REACHING OUT...through research

Dr. Proton Rahman	A new gene in psoriatic arthritis has been discovered by a research team led by Dr. Proton Rahman, a rheumatologist with the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial and the Health Care Corporation of St. John's, and Dr. Dafna Gladman of the University of Toronto. Memorial University has filed for a U.S. patent for the novel gene, which focuses on the use of the gene to diagnose psoriatic arthritis. This long-lasting form of arthritis is associated with psoriasis and causes skin rashes and produces painful joint inflammation. Psoriatic arthritis is a less common form of arthritis, occurring in 0.5 to 1 per cent of the population, but in Newfoundland the incidence can occur in 20 to 30 per cent of patients with psoriasis, and can range from being a mild disease to an illness associated with significant morbidity. At present there is no cure for psoriatic arthritis. Patients are treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and occasionally drugs that alter their immune system. There is a growing body of evidence that psoriatic arthritis has a strong genetic component and the homogenous population in Newfoundland provided an ideal setting to identify a novel gene for this disease.
Dr. Guang Sun	Dr. Guang Sun, genetics, is looking at the genetic reason why overweight people seem to have so much trouble losing weight. He is currently doing two studies - one on adipose tissue in response to overfeeding in obese and non-obese subjects, and another on skeletal muscles in obese and non-obese young males. This year he was awarded a three-year grant of over $142,000 per year from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for his unique approach to genetic mechanisms involved in obesity. This is the first large-scale genomic study funded by the CIHR in Newfoundland and Labrador. He also received a $25,000 grant from Memorial University's Medical Research Foundation for his research on skeletal muscle.
Dr. Bridget Fernandez	Geneticist Dr. Bridget Fernandez is leading a team studying familial pulmonary disease, which is fatal without a lung transplant. So far they have identified six Newfoundland families that have two or more members affected by pulmonary fibrosis; there are 122 people enrolled in the study including 26 patients with the disease. There is an unexpected high prevalence of familial pulmonary fibrosis in Newfoundland, which has drawn the attention of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. Newfoundlander Craig Dobbin, who had a single lung transplant at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital six years ago, arranged in June for three researchers from the University of Pennsylvania to meet at Memorial with Dr. Fernandez' team to discuss ongoing cases and further collaboration.
Dr. Dale Corbett	Dr. Dale Corbett, who holds a Senior Canada Research Chair in Stroke and Neuroplasticity, is using novel combinations of intensive rehabilitation, drug therapy and stem cells to enhance brain repair processes following stroke. A new direction of this research relates to depression and stroke. It is possible that antidepressant drugs and related compounds might have direct benefits on recovery by enhancing neuroplasticity processes (e.g. dendritic growth). To test this notion Dr. Corbett is examining the effects of antidepressants in animal models of stroke and he is also working with a group of psychiatrists at Memorial to study the impact of antidepressants on recovery in stroke patients.
Dr. Terry-Lynn Young	Dr. Terry-Lynn Young has specialized expertise in the founder population of Newfoundland. Her current projects concern the genetics of deafness and breast cancer. Working on blood samples from a family identified along Newfoundland's south coast by now-retired Memorial geneticist Dr. Elizabeth Ives, Dr. Young was able to identify the responsible gene. She has also identified the gene responsible for a type of hereditary deafness in another large Newfoundland family. During her postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, she identified 11 mutations in three cancer-susceptibility genes in Newfoundland families with breast and/or ovarian cancer. Her interest in returning to St. John's to continue this research was supported when the Newfoundland and Labrador Cancer Research and Treatment Foundation was able to purchase a DNA sequencer for her laboratory.