Research and Scholarship Days

Camryn Moline

Differentiation Dilemma: How the mode of induction of differentiation affects myogenin gene expression in C2C12 myoblsats

Faculty: Science and Technology 

Program: Biology 

Supervisors: Laura Atkinson & Beth Richardson

Camryn Moline is a biology student wrapping up her fourth year of a Bachelor of Science degree. Over the past two years, Moline has been working on a research project with her supervisors, Laura Atkinson and Beth Richardson, investigating the effects of scientific methods on cell differentiation.  

Atkinson spent time in the pharmaceutical industry before coming to Mount Royal and noticed the wide variety of methods used by scientists and researchers to differentiate cells. Thinking the discrepancies were worthy of further study, Atkinson embarked on a research project to investigate the effects of these varying methods of cell differentiation.

 Differentiation is a part of the lifecycle of a cell, which starts with proliferation, where the cells start growing. Differentiation is a graduation, where they become mature, fully functioning cells.

Differentiation is often studied in relation to conditions like muscular dystrophy or other degenerative health issues. It is a key process studied in relation to drug discovery as well. Understanding how cells mature and become fully functioning can be important for understanding the effects of debilitating health issues.

In this research project, the team used a muscle cell line called C2C12 as their primary subject for testing methods of inducing differentiation.

In her literature review, Moline surveyed 520 papers. Across those papers, she found 12 described methods of growing cells and 20 methods of inducing differentiation, which highlighted the discrepancies already noticed by Atkinson. Moline notes that such a wide array of methods makes it hard to create a consistent standard of how to induce differentiation in cells.

After the literature review, the team took to the lab to test serum-based methods of differentiation. It was found that the various serum-based methods tested were not equivalent. Depending on the method of inducing differentiation, the team observed varied rates of cell development.

The team also found that myogenin, a gene commonly used to track differentiation, responded to changes in the environment, making it not as effective a marker as typically thought. Moline hopes the findings, once published, will help create changes in how cell differentiation is tracked in labs.

“The biggest impact of the work is calling for scientists to reflect, to be thinking about their methods and why they are using them,” Moline says.

 

Caden Albright, James La, Micah Ignacio & Aimee Williams

Stability and Activity of a Novel Antimicrobial Peptide, Corynacin, A Potential Biopreservative

Faculty: Science and Technology 

Program: Chemistry

Supervisors:  Jeella Acedo & Nausheen Sadiq

A growing concern in the world of medicine is the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria. Bacteria are becoming more resistant and adapting to commonly used antimicrobials like Penicillin. Recent literature forecasts that there could be 10 million deaths worldwide per year due to AMR by 2050.

At Mount Royal University, Jeella Acedo and a group of students are researching novel antimicrobials that could supplement currently used medicine to help prevent such dire predictions. Caden Albright is one of the students assisting with the research on this project. Together with Acedo’s team, they are researching the effectiveness of the peptide Corynacin.

Their results have proven very promising so far, with Corynacin being efficacious against a wide array of bacteria in varying conditions.

Albright helped test the stability of Corynacin in a wide variety of food-like conditions, exposing it to salt and varying temperature and pH levels. It remained stable and proved efficacious against bacteria in all of those conditions, meaning it could be used as a biopreservative for food. Additionally, it could possibly be used as a therapeutic for antibiotics that can be applied topically.

Future research will explore how it works in conjunction with other antibiotics, and will be tested further against class two bacteria, which are bacteria more likely to be infectious, especially among people with compromised immune systems. It has proven effective at a basic level, and the hope is that it can be added to the arsenal of antimicrobials for more serious cases.

“It’s a powerful tool to prevent a lot of damage that can happen down the road due to the development of antimicrobial resistance,” Albright says.

Dawson Sheehan

Enhancing Elder Abuse Detection: Nurse-Administered Screening Tools in Emergency Departments

Faculty: Health, Community & Education

Program: Nursing

Supervisor: Mohamed El Hussein

Elder abuse is an often overlooked and under-researched issue that is multifaced, manifesting in a variety of ways, from physical and emotional abuse to financial exploitation.  

For third-year nursing student Dawson Sheehan, this is a critical issue that nurses will be at the forefront of responding to, which sparked his interest in researching the topic.

Sheehan began researching elder abuse when he joined Mount Royal researcher Mohamed El Hussein during his Summer Research Studentship with Alberta Innovates. The project involved performing a scoping literature review to identify existing screening tools used to detect elder abuse in emergency departments.

Upon reviewing the literature from the past 25 years, Sheehan helped identify six different screening tools used by nurses in emergency departments. Each tool has its advantages and limitations. As Sheehan pointed out, elder abuse can be difficult to detect. Barriers to detection include varying presentations of elder abuse across geographical locations.

Because of the difficulty in detecting elder abuse and the variation in screening tools, Sheehan hopes this research can eventually lead to a standardized screening tool that is the gold standard used globally.

“Dr. El Hussein and I can potentially bring a solution or make some key recommendations that can help address this global health issue,” Sheehan says.

The standardized screening tool would need to be developed in consultation with bedside nurses, as they are the frontline in detecting elder abuse cases. They spend the most time with patients and build a rapport with them.

Other characteristics include short questionnaires for patients that are three to seven questions long so a nurses' time is not monopolized by one patient in a busy emergency setting. There also needs to be response protocols that cover all range of cases.

As the Canadian population continues to age, elder abuse will become a more prevalent issue that requires more research and resources to respond to adequately. Sheehan hopes that this research contributes to the response.

Dawson and El Hussein published their findings in Journal of Advanced Nursing, which can be found here. 

Boston Shipley & Spencer Mathews

Prevalence in the Line of Duty: Career vs. Volunteer First Responders

Faculty: Arts

Program: Psychology

Supervisors: Dan Devoe & Shawn Crawford 

When Psychology student Boston Shipley was trying to decide what research he wanted to perform for his honours program, he noticed a lack of research into the mental wellbeing of volunteer first responders.

Existing literature has already found that career first responders have a significantly higher prevalence of mental health disorders compared to civilians. However, there was little research done to determine whether this was true for volunteer first responders. As a volunteer search and rescue member himself, Shipley decided to fill in this gap in the literature. This is also crucial as volunteers make up a large portion of first responders. Shipley states that in Western countries, 70 per cent of firefighters are made up of volunteers.

 The goal of the research project was to run a comparison of prevalence rates of psychological disorders between volunteer and career first responders.

To do that, Shipley performed a systematic review, scanning previous literature. Shipley then performed a meta-analysis of the literature that met the scan criteria. Doing so, Shipley was able to compile prevalence rates of psychological disorders for volunteer vs. career first responders.

The meta-analysis backed up previous research findings showing that first responders have a significantly higher prevalence of mental health disorders compared to civilians. When comparing volunteers to civilians, volunteers showed similarly significant rates of mental health disorders as career responders did.

This includes higher rates of depressive symptoms, post-traumatic symptoms, anxiety and alcohol use. “It was pretty alarming,” Shipley says.

In the future, Shipley hopes that when research is done on this topic, the distinction is made between career and volunteer responders. This will hopefully determine if the two groups of first responders show differences in prevalence and types of mental health disorders.

Shipley has shared his results with the Alberta Search and Rescue Society and Canadian Ski Patrol Society, whose members are all volunteers. Shipley hopes to share more research with them in the future.

Alicia Whitney, Adrianna Guevara, Amber Horton, Anisha Sandhu, Logan Smolnicky, Niko Jugovic, Olii Araga & Ria Tandon  

MRU Parking

Faculty: Business, Communication Studies & Aviation

Program: Marketing

Supervisor: Irina Dovbischuk

 Parking and how it is managed can be a contentious issue anywhere. It’s why Amber Horton and her group decided to research MRUs parking situation.

Horton’s group was asked to perform research for a class that involved investigating a system at MRU through a supply chain management lens and then suggesting improvements. They decided to examine parking.

This involved determining how parking is operated on campus, what student sentiment around parking was, and then comparing that to other universities in Calgary. The research also involved performing a literature scan of other university parking systems to examine the effectiveness of possible solutions.

To illustrate the current state of parking at MRU, the team compiled their findings on MRU parking into an Ishikawa (fish-bone) diagram. This diagram demonstrates the causes and effects within a system.

Some frustrations expressed included student permit holders unable to reliably find a parking spot in the lot they held a permit for and which they had spent hundreds of dollars on.

Possible solutions found by examining other Calgary universities and looking at the literature included reinstalling the arms in front of the parking garage and other permit lots, as well as real-time availability monitor displays to direct traffic away from the busiest areas.

Horton noted that she did understand the financial constraints to installing infrastructure like that, along with other challenges like the fact that MRU has worse transit accessibility than SAIT and the University of Calgary, meaning more vehicle traffic is to be expected.

During research and scholarship days presentations, Horton’s group discussed their poster and research with an MRU parking staff member and later shared their research results with MRU parking. Horton hopes she’ll be able to continue researching and providing solutions for this issue.