In Research Reporting Online we’ll tell you about recent research and funding successes, major happenings, and new investigators at the institute, as well as reminders about key grant deadlines, upcoming events and other valuable tips and advice. If a story interests you, ‘click through’ to read the rest. You’ll be linked to the full newsletter on the institute’s website, where we’ll also keep back issues archived.

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Several underground mechanical, electrical and communication utilities will also be re-routed. These will be placed and connected following standard procedures to ensure uninterrupted service to all users on site throughout the construction period.

Effective January 1, 2005, Michael Aeberhardt, the institute’s Director of Operations, will devote the majority of his time to managing the building project. Michael will continue to have overall responsibility for Operations; extra personnel to assist him will be hired in the New Year. The institute thanks David Nesbitt, former C&W Planning Project Manager who has recently taken on a new role with a private firm, for his devotion and hard work toward our building project to date.

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This first competition of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s new Research Hospital Fund distributes $61 million funding for equipment and facilities to support 12 projects at eight institutions. The aim was to build on hospital infrastructure projects successful in the CFI’s 2004 Innovation Fund competition, which included the Centre for Disease Modelling based at the University of British Columbia (UBC). This Research Hospital Fund application provides researchers at other campuses in Vancouver, including those at the institute, with expanded access to disease modelling facilities.

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Infectious & Inflammatory Diseases researchers conduct province-wide Hepatitis A mail survey

• Researchers at the institute’s Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) have partnered with the Brain Research Centre (Vancouver Coastal Health and UBC) and discovered an enzyme in mammals crucial to the trafficking of proteins in the central nervous system. The enzyme HIP14 is a palmitoyl transferase that adds signalling molecules to proteins, resulting in their transportation to locations where they perform essential functions. How mammalian proteins become palmitoylated was previously not known. Dr. Michael Hayden and his research team at CMMT worked with Brain Research Centre’s Dr. Alaa El-Husseini and team on the project. They also discovered that in the absence of the HIP14 enzyme, proteins were not transported to necessary cellular locations. This change in protein trafficking is thought to result in severe neuronal dysfunction and may be a mechanism underlying Alzheimer’s, Huntington and Parkinson’s diseases. The research was published in Neuron, Vol. 44, 977-986, December 16, 2004.

• Starting this month, Drs. Jan Ochnio and David Scheifele of the institute’s Infectious & Inflammatory Diseases Research Program are conducting a province-wide mail-based survey of Hepatitis A virus (HAV) past infections. HAV is the most common viral liver disease in Canada. The researchers will work with Ipsos-Reid to distribute saliva collection kits to the representative sample of 5 to 49 years old British Columbians. Saliva will be assessed for presence of infection marker (HAV-specific immunoglobulin G) while a brief questionnaire will provide an insight into potential risk factors for acquiring HAV. The data will allow better estimation of the true burden of HAV infections, and help determine public health strategies such as optimal use of the newly available HAV vaccines. The study is a follow-up to a pilot project conducted in 2003, which determined that a mail-based approach to population sampling in Canada is feasible.

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:: Michael Klein Named Family Medicine Researcher of Year

Dr. Michael Klein, UBC Professor Emeritus Family Practice and Pediatrics, and Senior Researcher with the Research Institute’s Centre for Community Child Health Research has been named Family Physician Researcher of the Year by The College of Family Physicians of Canada.

The award recognizes a family medicine researcher who has made original contributions to research and been a pivotal force in the definition, development and dissemination of concepts central to the discipline of family medicine in Canada. The award was presented to Dr. Klein in November at the 50th Anniversary of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

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