1994-05-12. MUN Gazette, vol. 26, no. 18

              Gazette
Memorial
University of Newfoundland
Volume 26 Number 18
May 12, 1994
Test driving the tractor
Projects approved
for MRC funding
This past December, the Friends of the Memorial University Botanical Garden donated a Kubota LB400
tractor to the facility. President Arthur May gave the machine a test drive shortly before the garden was
officially opened for spring. (L-R) Fred Woodruff, president of Friends of the Garden; Dr. May; and Gerald
Yetman, technical co-ordinator of the botanical garden.
Mr. Yetman said the tractor, valued at approximately $20,000, is used for a variety of purposes, from
preparing soil to moving rocks and mulch. The labor-saving tractor was also used during the winter to clear
snow from areas difficult to access with conventional snowclearing equipment.
The garden is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and visitors are welcome.
Research project
stimulates much debate
Comments in the Globe and Mail cause controversy
By Sharon Gray
Researchers at Memorial have
been awarded Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC)
grants of more than $1.6 million
over three years. New grants totalling $409,211 were approved for
three projects, and renewals were
approved for four projects.
The new MRC grant recipients
are Drs. Laura Gillespie, Gary
Paterno and Ken Kao, all with the
Faculty of Medicine's Terry Fox
Laboratories, and Dr. Chris
Loomis, jointly appointed to medicine and pharmacy.
Drs. Gillespie and Paterno are
investigating fibroblast growth
factors (FGF) and their role in the
regulation of early events in the
vertebrate embryo. Growth factor
action has been linked to oncogenesis — which occurs when
genes turn cells into tumor cells.
By understanding the molecular
mechanism of the cellular response to growth factors, the researchers hope to be able to better
define how misregulation of these
genes can lead to cancer.
Dr. Kao's research also looks at
embryonic development to understand how cancer originates in the
adult. He works with a member of
the Rel oncogene family of proteins, which has been implicated
in leukemia and in AIDS. His specific research is on nuclear factor-
kappa B, a component of the
molecular mechanism that embryonic cells use to decide to become
neural cells in the adult.
The MRC grant to Dr. Chris
Loomis is for a study of pain resulting from injury to the nervous
system. Unlike regular pain, this
type of pain can be triggered by
normally innocuous stimulation
and appears to involve a change in
the processing of sensory information reaching the spinal cord. Dr.
Loomis will investigate whether
the abnormal sensory processing is
a result of damage to glycine- containing neurons in the spinal cord.
MRC renewal grants go this year
to Drs. John Brosnan, James Friel
and David Heeley, all of biochemistry, and Dr. Thomas Michalak,
medicine. Dr. Brosnan is studying
amino acid metabolism and Dr. Friel
is studying ways of meeting the iron
requirements of very low birth
weight infants. Dr. Heeley's research is on movement at the level
of individual protein molecules. Dr.
Michalak is studying the pathogenesis of liver diseases in hepatitis B.
By Pam Frampton
A research grant worth $1.4
million awarded to a team of
researchers at Memorial has attracted much media interest since
it was announced last month.
The grant, funded by the Tri-
Council Eco-Research Program —
financed by the Medical Research
Council, the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council and
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council — will support an intensive three-year
project. The object of the study is
to look at the province's coastal
communities in terms of their ability to sustain themselves in the
face of dwindling natural resources, looking to the people who
live in these communities for ideas
about how their towns survived
past crises. Thirty-three Memorial
researchers representing nursing,
history, earth sciences, geology,
geography, education, biology, sociology, chemistry, ocean sciences,
philosophy, anthropology and economics will be involved in the
project.
Dr. Rosemary Ommer, director
of Memorial's Institute of Social
and Economic Research (ISER), is
leading the project. Her name was
mentioned during a debate in the
provincial legislature on May 2,
by MHA Fabian Manning (PC, St.
Mary's-The Capes). Mr. Manning
said he had been made aware of
comments by Dr. Ommer in the
Globe and Mail four months ago
which he considered derogatory to
Newfoundland, and urged the provincial government to contact the
federal government in an attempt
to get the $1.4 million study
stopped. In a January issue of the
Globe and Mail, Dr. Ommer was
quoted as saying, in effect, that
Newfoundlanders operating bed
and breakfasts needed to be told
that their establishments would require such basics as hot water and
fresh towels in order to be successful. Dr. Ommer has since said
that she was misquoted.
Mr. Manning told the Gazette
that until the Globe and Mail article had been brought to his attention by a constituent, he was not
aware of the sustainability study.
"If the comments that were attributed to Prof. Ommer are correct, the attitude towards rural
Newfoundland just doesn't sit well
with me," he said.
Provincial finance minister
Winston Baker said he wasn't very
familiar with the study at the time
that Mr. Manning raised Dr. Om-
mer's alleged comments in the
House of Assembly. But he said the
province has no plans to intervene
in terms of its funding. He is, however, aware of how the issue has
played prominently in local media
coverage, popping up everywhere
from the six o'clock evening news
on television to late night phone-
in radio shows.
"It's a very emotional thing because of the quote in the Globe
and Mail," Mr. Baker said. "But
all people hear is the quote. They
don't know if it's true and often
they don't know what the study is
about. The only issue is the kind
of damage the Globe and Mail has
done to Newfoundland in several
ways. There have been a number
of articles that have been quite
damaging."
Dr. Ommer agrees with Mr.
Baker on this point. Although currently in Scotland, the researcher
was interviewed by phone on CBC
See CONTROVERSY p. 3
New MRC grant recipients (L-R) Drs. Gary Paterno, Laura Gillespie
and Ken Kao and (sitting) Dr. Chris Loomis.