Check out why Michael J. Fox, Kim Cattrall, Ryan Reynolds, Erick McCormack, Steve Nash and Sarah McLachlan say You Gotta Be Here in 2010.
Researchers at the BC Cancer Agency have identified a never before seen mutation (or DNA spelling mistake), in the two most common types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. No other types of lymphoma or other cancers have been found to contain this particular mutation.
What makes this discovery especially significant is the recurrence of this mutation at the same site in a gene called EZH2. Usually mutations are observed in different sites in individual tumours, rather than affecting exactly the same part of the gene. This means the mutation can be considered a marker for the sub-types of lymphoma studied and will aid in diagnosis and predicting treatment outcome.
Even more important, this could potentially lead to specifically targeted medications that treat the lymphoma cells but would be less likely to produce side effects because the patient’s normal cells would be unaffected.
Using the same high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques that were recently used to sequence a breast cancer genome, researchers studied cancer cells from more than 20 lymphoma patients. In total, the DNA sequence of thousands of genes in malignant cells from 31 patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma and the entire DNA in all the chromosomes of the malignant cells of one patient with follicular lymphoma.
When the mutation was found at exactly the same position in many of these cases, further lymphoma patients’ malignant cells were examined and were found to be mutated in the same way in almost one quarter of the cases. This is one of the most frequently mutated single genes ever found in lymphomas.
About Lymphoma
Lymphoma is the fifth most common cancer in Canada, and there is an estimated 1,000 new cases diagnosed every year in B.C. It is the fastest growing cancer in North America with a three percent annual increase in incidence.
Lymphomas are cancers that originate from white blood cells known as B-lymphocytes that circulate in the lymph vessels throughout the body. A diagnosis of lymphoma is made when a small piece of the lymphoma (a biopsy) is surgically removed. The tissue can provide clues to what type of lymphoma is present and how the patient will respond to treatment.
This study focused on two of the most common types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma, which are named for their appearance under the microscope. Diffuse large B cell lymphoma is an aggressive cancer that can only be cured in about 65 percent of patients and requires strong doses of chemotherapy. Follicular lymphoma is a more slowly growing cancer that cannot be cured, but it can be kept in check for long periods of time with relatively mild chemotherapy.
This afternoon U.S. Representatives Gabrielle Giffords and Martin Heinrich introduced legislation that would provide a strong boost to state and local economies by encouraging the construction and expansion of science parks. The House bill is a companion to S. 583, the Building a Stronger America Act, which was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas. The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and awaits action by the full Senate.
"This bill will spur innovation and help create the kind of high-paying, high-technology jobs we need to be competitive in the global economy," said Giffords, a member of the House Science and Technology Committee. "Seed money provided to science parks today represents a wise investment in our future."
"When world-class scientists and entrepreneurs put their minds together, anything is possible," Heinrich said. "Science parks leverage a region's existing competitive strengths and are a key component to becoming a nation of sustainable growth and quality jobs." Read more–U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich
Ask and you shall receive. No phrase is truer for the Victoria Children's Museum. After an opportunity to bring exhibits from Vancouver's TELUS World of Science over to the Capitol Region arose last year, the organization spent months searching for a suitable venue, and in the 11th hour, found a perfect fit.
This March, Science World British Columbia will come to downtown Victoria, thanks to the generous provision of space by the Parkside Victoria Resort and Spa for 'Explore Galore,' a temporary attraction incorporating TELUS World of Science exhibits that will run until the end of August 2010.
"Explore Galore is a wonderful way to bring Science World to another part of B.C.," says Bryan Tisdall, president and CEO, Science World British Columbia. "We have a mandate to bring the excitement of science to all corners of our province, and thanks to the support of Parkside Resort and the vision and energy of Victoria Children's Museum board and volunteers, we are able to offer engaging, interactive learning opportunities to children, schools and families on Vancouver Island."
Opening for Spring Break, Explore Galore will offer programming for school groups and the public. "This is exactly the calibre of programming that families can expect from a permanent children's museum in Victoria," says Marilyn Harris, president, Victoria Children's Museum.
For Explore Galore, the Parkside Victoria Resort and Spa has offered the Victoria Children's Museum the use of more than 3,500 square feet of ground floor space along with access to some of the building's amenities, including their 30-seat home theatre for films and science-based videos. "We are so grateful for the generosity of Parkside Victoria Resort and Spa in providing an ideal space for this exciting attraction," says Harris. "This couldn't have happened without their support."
The Victoria Children's Museum is proud to continue to present quality programming for children while operating as a museum-without-walls. Discussions are underway with the Township of Esquimalt to identify a permanent location following Explore Galore and the departure of the Science World exhibits.
LifeSciences BC is pleased to welcome the Honorable Kevin Falcon, Minister of Health Services for the Province of British Columbia, to share Government’s perspective, vision and plan for the future of healthcare in the Province, and the role the local life sciences industry plays in that vision.
Present and foreseeable healthcare challenges call for a concerted, comprehensive and multifaceted solution drawing from our combined strengths in research, commercialization and care. Minister Falcon will discuss the critical role that industry, academia and public service providers will together undertake to ensure BC’s position as a national leader and international model for excellence in the delivery of innovative, equitable and sustainable healthcare.
We will also be joined by representatives of both BCIT’s Product and Process Applied Research Team and the BC Preclinical Research Consortium to introduce their respective organizations and capabilities to the local life science community. Both organizations serve as outstanding examples of uniquely capable, valuable and local resources for the design, engineering and testing of new technologies to improve the standard of healthcare, in BC and abroad.
Date: Friday, February 5, 2010
Time: 7:30am – 10:00am
Location: Pan Pacific Hotel, Vancouver
Registration:
LifeSciences BC Members – $25
Non-members – $50
EDS Advanced Solutions Inc (EAS), a subsidiary of EDS Canada Corp., a member of HP Enterprise Services, today announced it has been selected as one of the region’s top tech companies by the Victoria Advanced Technology Council.
“There are nearly 900 technology companies in Victoria, we are very pleased to make the list of the Top 25,” said James Hamilton, president and CEO of EDS Advanced Solutions. We are thankful for the recognition. VIATeC does a great job in bringing people and technology together; it’s a healthy and strong industry on the island. We’re pleased to contribute in that way.”
The VIATeC survey hosted by KPMG, revealed exceptional growth and increased stability for Victoria’s thriving technology sector. Companies are ranked by revenue and location of their headquarters among other things. VIATeC promotes that revenue growth is a solid indicator of the success of the local tech industry. The VIATeC 25 total revenue numbers have increased by 99% since 2004.
On behalf of Dale Gann, Nikki de Goey, Glynn Jones, Av Hundle, Bonny Brewer, Greg Sikora, Uwe Bartley, Darwin Fritz and Barry McLean we wish you and yours a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year! We would like to extend a sincere thank you to our friends, companies, services providers, colleagues and partners for making VITP & MTC the "hub" for technology on Vancouver Island. We look forward to working with you all in 2010!
We are now three clicks away from funding sources. GFunds Online is an SME community toolkit that allows you to quickly and simply navigate all 530 Federal and Provincial technology funding support programs, and connect with other SME’s Support Service Providers, and Program Funding Providers.
The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology), and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) today announced $59 million in support for 262 projects in 40 Canadian research institutions, allowing talented researchers to conduct cutting-edge research in world-class facilities. This investment, made under the CFI's Leaders Opportunity Fund (LOF), will benefit the work of 351 of the country's brightest minds.
---------------------------- LOF investment at a glance: ---------------------------- ---------------------------- - Total: $59.39 million - Institutions: 40 - Municipalities: 32 - Projects: 262 - Researchers supported: 351 ----------------------------
"Our government supports science and technology to create jobs, improve the quality of life of Canadians and strengthen the economy," said Minister of State Goodyear. "This investment will help develop, attract and retain the world's best researchers at universities and other institutions in Canada."
Speaking in Kingston, Minister of State Goodyear highlighted the government's support for a project at Queen's University that will research the potential impact of potassium in helping to regulate heart rates in people with certain types of heart conditions.
"Access to modern, cutting-edge equipment and facilities is imperative to research in the 21st century," said Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the CFI. "For more than a decade, the CFI has provided thousands of world-class researchers with the tools they need to do their work. Without the right infrastructure, they quite simply wouldn't be in Canada."
These investments support cutting-edge research infrastructure that helps stimulate various sectors of the economy associated with such capital projects. It is estimated that every dollar invested directly in research yields more than $7 in economic benefits, including jobs.
The LOF is designed to support Canada's quickly evolving research environment by giving Canadian universities the flexibility they need to attract and retain the world's finest researchers at a time of intense international competition for knowledge workers.
The CFI's Board of Directors approved a total investment of $59,394,902 following a rigorous merit-review process. This amount included $45,688,386 awarded under the LOF, and another $13,706,516 awarded under the Infrastructure Operating Fund, a complementary program designed to contribute to the incremental operating and maintenance costs of infrastructure projects funded by the CFI.
These investments provide researchers in Canada with the tools necessary to carry out a spectrum of innovative research, such as:
– Improving the testing environment for subjects of autism spectrum disorder research and their families. Dalhousie University, Halifax
– Employing ancient lake data to study key environmental issues, including climate change, water quality and contaminant transport. Queen's University, Kingston
– Enhancing the quality of life and health of Canadians through new consumer self-care food products and improved diagnosis of life-threatening diseases. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
– Investigating the potential for alternative energy sources by developing new methods to safely store hydrogen for use in "green" fuels. University of Alberta, Edmonton
– Using cutting-edge imaging technologies to provide new insights into how the brain develops and changes in response to new experiences or pathology, such as stroke or diabetes. University of Victoria, Victoria
For a complete list of the funded projects, visit www.innovation.ca.
For Canadian research success stories, visit the CFI's online magazine, www.innovationcanada.ca.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure. The CFI's mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians. Since its creation in 1997, the CFI has committed almost $5.2 billion in support of more than 6,300 projects at 130 research institutions in 65 municipalities across Canada.
The CFI was recently named one of Canada's 50 Best Smalll and Medium Employers, 2009.
Written by: Judith Lavoie
With the flick of a switch yesterday, the international spotlight focused on the mysterious world of the deep ocean off the coast of B.C.
After a decade of planning, research and input from scientists of all disciplines, led by the University of Victoria, NEPTUNE Canada, the world's first cabled ocean observatory taking in an entire region, came on line.
Over the next 25 years, NEPTUNE — which stands for North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Experiments — will deliver real-time scientific data to students and scientists all over the world.
"We are truly at the start of a new era — an era of wiring the ocean," said director Chris Barnes.
The data, available free, will help develop public policy on climate change, earthquakes and tsunamis, management of fish stocks and resource development, he said. "This will transform ocean science. The socio-economic benefits are profound."
Scientists traded superlatives as they anticipated the "fire hose" of information from NEPTUNE.
"There's nothing else like it anywhere else," said Jozee Sarrazin of the French Research Institute for the Study of the Sea, who will study the effect of catastrophic disturbances such as underwater landslides on undersea fauna.
Already, the instruments have detected tsunami waves from the Samoan earthquake in September, said Richard Thomson of the Institute of Ocean Sciences.
"It will help us understand and provide warning of tsunamis in western Canada and, for that, I think we should be eternally grateful," he said.
NEPTUNE will provide information about one of the most active underwater earthquake areas in the world, but for now, will not help predict when earthquakes will strike, said Garry Rogers of the Geological Survey of Canada.
"The real answer is we don't know what we are going to find. We are moving to a new environment, and when we do that, we are bound to discover new things," he said.
The backbone of the ocean observatory is an 800-kilometre loop of powered fibre-optic cable installed on the seabed off the west coast of Vancouver Island, connecting to a shore station at Port Alberni.
Information is fed back, at the rate of 10 gigabytes a second, to NEPTUNE headquarters at UVic.
Data is gathered by 60 instruments with 280 sensors, placed at depths ranging from 17 metres to 2.7 kilometres. More instruments will be added each year, including some at volcanic Endeavour Ridge.
NEPTUNE, funded by the federal and provincial governments, cost $100 million to build. The federal Canada Foundation for Innovation has committed $24 million over the next two years to operating costs.
Iain Black, provincial Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development, officially turned on the stream of data, but the University of Victoria audience, plus an online audience from around the world, did not get to see what was happening under the ocean at that second as organizers were worried about last-minute glitches.
Grade 6 students in the audience from Central middle school represent the generation that will benefit most from scientific knowledge, Black said.
"I think it is cool," said 10-year-old Scarlet Redpath, a Central student.
"It will be even more interesting when we are older and can understand it more. We are going to start learning about different extreme things like earthquakes and tsunamis."
Former federal cabinet minister David Anderson, who helped shepherd the project through its early days, said the $100-million cost is a bargain compared to the billions of dollars in damage a tsunami could do in B.C.
"Seventy per cent of the earth's surface is water and we know virtually nothing about it. This is a whole new chapter in ocean exploration and it is coming at a particularly critical time because of the impact of the oceans on climate change," he said.
For more information, go to www.neptunecanada.ca
jlavoie@tc.canwest.com
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