McIARS mixes it up with poster session and partnership potential

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/mciars-poster1.jpg” caption=”Esther Eapen, a second-year M.Sc. student in medical sciences, explains her poster on body-fat composition of children treated with anti-epileptic drugs to Nisha Sivagurunathan, also a second-year M.Sc. student in medical sciences. Photo by Susan Bubak.”]The McMaster Institute of Applied Radiation Sciences (McIARS) is sponsoring today's informal poster session and mixer, highlighting the capabilities and potential of one of three core facilities at the heart of McIARS.

The McMaster Accelerator Laboratory (MAL) will be front and centre at this inaugural event, focusing on the Laboratory's strengths in facilitating body composition research.

“Whether it's researchers in kinesiology exploring muscle degeneration, or health scientists conducting obesity or cancer research, this event provides an opportunity to meet casually with other faculty, staff and students engaged in similar fields of research,” says John Valliant, McIARS acting director.

Valliant, an associate professor appointed jointly between the departments of Chemistry and Medical Physics & Applied Radiation Sciences, knows that face to face interaction is often where new ideas develop and promising collaborations occur. He's keen on giving McMaster's scientific community a better picture of what facilities like MAL can do and will do for researchers.

The accelerator laboratory is used extensively to measure the trace and major element content of the human body, allowing researchers to analyze the composition of living people non-invasively. Medical physicist David Chettle has used MAL's capabilities to measure levels of elements such as lead, cadmium, manganese, arsenic and strontium in people who may have suffered chronic exposures either through their place of work or in the environment.

MAL is also used to investigate the impact of radiation on tissue and the positive health effects of small priming doses of radiation that can actually help a cell's repair mechanism — research that translates to potential cancer therapies.

Obesity — now regarded as a growing epidemic — can be researched at MAL by using the facility to determine body fat composition, or how body composition changes in relation to diet or exercise.

“MAL is a unique facility on campus that can adapt its core technologies to suit the research,” says Valliant. “One of its greatest assets is the skilled and passionate team behind its success — we plan on making this an annual event to make researchers aware of this resource.”

Today's poster session and mixer will take place between 2 and 6 p.m. in the McMaster University Student Centre Marketplace. Undergraduate and graduate students, staff and faculty are all welcome to attend.

David Chettle, associate dean of research and external relations for the Faculty of Science, will provide a brief overview of MAL and body composition research and highlight the need for better linkages to the research done in kinesiology, nuclear medicine, obesity and cancer at 2:30 p.m.