Caitlin McNamee-Lamb / en Risk of suicide remains high even years after failed attempt /news/risk-suicide-remains-high-even-years-after-failed-attempt <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Risk of suicide remains high even years after failed attempt </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-04-02T05:01:01-04:00" title="Thursday, April 2, 2015 - 05:01" class="datetime">Thu, 04/02/2015 - 05:01</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(photo by Ben Harvey via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/caitlin-mcnamee-lamb" hreflang="en">Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item"> Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/hospital" hreflang="en">Hospital</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/hospital-sick-children" hreflang="en">Hospital for Sick Children</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/health" hreflang="en">Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">“Most individuals who eventually died by suicide used more violent methods on subsequent attempts"</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> People who survive a first attempt at suicide by poisoning are 42 times more likely than the general population to kill themselves by poisoning eventually, say the authors of the world's largest suicide-risk study.</p> <p> “The durable risk of suicide long after the first self-poisoning episode suggests that to save lives we may need ongoing sustained initiatives," said Associate Professor <strong>Yaron Finkelstein</strong>, lead author of the study. “Most individuals who eventually died by suicide used more violent methods on subsequent attempts, and only seven&nbsp;per cent of them reached hospital alive.”</p> <p> Researchers at the University of Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, based the study on&nbsp;more than 65,000 people who survived a self-poisoning episode&nbsp;– including adults and children.&nbsp;The results were published&nbsp;in the <a href="http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2211890">April 1 online edition of&nbsp;<em>JAMA Psychiatry</em></a>.</p> <p> Researchers tracked every person who presented to an emergency department in Ontario for self-poisoning between April 2002 and December 2010. They&nbsp;found that&nbsp;the risk of death from accidents was 10 times higher following self-poisoning.&nbsp;</p> <p> This suggests that the first episode of deliberate self-poisoning is a strong predictor for subsequent suicide and premature death.&nbsp;</p> <p> ”The hope is that our findings can be used to target this high-risk group and that it may influence suicide-prevention strategies to include long-term follow-up and efforts,” said Dr.&nbsp;Finkelstein, an associate professor of paediatrics, pharmacology and toxicology at Թϱ and staff physician in paediatric emergency medicine, and clinical pharmacology and toxicology, and associate scientist at SickKids.&nbsp;</p> <p> In Canada, suicide is the second leading cause of death in individuals aged 15 to 35 years, yet prevention efforts have remained a challenge, because the long-term outcomes following suicide attempts have not been well characterized. The present study also identified population-level suicide risk factors, which include being male, having engaged in multiple self-poisonings, higher socioeconomic status, a diagnosis of depression and psychiatric care in the year preceding the first self-poisoning episode.&nbsp;</p> <p> “Previous research has largely focused on short-term studies of patients with known psychiatric conditions in individual health-care centres,<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">”</span> said Finkelstein. <span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">“</span>However, no one has looked at the entire population including both patients with diagnosed mental health conditions as well as everyone else in the community.</p> <p> “Additionally, this is the first study to focus exclusively on individuals with a first presentation for self-poisoning. More research is required, and our multidisciplinary team is working hard to dig deeper, and is focusing on the vulnerable group of teenagers, as well as subsequent self-harm behaviours.”&nbsp;</p> <p> Dr.&nbsp;<strong>David Juurlink</strong>, the study's senior author, is professor of medicine, pediatrics, and health policy, management, and evaluation at Թϱ, senior scientist at ICES, and head of the&nbsp;division of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at&nbsp;Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.&nbsp;</p> <p> “It’s surprising how little we know about long-term outcomes after a first self-poisoning episode.” said Juurlink.&nbsp;“By following a very large group of patients over a long period of time, this study demonstrates that the risk of suicide remains elevated long after a first attempt. The implication of this is that suicide prevention efforts in these patients must also be sustained.”&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-04-02-suicide.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 02 Apr 2015 09:01:01 +0000 sgupta 6924 at Թϱ and SickKids first to grow lung cells using stem cell technology /news/u-t-and-sickkids-first-grow-lung-cells-using-stem-cell-technology <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Թϱ and SickKids first to grow lung cells using stem cell technology</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2012-08-27T11:52:27-04:00" title="Monday, August 27, 2012 - 11:52" class="datetime">Mon, 08/27/2012 - 11:52</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Dr. Janet Rossant, a professor in the Departments of Molecular Genetics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology (photo courtesy of SickKids)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/caitlin-mcnamee-lamb" hreflang="en">Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Novel research may advance individualized medicine for cystic fibrosis patients</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) are paving the way towards individualized medicine for patients with cystic fibrosis.&nbsp;</p> <p>It is the first study to successfully use stem cells to produce mature lung cells that could potentially be used to study cystic fibrosis and test drugs.</p> <p>“This study shows the major impact stem cell research can have on the field of individualized medicine,” says Dr. <strong>Janet Rossant</strong>, a professor in the Departments of Molecular Genetics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology, principal investigator of the study and chief of research at SickKids. “It is a promising move toward targeted therapy for patients with cystic fibrosis.”</p> <p>Researchers were able to induce human embryonic stem cells to become mature lung cells, which contained the CFTR gene. The gene, discovered at SickKids in 1989, is responsible for cystic fibrosis when mutated.</p> <p>To create the lung cells, researchers used an induced pluripotent stem cells (adult cells genetically induced to function like embryonic stem cells) derived from the skin of patients with cystic fibrosis. They prompted these stem cells to become lung cells, which contain mutations specific to the patients involved.<br> <br> Once researchers found that they could create lung cells derived from individual patients they then used a compound that resembles an investigational drug that is currently being tested for cystic fibrosis to see if it would rescue the CFTR gene mutation.</p> <p>If the lung cells of a particular patient can be generated then tests could also be done to evaluate the effectiveness of specific drugs on individual patient’s cells, says Rossant.</p> <p>If the drug is effective in vitro, then the next step would be to see if it works on the patient.</p> <p>Prior to this year, the only therapies available for patients with cystic fibrosis have targeted the symptoms (like infection and digestive disorders) rather than the CFTR gene mutation.</p> <p>“More recently there has been a paradigm shift and now drugs are being developed to target the mutant CFTR specifically,” says <strong>Christine Bear</strong>, a co-investigator of the study, co-director of the SickKids Cystic Fibrosis Centre and senior scientist in Molecular Structure and Function at SickKids.</p> <p>“However, every patient is unique, so one drug isn’t necessarily going to work on all patients with the same disease,” says Bear. “Take cancer as an example, each individual responds differently to each treatment. For some, a certain drug works, and for others it doesn’t. This tells us that we need to be prepared to find the best option for that individual patient.”<br> <br> In this particular study, the compound used did not work in all of the derived cell lines. This finding further emphasizes the need for individualized medicine, says Bear.<br> <br> Researchers say the next step is to perfect the method of generating epithelial lung cells, so that the process is more efficient and can be used to investigate other genetic diseases.<br> <br> The study is published in the August 26 advance online edition of <em>Nature Biotechnology</em>.</p> <p>This research was funded by an Emerging Team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, an Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation grant, and SickKids Foundation.<br> <br> &nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/Janet_Rossant_12-08-27.jpg</div> </div> Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:52:27 +0000 sgupta 4392 at Treating brain cancer in children /news/treating-brain-cancer-children <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Treating brain cancer in children</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2012-07-25T07:57:38-04:00" title="Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - 07:57" class="datetime">Wed, 07/25/2012 - 07:57</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Researchers at Թϱ and SickKids may spark a major shift in treating children with certain brain cancers (Bigstock photo)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/caitlin-mcnamee-lamb" hreflang="en">Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Study finds important differences between tumours</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>An international collaboration led by a team from the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Kids (SickKids) may spark a major shift in treating children with certain brain cancers.</p> <p>“This is exciting but also daunting,” says Dr. <strong>Eric Bouffet</strong>, professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. “What we found suggests a huge shift in the way clinicians work and think about medulloblastoma.”</p> <p>The most common malignant brain tumour in children, medulloblastoma affects 30 to 40 children in Canada each year. And with four different types of medulloblastoma, each case is even rarer – making it difficult for doctors to determine the best treatments for individual patients.</p> <p>But that may change, thanks to Medulloblastoma Advanced Genomics International Consortium (MAGIC), which brought together scientists and physicians from 46 institutions across the globe to study more than 1,000 medulloblastoma tumours - an unprecedented number of samples.</p> <p>Their findings are published in the July 25 advance online edition of <em>Nature</em>.</p> <p>“By studying over 1,000 samples we now better understand the four groups and can therefore identify them faster and treat them more specifically,” says Dr. <strong>Michael Taylor</strong>, Associate Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto.</p> <p>Today, the standard treatment for medulloblastoma is the same for each patient. It includes nonspecific therapies such as surgery, radiation and aggressive chemotherapy. While the five-year survival rate is 70 to 85 per cent, the effects of such treatments on the developing brain mean children are often left with significant neurological, intellectual and physical disabilities.</p> <p>“By learning more about each of the four types of medulloblastoma tumours, we’re moving into an era where we will be able to use targeted treatments that will hopefully kill the tumour and leave the normal developing brain unharmed,” says Taylor, Principal Investigator of the study, SickKids Neurosurgeon, Scientist in Developmental &amp; Stem Cell Biology at SickKids Research Institute and at The Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre.</p> <p>In the new study, researchers identified several clinical and genetic differences in each group which suggests that each group may require separate therapeutic strategies.</p> <p>For example, the research suggests radiation may not be necessary in some medulloblastomas that arise in teenagers, says&nbsp;Bouffet, Director of the Paediatric Neuro-oncology program in the Division of Haematology/Oncology at SickKids, Senior Associate Scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences at SickKids Research Institute.</p> <p>“Radiation has been part of the standard treatment for years, so eliminating radiation in this group of patients is a decision that will not be taken lightly,” Bouffet says. “We will need to lead this change with new innovative clinical strategies.”</p> <p>Analysis of these tumours also revealed that, in some cases, the genetics of medulloblastoma are similar to some more common adult tumours, which means there may be potential “new” treatments already available.</p> <p>“There are drugs that are currently being used to treat the adult tumours that could potentially be used to treat a specific group of paediatric patients with medulloblastoma,” says Taylor. “Developing new drugs can take upwards of 10 years, but if a drug already exists this would reduce the time significantly and enable patients to access it sooner.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Additionally, a gene known to play a role in an adult condition, Parkinson’s disease, has now also been shown to be important in childhood medulloblastoma.</p> <p>“If you have too little of this gene, you get Parkinson’s disease, if you have too much, you develop brain cancer (medulloblastoma),” explains Taylor.</p> <p>The link between Parkinson’s disease and childhood brain cancer had not previously been identified.</p> <p>These are just three examples of the many discoveries that were possible through international collaboration and major advancements in technology. Future research and clinical changes will also require this kind of collaboration.</p> <p>“It seems more and more that not all medulloblastoma groups need the same intensity of treatment,” says Bouffet. “We have a unique opportunity to change the odds and move away from traditional treatment.</p> <p>“We hope that these findings will enable us to identify and categorize medulloblastoma very quickly and then allocate a specific treatment for each individual patient.”</p> <p>The study was supported by the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and the National Institutes of Health; Genome Canada, Genome BC; the Terry Fox Research Institute; the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario; the Canadian Cancer Society; funds from ‘The Family of Kathleen Lorette’ and the Clark H. Smith Brain Tumour Centre; the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation; the Sonia and Arthur Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, Chief of Research Fund, Cancer Genetics Program, Garron Family Cancer Centre, b.r.a.i.n.child at SickKids; the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; the McLaughlin Centre at the University of Toronto; CIHR Institute of Cancer Research and C17 through the Advancing Technology Innovation through Discovery competition; and SickKids Foundation.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/kids_braintumours_12-07-25.jpg</div> </div> Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:57:38 +0000 sgupta 4322 at Common diabetes drug promotes development of brain stem cells /news/common-diabetes-drug-promotes-development-brain-stem-cells <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Common diabetes drug promotes development of brain stem cells</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2012-07-05T12:46:27-04:00" title="Thursday, July 5, 2012 - 12:46" class="datetime">Thu, 07/05/2012 - 12:46</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Professor Freda Miller led the research team that discovered metformin can help transform brain stem cells</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/caitlin-mcnamee-lamb" hreflang="en">Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Caitlin McNamee-Lamb</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/stem-cells" hreflang="en">Stem Cells</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/health" hreflang="en">Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>It’s a discovery that could lead to new therapies for people with brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases: a common diabetes drug can help turn brain stem cells into nerve cells.</p> <p>The study, led by Dr. <strong>Freda Miller</strong>, Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto and Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is published in the July 5 advance online edition of <em>Cell Stem Cell</em>.</p> <p>“If you could take stem cells that normally reside in our brains and somehow use drugs to recruit them into becoming appropriate neural cell types, then you may be able to promote repair and recovery in at least some of the many brain disorders and injuries for which we currently have no treatment,” says Miller.</p> <p>Researchers found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat Type II diabetes, can help trigger the pathway used to instruct stem cells in the brain to become neural (nerve) cells. Brain stem cells and the neural cells they generate play a role in the repair of the injured or degenerating brain.</p> <p>The study suggests a novel therapeutic approach to treating people with brain injuries or potentially even neurodegenerative diseases.</p> <p>The research team says it was serendipity that led them to this study. About a year and a half ago, they found a pathway known as PKC-CBP that signalled embryonic neural stem cells to make neurons. Around the same time their collaborators from Johns Hopkins Medicine found that the same pathway was activated by metformin in liver cells; this was how metformin controlled glucose levels.</p> <p>On the basis of these findings, Miller’s team thought that perhaps metformin would activate the same pathway in neural stem cells, and would provide a way to enhance neural stem cell function in the brain.</p> <p>Their hunch turned out to be correct. The researchers found metformin promoted differentiation of human and mouse neural stem cells in culture. In adult mice, metformin was found to increase the development of new neurons in the brain and when mice performed water maze tests, metformin was found to increase their ability to learn and remember.&nbsp;</p> <p>Because metformin is already a commonly-used drug, clinical trials may not be very far off.&nbsp;</p> <p>“As a next step, we would be interested to see if individuals with acquired brain injury might benefit from taking metformin,” says Miller.</p> <p>Watch a video of Miller explaining the discovery <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHho7SttLzo&amp;feature=youtu.be">here</a>.</p> <p>Funding was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Stem Cell Network, the Three To Be Foundation, the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and SickKids Foundation.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/Freda-Miller_12_07_05.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:46:27 +0000 sgupta 4276 at