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Creating a healthier society |
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Creating a healthier society this year, with impressive government and foundation support, UVic has built on its strengths in health education and research, reaching into new realms of physician education and brain and addictions research that will improve people's physical, mental and emotional well-being., MORE DOCTORS FOR BCUVic is helping address the province's physician shortage by collaborating with the University of British Columbia, the University of Northern BC and the provincial government to implement the new Island Medical Program. Together, these three institutions offering UBC's undergraduate medical degree aim to nearly double the number of medical student spaces in BC by 2010. Dr. Oscar Casiro was appointed head of UVic's new Division of Medical Sciences, which will elcome its first medical students in January 2005 and be housed in the provincially funded $11.9-million Medical Sciences Building recently completed at UVic. The building will be the first on campus to apply for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. COMBATTING ADDICTIONSNew insights into the causes, prevention and treatment of addictions will result from the creation this year of the UVic-led Centre for Addictions Research of BC (CAR-BC). Established with a $10-million endowment from the BC Addictions Foundation and in partnership with other universities across the province, CAR-BC coordinates province- wide, interdisciplinary research into a range of research questions related to substance use. Under the leadership of founding director Dr. Bonnie Leadbeater and internationally renowned current director Dr. Tim Stockwell, the centre focused its activities in its first year on fetal alcohol syndrome, epidemiology of substance use, the relationship between substance use problems and mental illness and the prevention of harm from substance use among youth. PROTEIN RESEARCHThe UVic-Genome BC Proteomics Centre has achieved national status as a resource providing sophisticated proteomics (examinations of the proteins in an organism) and protein chemistry analysis for over 150 laboratories across Canada. Additions to its equipment arsenal this year have enhanced the centre's ability to tackle increasingly difficult proteomics problems, enabling it to expand its support of large-scale research efforts in forestry, fisheries, cancer and other health-related issues. The upgrade was made possible by more than $1 million in funding from the Western Economic Diversification Fund and MDS Metro Laboratory Services, with whom the centre has partnered to develop more accurate medical diagnostics and treatments.
HEALTHY INITIATIVES
Pioneering research on informal health care support services for seniors earned Canada Research Chair in Social Gerontology Dr. Neena Chappell a Career Achievement Award from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC. Dr. Robert Chow, appointed Canada Research Chair in Retinal and Early Eye Development, develops and uses genetic models to understand hereditary human vision disorders and the complex biology of the retina. Dr. Asit Mazumder, NSERC Research Chair on the Environmental Management of Drinking Water, is leading an international study of how molecular and biochemical tools can be used to track bacterial and chemical contamination in drinking water, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Health Canada, Agriculture Canada and private industry. |
brain research
A WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN New lines of mind-brain research are opening up with the establishment of the psychology department's Brain and Cognition Lab and the recruitment of its co-directors, Drs. Jim Tanaka (shown above) and Clay Holroyd. Featuring state-of-the-art equipment, the lab supports a broad range of research exploring the relationships between perception and neurological processes in the brain, the results of which have important implications for understanding such neurological deficits as autism and Parkinson's disease. Funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the facility also provides valuable training opportunities in the methodology and applications of cognitive science for students and post-doctoral fellows.
Dr. Oscar Casiro heads UVic’s new Division of Medical Sciences, established to help address the growing health needs of Vancouver Island and BC.
The UVic Genome BC Proteomics Centre, directed by Dr. Bob Olafson (shown), received major equipment upgrades, keeping it at the forefront of proteomics research in Canada. |
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