leukemia and Other Cancers
Canadian researchers have discovered a previously hidden channel to attack leukemia and other cancer cells, according to a new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The findings from the Université de Montréal, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, and Université Laval may change the way doctors treat cancer patients.
“We found a gateway, which is present in all humans, that allows anti-cancer agents such as Bleomycin to enter the body so they may reach and attack leukemia cells,” said senior author Dindial Ramotar, a Professor at the Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine and a scientist at the affiliated Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
Dr. Ramotar began testing his theory a full decade ago using baker’s yeast, which is remarkably similar to human cells. “Our discovery went from that model system to human cells and will soon reach the bedside through translational therapy,” he explained. “We are on the brink of testing patients.”
The new gateway (SLC22A16) may be a lifesaver for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a cancer that affects white blood cells. AML patients are extremely difficult to treat, since most are unresponsive to anti-cancer remedies. “We can now streamline anti-cancer agents to treat AML,” said Dr. Ramotar. “For example, we found the anti-cancer agent Bleomycin has positive results on lymphoma cells derived from patients and depends on the presence of the gateway. That’s especially good news, since Bleomycin does not act as an immunosuppressant.”
The newly identified gateway, Dr. Ramotar cautions, is only present in some cell types, such as those derived from bone marrow. Also, the channel does not function in colon and breast cancer making it difficult to treat these patients with Bleomycin. “We must now examine ways to stimulate the gateway to treat a broad range of cancers using Bleomycin and other drugs,” said Dr. Ramotar.
This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Cancer Institute of Canada.
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Liftoff of ESA’s CryoSat-2.
Canadian Team Leads Global Earth Observation Mission
A Russian Dnepr rocket carrying the European Space Agency satellite, CryoSat-2, successfully launched last month from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The CryoSat-2 will be placed into orbit 700 km above the Earth and measure the change and thickness of ice in the Arctic. Through partial funding provided by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Canadian scientists and researchers will contribute to this mission by analyzing and validating data captured by the satellite.
CryoSat-2, the most sophisticated satellite ever developed to study the Earth’s ice fields, will take 20,000 measurements per second over the next three years. The mission will deliver data on the rate of change of the ice thickness with an accuracy of within one centimetre.
The Canadian scientists who are leading teams participating in this Earth Observation mission are: Professor Martin Sharp (University of Alberta); Dr. Michael Demuth (Geological Survey of Canada); Professor Christian Haas (University of Alberta); Professor Alexander Braun (University of Calgary); Professor David Barber (University of Manitoba); and Dr. Ingrid Perterson (Bedford Institute of oceanography, DFO).
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Dr. Ryan D’Arcy (left) and Dr. David Clarke pose in front of the neurosurgical simulator developed by NRC.
A “Flight Simulator” for Brain Surgeons
Brain surgeons around the world are abuzz over a unique virtual-reality neurological simulator called NeuroTouch that was developed by the National Research Council (NRC) Canada.
NeuroTouch was officially introduced at the XIV World Conference of Neurological Surgery held in Boston in late summer 2009. The groundbreaking technology enables brain surgeons to rehearse a delicate operation using a realistic three-dimensional, touch-sensitive simulation of a patient’s brain prior to performing the actual procedure.
NeuroTouch proved a hit at the conference with neurosurgeons from every continent eagerly trying out the simulator prototype, which had already been used in what has been hailed as a medical breakthrough in Canada. In August 2009, Dr. David Clarke, a staff neurosurgeon at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, successfully removed a benign tumor from the brain of 48-year-old Ellen Wright. He perfected his surgical approach a few hours earlier on her anatomically precise “virtual brain,” generated by NeuroTouch.
“Before the surgery, Wright asked how the rehearsal went, which is amazing when you consider that the technology can give a patient more confidence knowing that the surgeon addressed any problems in advance of a procedure,” said Dr. Ryan D’Arcy, an NRC neuroscientist (also based in Halifax) who helped develop the simulator. “The surgery demonstrated the immediate impact of research and development – in this case, on the quality of health care.”
Dr. D’Arcy describes NeuroTouch as the medical equivalent of a training flight simulator that helps pilots navigate through various virtual scenarios, such as clear-sky conditions and inclement weather, before a first takeoff. NeuroTouch also simulates scenarios by enabling a neuro-oncological surgeon to map out critical functions of the brain and use that information to determine how aggressive to be in excising a brain tumor without disrupting speech, mobility, or other functions.
However, NeuroTouch is not a generic simulator – “it’s patient-specific,” said Dr. D’Arcy. A series of MRI scans are taken of a patient’s brain and put into the simulator to generate 3D images. This shows a surgeon such precise detail as a brain pulsating or where bleeding could occur, which in turn helps determine whether there could be complications during surgery.
The surgeon can also feel the texture of the virtual brain through high-resolution haptic hardware that enables a user to interact with virtual objects using motion and touch and makes the virtual tissue behave as it would in actual surgery. When a surgical instrument touches virtual fibrous tissue, the surgeon feels resistance. When soft tissue is touched, the instrument moves smoothly.
NRC has set up a test site for NeuroTouch at the Montreal Neurological Institute, which will be followed by sites at clinical neurosurgical training centres in Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver. Each site will be equipped with a NeuroTouch trainer and rehearsal system (the virtual reality simulator) and a NeuroTouch planner – a software tool that captures a patient’s brain images using MRI technology and helps a surgeon visually plan a patient’s surgery. In turn, each site will provide feedback that NRC can use to improve upon and fine-tune the simulator and planner, both of which were developed by some 50 scientists in 10 Canadian centers over an 18-month period.
Dr. D’Arcy expects NeuroTouch to become an invaluable learning tool for surgeons to practise advanced procedures in brain surgery and make better use of valuable operating room time. In turn, that training could help reduce the potential for damage to surrounding tissues – such as functional areas, nerves, and blood vessels – and lessen the possibility of tumor recurrence.
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The Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (NRC-CPFC) provides simulation, design, fabrication, testing, and prototyping services to help move innovative photonics devices to market.
Canada’s OneChip Photonics Develops Blue-Chip Solutions
An emerging Ottawa firm, OneChip Photonics, with the support of the National Research Council Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (NRC-CPFC), is poised to make its mark internationally with the commercialization of a breakthrough bandwidth technology that will enable faster and more robust data transmission.
OneChip is banking on the fact that the whole world wants more bandwidth, which in turn means faster data transmission and improved video, Internet, and voice services – not to mention satisfying future bandwidth-hungry applications, delivered by optical fibre. Today’s providers of optical transceivers have been facing barriers that make it difficult to reduce cost and improve performance. They use designs that require the assembly of multiple parts – a costly approach that has inherent weaknesses.
OneChip’s particular innovation is that it has developed a unique proprietary design platform to manufacture optical components capable of feeding the optical fibre penetrating right to the end user. The company integrates all the photonic devices required for an optical transceiver onto a single, indium phosphide (InP)-based chip, using a high-yield photonic integrated circuit (PIC) manufacturing process. This advance will allow for the cost-efficient manufacture of optical components that will, ultimately, allow for more efficient transmission of data.
The OneChip technology provides the only fully integrated “fibre to the home” optical transceiver solution on the market. And since OneChip’s transceiver PICs can be manufactured using industry-standard fabrication techniques and packaged by fully automated assembly processes, this technology promises to propel the broadband revolution into the “integrated circuit era” even for very cost-sensitive applications.
OneChip Photonics was founded in late 2005 by Dr. Valery Tolstikhin, at the time the company’s sole employee. Formerly with MetroPhotonics Inc., Nortel Networks, Optiwave Corp., and NRC, Dr. Tolstikhin had already devoted some 30 years to the research, development, and commercialization of advanced semiconductor devices for micro- and opto-electronics.
The road to commercialization began in 2007 when OneChip started developing its PIC technology and turned to NRC-CPFC for help. The Centre prototyped and tested the firm’s proprietary optical component solution, providing the concept verification the firm needed to approach investors. Following the successful concept demonstration, the company received $7 million of venture capital.
Since then, OneChip has engaged NRC-CPFC in three more service agreements to verify design, helping the young firm refine its PIC technology. Using the Centre to prototype some of the key building blocks, OneChip has now raised a total of $26.9 million in venture capital and employs more than 40 highly skilled workers.
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Municipalities in Canada and around the world lose a significant amount of treated water due to leakage.
Early Detection Saves Water
Leaky, aging pipes pose major headaches for municipalities in Canada and around the world. A significant amount – in some cases up to half – of the treated water that enters a distribution network may be wasted, leaking out of these pipes before reaching domestic taps. Such losses strain limited water resources, waste energy and money, and increase health risks due to the possibility of intrusion by contaminants.
As a result, the devising of efficient leak detection and management strategies is becoming a high priority for water utilities worldwide. Although many leak detection methods have been developed, questions about their efficiency, effectiveness, and economic viability have impeded their wide-scale deployment, so many Canadian municipalities lack an effective strategy for leak detection and management.
Minister of State (Science and Technology) Gary Goodyear (center) examines a component of the wireless sensor network during a visit to NRC’s Regina-based sustainable infrastructure technology cluster initiative.
To address this problem, Canada’s National Research Council Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure Research (NRC-CSIR) in Regina, Saskatchewan, one part of NRC’s cluster initiative in sustainable infrastructure, is designing a wireless system to detect leaks in water distribution pipes. “Considering the staggering deficit and renewal backlog of our water networks, it is imperative that we adopt more efficient monitoring technologies and operational processes to help conserve and optimize the use of our resources,” said Dr. Mahmoud Halfawy of NRC-CSIR. “Our goal is to develop low-cost technology that can be deployed on a city-wide scale to permanently monitor water pipes, almost in real time, and alert operators to areas with high leakage levels.”
The first step in conserving treated water is to determine where the leaks are. While large pipe breaks often make news headlines, small leaks that go undetected for a long time account for most water losses. Today, many municipalities locate leaks using devices that detect leak-induced noise. These devices are used by skilled field crews during periodic surveys. However, given the vast geographic extent of water networks, such surveys are expensive and time-consuming, and require extensive staff training.
To combat these obstacles, the NRC Institute for Research in Construction developed a new method for detecting and locating leaks in water pipes. The patented technology, called LeakFinderRT, has been licensed to Echologics Engineering, which is currently offering the technology to municipal markets in Canada and around the world. In collaboration with Dr. Osama Hunaidi, the developer of LeakfinderRT, the NRC-CSIR project extends the technology to develop a continuous leak monitoring system.
The new system employs a wireless network of battery-powered vibration sensors attached to the pipes, fire hydrants, or valves. These sensors feature embedded software to ensure reliable and power-efficient operation and are programmed to “wake-up” every night, when ambient noise is at a minimum in order to “listen” for and record vibration signals (or noise). The signals are processed, encoded, and transmitted wirelessly to a central server, where they can then be analyzed using special software.
Over time, changes in noise patterns can be determined, and the presence of new leaks can be detected. Once those leaks are detected, the software will correlate the signals from multiple sensors to help locate them more precisely. An operator can then monitor the situation until a leak is judged serious enough that the pipe should be dug up and fixed.
“One of the design challenges of the system is to ensure efficient deployment and communication over large urban areas, while keeping installation and maintenance requirements at a minimum,” said Dr. Halfawy. “The current design employs a dedicated wireless network of repeaters and gateways to connect sensors to the central servers. At a later stage, we plan to connect the leak sensors to automated meter-reading systems, similar to one that is currently installed in the City of Regina.”
The low cost and ease of use of the new technology have the potential to help Canadian municipalities of all sizes to enhance their leak detection and management capability. So far, the NRC team has built and tested prototypes in the laboratory. “We hope to see our technology in the marketplace in the coming few years,” said Dr. Halfawy.
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Donald Weaver, pictured, is confident a curative drug for Alzheimer’s will be found sooner rather than later. Photo: Danny Abriel.
One Canadian’s Fight against Alzheimer’s
For his innovative research into a curative drug to halt the progression of Alzheimer’s dementia, Canadian Dr. Donald Weaver, the Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been awarded a Killam Research Fellowship. The award was announced early this spring in Ottawa. The Fellowship, one of Canada’s most prestigious research awards, will allow Dr. Weaver to step back from his teaching responsibilities for two years and focus solely on his research into Alzheimer’s, which is acknowledged as the world’s fastest growing neurological disease.
According to Dr. Weaver, Alzheimer’s affects one in four people over the age of 80. The disease’s ubiquity is especially daunting given that there are as yet no drugs that influence its course. Currently, drugs are used only to relieve the symptoms of the disease. With molecular research showing promising results in early biochemical models, Dr. Weaver, a Professor in Dalhousie’s Departments of Medicine and Chemistry and the School of Biomedical Engineering, is confident a curative drug can be found sooner than later. “Developing drugs is a very interdisciplinary task,” he said, “so being involved in multiple disciplines is crucial.”
One of eight recipients of the 43rd annual Killam competition, Dr. Weaver is the first to receive a fellowship in medicine since 1997. “It’s always nice to receive recognition, especially with an award open to every discipline,” he said. “It shows there is a lot of interest in our work.”
The Kallam Fellowships are awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts and made possible through a bequest from Dorothy J. Killam. The award supports distinguished Canadian scholars, normally full professors at Canadian universities and research institutes, with an outstanding reputation in their area of research. The Fellowships provide two years of “release time” to recipients, while funds – valued at $70,000 per year – are paid to and administered by the institution.
Dr. Weaver holds additional appointments at the IWK Health Centre and the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre. His team is also supported by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Alzheimer’s Association of Canada, and the American Health Assistance Association.
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Queen’s University Prof “Greens” Cooking Oil Production
Philip Jessop, a Professor of Chemistry at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, has created a solvent that – when combined with carbon dioxide – extracts oil from soybeans. This is potentially an important advance in that industries currently make cooking oils using hexane, a cheap, flammable solvent that is a neurotoxin and creates smog. The process also involves distillation, which uses large amounts of energy.
“Carbon dioxide is famous for global warming – it’s everybody’s favorite gas to hate these days,” said Professor Jessop, the winner of a prestigious John C. Polanyi Award in 2009 and a specialist in green chemistry. “My research group is trying to figure out if we can use it for something useful. I figure we may not be able to recycle all the carbon dioxide out there, but we can recycle a bit of it and make it contribute to society in a positive way.”
Professor Jessop, pictured, takes carbon dioxide (famous for causing global warming) and tries to find ways use it to improve the environment.
Professor Jessop’s new method of making oil involves a “switchable” solvent. This solvent is hydrophobic, meaning it mixes with oils and doesn’t like water. But when carbon dioxide is added, the solvent becomes hydrophilic, meaning it mixes with water and doesn’t like to be in oil. So when carbonated water – carbon dioxide and water – is added to a mixture of the solvent and soybeans, the oil is extracted out of the soybeans and collected. When the carbon dioxide is removed, the solvent switches back to its hydrophobic state.
“The water and the solvent can be used again so everything is recycled,” said Professor Jessop, who conducted research in the 1990s under the supervision of Nobel Chemistry Prize-winner Ryoji Noyori. “The end result is you have extracted soybean oil, and there is no energy-consuming distillation required.”
While his process has so far only been done in labs, Professor Jessop says he has been talking to representatives from various cooking oil companies and from GreenCentre Canada who are interested in his research. Still, the solvent is years away from being capable of large-scale oil manufacturing. With his new method, Professor Jessop is ultimately attempting to rid cooking oil extraction of the need for volatile chemicals such as hexane.
“The advantage of hexane is that it’s cheap,” he said. “When you do green chemistry, you have to worry about cost. You can’t just say ‘Look at this, industry, it’s greener!’ If it costs 10 times as much, no one is going to use it. So, next we have to do the economic calculations to see how much it is going to cost. If manufacturing with this environmentally friendly solvent is really expensive compared to the hexane, we have to figure out how we can we make it cheaper.”
The results of Jessop’s research have been published in the journal Green Chemistry.
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John McDougall Appointed President of National Research Council
Minister of Industry Tony Clement last month announced the appointment of John McDougall as the new President of the National Research Council (NRC). Mr. McDougall will replace Dr. Pierre Coulombe, who stepped down as President of the NRC in February. “The NRC has an historic reputation of scientific excellence and I’m thrilled to accept this new position,” said Mr. McDougall, well known in the Canadian Research & Development scene, primarily as the CEO of the Albert Research Council from 1999 to 2007. “I look forward to contributing to the growth and advancement of the Canadian science, technology, and innovation sectors.”
“I am pleased to welcome Mr. McDougall to the Council,” said Minister Clement. “His work has had a major impact on the evolution of public policy in business, trade, science and technology, as well as innovation in both Canada and beyond.”
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