Daily News

Posted on May 6: McMaster University vector laboratory a first for Canada

For scientists, creating new vaccines to treat diseases such as cancer is only part of the puzzle. Equally important are the vectors or delivery agents that will be used to transport the vaccines into a patient's body. This is a complex process and, until now, there has been no university facility in Canada able to develop vectors suitable for use in people. Scientists have had to go to the United States and wait in line for laboratory space. Thanks to a $1-million gift from McMaster alumni Robert Fitzhenry to support gene therapeutic research, McMaster University is firmly on the path to a new era in medical discovery. His gift will establish the Robert E. Fitzhenry Vector Laboratory as the first Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) laboratory in Canada capable of producing vectors for use in clinical trials for patients. GMP is a set of regulations that ensure the identity, potency, safety and purity of pharmaceutical products. "I was overwhelmed when I learned what a huge stride forward the establishment of this vector laboratory would represent, not only for McMaster but for medical researchers across Canada who would now have access to Canadian produced vectors," said Fitzhenry, the former vice chair & COO of Woodbridge Foam Corporation in Mississauga, and a graduate of McMaster University in political economy.

Posted on May 6: Older may be wiser when it comes to mothering

Does older mean wiser? When it comes to motherhood for Mongolian gerbils, the answer is apparently yes. In her studies of these small mammals, McMaster University researcher Mertice Clark has found that the older a mother is, the more time she spends with her offspring and, perhaps as a result of that increased attention, the healthier her pups are. Clark, an adjunct professor in the department of psychology, explains, "Maternal effort increases with age. Older Mongolian gerbil mothers invest more in their offspring." To determine the effect of age on maternal effort, researchers divided 48 gerbils into four groups determined by age. Females were 35, 70, 90, and 120 days old. By observing the mothers with their babies, researchers found that the older a gerbil was, the more devoted she was to her offspring.

Posted on May 5: Mothers offer first line of defense for offspring

It's a mother's job to protect her children, teaching them to look both ways before they cross the street and not to talk to strangers. In the waters of Lake Tanganyika in Africa there are no streets to cross, but there are plenty of other threats that a mother fish must protect her offspring from. Sigal Balshine, assistant professor of psychology at McMaster University, along with her graduate students, has been studying tiny fish from Lake Tanganyika called cichlids, trying to understand why some parents aggressively defend their young from predators and other parents defend less vigorously. The species of fish studied by Balshine are co-operative breeders. Like wolves or some primates, these fish live in groups made up of two breeding fish (male and female) and up to 14 helpers. In some groups, parents work hard, carefully tending the eggs, cleaning their territories, and fiercely defending their young. In other groups, parents do little, allowing the "helpers" to take on the lion's share of the workload. Balshine and her students are examining the genes, hormones, brains and environmental surroundings of these fish to try to understand how different levels of parental care evolve.