University of Lethbridge wins Canadian research title

The University of Lethbridge received national recognition this week when it placed first in the category of research for undergraduates in Canada.  That is quite an achievement because many universities in Canada are good, so it is significant to be placed at the top of this list. 

This award is the outcome of much hard work by the University of Lethbridge administration who provide the infrastructure and the opportunities for scientists to do their work.  With laboratories and funding in place, scientists can focus on doing their job, which is research and teaching.  Research requires a high level of energy, which can be drained by having too many obstacles to cross.  With fewer obstacles in the way, science progresses more quickly, efficiently, and it is easier to teach science to students when you are doing it to the best of your ability.  The undergraduates are the first to benefit from this system because they can study under passionate and motivated scientists. 

The Cancer Cell Laboratory had the opportunity to participate in this celebration.  The laboratory was presented in a televised newscast and we were interviewed on the French language radio station Radio-Canada.  So now Canada knows that, at least for a short time, the U of L is the best; the best are welcome to come and work with us. 

 

The Mendel Museum (Gregor Mendel)

During a scientific meeting (Natural AntiCancer Drugs 2012) held in the Czech Republic, I took the opportunity to travel to the city of Brno, to visit the Mendelovo Museum.  This museum celebrates the life of Gregor Mendel, who is the father of genetics.  The museum is housed within the Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas, where Mendel conducted his famous experiments on pea plants during the 1850s.  It seems that Mendel had many of the traits of geniuses: a careful observer of common phenomena, attention to notetaking, using skills he acquired over his lifetime, ask simple questions.  Mendel was trained in botany and was raised in a farming family that was interested in growing various plants and trees.  At that time, no one knew how traits in plants or animals could disappear and then reappear, even though references to this event had been cited in the Bible.  But, by growing peas (the original plot was just a few metres from what is now the museum entrance) Mendel realized that traits exist in pairs.  150 years later, we are still uncovering the magnitude of his discovery.  The museum nicely captures the nature of Mendel's discovery and highlights that he was gifted in other skills related to weather observation, bee keeping and administration of the abbey.  The museum is worth a visit for any scientist, especially those in biology. 

The Lab is on YouTube

Our laboratory has received support from the University of Lethbridge at many levels.  We, in return, are pleased to participate in University initiatives to reach out and let you know who we are and what we do.  The U of L has produced a number of videos to celebrate its 45th anniversary.  Amongst these, you will find the Cancer Cell Laboratory on YouTube.  Although I do most of the talking, one gets a glimpse of the laboratory and the people who do the experiments.  See us at:

Cancer Cell Laboratory on YouTube

We appreciate the University of Lethbridge's support for research.

And the big paper is in press

Our manuscript is accepted in the Biochemical Journal.  It is a too brief moment of satisfaction of completing a project.  A special thanks to the experimentalists who succeeded in converting the complex problem of cell division with damaged DNA into a powerful experimental model. Of the cell lines we tested, HT-29 cells have features that provide a window of the key transition point of entry into mitosis after a checkpoint. 
What's next - we have developed a non-radioisotope assay to measure enzyme activity in mitotic cells; we are testing how to block checkpoint adaptation, and we are looking very closely at the DNA in cancer cells that survive checkpoint adaptation. 
If interested, please feel free to contact us for questions, reagents or a copy of the paper.

Canada Wide Science Fair in Lethbridge 2013

The Southern Alberta Technology Council and the University of Lethbridge are hosting the Canada Wide Science Fair 2013.  During 11-18 May 2013, 400 of Canada's finest school aged children will present their science projects to expert judges. Based upon previous national, regional and local sciences fairs, we are expecting another eye-opening and impressive week of science.  The students have tremendous energy and imagination that they channel into projects about astronomy, chemistry, information technology and biology.  I am the local Chief Judge responsible for organizing a 400 member judging team that must meet the standard set by Canada's best students.  The stakes are high.  We must nuture a young scientific spirit while choosing the best projects that will share $1,000,000 in prizes and scholarships.

If you would like to be a judge and you have a science or technology background and live within driving distance (AB, BC, Sask), please contact me. 

roy.golsteyn@youthscience.ca

If you want to support everyone's future, support Youth Science Canada:

http://youthscience.ca/

And in any case, mark your calendars so that you can meet Canada's best in Lethbridge. 

Winners 2012 Charlottetown
http://youthscience.ca/

Mitotic catastrophe and genomic rearrangement

A very interesting publication by Stephens and colleagues highlights how human cells can survive after massive genomic rearrangement.  By the technique of whole genome sequencing, they identify chromosomes that have been broken and then reassembled.  Strikingly, the chromosomes are not always reassembled into the original sequence.  It might be compared to shattering a fine china plate and then gluing the fragments together; the outcome may look like a plate even though some pieces are probably not in the right place. 

We discussed this publication in our biweekly journal club - BioTalks.  We are interested in it because we study how human cells enter mitosis with damaged DNA.  It seems that some of the cells that survive this event (checkpoint adaptation) might be able to do so because they have reassembled broken chromosomes.

The reference for the paper is:
Stephens, PJ et al.  Cell 144: 27-40, 2011. 

The big paper is finally submitted

We have submitted a manuscript on our principle project.  This is the period of calm that lays between the rush to submit and the time before one receives comments from the reviewers.  The manuscript describes how human cancer cells undergo checkpoint adaptation:  a sort of  "double or nothing" cellular game in which cells will divide even though they have damaged DNA.  The manuscript connects the dots of hundreds of observations described in the literature where mitosis has been observed in cells treated with DNA damaging agents.  We have mapped this terrain in a systematic fashion.  We then go beyond mapping by proposing a mechanism to explain the steps to enter mitosis under these conditions.  The important bit is that once you have a good map you can plan where you should go next.
Please feel free to contact me for more information or for a preprint, while the calm lasts.

Science Education

February is shaping up to be education month.  Working in research has the additional benefit of highlighting areas of science education that need to be strengthened.  On 16 February I gave a lecture at the University of Calgary to students in the Cancer Biology course on the topic of Checkpoint Adaptation.  The textbook version states that cells with damaged DNA will die by apoptosis; everyone is surprised to learn that cells first enter mitosis and that some of these survive. 
This week I'm invited to participate in the Life Science Inspired Teaching Symposium in Toronto.  A leading Canadian science publisher is bringing scientists to the table to discuss the methods of teaching science.  One view is that students live is a noisy and distracting education world, we need to ensure that the science message gets their attention.  The month ends with another Checkpoint Adaptation lecture to the graduating biology class at the U of Lethbridge.  As usual, I will include a slide or two about Louis Pasteur. 

2012

A New Year
We had the pleasure of hosting a French stagiaire in the laboratory and we wish her luck with her studies back in France.  An undergraduate has moved onward to a co-op position after helping set up the video microscopy and winning 1st place in oral presentation of his work.  The video microscopy technique provided insight into the number of cells in population that undergo checkpoint adaptation.  The current team is now working on applying new techniques to measure enzyme activity and DNA damage in treated cancer cells so that we can predict better the mechanisms that drive checkpoint adaptation.