Office of the Vice President Research & International
A Journal of Research and Discovery > Issue 07 > Fall/Winter 2009
A Place in the world
Exploring fundamental questions of diversity and identity, from generations to genomes
A Partnership of Peoples
Unveiling a commitment to collaboration at the Museum of Anthropology
Disappearing Act
Sustaining biodiversity at the new Beaty Biodiversity Centre
Integrated Living
The benefits of raising children in economically diverse neighbourhoods
CANADA FOUNDATION FOR INNOVATION Keeping Canadian research competitive on the international stage
Fall/Winter 2009
A MESSAGE FROM THE Vice President RESEARCH & International
Contents 03 Newswire 04 Awards Feature: Preserving Indigenous Identity
05 Linking Living History The Museum of Anthropology unveils its renewal project, showcasing a working research partnership with Indigenous peoples.
15 Potato of the Pacific There are more than a billion undernourished people in the world. Susan Murch is propagating breadfruit as a potential food source for developing nations.
16 Survival of the Smallest For Dolph Schluter and his research team, studying one of the world’s smallest fish provides powerful insights into the emergence of new species.
09 Losing Patients
One of the most appealing aspects of conducting research in Canada is the sheer diversity of our country’s population. A diverse population provides researchers with a wide audience and a broad scope of issues to serve. Equally important, it is the wellspring of a thriving research community with many cultural and ideological influences. Accordingly, a good deal of research at UBC investigates issues of diversity and identity – the theme of this issue of Frontier. Under this broad banner we offer articles on anthropological research in partnership with Aboriginal peoples, breakthroughs in DNA sequencing, and efforts to understand our planet’s complex biodiversity. Special thanks to our colleagues in UBC Public Affairs for their stellar contributions to this issue. Much of the research described in this issue has received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Since 1997, CFI has lent unparalleled support to the Canadian research enterprise by funding up to 40 per cent of major research infrastructure projects. In partnership with provincial authorities such as the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, CFI has fostered a national research climate that embraces and promotes diversity in innovation. Against the multifaceted backdrop of Canadian society, and with organizations like CFI and BCKDF setting the stage, it’s no wonder that Canada and UBC are acclaimed hubs for research in areas such as anthropology, genomics and biodiversity. It’s in our nature.
Lawrence Berg and Michael Evans explore the cultural differences that leave many urban Aboriginal people feeling marginalized by mainstream health care.
10 Mapping Identity Jon Corbett is using digital maps to help a dispersed Aboriginal community in Northern B.C. redefine their territory. Biodiversity Research
11 Disappearing Act The new Beaty Biodiversity Centre offers researchers and the public a place to explore biodiversity issues under one roof.
13 Big Bones The reconstructed remnants of a gigantic blue whale provide a majestic entrance to the new Beaty Biodiversity Museum – and a rare research opportunity.
14 Small Wonder In Patrick Keeling’s tiny universe, the study of microbes reveals the mechanisms of evolution on our planet.
Genomics Research
17 The DNA Hunter Andre Marziali and Lorne Whitehead pioneer a revolutionary new way to extract DNA from small or highly contaminated samples. Diversity in the Community
19 Integrated Living Richard Carpiano and Jennifer Lloyd suggest that living in an economically diverse neighbourhood can offer children a developmental head start.
21 Back to Basics Being ready for kindergarten takes more than knowing your ABCs. A new mapping project compares the developmental readiness of school-age children across B.C. Postscript: Interview
22 Reversing the Brain Drain Eliot Phillipson explains why the Canada Foundation for Innovation has played a critical role in elevating Canadian research over the past decade.
Dr. John Hepburn Vice President Research & International
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Fall/Winter 2009
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News
Newswire
Scientists Decode Breast Cancer Genome Scientists at UBC and the BC Cancer Agency are the first to have decoded the entire DNA sequence of a metastatic lobular breast cancer tumour, a type of breast cancer that accounts for about 10 per cent of all breast cancers, and have identified the mutations that caused the cancer to spread. The landmark study, published in Nature, helps to understand how breast cancer begins and spreads, pointing the way to new treatment targets and therapies. In studying the evolution of a single patient’s lobular breast cancer tumour over nine years, the team found 32 mutations in the metastatic cancer tumour and then determined how many of those same genetic “spelling mistakes” were present in the original tumour. Only five of the 32 could have been present in all the cells of the primary tumour, suggesting they are the culprits behind the disease’s origins. These five mutations were previously unknown to researchers as playing a role in cancer.
contribution to biodiversity research at the international level. An acknowledged gap has developed in global understanding of biodiversity, due in part to a worldwide shortage of taxonomists and a lack of research institutes dedicated to biodiversity. “We’re being asked to report on the capacity of Canada to identify, monitor and document trends in biodiversity,” says Otto, Director of UBC’s Biodiversity Research Centre. “We’ll also attempt to identify key gaps in the Canadian infrastructure for biodiversity science and the associated risks of these gaps.”
Early-life Experience Linked to Chronic Diseases Early-life experiences stick with people into adulthood and may render them more susceptible to many of the chronic diseases of aging, according to a new study led by UBC researchers Gregory Miller and Michael Kobor. Based on genome-wide profiling in 103 healthy adults, the study shows evidence that genes involved with inflammation were selectively “switched on” in subjects who began life with low socioeconomic status. “It seems to be the case that if people are raised in a low socioeconomic family, their immune cells are constantly vigilant for threats from the environment,” says Miller. “This is likely to have consequences for their risk for late-life chronic diseases.”
Gift Creates Canada’s Largest Fund for Study of Human Sexuality
Evaluating Canada’s Biodiversity Research Capacity Two UBC scientists have been appointed to a national panel tasked with reviewing the state of biodiversity research in Canada. Professors Wayne Maddison and Sarah Otto join 13 other biodiversity experts on a Council of Canadian Academies panel that will consider the supply of taxonomic expertise, the effect of changing technologies on the field, and Canada’s
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A $1.7 million gift to UBC from an anonymous donor has created Canada’s largest university endowment fund for the study of human relationships and sexuality. The gift was made in the name of Jane Rule, the late pioneering Canadian author and former UBC educator who contributed to the decriminalization of homosexuality and the rise of Canadian literature on the world stage. The Jane Rule Endowment for the Study of Human Relationships will support programs related to the study of sexual orientation, race and gender and will also provide support for UBC’s Critical Studies in Sexuality program, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) student groups, conferences and visiting lectures.
Photo > Russell Brown
Accident Inspires Snowboard Safety Device After a 2005 snowboarding accident that left him a quadriplegic, Aaron Coret, a fourth-year UBC engineering student and snowboard enthusiast, partnered with recent graduate Stephen Slen to develop a freestyle ski and snowboard safety device as part of their course work. The result is a patent-pending invention dubbed the Landing Pad, which features two independent air chambers to allow riders to continue movement downhill but cushions the fall in case the rider lands on anything other than their feet, making training safer. Videos and photos of snowboarders testing the Landing Pad are available at www.katalinnovations.com.
Powered Wheelchair Users to Receive Boost A new research initiative based at UBC aims to provide users of powered wheelchairs with a helping hand. Funded by a six-year, $1.5 million Emerging Team Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a multidisciplinary team of researchers will investigate how older adults are currently using powered wheelchairs, how they can be used better, and how the chairs themselves can be improved. The answers to these questions will improve knowledge and understanding in the field of aging and mobility research. Led by Prof. William Miller of the UBC Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, the Pan-Canadian team of 14 clinical researchers, scientists and engineers will conduct a number of research activities. These include an assessment of measures to improve research and clinical practice, and the development of a wheelchair skills program and a new, collaboratively
Fall/Winter 2009
News
Awards controlled wheelchair. The UBC Health Research Resource Office (HeRRO), funded by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, assisted in preparing the successful funding application.
Members of the Royal Society of Canada RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (RSC) is the country’s most prominent academy of scholars and scientists. More than 180 UBC faculty members belong to RSC, including the following recently elected individuals: Adele Diamond (Professor, Psychiatry) has pioneered a new subfield of psychology called developmental cognitive neuroscience. Her contributions have significantly improved understanding and medical treatment of phenylketoneuria (PKU), autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). David Kirkpatrick (Professor, Computer Science) is recognized for his contributions to the design and mathematical analysis of algorithms and data structures. His research has applications in acoustic simulation of concert halls, video-on-demand broadcasting, computer graphics, robot motion planning and geographic information systems.
Fighting For Indigenous Culture Indigenous knowledge and culture is legally taken and exploited, often for profit, damaging Indigenous peoples and communities in Canada and around the world, says Greg Younging, a professor of Indigenous Studies at UBC Okanagan and member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba. His research in the area of traditional knowledge, Indigenous rights and intellectual property rights indicates that under the current international intellectual property rights system, up to 95 per cent of patents, trademarks and copyrights on Indigenous traditional knowledge and cultural expression are owned by non-Indigenous people or corporations. The problem with the current system, he says, is that it puts Indigenous traditional knowledge into the public domain without respecting customary laws, spiritual practices and sacred traditions that have governed the use of this knowledge in Indigenous communities for centuries. Younging is involved in discussions with the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property system.
Alan Mackworth (Professor, Computer Science) is Canada’s leading figure in the field of artificial intelligence. His work has widespread applications for computer system design and has introduced a new discipline known as constraint programming. Mackworth is globally recognized as the founding father of the robot soccer challenge RoboCup. Dr. Julio Montaner (Director, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS) has conducted pioneering work in the use of combinations of anti-retrovirals to treat HIV/AIDS, which has led to a new standard of care for AIDS and prompted the World Health Organization to recommend that the drugs be used as first-line therapy for treatment of AIDS in resource-limited settings. John O’Brian (Professor, Art History, Visual Art and Theory) is an internationally respected historian of art, visual culture and art criticism, particularly in twentieth-century North America. By analyzing the relationship between artistic practice, theory and public culture, O’Brian has shown the intrinsic importance of Canadian art.
Members of the Order of British Columbia The Order of British Columbia is the province’s highest recognition of excellence, achievement, and citizenship. New recipients in 2009 include the following three UBC faculty members: Dr. Robert Hancock (Professor, Microbiology and Immunology) conducts innovative research that has increased understanding of how antibiotics affect bacteria, in the process developing antibiotics and immune system modulators with potential to be the first novel classes of antimicrobials in 40 years. Dr. Michael Hayden (Director and Senior Scientist, Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics) has made outstanding contributions in the areas of genetics, Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. He is the most cited author in the world on Huntington’s disease. Dr. Linda Warren (Clinical Professor, Radiology) is a driving force behind the founding and continued excellence of the Screening Mammography Program of B.C., which has greatly contributed to making Canada’s breast cancer mortality rate the lowest in the world.
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA • OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
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Preserving Indigenous Identity
A Partnership of Peoples The Museum of Anthropology at UBC has built successful relationships with Indigenous communities around the world. Its soon-to-be completed renewal project exemplifies this collaborative spirit.
“The Partnership brings together, strengthens Forget what you may have heard about and consolidates some of the research that anthropology: it is not solely a science of we’ve been doing for a very long time.” lost cultures, dusty relics and ancient peoples. This widely misunderstood discipline provides a critical link to Reciprocal Research contemporary history, and its contributions The Renewal Project focuses on four areas of to preserving and advancing culture cannot research including visual culture, museum be understated – especially in nations as studies, language and new technology. diverse as Canada. That’s why, for the past Showcasing the best of new technology, 60 years, the Museum of Anthropology MOA has partnered with three First (MOA) at UBC has been building Nations groups – Stó:lō Nation, U’Mista relationships with Indigenous communities Cultural Society in Alert Bay, and and working closely with them on cultural Musqueam Indian Band – to co-develop the renewal projects. Reciprocal Research Network (RRN), a “Unlike other museums, we have always revolutionary Web-based network tried to democratize our practice, and work connecting the northwest collections of 12 directly with communities to represent partner organizations, including the communities and let communities represent Smithsonian Institution in the U.S., and themselves,” says Anthony Shelton, Director Oxford and Cambridge in England. of MOA, who for more than five years has Providing online access to the overseen a $55.5-million renewal of the collections enables Indigenous communities Museum entitled A Partnership of Peoples. to both restore and strengthen their cultural
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FEATURE STORY
Fall/Winter 2009
Preserving Indigenous Identity
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA • OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
FEATURE STORY
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Preserving Indigenous Identity
identity. For many Aboriginal communities, this is the first time they will see materials and objects that were previously scattered in museums across Canada and the world, rendering them unknown and inaccessible to the communities that created them. “The RRN provides a mechanism to digitally repatriate Indigenous collections and archives,” says Shelton, who notes that instead of physically removing material from the place, electronic versions can be created that provide an active resource in the Network’s database. “This will create, over time, a different arena in which researchers and people in the originating communities interact.” Preserving Language
Even before the development of the RRN database, Shelton believes that MOA has been a pioneer in transforming research patterns, forging new relationships between researchers and universities, and between museums and the originating communities. For example, the disappearance of Indigenous languages up and down the B.C. coast has long been a concern to communities and researchers at UBC and elsewhere. The fragility of language challenges the very notion of conserving oral history, but UBC and MOA are doing their part in keeping Indigenous language alive. The renewal project houses new recording studios and sound booths that will be a
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FEATURE STORY
useful resource for both Indigenous communities and researchers. “UBC has a number of projects, a number of different courses on different Aboriginal languages,” says Shelton. “Consequently, UBC course leaders would be able to use MOA facilities to teach and do research on these languages.” A number of Indigenous communities have used the sound booths to discuss their thoughts on MOA’s collections. With permission, MOA has recorded these conversations as a way to aid communities to re-encounter parts of their own culture and also as an archive for future generations. “In terms of the Museum itself, we can start recording Indigenous language terms for our collections,” Shelton says. “We can look at the ethno-linguistic classification of objects, which can open whole semantic universes of which they are a part. We haven’t been able to do this before.” Repatriating Knowledge
The decolonization of knowledge is something Shelton hopes the museum will start to achieve as it becomes a resource for Indigenous communities. To this end, a new hybrid space within the Museum houses the multiversity galleries. Some 16,000 objects in the collection that were previously difficult to view, along with their interpretations, will now be optimally presented for the public. The interpretations are a product of the Museum’s collaboration
between curators and communities, which Shelton says has generated a new thesaurus of criteria based on community preference rather than museological dictates. Ultimately, the Museum’s relationship to Indigenous cultures has three dimensions: an academic dimension based on research and teaching; a community dimension structured around social and communitybased issues and research projects; and a public dimension as Western Canada’s premier museum of global arts and cultures. Museum exhibitions serve to engage the public, provide a platform for teaching, and inspire new research questions. Shelton is confident the Partnership of Peoples project will enable MOA to continue its important work as a leader in anthropological research and a showcase for living history and contemporary culture. The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC is Canada’s largest teaching museum. It is renowned for its extensive Northwest Coast collection and its commitment to providing collaborative insight into Indigenous cultures around the globe. A Partnership of Peoples has received funding from the Canada Foundation of Innovation, the Government of British Columbia, Koerner Foundation and additional support from UBC.
Fall/Winter 2009
Preserving Indigenous Identity
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4 Photos >: 1 and 2. John Corbett, 3. Kaldor, 4. Royal British Columbia Museum
1. A view of Turnour Island, ancestral home of the Tlowitsis Nation 2. Elder from Tlowitsis community demonstrates the traditional way to cut fish 3. Artifacts on display at the Museum of Anthropology 4. Stรณ:lo woman with a cedar basket
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA โ ข OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
FEATURE STORY
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Preserving Indigenous Identity
LOSING PATIENTS
UBC Okanagan’s Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice is a hub for social scientists undertaking interdisciplinary research in the arts, humanities, health studies and social science. Co-directors and principal researchers Lawrence Berg, Jon Corbett and Mike Evans share a vision in which all peoples, regardless of their differences, are able to live free from marginalization and oppression. The Centre works with social groups identifying as Aboriginal, disabled, economically disadvantaged, racialized, two-spirited and queer.
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Few people relish a visit to the hospital, where even a modest health concern can trigger anxiety about death and injury. For many urban Aboriginal people, negative experiences in hospitals have made them mistrust institutionalized health care, making them resistant to future hospital visits, even if their health suffers as a result. Indeed, a recent UBC Okanagan (UBCO) study found that many Aboriginal people found their experience at hospitals to be invasive, and the institution unresponsive to their needs. The co-authors of the study – Prof. Mike Evans, Head of Community, Culture and Global Studies, and Associate Professor Lawrence Berg – worked with UBCO colleagues and community partners to examine the relationship between urban Aboriginal people in the Okanagan Valley and mainstream social services and health institutions. Berg believes the current structure of the health-care system is not built to maximize positive health outcomes for Aboriginal people. “What it shows is there are many very deep structural processes in place that unequally affect Aboriginal communities
and white communities, so white people have the privilege of longer lives and better health outcomes,” he says. Both Evans and Berg agree the issue of Aboriginal people’s health becomes one of cultural safety. “This is about the institution policing itself to ensure it is a culturally safe institution for people other than white people,” says Evans. “That’s the twist on the cultural safety approach. It’s not about blaming a particular nurse or a particular doctor for being racist; that’s not productive. It’s about ensuring being responsive as an institution, and responsible as an institution for the provision of culturally safe care.” This research is funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice is primarily funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Research funding is also provided by CIHR, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, the Métis Nation of BC, SSHRC, and the United Nations.
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Preserving Indigenous Identity
MAPPING IDENTITY
Canada’s Indigenous communities have traditionally relied on oral history to pass along customs and traditions from one generation to the next. However, in a modern society that is increasingly dependent on technology, oral traditions are in danger of being lost – and with them, the wisdom and culture of entire peoples. Yet according to Prof. John Corbett, Co-Director of the Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice, modern technology – such as digital maps of traditional areas – can also help to maintain longstanding traditions. “Maps demonstrate very clearly the relationship an individual, and by default the entire community, has with a particular piece of land,” says Corbett, whose research has helped the Tlowitsis (tlow-EET-sis), a dispersed First Nation who historically lived on Turnour Island along the north coast of B.C., to rediscover their identity. The
Tlowitsis began to disperse in 1962 when the provincial government discontinued educational and health care services to the island after 40 years. Working with the Tlowitsis, community members and graduate students, Corbett codeveloped a “Virtual Land Tour,” a series of Web-based maps that have enabled the Tlowitsis to redefine and articulate their territory, shifting from a colonial definition of space to their own traditional perspective. “Between 1962 and 2005, essentially the Tlowitsis community was non-existent,” Corbett says. “For many people in the community, they have now gained a better understanding of self, how they fit into the Nation, who the Tlowitsis are and where they live.” Qualitative information has been also added to the digital maps to enhance a community perspective of the landscape.
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA • OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
This may include video footage of elders speaking about the particular area, a photo montage and music. “When you put this information into the context of the Treaty process, this research becomes politically strong and has the ability to influence decision makers,” says Corbett. The Tlowitsis Nation, through the British Columbia Capacity Initiative, provided funding to support the development of the Virtual Land Tour.
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Biodiversity Research
Species extinction is occurring at an unprecedented rate, and finding solutions requires a blend of insightful research and public engagement. The Beaty Biodiversity Centre provides a new home for both.
A commitment to both discovery and education places the Beaty Biodiversity Centre in a unique position to safeguard our natural heritage by bringing together outstanding researchers, exceptional facilities, and the public to better understand and help arrest threats to biodiversity. The new Centre is a $50-million complex that includes the Biodiversity Research Centre, an interdisciplinary academic unit at UBC that connects more than 50 internationally renowned scientists dedicated to the study of biodiversity through research exploring the effects of climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, and other threats to survival. “The Research Centre is a new focal point for researchers who study biodiversity to pool their collective insights, with the goal of better understanding the existing diversity of life, the factors that led to its evolution, and the present-day risks faced by species and ecosystems,” says evolutionary biologist Sarah Otto, who directs the Centre. “Coupling the Research Centre with the Beaty Biodiversity Museum allows us an opportunity to engage the community at large, facilitating an appreciation for biodiversity and its importance to our well-being.” The Beaty Biodiversity Museum holds six unique collections (see sidebar on page 14). When the Museum opens its doors in 2010, the public will be able to explore UBC’s spectacular biological collections through a combination of museum exhibits, discovery labs, educators’ resources, and public presentations. More than two million specimens of plants, insects, fish, vertebrates, fungi, and fossils showcase stunning natural history, both local and global. For example, a specimen of fossilized blue-green algae represents the oldest evidence of life on Earth and visitors will be able to sneak a peek at newly discovered jumping spiders from Papua New Guinea. “This is the first time in UBC’s history that these collections are coming together under one umbrella,” says Jeannette Whitton, Associate Professor of Botany and Director of the UBC Herbarium,
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which is based at the Museum and is home to the world’s largest assortment of B.C. plants. “The interdisciplinary approach [of the Museum] gives UBC an incredible edge towards strengthening research efforts related to biodiversity threats.” The world’s biodiversity is vanishing at an alarming rate, with one bird out of eight, one conifer out of four, and one amphibian out of three threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “We have an opportunity for our collections to become a community jewel,” says Whitton. “The public needs to witness this diversity first-hand to understand the value of protecting it.” Whitton believes the Beaty Biodiversity Museum is wellpositioned to facilitate the research of biodiversity scientists worldwide. Scientists from other universities have regularly borrowed specimens – formerly housed in various sites on campus – for research activities such as extracting DNA from a rare plant specimen dried 100 years ago. Reference specimens are also used to identify suspected contraband materials seized at the border. In addition, UBC investigators are involved in national and international research partnerships. The Herbarium is currently partnering with other institutions to combine data from herbarium and insect collections in Canada. The ambitious Canadensys project, funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, will give decision-makers unprecedented access to biodiversity data through a Web portal. With its members working to decipher local and global challenges in maintaining biodiversity, the Beaty Biodiversity Centre demonstrates UBC’s commitment to research excellence and to open community dialogue on issues of public concern. Major funding for the Beaty Biodiversity Centre has come from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Government of British Columbia and a gift from UBC alumni Ross and Trisha Beaty.
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Biodiversity Research
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Biodiversity Research
BIG BONES
Photo > Courtesy of Andrew Trites
A blue whale that once lurked in the ocean’s depths will soon live on as the centrepiece of UBC’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum and a testament to the connection between humans and leviathans. The skeleton of the 25-metre-long whale will serve as an icon of biodiversity, a gigantic poster child reminding us that even the world’s largest creature can be threatened with extinction. The blue whale skeleton display will be the largest in Canada and one of only six such exhibits in North America. Blue whales inhabit both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. UBC’s specimen beached and died on Prince Edward Island in 1987 and the Canadian Museum of Nature arranged for its remains to be buried in situ to help render the carcass into a skeleton. Exhumed in 2008, the skeleton’s preparation and reassembly has been overseen by Prof. Andrew Trites, a biodiversity researcher and Director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at UBC’s Fisheries Centre. Despite their enormous size and range, little is known about these gentle giants.
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Using CFI-funded equipment at the Vancouver Aquarium, where Trites conducts some of his research, he and Aquarium researchers took X-rays of one of the 100-kg flippers. It was the first time a flipper had been so closely examined, and the images he obtained were eerily familiar. “It is startling, even to experienced researchers, to see how similar their bone structure is to us humans,” says Trites. “It’s like you’re looking at a huge, distorted human hand.” Michael deRoos, a master skeleton articulator and former student of Trites, is preparing the skeleton for display – a difficult and approximate task that involves working from a bucket of bones. The information from the X-ray will help scientists better understand the mammal’s structure and provides a blueprint for the flippers’ reassembly. Home to the UBC Fisheries Centre, the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory (AERL) building is next door to the Museum and features an atrium display of skeletons of a minke whale, a killer whale, two Steller sea lions, and three Pacific
white-sided dolphins. “We can do good research in huts,” says Trites, referring to the aging army huts donated to UBC following the Second World War that have historically accommodated marine and fisheries researchers. “But our new facilities bring us all together, enable discussion and allow the public to hear about and see research first-hand.” The marine mammal display in the AERL building is made possible through support from Petro-Canada. AERL has received major support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the B.C. Government.
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Biodiversity Research
Small Wonder
They are more numerous than any other Keeling says high-powered microscopes are life form on Earth. They make an essential a mainstay of his work, enabling his contribution to the biosphere, helping to research team to identify and document generate air, create soil, degrade toxic new life forms and to isolate single cells for chemicals, and filter water. And they are molecular analysis in gene sequences. These more numerous in your body than your tools allow Keeling to explore at the most own cells. basic level what distinguishes species, how These are the microbes, a vast taxa of they have evolved and how communities of single-celled organisms that include bacteria, organisms interrelate. viruses, yeasts, molds and algae. Despite As Director of the Centre for Microbial their ubiquity, so little is known about them Diversity and Evolution, a virtual hub of that investigators struggle to determine interdisciplinary research based at UBC, where research should begin and which Keeling says a big challenge is keeping up questions need to be asked. with rapidly developing technologies. “We have vastly underestimated the “But it’s these new technologies and an diversity of life and are profoundly ignorant inter-disciplinary approach that will allow of microbial life,” says Prof. Patrick Keeling, us to explore the most basic questions and an evolutionary biologist and principal to understand the nature of the universe,” investigator at UBC’s Biodiversity he says. Research Centre. “Exploring microbes’ diversity and The Centre for Microbial Diversity and evolution is crucial to understanding all Evolution has received funding from the ecological systems. We’re studying the tree Tula Foundation. Keeling’s research is of life,” says Keeling, a UBC Distinguished funded by CIHR, NSERC, Genome University Scholar. His curiosity about Canada, and Canadian Institutes for fundamental questions relating to life on Advanced Research, and has received past Earth is the driving force behind research support from the Canada Foundation for projects that include using molecules to Innovation. reconstruct evolutionary relationships and examining how parasites evolve and infect their hosts.
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA • OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
The Beaty Biodiversity Centre This $50-million project will house the Biodiversity Research Centre and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The Biodiversity Research Centre is an academic unit comprising more than 50 internationally renowned scientists dedicated to the study of biodiversity. Interdisciplinary working groups study the biological forces that produce and sustain biodiversity, as well as the forces that lead to extinction, and the local and global consequences of species loss. The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is a new public museum dedicated to building understanding and appreciation of biodiversity and to making research conducted at the Biodiversity Research Centre accessible to the public. In 2010 it will open its doors and showcase more than two million specimens of plants, insects, fish, shells, birds, mammals, and fossils.
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Biodiversity Research
Potato of the Pacific
Photo > Jack Wolford
It’s unlikely you’ll find breadfruit in your local supermarket – most North Americans have never even heard of it. Commonly compared to the potato, this fast-growing fruit has long been a dietary staple of Indigenous peoples in the South Pacific. Aided by research at UBC Okanagan, breadfruit is experiencing a revival in parts of the world where food security is an issue. At the Centre for Species at Risk and Habitat Studies (SARAHS), Prof. Susan Murch has been on a six-year mission to locally cultivate small breadfruit trees. Using sterile buds from mature trees at Hawaii’s National Tropical Botanical Garden, Murch’s goal is to propagate breadfruit trees for distribution in parts of the world where there isn’t enough food, particularly in the wet tropics. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates over a billion people globally are undernourished. “I think it’s a wake-up call and we need to think about how people in the world are eating,” says Murch, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Natural Products Chemistry. While most of the world relies on the four big crops of rice, potato, wheat and maize, Murch believes that underutilized crops such as
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breadfruit provide real solutions for the world’s food needs. In its first four years, Murch’s Plant Chemistry & Biotechnology Lab cultivated 7,500 trees for distribution. Within a month of distributing the first batch, she was inundated with requests for over two million trees from organizations around the world, including Pacific Island nations, non-government organizations and commercial enterprises. “What we thought we were doing was understanding something about the science and the growth of a plant,” says Murch, “but what we were actually doing was breaking through a barrier that had been there for a couple of hundred years.” To address the rising demand, Murch’s lab has partnered to create Global Breadfruit, a company positioned to meet the demand for propagated trees. Importantly, the project will return a percentage of profits as well as the traditional breadfruit varieties, propagated abroad, to their place of origin. Murch’s research also involves an ecological and nutritional analysis of the hundred varieties of breadfruit, with an eye to determining which varieties are suitable
for widespread distribution. This research will help to determine which varieties could eventually appear in supermarkets around the world, as an ingredient in common foods such as bread flour or chips. Whether breadfruit becomes the next “potato” remains to be seen. For Murch, what breadfruit does represent is one more possibility for the future of sustainable agriculture. Global Breadfruit is the result of a partnership between UBC Okanagan, Cultivaris and the Breadfruit Institute at The National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kalaheo, Hawaii. The Plant Chemistry & Biotechnology Laboratory and the Centre for Species at Risk and Habitat Studies’ (SARAHS) at UBC Okanagan were established with funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
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Biodiversity Research
Survival of the SMALLEST
Photo > Derek Tan
To the untrained eye, three-spine stickleback fish may seem remarkably unremarkable. But to Prof. Dolph Schluter and his “school” of young evolutionary biologists, these tiny fish may hold the key to some of the most fundamental questions on Earth and could inform fields such as biomedicine. Measuring 3 –10 centimetres long, sticklebacks originated in the ocean but began populating freshwater lakes and streams following the last ice age. Over the past 15,000 years – a relatively short time span in evolutionary terms – freshwater sticklebacks have lost their bony lateral plates, or “armour,” in these new environments. While sticklebacks are common across the northern hemisphere, the highest diversity of species are right here in B.C. The glacial freshwater lakes along the coastal regions are a hotbed of speciation in motion, a sort of “it” spot for evolutionary biologists, according to Schluter, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Evolution and Ecology. “These B.C. lakes formed about 10,000 years ago, which puts an upper age limit to the freshwater sticklebacks there, making
them some of the youngest species on Earth,” he says. “What’s extraordinary is that while these lakes are home to both marine and freshwater sticklebacks, they rarely cross-breed in nature despite similar physiology and living in close proximity.” This home field advantage, coupled with a world-renowned biodiversity research cluster and unique facilities, has attracted a slew of outstanding graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to the Schluter Lab. By recreating natural stickleback environments in Schluter’s CFI-funded experimental ponds and interbreeding the marine and freshwater species at the Biodiversity Research Centre, the members of the Schluter Lab are honing in on the factors – both environmental and genetic – that drive the emergence of new species. The results of the student-driven research are impressive. They’ve not only proven that environment can change mating preferences, but also that the reverse is true: a recent study by former post-doctoral fellow Luke Harmon – now a faculty member at the University of Idaho – is also showing the strong evidence of speciation impacting the environment in return. And PhD candidate Rowan Barrett recently
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA • OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
identified a “wanderlust gene” – the first time a gene has been associated with a specific behaviour in sticklebacks. “Given the shared genetic heritage among all vertebrates, the discovery of stickleback genes associated with behaviours are sure to have profound implications in analogous research in humans,” says Matt Arnegard, a post-doctoral fellow who received funding from the US National Science Foundation to work with Schluter on the genetic links to mating behaviours. “The fundamental question we’re asking is why there are so many species on Earth and why they are so different,” says Schluter. “And along the way we’re finding intriguing answers that are leading to even more intriguing prospects of knowledge.” The UBC Experimental Ponds were funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the B.C. Government and the Blusson Fund. Schluter’s research is supported by Natural Science and Research Council of Canada and the Canada Research Chairs program.
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Genomics Research
THE DNA HUNTER A revolutionary new technique for DNA extraction promises to make it easier to find the needle in the proverbial haystack.
Physics Prof. Lorne Whitehead was aiming to improve electronic display technology, but what he discovered may very well revolutionize everything from molecular biology to crime scene investigation – thanks to some “casual” conversations and openminded fellow scientists. In 2003, Whitehead was searching for ways to manipulate pigment particles in his quest to develop an “electronic paper” when he looked closely at a phenomenon called electrophoresis. “When you apply electric fields to particles suspended in liquid, the particles move according to their own characteristics as well as the intensity of the field,” explains Whitehead. “And it occurred to me that if we apply alternating fields to particles – which normally would not cause a net motion – and then apply a synchronized variation of the particle’s mobility, net motion will occur. In other words an AC force can produce a DC motion.” Whitehead named the new concept Synchronous Coefficient of Drag Alteration, or SCODA, and in a casual conversation, described it to UBC materials science researcher George Sawatzky. “George thought the concept might be useful in DNA extraction and suggested I speak to Andre Marziali, a fellow UBC engineering physicist with expertise in genomics.
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“Andre provided a key piece of information about DNA electrophoresis, and using this I was able to extend the mathematics to cause two-dimensional concentration in free space, which apparently was unheard of in the DNA field.” Fast forward through six years of sustained creativity and focused research on the part of Marziali and his team, composed largely of UBC Engineering Physics alumni, and the SCODA concept has spun-off Boreal Genomics. It is a burgeoning high-tech company where Marziali directs the development of Aurora, a device capable of extracting DNA and RNA from samples that until now were too small or too contaminated to work. While other molecules spiral in a closed circuit when interacting with alternating electric fields, DNA’s “imperfect” traits – high electrical charge and extremely “long and stringy” shape – literally create a drag effect that cause it to eventually spiral towards the centre. The resulting isolated concentration is 100 to 1,000 times better at isolating DNA than conventional methods. Working with Hirin Poon of the RCMP, Marziali has been able to separate DNA from indigo dye in challenging mock forensic samples, including blood-stained jeans. His team, in collaboration with Rob Holt at the Michael Smith Genome
Sciences Center has also successfully extracted microbial DNA from a highly contaminated sample from the Athabasca oil sands. Marziali says the new technique addresses an enormous bottleneck in the field of DNA extraction and could have many applications “anywhere you have a needle-in-a-haystack situation.” “The implications for forensic science are obvious because DNA extraction has received so much attention in popular culture,” says Marziali. “But we’re also excited about potentials in clinical diagnostics – detection of biomarkers related to cancer and HIV research, and isolation of pathogens in bio-warfare or food safety.” Prototypes of Aurora are being used by the BC Cancer Agency, the University of Waterloo and McGill University, and a US defense contractor. Whitehead’s research in electronic display is supported through his NSERC-3M Industrial Chair in Structured Surface Physics. Marziali’s work on SCODA is supported by Genome BC, the Government of Canada, the US National Institutes of Health and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency. He has received past support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Fall/Winter 2009
Diversity in the Community
Integrated Living The question of where to raise a family is top of mind for many B.C. parents. New research shows that children thrive in communities which embrace people from all walks of life.
It may take a village to raise a child, according to proverb, but the question of exactly which “village” to choose is a major life decision for many modern parents. Does raising one’s children in a more affluent community offer a better developmental environment than a disadvantaged area, as conventional wisdom suggests? Not according to a recent study at the UBCbased Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), which found that economically diverse neighbourhoods can make a key contribution to early child development. Based on data from 37,798 children in 433 neighbourhoods around British Columbia, the study revealed that, on average, young children are better prepared for school when they reside in neighbourhoods with relatively equal proportions of affluent and lower-income families. “The findings in this study are truly novel, as the predominant school of thought is the more wealth in an area, the greater the
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benefits are to the children in that location,” says Jennifer Lloyd, a co-investigator in the study and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Post-Doctoral Fellow. “Our results reveal something very different. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) score (see sidebar on page 21) begins to drop as the concentration of affluence surpasses the concentration of low-income families.” Lloyd believes the success of mixedincome neighbourhoods may be due to the availability of more services and programs, which benefit both lower-income and affluent children. For example, early literacy programs may be available in mixed-income areas that are simply not found in more affluent areas. And while affluent families may benefit from services available in mixed-income neighbourhoods, evidence suggests that disadvantaged children may also benefit from living in these locations, which are more resource-rich than lowerincome neighbourhoods.
Assessing Developmental Readiness
The complex data supporting the study’s surprise findings were collected using the Early Development Instrument (EDI), an index developed by researchers to measure a child’s developmental readiness at kindergarten. The EDI takes into account the child’s physical health and well-being, social knowledge and competence, emotional health and maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication skills and general knowledge. “A child’s development in the early years is incredibly important – a predictor not only of success in school but also health and well-being throughout the life-span,” says Richard Carpiano, an Assistant Professor of Sociology and lead investigator in the study. Carpiano believes it is important to think of a child’s development from a longitudinal perspective: given that early child development is an indicator of long-term health and wellness, the more that can be known
Fall/Winter 2009
Diversity in the Community
The Human Early Learning Partnership (help) is a unique research institute housed at UBC that focuses on early childhood development. help applies a “cell-to-society” approach to understanding early child development. help’s research program considers children’s biological factors and factors related to families, schools, and communities, and provincial and federal governance. help is made up of an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the six major universities in British Columbia who come from a variety of disciplines including early childhood education, nursing, medicine, pediatrics, sociology, psychology, and psychometrics. help oversees the collection of Early Development Instrument (EDI) data across the entire province on an annual basis, allowing for the monitoring of early child development so as to inform local and provincial policy-makers, practitioners, and other stakeholders.
about young children’s lives earlier, the better supported they can be. Lloyd agrees: “People have traditionally tended to think about early child development predominantly in terms of children’s individual traits and characteristics,” she says. “We’re showing that there is also something inherently important about considering the environments in which children are reared.” Of particular concern to the researchers is the number of children who aren’t ready for school by age five. “There is a very large proportion of kids who are starting kindergarten vulnerable in terms of their physical, social-emotional, and language-communications development,” Lloyd notes. To address the lack of children’s developmental readiness, Carpiano believes communities need to look at the distribution of programs and services in their local area. This should take into account childcare, parks, recreation centres, and kid- and
family-friendly locations that have the ability to improve the quality of life for children and their families. Beyond individual factors of influence, Lloyd stresses that “early child development is not simply an issue of private concern for parents, and it’s not simply an issue of institutional concern for schools. It’s also an issue of province-wide concern for policymakers.” The next step for the researchers is to convince policy-makers and government to use the results of their study when considering where to provide services within city planning schemes. To this end, HELP researchers participate in public conferences every year on the state of early child development, alongside health practitioners, policy-makers and other stakeholders. Dr. Clyde Hertzman, Director of HELP and co-investigator in the current study, also hosts an annual event to discuss current and future trends of early child development research.
“It’s important to ask how neighbourhoods matter for raising children,” says Carpiano. “We need to consider how neighbourhoods contribute to the quality of life for a child’s family.” This study was funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). HELP (www. earlylearning.ubc.ca) receives core funding from the BC Ministries of Children and Family Development, of Education, and of Healthy Living and Sport. Specific projects are supported by Population Data BC which is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, MSFHR, and the BC Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development.
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA • OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
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Diversity in the Community
Back to Basics
The first day of kindergarten marks an important milestone for many five-year-olds and their parents. Having graduated from pre-school and naptime, kindergarten represents an auspicious beginning to the next decade of formal education. Yet for many children, that first day of kindergarten arrives before they are truly prepared. According to recent UBC research, some 29 per cent of children in British Columbia begin kindergarten lacking the basic skills they require to succeed in class. These findings arise from the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Mapping Project, an initiative of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) based at UBC. Based on complex early child developmental data organized into regional and local jurisdictions, the maps illustrate the relative vulnerability of children in a particular area in a way that is meaningful to those communities. The maps break down results by neighbourhood or regions, enabling communities to see in which areas
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children may be developmentally vulnerable as defined by the five areas of the EDI scale (see sidebar). For HELP researchers, the information is significant in working with local communities to integrate lacking resources and services. “Maps have a huge power of creating ownership in the data,” says Joanne Schroeder, Community Development Manager at HELP. “Instead of looking at numbers on a table, looking at maps of your own community is a powerful way to engage people. Maps allow researchers, policymakers and the community to see how kids are doing from one neighbourhood to the next.” In each wave of the study, the ECD Mapping Project typically collects EDI data from 40,000 children across the province. British Columbia is the first province to map EDI data at the neighbourhood level. HELP researchers have also digitized the maps of 480 neighbourhoods within B.C., providing policy-makers and community members with greater access to this data.
“My role is to mobilize communities to use the ECD Mapping Project information, making them champions for their local cause,” says Schroeder. The implementation of EDI data in HELP’s ECD Mapping Project was funded by The BC Ministries of Children and Family Development, of Education, and of Healthy Living and Sport. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a population-based tool used to assess children’s developmental readiness at kindergarten. The EDI is a checklist completed by teachers on behalf of the children in their classrooms to assess children’s school readiness in five areas: physical health and well-being, social knowledge and competence, emotional health and maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication skills and general knowledge.
Fall/Winter 2009
postscript
REVERSING THE BRAIN DRAIN Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, is at the helm of a national effort to establish Canada as one of the best places in the world to conduct research.
FRONTIER: How has CFI’s mandate been challenged by the economic downturn? EP: The CFI received $600 million in the 2009 federal budget so the CFI is in good shape for our next major competition into the year 2010, but with 60 per cent of the cost of research infrastructure and equipment coming from funding partners, we recognize the challenges the current economic climate places on our provincial and institutional partners.
Since its creation in 1997, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has played an instrumental role in stopping and reversing the “brain drain” in the Canadian research community during the 1980s and early 1990s by investing in state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure. Between 2000 and 2006, Canadian universities recruited more than 8,000 new faculty members and retained some of the country’s stellar researchers due in part to CFI-funded equipment and infrastructure. Forty per cent of these researchers were recruited from outside the country, and many were returning Canadians. Frontier spoke with Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the CFI, about the economic downturn, U.S. President Obama’s funding for science, and his best CFI moment.
FRONTIER: Despite the fiscal challenges, the Obama administration has increased funding to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. What should Canada do to keep our research community competitive? EP: Compared to what I call the “dark ages” of Canadian research funding in the 1980s and early 1990s, I think everyone recognizes that for the past decade, we’ve been building a strong research community here while the Bush administration was almost antiscience. The very fact that Obama speaks in such positive terms of the role of science has created a buzz about science that wasn’t there before.
I don’t think scientists will simply pick up and move south, assuming they have everything they need to conduct their
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA • OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INTERNATIONAL
research here – and that’s what we’ve striven for, to provide not just functional, but state-of-the-art equipment. That said, we can’t ignore the psychological effect of this “mood change” in the U.S. If researchers here feel that the next round of funding may be more restrictive, they may sense that things are rosier south of the border. So we need to continue to support and advocate for research funding. FRONTIER: What are the CFI accomplishments you are most proud of? EP: When I visit institutions and researchers we’ve funded, the common theme of the feedback I receive from these new, often young faculty members has been that they have better equipment than their former supervisors and colleagues at great institutions in the U.S. or Europe. And better equipment means they can compete with the best of the world, and help position Canada as a leader in global innovation.
Through not only CFI but other federal research funding programs, we have been able to re-invigorate our university research and restore a lot of enthusiasm and optimism in the future of Canadian research. That’s something that we as a country can be very proud of.
Interview with Dr. Eliot Phillipson
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