Tag: VP Research and Innovation

Internal YFile sub-tag

Toughest global health challenges will be tackled by Distinguished Research Chair at York University

FEATURED Global Health

A new research chair at York University will tackle the toughest global health challenges by studying the impact that policies and laws have on health.

Steven Hoffman

York University Professor Steven J. Hoffman has been named inaugural holder of the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology. Made possible by long-time York University donor Victor Phillip Dahdaleh, through his support of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, it is the first endowed Chair in the world to focus on legal epidemiology.

This unique research Chair will bring scientific rigour and a social justice lens to seemingly intractable global health issues. Legal epidemiology uses a range of methods from epidemiology to study laws, policies and institutions, to improve health outcomes. The research Chair will provide flexible research funding and time to allow Hoffman to address the most pressing needs of the day, whether caused by a disease pandemic or misinformation being transmitted through social media.

Hoffman is appointed to the Faculty of Health, Osgoode Hall Law School and the Graduate Program in Political Science. He also leads York’s Global Strategy Lab, an interdisciplinary research platform that leverages the full range of social sciences to tackle global health challenges. The lab’s 20-person team advises the world’s governments and public health organizations on how to design laws, policies and institutions to address transnational health threats. The team focuses its efforts in three research program areas: global legal epidemiology; global governance of antimicrobial resistance; and public health institutions.

“We’re trying to work differently,” Hoffman explains. “Most global policymakers and diplomats think that the design of international laws and global governance structures is an art. We think this art is done best when informed by social science. We’re essentially trying to create a science focused on the design of institutions that can address the really tough global health challenges the world faces.”

“With Mr. Dahdaleh’s investment, the new Chair is a signal to the world that York University is fully behind Professor Hoffman in his fight for global health,” said Rhonda L. Lenton, president and vice-chancellor of York University. “Universities play a vital role in bringing together experts, government, business and community organizations to tackle complex global challenges that no single actor could address alone. Today’s appointment will allow Professor Hoffman to expand his important work and create a positive impact in the local and global communities we serve.”

Three recent examples of this work stand out:

  • Two articles by Hoffman’s team in the British Medical Journal (May 2019) detail an impact evaluation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The most rigorous impact evaluation of an international treaty ever conducted, it has created a new gold standard and elevated the science of treaty design in the process.
  • Hoffman conceived and developed a proposal for an international agreement on antimicrobial resistance, under active consideration by the United Nations and its 193 member states. This research continues through projects with colleagues at leading universities including Cambridge, Copenhagen, Harvard and Oxford.
  • Hoffman recently convened nearly all of the world’s public international law scholars who specialize in global health to achieve a juridical consensus on what countries may legally do to each other during infectious disease outbreaks. This consensus has proved extremely helpful during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and was summarized in The Lancet to guide countries’ decisions and hold those breaking international law accountable.

Hoffman’s work has addressed pressing health issues such as access to medicines, antimicrobial resistance, cannabis regulation, health misinformation, health worker shortages, pandemics and tobacco control.

“The sharp focus of the team on policy and social impact is key. The Chair will give us more flexibility to quickly shift our attention to where it’s urgently needed. Last year that was cannabis legalization. This year it’s COVID-19. Next year? Who knows. That’s part of the excitement, but it’s also why flexible resources like this endowed chair can have transformative effects,” said Hoffman. “I try to focus on the hard stuff.”

Make plans to attend the Undergraduate Research Fair and Art Walk on March 4

York students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the University’s eighth annual Undergraduate Research Fair & Art Walk on Wednesday, March 4, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Scott Library Collaboratory (second floor) at the Keele Campus.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the eighth annual Undergraduate Research Fair planned for March 4 in the Scott Library Collaboratory at the Keele Campus

Jointly sponsored by York University Libraries and the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, this multidisciplinary event honours undergraduate student researchers and provides them with the opportunity to share their work by presenting an academic poster session. The juried Undergraduate Research Fair is an excellent opportunity for experiential learning. Students present their work in a friendly, cross-curricular environment. Students from both Keele and Glendon campuses and from multiple disciplines – social sciences, fine arts, humanities, health, sciences – will be at the fair and are eager to demonstrate their projects to the York community. Prizes will be awarded to select poster session presenters.

The 2019 Undergraduate Research Fair drew a large audience of students and faculty from across the York community, as well as friends and family of student presenters and artists

The Scott Library Art Walk exhibition opens along with the fair and showcases the work of student artists and designers. For the first time this year, a “best in show” prize will be awarded to one artwork submission. The selected art piece will also be reproduced on the cover of an upcoming issue of the e-journal Revue YOUR Review (York Online Undergraduate Research), associated with the Fair.

A musical performance by students from the Department of Music in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design takes place at 12:45 p.m. At 1 p.m., Dean of Libraries Joy Kirchner opens the welcome ceremony, York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton and Interim Vice-President of Research & Innovation Rui Wang will give brief welcome remarks. Administrators from several Faculties will take part in presenting awards to students.

The 2019 Undergraduate Research Fair drew a large audience of students and faculty from across the York community, as well as friends and family of student presenters and artists.

Everyone is invited to attend this year’s Undergraduate Research Fair and Art Walk and help celebrate York’s undergraduate student researchers and artists. A reception will follow the fair.

To learn more, visit http://researchfair.info.yorku.ca.

York professor invited to participate in UN panel on Indigenous communities and environment

Indigenous feathers

Sometimes the most meaningful experiences arrive in the most unexpected ways.

That was the experience for York University political science Professor Gabrielle Slowey. Late last December, Slowey, who is also the director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University, received a direct message on Twitter from the Alvin Fiddler, who is the Grand Chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) asking her to call him.

Gabrielle Slowey
Gabrielle Slowey

So, she did. During their conversation, Fiddler told Slowey that his team plans to participate in meetings at the United Nations that will be held in April 2020 and he wanted Slowey to be a part of his delegation and speak as part of his panel. The title of the proposed session is: “Climate Emergency and Impacts on Treaty and Inherent Rights” and the overall theme of the UNPFII 19th session is “peace, justice and strong institutions: The role of Indigenous peoples in implementing Sustainable Development.”

Slowey immediately agreed. “This is an amazing opportunity and I am honored and humbled to be invited to join Chief Fiddler and his delegation in New York in April,” said Slowey.

Fiddler told Slowey that he was aware of her work with First Nations’ communities and the environment. Slowey, a settler (her parents immigrated from Ireland), has been working in, and with. First Nations communities since the late 1990s. Since that time, she has travelled to, or worked with the Mi’kmaq and Malisset communities of New Brunswick, the Mikisew Cree First Nation of Alberta, the James Bay Cree of Northern Quebec, the Ngai Tahu and Tainui of New Zealand, the Vuntut Gwitchin of Old Crow Yukon, the Inuvialuit of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories and the Delaware of Southwestern Ontario. Her research concentrates on the political economy of resource extraction, environmental/ecological governance, the duty to consult, treaties, land claims and self-government. Slowey’s approach is very much community-based and draws upon broader theoretical concerns of colonialism, reconciliation, staples and democracy.

In early March Slowey will be attending the National Climate Change meetings taking place in Whitehorse, Yukon. She will also be presenting on her recent work on climate change and how northern First Nations are addressing it in their communities at the North American Indigenous Studies Conference taking place in Toronto in May.

Developing students for the real world through experiential education

DURA recipient Ellahe Fatehi conducting summer research in 2019
DURA recipient Ellahe Fatehi conducting summer research in 2019

Whether it’s growing E. coli cells in a petri dish for scientific experiment, conducting field work on marshes, or participating in a science outreach project in the community, the Faculty of Science offers students an array of experiential education (EE) opportunities.  

An undergraduate field course at the University of California Rancho Marino Reserve offers Faculty of Science students a real-world experience
An undergraduate field course at the University of California Rancho Marino Reserve offers Faculty of Science undergraduate students a real-world experience in collecting specimens and research data

“Experiential education is about exploring and experiencing the ideas learned in class through concrete experiences – which could be in the classroom or lab, at an organization or company, or in the community,” said Michael Scheid, associate dean of students in the Faculty of Science. “It leads to deeper learning and better preparation for life after graduation, including the job market.”  

As a major hub of scientific research, the Faculty of Science provides a wide variety of research opportunities for our undergraduate students. These opportunities allow students to learn advanced lab skills, use equipment that they would not typically use in an undergraduate lab, interact with graduate students, learn in-depth in a particular field, and actually contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge.  

For instance, for the last three years, the Faculty of Science has offered Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards (DURAs) to top students to gain hands-on research experience in a York University research lab. DURAs are 16-week paid summer positions. These positions give more students exposure to what frontline research really involves and help them learn new skills and make informed choices about their career paths. 

DURA recipient Ellahe Fatehi conducting summer research in 2019
DURA recipient Ellahe Fatehi conducting summer research in 2019

These same students are invited to present their research either orally or through a poster at the annual Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Summer Undergraduate Research Conference, alongside NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award students and York Science Scholar Award winners. All these students learn how to explain their research to those not involved in the research – a valuable skill they can continue to draw upon throughout their studies and beyond their degrees. 

“The event is an excellent opportunity for students to present their summer research projects, practice science communication, and meet and learn from other students,” said Jennifer Steeves, associate dean of research and graduate education in the Faculty of Science. 

Students take part in a field course at the Kortright Conservation Centre
Students take part in an off-campus field course at the Kortright Conservation Authority

The Faculty of Science also offers field courses where students learn science outside of lecture halls and indoor laboratories, sometimes as far away as China, Africa or South America. Field courses are a vital part of today’s university learning. One summer offering as a course shared between the Department of Biology and the Department of Geography relies on off-campus field experiences at the Kortright Conservation Authority, where students put their research skills to use measuring soil infiltration rates or studying marshes and watershed management. 

“Over the years, we have worked hard to provide field course options that are affordable, accessible and inclusive for all students seeking to experience ecology and environmental science field research,” says Faculty of Science Professor Dawn Bazely.  

There are also opportunities for students to participate in field courses outside of York University. The Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology (OUPFB) is a consortium of 15 Ontario universities, including York University, that have collaborated for 30 years by sharing enrollment places on the field courses offered by different universities. In this way, students at one university have access to 25 to 30 field courses each year at diverse locations, each offering an authentic field research experience. 

Faculty of Science undergraduate students have many opportunities to participate in research conferences
Faculty of Science undergraduate students have many opportunities to participate in research conferences

In addition, the Departments of Biology and Chemistry offer undergraduate students the opportunity to complete non-credit, pass/fail research practicum courses to obtain practical experience in a lab or in the field. Students arrange with a faculty member to participate in their research and complete a student-supervisor agreement that outlines the tasks and expectations. Students in these courses learn current research techniques and use these techniques to make a meaningful contribution to the supervisor’s research program. The opportunities are meant to enrich and stretch beyond what is available in other courses. 

Professor both affirmed and frustrated after health policy paper named most influential

York University Professor Dennis Raphael‘s resume, which lists 16 books, 65 chapters and more than 300 scientific publications such as the third edition of his highly influential book Social Determinants of Health: Canadian Perspectives, now includes another remarkable accomplishment as his 2014 paper “Beyond policy analysis: the raw politics behind opposition to healthy public policy” was recently chosen as one of the eleven most influential or impactful papers published in the journal Health Promotion International in reference to public policy for health promotion since 1986.

Dennis Raphael
Dennis Raphael

Raphael, who teaches in York’s School of Health Policy and Management, says the recognition is both affirming and quite frustrating. “Despite the importance of public policy and equitable distribution of economic and social resources, none of those lessons seemed to be taken up by governing authorities,” he said.

Raphael’s influential paper, which has been cited 56 times, explores how the Canadian business and corporate sector has increasingly come to dominate the public policy making process since the 1980s. “This has led to growing corporate concentration, declines in union membership and the skewing of income and wealth towards the top 1 per cent of Canadians with resultant declines in the quality and equitable distribution of the factors that shape health,” Raphael explained. “This has adversely affected the health of many Canadians.”

Raphael laments the ways mainstream health disciplines and the media have neglected the vital role public policy plays in shaping the health of Canadians compared to where these policies rank on the public and political agendas in other countries and especially in Europe. “When people ask me what influence my work has had, I say, ‘sadly, rather little in Canada, but certainly a lot elsewhere,'” he said.

According to Raphael, understandings about health continue to be limited among the public and the media to “biomedical, behavioral and lifestyle approaches,” despite growing evidence about the importance of public policy in shaping health and health care systems. “In some ways it’s the most obvious thing in the world,” Raphael continued. “When you have 19 per cent of children living in poverty in Canada and 26 per cent living in poverty in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, and it is well documented that living in poverty as a child is the best predictor of adverse health outcomes during both childhood and adulthood, how can you ignore the health implications?”

For Raphael, the situation has only worsened in the six years since his influential paper was published. He notes increases in housing costs and precarious work as drivers of adverse health outcomes and explains that concentrated corporate media only exacerbates the issue by diverting attention from broader factors to so-called lifestyle choices which have minimal effects upon health. Raphael is interested in inequalities in health, and the differences in the social circumstances that drive them. “The lens shouldn’t be on the individual, the lens should be on society.”

Raphael believes that the policy making gaps identified in his paper are indicative of the important work being done at the School of Health Policy and Management, and that the recognition this work is receiving further highlights the necessity of exploring health and health policy from a critical social science perspective. “This really affirms what this entire school of health policy and management is all about,” he exclaimed.

Raphael intends to remain a loud voice calling for health policy that focuses on equality and equitable distribution of economic and social resources. His current research exploring the role of language in narratives about health will appear in the forthcoming second edition of Oppression: A Social Determinant of Health, in a chapter fittingly titled “Raising the volume on the social determinants of health in Canada and elsewhere.”

Health Promotion International contains refereed original articles, reviews and debate articles on major themes and innovations in the health promotion field. The journal expressly invites contributions from sectors beyond health, including education, employment, government, the media, industry, environmental agencies and community networks, and in particular theoretical, methodological and activist advances to the field. Raphael has been published in the journal 15 times. All eleven of the most influential articles on public policy and health promotion can be read on the journal’s website.

New global one health network project will tackle infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance

two images of the earth taken from space

Researchers at York University are co-leading a transdiciplinary project that is focused on establishing Canada as a leader in global governance of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.

Mary Wiktorowicz
Mary Wiktorowicz

Mary Wiktorowicz and Sean Hillier of York University have been awarded $2 million by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to support the development of the “One Health Network for the Global Governance of Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Resistance (GGRID)” for four years. The project is co-led by York University and the University of Ottawa.

The grant will support building and sustaining a transdisciplinary and inter-sectoral One Health Network originating in Canada and extending globally, complementing and closely integrated with related European efforts.

“We will be successful if we can develop transdisciplinary approaches to global governance, which is only possible by building transdisciplinary teams,” says Hillier, an assistant professor in the School of Health Policy & Management and special adviser to the Dean on Indigenous Resurgence in the Faculty of Health at York University.

Sean Hillier

The teams will consist of researchers and knowledge users with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including the social sciences and the human, animal and environmental health sciences. They include Co-Investigator Dr. James Orbinski, a medical doctor, humanitarian practitioner, and the director of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, as well as the York Research Chair in Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Science Professor Huaiping Zhu, who will support the mathematical modeling involved in the project.

York University will take leadership in research on global governance of antimicrobial resistance, one of the leading global health challenges of the 21st century. Much of the progress in human health of the last 100 years threatens to come undone as antibiotics become less effective.

Wiktorowicz, professor of Global Health Governance and Policy and an executive committee member of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, reinforces the need for networked approaches.

“As the causes of antimicrobial resistance are complex,” she says, “our strategies to address it need to foster intersectoral policy coordination on a global scale to improve stewardship of this precious resource.”

New Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change created to address world’s most pressing issues

Image shows a hand holding a pine cone against a lush backdrop of greenery

Environmental change and urbanization represent two of the most critical challenges facing people and the planet. The world’s awareness of the need to develop sustainable solutions is vividly illustrated by the massive global Climate Day of Action protests that took place in September 2019 ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit. The climate action saw youth take to the streets to raise their concerns about environmental degradation, the injustices facing humanity, and the uncertainty of their future.

Universities are uniquely positioned to advance knowledge of and solutions to the issues posed by the climate crisis, degradation of nature and the rapid growth of cities. In response, York University is taking a leadership role to advance teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and multisectoral engagement in environmental and urban realms by bringing together the expertise housed in the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) and the Geography program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies to create a new Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

Envisioned to be an international leader in critical and innovative urban, environmental and geographical knowledges and skills, the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change will focus on advancing sustainability and justice. In 2019, both the Board of Governors and the Senate of York University approved the proposal for the new faculty, which will formally come into existence on Sept. 1, 2020 with new curricular offerings planned for Sept. 1, 2021.

Rhonda L. Lenton

“Students today are simultaneously faced with a competitive and dynamic global knowledge economy and a series of existential social and environmental challenges. The Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change combines the historical excellence of our environmental studies and geography programs with a renewed commitment to innovative teaching, scholarship and experiential learning. This interdisciplinary and collaborative approach will help society tackle its most complex challenges while training the leaders who will put solutions into practice,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton.

Current and future students will have unprecedented opportunities to explore and learn from global thought leaders in geography, urban and environmental studies within a new faculty that fosters interdisciplinary approaches spanning and connecting biophysical sciences, social sciences, and the arts

Alice Hovorka

“The Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change will champion interdisciplinarity through curricular programs and scholarship,” said its inaugural Dean Alice Hovorka. “The new faculty will draw together scholars from geography and environmental studies as well as from across York University, building on existing synergies and encouraging collaboration in teaching, research and engagement activities.”

Field-based and experiential learning opportunities will further enhance students’ understanding of biophysical processes and social issues. Undergraduate students will have opportunities to pursue majors and minors in new programs that include bachelor’s degrees in global geography, urban studies, environmental science, sustainable environmental management, and environmental arts and justice. Masters and PhD programs in Geography and Environmental Studies will offer advanced study and application in these topical areas. Programs will feature hands-on, community-engaged learning locally, for example at York’s Maloca Garden and woodlot sites, regionally through field courses at Bruce Peninsula and within the Greater Toronto Area, and internationally at the York University Las Nubes EcoCampus in Costa Rica. Programs will also highlight work- and research-based placements connecting students with non-governmental organizations, industry, and government partner to help guide their career paths.

Demand for career professionals in environmental and urban realms has outpaced that of the rest of the workforce. Governments around the world are now placing an emphasis on regulation and public policies focused on sustainability and smart cities, requiring that organizations rethink their practices. New positions for environmental, urban planning and sustainability experts are needed, and the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change will be uniquely positioned to meet this increased global demand for trained professionals. According to a 2018 Eco Canada Job Posting Trends Report, anticipated job growth leading into 2025 will be seen in careers in natural resource management (15 per cent increase), waste management (15 per cent increase), urban planning and development (13 per cent increase), energy management (12 per cent increase) and environmental health & safety and water quality (seven per cent increase).

Some of the potential career positions available to the inaugural graduating class of 2025 include chief sustainability officers, regulators and analysts; energy entrepreneurs, auditors and consultants; environmental lawyers, advocates and diversity educators; environmental scientists, geoscientists, technicians and specialists; and, urban planners, social service administrators and infrastructure directors.

To learn more, visit https://newfaculty.info.yorku.ca/.

Lassonde PhD student solves an 18-year-old problem

Research York University
Athina Peidou

Lassonde School of Engineering PhD student, Athina Peidou, has solved a problem that has occupied the international scientific community for more than 18 years.

Co-written by her supervisor Professor Spiros Pagiatakis from the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Peidou’s finding was detailed in the paper “Stripe mystery in GRACE geopotential models revealed” and published in one of the top ranked, peer-reviewed Geoscience Journals, Geophysical Research Letters.

Background on the mystery

Nearly 20 years ago, a satellite mission, called GRACE was launched to monitor mass transfers occurring above or below the Earth’s surface, by measuring the gravity changes caused by phenomena like ice melt, extreme floods, extensive droughts, landslides and even mega-earthquakes.

The gravity field maps derived from GRACE measurements were obscured by very disturbing thick lines sweeping from south to north, partially masking useful information. For almost two decades the origin of these stripes has been unknown, perplexing researchers across the globe.

The mystery solved!

That was until, Peidou under the supervision of Pagiatakis embarked on the first study of its kind to unearth the cause of these stripes. She focused her attention on the physical mechanism responsible for generating the stripes, with the goal to eliminate them entirely at the source while leaving the geophysical signals intact.

The images found on the maps were like that of the stripes found on on old TV sets when you tried to take a photo of the screen. Early TV images were created and transmitted using the same interlacing method.

The team used advanced data analytics and simple physics principles to discover the cause of the stripes. Through their analyses, they found that the stripes originate from the specific pattern of GRACE interlaced orbits that sample the Earth gravitational signal, causing the stripes to show up on the gravity field maps.

Discovering this pattern was very challenging and constitutes a significant breakthrough, which may eventually lead to removing the stripes altogether, providing more fulsome data for researchers.

The key to Peidou’s and Pagiatakis success was searching for the root cause of problem and approaching it from the right angle.

An illustration of the stripes phenomenon

“Instead of trying to get rid of the stripes, we wanted to understand why stripes were present in the first place. If you approach the problem from this perspective, you start noticing the various puzzle pieces and details that lead you in the right direction. It is indeed forensic science.”

“Now that we have a better idea of the nature of the stripe artifact, the next goal is to be able to eliminate it before it shows up in the gravity maps. The elimination of stripes will increase the resolution of the gravity models and it will eventually enhance the geoscience studies that target the monitoring of the water in motion, water resources and water scarcity, ice mass change and sea level change, among others. Knowing the cause of stripes, future space missions can be designed to avoid this artifact at source,” says Peidou.

Climate crisis will affect our health from dwindling bees to food insecurity

Our overuse of fossil fuels continues to compromise our future.

It seems that every day the media is filled with shocking evidence of climate change: Heat records are being broken in Australia while bush fires ravage the country as never before; Labrador’s permafrost is melting; and ocean levels continue to rise, threatening low-lying islands and coasts.

York University researchers warn us that the climate change crisis is about to become a health crisis.

Bush fires are still active in Australia. York researchers encourage student activism and knowledge sharing to combat climate change.
Steven Hoffman

“It’s been called by the World Health Organization the defining public health challenge of our century,” says Steven Hoffman, professor and director of York University’s Global Strategy Lab. “That’s a good assessment of it. What makes it overwhelming is that climate change is both caused by and impacts everything we do in our human civilization.”

York biology professor Dawn Bazely has devoted her 30-year academic career to understanding invasive plant species. Observing how the climate changes is essential to her work.

Dawn Bazely
Dawn Bazely

She says that as climate change warms the globe, northern countries like Canada are seeing plant and insect species for the first time. “Because anywhere there is a warming trend, we’re going to see diseases that dominate tropical and subtropical areas become able to expand into other regions.” That’s why, she adds, we are seeing more West Nile virus (carried by mosquitoes) and Lyme Disease (carried by ticks) in Canada.

Sheila Colla warns that a declining bee population will have serious impacts on our health. Colla, assistant professor in York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, has noted significant reductions in the number of bumblebees, native to Canada.

She emphasizes that all bee species are susceptible to changes in weather caused by climate change. An early or late spring, for example, can change the growth of the fruits, vegetables and flowers that bees pollinate. This affects their ability to reproduce. Without bees, we have less food and, thus, fewer sources of nutrition.

Sheila Colla

“A third of our food is pollinated by animals, mostly bees,” Colla explains. She adds that bees pollinate a huge variety of crops and, most importantly, they pollinate foods that are antioxidants, like tomatoes, berries, kale and lettuce.

Unlike honeybees, bumblebees don’t make honey – but they are extremely good pollinators, notes Colla. “You need more than one type of bee to pollinate our crops and for us to have a diet that has variety and lots of vitamins… We clearly need to save all our pollinators.”

For York post-doctoral researcher and documentary filmmaker Mark Terry, the reality of climate change and its damage on living species can be seen, shockingly, at the north and south poles.

When he took a crew to Antarctica to shoot The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning in 2010, he filmed seals blinded by increased ultraviolet rays from the sun and penguins wandering away from their traditional coastal homes into the interior, on a desperate search for food. That’s because their primary food – krill, a crustacean found in Antarctic waters – is dying off due to warmer ocean temperatures.

Mark Terry

Malawi, in southeast Africa, brings the disparity of climate change into sharp focus. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, with an economy is based on agriculture. Maize – known as corn in North America – is the principal food crop. But the maize crop yield has dropped recently by as much as 34 per cent.

“Maize requires a certain amount of sunlight and precipitation,” says James Orbinski, director of York’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research (DIGHR) and former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). “With climate change, Malawi now has prolonged periods of dryness. The Southern Region of Africa is amid its worst drought in 100 years. The famed Victoria Falls is running at a trickle, and taps are drying up. More than 45 million people are on food assistance because of crop failures. This is due to climate change.”

James Orbinski

Orbinski points to a cruel irony: “The countries and regions that are most affected by climate change are the poorest and least developed regions. They are the least resilient and have the least flexible social, political and infrastructural systems. The irony is that they are the ones least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.”

Is there hope for easing what could be a global health disaster?  York researchers are optimistic – if we act now.

Bazely says it begins with sharing knowledge. “How we can equip local people everywhere and academics outside of the global north? How can we make the research and knowledge widely available? I’m very interested in open access and getting taxpayer-funded research out from behind the barriers of the university library systems. So many academics and researchers and people in the Global South just don’t have access to knowledge tucked behind expensive paywalls.”

For Orbinski, the priority is “seeing the symbiotic relationship between our biosphere and human civilizations that defines Planetary Health. It is also developing tools, technologies and policies that help communities adapt the new reality of the health impacts of climate change. We are actively working on these at the DIGHR.”

Hoffman likens the global action we must take on climate change to the action taken to combat pandemics. “Infectious diseases spread across borders. Viruses don’t carry passports. And as a result, if we’re serious about protecting our health from the next pandemic, we need to be thinking and acting globally in exactly the same way as we need to be thinking globally and acting globally about climate change.”

Terry urges us to help young people embrace activism aimed at halting climate change. In his post-doctoral work with the Dahdaleh Institute, Terry is teaching a course geared toward documentary filmmaking and environmental activism. He has also led a team of his own students during a “Fridays for Future” climate strike in Toronto and hosted a group of Indigenous students from Tuktoyaktuk at COP 25 in Madrid in December 2019.

“Students are the ones who will lead us into the reforms needed to maintain a healthy planet. That’s why Greta Thunberg’s work has been so important. She’s done a remarkable job at raising awareness. I believe our goal now, at universities, is to provide students with the knowledge and tools they will need to keep up the fight.”

To learn more about Steven Hoffman, visit his profile page. To read more on Dawn Bazely, see her lab. To read more about Sheila Colla’s research, visit her Faculty profile page. For more on Mark Terry, visit his profile page. To learn more about James Orbinski, see his profile.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new animated video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.

Paul Fraumeni is an award-winning freelance writer, who has specialized in covering university research for more than 20 years. To learn more, visit his website.

Neuroscience research adds key insights on communication between neurons

Research led by York University investigated the role of protein transport to fine-tune communications between neurons. Understanding how communication between nerve cells is built, maintained and protected over a lifetime is one of the most important questions in the neurosciences.

Under the supervision of Professor Georg Zoidl, graduate student Cherie Brown undertook this ground-breaking research, the findings of which were published in the journal Cells (September, 2019).

This research looks at a phenomenon known as plasticity, which refers to the ability of neurons to change and control how they communicate with each other

Zoidl, who is in both the Faculties of Health and Science, is the Canada Research Chair for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. He is also an associate member of Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) and a member of the Centre for Vision Research. His research program aims to clarify how cells of the eye and the brain communicate through specialized cell junctions and how changes in this process can lead to impairment of vision, learning and memory.

Georg Zoidl

The research team included scientists from Albert Einstein College (New York) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). This study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the National Institutes of Health (US).

Brown and Zoidl sat down with Brainstorm to discuss this article and the importance of this work.

Q: Please describe for our readers the chief goals of your work.

CB: My work addresses fundamental cell biology, more specifically neurobiology. We are trying to understand how cells communicate. We’re looking deeper into a process called plasticity, which means that the neurons can regulate or control how they communicate with each other.

Q: What were the objectives of this recent study published in Cells?

CB: We were trying to fill a major knowledge gap about the mechanisms of neuronal communication. To close this gap, we have been looking at important steps in the life cycle of a critical protein. Specifically, we have filled the time it spends between two bookends, that is after it is born and before it is helping to exchange information between nerve cells. This is where transport comes into play. My major goal is looking at how this protein is transported to influence plasticity.

Q: What is the role of protein?

CB: The protein I am studying is connexin-36. What it does is form a tube or tunnel, called a gap junction channel, between two cells.  The channel allows for the neurons to communicate with each other by letting small molecules easily pass through.

Q: How did you go about the study?

CB: We used cutting-edge imaging technology. Essentially, I tagged my protein connexin-36 with a fluorescent probe for visualization. We used high-power microscopy techniques to look at where the protein is in the cell and where it’s going.

GZ: Microscopy allows us to track the proteins. Because they are fluorescent, they will look like little dots on a cell. We can track where they start their life and where they end their life; over time, you can really resolve everything from birth to death of these proteins.

Q: What were your key findings?  

CB: We found that connexin-36 interacts with what’s known as microtubules – a major transport highway of cells. We determined where microtubules bind on the connexin 36 protein, and that this interaction is influencing the ability of neurons to communicate with each other. Essentially, when we have less connexin-36 protein transported to its endpoint to form the gap junction channel, we know that means less communication is possible. More protein transported leads to more communication between paired neurons.

Q: Did anything surprise you about this finding?

CB: Yes, we found out that the specific region where microtubules and connexin 36 interact with each other is very fragile. Manipulating that binding region will nearly eliminate the interaction between these two proteins and as a consequence, connexin 36 won’t transport properly. Even just a small change in this binding region is very detrimental to the overall function of connexin-36 in the cell.

Brown is studying the protein called connexin-36, which forms a tube or tunnel between two cells, allowing the neurons to communicate with each other

Q: What kind of an impact will this new knowledge have?  

CB: We are performing fundamental neurobiology, with the hopes of updating what we know about neuron communication. This is significant when we think of higher order processes of the nervous system, like vision. We are trying to explain this on a cellular level.

Q: How could this research be applied? Is there a disease or condition that this research could help?

CB: When you think of neurodegeneration, anything that affects communication between neurons, this research could play a role. I like to use the examples of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases.

Q: How has York supported your research?

GZ: Look at the building [Life Sciences]. York University is providing the platform, the infrastructure to perform cutting-edge, fundamental neurobiology.

Q: York values its graduate students. They play a key role at the University. Could you tell us about your PhD student Cherie Brown?

GZ: Cherie is one of our stars. She is a perfect example of women in STEM. She has been invited to speak at international conferences and has received two major awards in the last two years. The most recent was the IGJC Star Award this year. She is almost finished her PhD and already got job offers.

To read the article, visit the website. To learn more about Zoidl, visit his profile or his Faculty profile page in Health.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new animated video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca