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Dr. Yves De Koninck of the Centre de recherche Université Laval Robert-Giffard (CRULRG) is leading a New Emerging Team that is developing new ways to examine molecular events in living cells, using nanotechnology.
Dr. De Koninck and his team are developing nanotechnology-based sensors and probes that are able to monitor the interactions among nerve cells to learn how transmitters and receptors function. The tools also allow the team to intervene in these functions, so that they can investigate the consequences of manipulating nerve cell communications. Examining molecules in isolation has advanced our knowledge tremendously, says Dr. De Koninck. But molecules behave quite differently when they are in action in cells, so being able to probe a live cell means learning about how molecules function "in the right place and at the right time."
The knowledge acquired will aid in the design of drugs to counter pain, epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, as well as learning more about the molecular communications that affect memory.
Repairing spinal cord injuries
Dr. Lynne Weaver and her team at the Robarts Research Institute and University of Western Ontario are recipients of a New Emerging Teams grant to bring that possibility closer to being realized. Her research to date has focused on an antibody that controls inflammatory cells, limiting the damage caused after an injury has occurred. That's an important first step: the more damage you can prevent, the more likely the ability to repair.
Now, members of her team are focusing on inhibiting the enzymes that lead to scar formation at the site of an injury - another important step in improving the likelihood of regeneration. They are also investigating the use of somatic stem cells, already present in the mouse, to encourage regeneration. These cells are being tracked with micro-imaging in the mouse to show that they home to the injury site. All these studies, to date, have taken place in rats and mice. In a study of human tissue, Dr. Weaver's laboratory has found that the inflammatory response to cord injury is very similar to that of rats, making the team's rat studies good predictors of human responses. The strategies for rescue and repair that they are developing in rats are likely to translate well to treatments for humans.
Going micro in the search for cancer culprits
Dr. Linda Pilarski and her team at the University of Alberta are using nanotechnology to develop a device the size of a microscope slide that can analyze and monitor cancer cells on the spot quickly and inexpensively. It's a device that could dramatically change health care - imagine someone in a remote area having their cells uploaded and analyzed elsewhere - but that's just the start. The same type of device could measure the presence of a virus in urine that signals kidney transplant rejection. Every single donation of blood could be analyzed for West Nile Virus. Sewage in different parts of a city could be analyzed for the presence of viruses that signal a developing epidemic. The key is the speed and low cost - current methods of accomplishing these same tasks are simply too slow and too expensive to be widely used.
None of it would be possible, Dr. Pilarski says, without the New Emerging Team funding that brings together engineers, a clinician, a medical geneticist, a sociologist and Dr. Pilarski herself, an oncologist, working in the same lab. With the funding, the team has formed the Alberta Cancer Diagnostics Consortium, so that they are ready when the time comes to commercialize their discovery - a stage that should come within the next few years.
Building equity into emerging areas
Dr. Abdallah Daar, of the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics and the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine, is leading a research network called RMEthnet that wants to maximize the potential and minimize the risks of regenerative medicine worldwide.
His team of lawyers, ethicists, social scientists and biomedical researchers is focusing initially on the applications of regenerative medicine that show the most promise for the developing world and also how these countries are beginning to actually use regenerative medicine. Other research areas include protecting human subjects of regenerative medicine research, balancing the need to reward innovation with patents and ensure equity of access to new technologies; regenerative medicine applications in neurological diseases; and enhancing the role of voluntary health organizations in the area of regenerative medicine.
One of the developments driving progress in regenerative medicine is collaboration among researchers from varied disciplines, including tissue engineering, stem cell research, genetic engineering, and ethics. A major focus for RMEthnet is training new researchers to work in this way, with its commitment to train up to 18 graduate students and new investigators.
A clear vision
Dr. Isabelle Brunette of the Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital of the Université de Montréal is leading a team that is using femtosecond laser technology to work on the endothelial layer behind the cornea, without affecting the surface of the cornea. With this technique, only the diseased layer is changed instead of the entire cornea, the traditional method. There is no need for an incision or sutures on the cornea and the cornea remains stable, improving outcomes for patients. The procedure also cuts down on the need for donor corneas, increasing access to the procedure while reducing waiting lists.
Dr. Brunette and her team are also using tissue engineering technology to grow the patient's own endothelial cells in culture, so that they can then be transplanted back into the patient in an enriched form. Because no donor is involved, there is no risk of rejection of the transplanted endothelial cells.
Dr. Brunette credits her team's progress to its multidisciplinary nature and close working ties, because all members understand the surgical problem they are trying to address. Clinical trials in humans, she says, are possible within five years.
Zeroing in on cancer cells
Dr. Warren Chan of the University of Toronto is leading a team that is attempting to harness this unique property of quantum dots to diagnose cancer earlier and more precisely. They are attaching a cancer-seeking molecule, such as an antibody or peptide, to the quantum dot. When injected into the body, this molecule acts as the driver, delivering the quantum dot to the tumour. The colour emission of the quantum dots can detect a tumour and determine its stage of development. For instance, red and green colour emissions from tumor regions could mean normal tissue, blue and green could mean the tumour is in its early stages, while blue, green, and red could mean the tumour is metastasizing, or spreading to other tissues. With this imaging capability, the appropriate drug therapeutics can be used, based on the tumour's molecular information.
The team, which includes biomedical engineers, medical biophysicists, pharmacist, pathologists and a liaison with industry, is also hoping to develop methods of transporting treatments directly to the tumour using quantum dots and to learn more about how these dots circulate in the body and whether they carry a risk of toxicity.
