Another battlefield against HIV

Posted on April 4, 2019 by | Leave a comment

HIV ( human immunodeficiency virus) is devastating: it has been estimated that over 63,000 people are living with HIV in Canada, that is to say, about 2 in 10,000 Canadians are carriers of HIV. Thanks to the life-saving medications and treatments like antiretroviral therapy (ART), the life expectancy of HIV carriers has been prolonged dramatically. However, these medications/treatments are not preventive, a large number of people are still getting infected every day: about 5,000 people get infected every day globally.

HIV Infection Statistics Source:https://www.flickr.com/photos/gdsdigital/4016463258

Historically, vaccines have been the most effective and cost-efficient weapon to prevent and eradicate infectious diseases like smallpox and measles. People have  assumed that vaccination will be the ultimate solution for HIV/AIDS. However, people haven’t won the battle this time. Scientists still haven’t found a single HIV vaccine that is effective, despite numerous time-consuming and expensive trials and experiments being conducted. The good news is, it is possible to speed up this painful process thanks to the work by Lang Wu and Tingting Yu.

Joint Model for HIV Vaccine Efficacy           URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ4hQeLQMfk

Last year, Professor Wu and his PhD student Tingting Yu at UBC (University of British Columbia) proposed an improved model to test the efficacy of vaccines based on the actual data from a clinical trial. Their work makes it possible to predict the likelihood of a certain individual being infected shortly after he/she gets the vaccination. With this in mind, researchers wouldn’t need to wait for years to tell the efficacy of a vaccine, instead, they could spend more time on developing and modifying new vaccines. Hopefully, this will speed up the development of HIV vaccine. 

On top of that, this model is not restricted to the assessment of the efficacy of HIV vaccines, according to Professor Wu, it can even be applied to predict the efficacy of treatments to other diseases, including cancer.

Written By Zoe Zhou, Xin Dong, Helen Hu, and Cameron Carvalho

 

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New Bird Behaviour Discovered: Exciting Discovery or Boring Fact

Posted on April 4, 2019 by | Leave a comment

We always see birds flying around, but have you actually ever paid attention to what they are doing?

Recent research into bird behaviours has yielded some interesting observations. One such observation is a behaviour that birds in Central and South America displays. This behaviour is called “coordinated misdirection.” Coordinated misdirection was first observed by Alexander Skutch in the 1950s, but it wasn’t until recently that Eric Gulson-Castillo, Harold Greeney, and Benjamin Freeman furthered the study of the behaviour.

Image of a bird resting on top of its nest. Image from https://www.maxpixel.net/static/photo/1x/Feathered-Nature-Finch-Bird-Nest-1721311.jpg

What is coordinated misdirection?

Coordinated misdirection is coordinated diversion method employed as an anti-nest predation behaviour that is performed by a pair of birds. Prior to entering the nest, the two birds would perch around the vicinity of the nest. The birds would then fly towards the nest parallel to each other. As they get to the nest, one of the bird would fly into the nest while the other would proceed to make a diversionary trajectory that catches a predator’s eyes. The birds would later reunite on a perch somewhere else. The nests of these birds are typically dome shaped or hidden in crevices on mountain sides or in trees. This is so that there is more coverage over the nest and that there is only one entrance to the nest, therefore when the birds do this behaviour the nest would be much more easily concealable.

A dome shaped nest with a bird resting on it. Image from https://www.maxpixel.net/static/photo/1x/Bird-Nests-Feathered-Bird-Swallow-1700031.jpg

 

 

Why is this important?

Birds from around the globe would often use different behaviours to distract or fool predators so that their nest would have a higher surviving chance such as the broken-wing behaviour. This behaviour is similar to coordinated misdirection since they are both distraction behaviours that the birds would display to try to lead the predators away from their nests thus allowing the eggs to have a higher survival chance.

Toucans are one of the main nest predators in the Tropics. Image from https://www.maxpixel.net/static/photo/1x/Jungle-Keel-Billed-Toucan-Costa-Rica-Forest-1080724.jpg

One disadvantage about these displays is that it would typically only be useful for predators that use their vision such as monkeys or toucans. Therefore in essence, it is completely useless for predators that uses other ways to find nests such as snakes that uses scents.

In our interview, Dr. Freeman said:

“Behaviours that birds will do to protect their eggs and babies are much broader than previously thought”

This tells us that there are still a lot more that we can study from birds and that it would take a lot more effort to understand the effects and causation of a bird’s behaviour.

Nest predation will always be a main concern for birds. Consequently as time goes by, birds will evolve even better ways to prevent nest predation.

Group 4

Gloria Chan, Riley Cox, Fan Feng, Jonathan Kraft

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Outreach Project, Science Communication

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Vaccine Hesitancy: A Morbid Misconception

Posted on March 18, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Throughout history, medical innovations and advancements have drastically improved human survival rates and standard of living. A prominent discovery vaccines, which effectively make us immune against widespread deadly diseases of the past. However, the potential effects of vaccines has recently been under scrutiny, giving rise to “vaccine hesitancy”. The question arises, is there sufficient evidence to suggest that vaccines are dangerous?

Vaccines: A Short Overview

A vaccine is a substance that works to give you immunity to a specific disease. In short, they give your body the blueprints of how to fight a disease, without actually contracting the disease. Thus, vaccines are a precautionary measure to reduce the chance that the disease will cause you harm.

This video above gives a great explanation of how vaccines work
Source: Vaccine Knowledge Project
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=86&v=-muIoWofsCE

Pros of Vaccines

Since the introduction of vaccines, the devastating effect of diseases has been reduced to a near null. Although some diseases continue to live on (e.g. measles), many have been completely eradicated (e.g. smallpox). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that vaccines prevent 2-3 million deaths per year, and describes it as one of the most cost-effective healthcare strategies.

Cons of Vaccines

There are some potential down sides to getting vaccinated. For example, vaccines can cause unwanted side effects, such as mild to high fever, and even death in extremely rare cases. However, these negative aspects are insignificant compared to the massively beneficial impact of vaccines.

Fichier:Providing vaccinations to protect against disease after Typhoon Haiyan (11352296333).jpg

The picture above depicts a child receiving a vaccine after a typhoon in the Philippines URL: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Providing_vaccinations_to_protect_against_disease_after_Typhoon_Haiyan_(11352296333).jpg

Vaccine hesitancy: Rooted in Pseudo-science

Despite the resoundingly positive effect of vaccines, there is widespread ideology known as “vaccine hesitancy”. This term depicts the tendency for people to delay or refuse receiving vaccinations due to safety concerns. According to the WHO, vaccine hesitancy movement is in the top ten global health threats of 2019. The main root of safety concern stems from a collection of small studies carried out in the 1990s. One study in particular claimed that there was a causation between the measles vaccine and the development of autism, however no future studies have found these results. This lone study continues to be referenced today to claim that vaccines will lead to autism.

The Real Effects of Fake Science

The result is simple, less people, specifically children, are getting vaccinated, which leads to some serious issues. For example, there is currently a measles outbreak in Vancouver  due to insufficient immunization. This is not surprising. Since measles still exists in other places of the world, it can easily be brought here via plane-ride and latch on to someone who is not immune to it, leading to an outbreak.

Fichier:Providing vaccinations to protect against disease after Typhoon Haiyan (11352296333).jpg

This photo shows a vaccine being injected to a patient’s shoulder  URL: https://www.laughlin.af.mil/News/Art/igphoto/2001819271/

Vaccinate you and your kids!

Although vaccinations are ultimately a choice made by each individual, it is important to consider the potential consequences of not getting vaccinated, to yourself, and to your fellow community.

Written by: Juan Gomez

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