COMMUNIQUé - College of Medicine - University of Saskatchewan

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Exploring fertility in space Heather Allaway Growing up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan, Heather Allaway had a somewhat unusual career aspiration — she wanted to become an astronaut. Her fascination with animals and reproduction sparked an interest in exploring human fertility, which in turn led to wondering about the effects of estrogen depletion for women travelling in space. Her curiosity about this topic and her accomplishments as a graduate student in reproductive sciences at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine recently landed her a place at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France with 120 space-science students from around the world. When the nine-week program ended in September, Allaway entered the final year of her master’s research which is focussed on the effects on a woman’s ovaries of stopping ovaries from making the hormone estrogen, work that could be helpful in developing a new kind of morning-after pill. Her research could also shed light on how a new wave of ovarian follicles develops, paving the way for more effective treatment for infertility. Since how the body regulates estrogen can have a huge impact on bone mass, Allaway is also interested in finding a way to ensure that women who explore space can be better protected against bone density loss. “We don’t fully understand how women’s bodies are affected in space,” she says. “My study isn’t about sex in space, but about the changes in the body that occur before, during, and after pregnancy. Reproduction in space is a piece of the puzzle that needs to be understood before the exploration of the solar system can begin.” All astronauts lose bone mass when travelling in space. But hormonal contraception creates a dangerous scenario for female astronauts, who often must to go on long-term hormonal birth control that stops menstrual periods and lowers estrogen levels, exacerbating significant bone loss. “When you think about extended space travel, for example to Mars, you cannot afford to lose a large amount of bone mass,” says Allaway’s supervisor Roger Pierson, College of Medicine professor of reproductive sciences. Bone metabolism is closely linked to estrogen and menstruation, which is why women and men’s bone densities are different, and why women in menopause have a higher risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures. By better understanding the mechanism that shuts down ovary functioning and affects estrogen levels, Allaway could contribute to the development of better emergency contraception. s Heather Allaway collecting rock samples at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah September, 2010 10 C O M M U N I Q U É College of Medicine • University of Saskatchewan
esearch Heather was selected the Best Student Paper Award at the 56th Annual Conference of the Canadian fertility and andrology Society. The paper, entitled ‘ A Single 20mg dose of Aromatase Inhibitor Does Not Affect Folliculogenesis in the Folliculr Phase of the Menstrual Cycle’, was co-authored with Donna Chizen an Gregg Adams. And by learning more about how estrogen encourages the growth of ovarian follicles where eggs are developed, she could help design more effective therapy for women who have difficulties conceiving. “It’s a simple study with profound implications,” Pierson says. While in France, Allaway learned about space travel and planned her research so to be relevant to a career as an astronaut. “For the next generation of astronauts, NASA and the European Space Agency will be looking for physicians, scientists and engineers as well as pilots,” says Pierson. “This is what Heather is preparing for.” In 2008, Allaway went on a two-week mission at the International Mars Society Mars Desert Research Station in Utah where researchers work in a remote environment reminiscent of the red planet. Allaway sees a need for more information to educate and empower women around the world to take control of their bodies. She recruits her own research volunteers, educating them along the way about how reproduction works. “The best part of my work is getting to know the amazing women who volunteer,” Allaway says. “They give their time to learn more about a subject that is still a touchy topic to most people.” While Pierson anticipates outstanding PhD work from Allaway, he is just as optimistic about her career in space travel, noting that “farm kids have an incredible work ethic.” Graduate student Lisa Johnson wrote the above article while completing an internship at the U of S research communications office. Visit www.usask/research for more stories about student research. n This article recently appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoneix. Depression, pills and Alzheimer’s disease Is our society’s love affair with antidepressants setting us up for an epidemic of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease? “Depression doesn’t necessarily cause more Alzheimer’s disease, but what it does is it causes Alzheimer’s disease to happen earlier,” says Dr. Darrell Mousseau. “Depression is doing something to the brain that makes it much more vulnerable to developing Alzheimer’s disease earlier on.” Mousseau, a professor in the U of S College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, together with his team, has found that an enzyme that plays an important role in depression can severely weaken brain cells and perhaps trigger the processes that lead to Alzheimer’s disease. The team is also looking at the role of antidepressants in this process. “We have to be careful about what kind of drugs we’re putting into depressed patients because that could actually be creating Alzheimer’s in some people,” he says. “Instead of developing it when they’re 70, maybe they’ll develop it when they’re 50 or 40.” Dr. Mousseau holds the Saskatchewan Research Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia. The chair is a partnership among SHRF, the Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan, and the University of Saskatchewan. Each funding partner provides $100,000 per year for five years, while the U of S provides the necessary infrastructure and support. It is the first chair under SHRF’s new Saskatchewan Research Chairs program. Over the next five years of his Chair’s term Mousseau and his team hope to come closer to discovering a way to provide earlier diagnostic measures and prevent Alzheimer’s disease in a significant portion of the population. As Canada’s population ages, finding the cause of and cure for Alzheimer’s disease is expected to become critically important. In its report The Rising Tide, the Alzheimer Society estimates that if nothing is done to stop or slow the disease, by the year 2038 one person will develop Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia every two minutes in Canada. n Dr. Darrell Mousseau and his team will use advanced research tools such as those at the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan to study links among depression, antidepressant drugs, and Alzheimer’s disease. This story and photograph provided courtesy of SHRF. University of Saskatchewan • College of Medicine C O M M U N I Q U É 11
Page 1 and 2: COMMUNIQUé College of Medicine mag
Page 3 and 4: One of the ways the College will be
Page 5 and 6: social ACCOUNtability The Social Ac
Page 7 and 8: Over 50% of medical students spend
Page 9 and 10: The Patient First Review conducted
Page 11: Smart cities, healthy kids For the
Page 15 and 16: must be at the same rigorous, high
Page 17 and 18: Northern Medical Services employs a
Page 19 and 20: CollEGE AWARDS AND HONOURS CollEGE
Page 21 and 22: STUDENT MEDICAl SOCIEty OF SASKAtCH
Page 23 and 24: Aboriginal Coordinator joins the Co
Page 25 and 26: health SCIENCES CAPItal CAMPAIGN E-
Page 27 and 28: Highlights in Medicine Annual Confe

COMMUNIQUé - College of Medicine - University of Saskatchewan

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?