2021 Vanier Scholars
Named after Major-General Georges P. Vanier, the first francophone Governor General of Canada, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS) is one of Canada's most prestigious national awards programs for highly qualified doctoral students.
We are proud to acknowledge the 2021 Vanier Scholars who are studying and working with us at the University of Alberta.
Emma Atkinson, Biological Sciences
Investigating the Enigmatic Lives of Spot Prawns and their Fishery Using Theoretical Models and Fieldwork
A fundamental understanding of the biology of a species is both intrinsically important and imperative to maintaining healthy populations under harvesting pressure. Globally, as some marine fisheries collapse and others expand, the role of rigorous scientific investigation connected to fisheries management and governance has never been more important. My research investigates the biologically enigmatic spot prawn in British Columbia (BC) using theoretical models and fieldwork, informed by collaborative relationships with fishers, fishery managers, and Indigenous titleholders. Spot prawns live in deep water on the sea bed off the coast of BC and begin life as males before transitioning to females for the final year or two of their life. Despite their importance to humans as a commercial fishery, we know relatively little about the fundamental biology of spot prawns. How does their hermaphroditic (two-sex) life cycle affect the way their populations change over time? How are populations connected across space through long-distance dispersal during the juvenile stage? How do populations respond to fishing pressure and do current management approaches accurately capture the influence of fisheries? To answer these questions, I am pairing novel modelling techniques with long-term data to describe the population dynamics of marine invertebrates, including spot prawns. The results of this modelling work will directly inform a field monitoring programs to fill biological information gaps regarding how larval spot prawns settle at the beginning of their lives and build current and future capacity for locally based monitoring of prawn populations. This work will develop tools which are applicable to marine invertebrate fisheries globally and are locally tractable for spot prawn fisheries management in BC.
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Amanda Greenwell, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Understanding the Impact of a New Drug for Diabetes on Heart Disease
Diabetes, a disease defined by high blood sugar, affects 463 million people globally. It is well-established that diabetes increases one’s risk of developing heart disease, even when blood sugar levels are under control. Given the strong link between diabetes and heart disease, health agencies (e.g. Health Canada) now require that all drugs in development for diabetes undergo rigorous testing to determine their impact on heart health. Recently, we have identified that a clinically available drug for treating psychoses, pimozide, can improve blood sugar control in diabetic animals. We identified that pimozide improves blood sugar levels by preventing the body’s muscle from metabolizing ketone bodies, a fuel source produced by the liver. Although the link between ketone body metabolism and blood sugar control requires further study, pimozide represents an exciting new drug for potentially treating diabetes. However, before pimozide can be approved as a drug for diabetes, it is critical that it is deemed safe for the heart. Therefore, the goal of our research will be to study the effects of pimozide on heart function, in order to validate its potential as a new drug for diabetes. Although the exact cause of diabetes-induced heart disease is unknown, there is evidence that the heart of diabetic individuals is unable to produce enough energy to effectively pump blood throughout the body. Specifically, the ability of the heart affected by diabetes to use sugar for energy is reduced. Our previous data suggests that pimozide improves blood sugar control in diabetes by increasing sugar metabolism in the muscle. Interventions that increase heart sugar metabolism improve heart function in animal models of diabetes. Therefore, we hypothesize that pimozide will improve the health of the heart in diabetes. If our hypothesis is correct, our research will identify a new approach for both the improvement of blood sugar control and heart function in individuals with diabetes.
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Holly Mathias, Public Health
Understanding the Experiences of Women Providing Unpaid Support for People Who Use Substances in Rural Canada
Access to health and social services in rural Canada is challenging because of the movement of services to urban areas. People who use substances, such as injection drugs, are especially prone to challenges accessing services. Accessing services can help reduce health and social harms for people who use substances, including overdose and homelessness; however, over 15 000 people who use substances have died from overdose since Canada declared an opioid overdose crisis in 2015. Many deaths have been attributed to poor access to services. In communities with limited access to services, family and friends may provide unpaid support, representing $25 billion in savings to the Canadian health system. Most providers of unpaid support are women who face additional family, career, financial, and health issues because of the demands of providing support. Women are providing unpaid support for people who use substances in some rural Canada communities; however, their experiences are not well understood. This qualitative community-based research study aims to better understand the experiences of women who provide unpaid support for people who use substances in rural Canada, and how providing unpaid support may impact their physical, emotional, mental, social and financial wellbeing. It will also aim to understand how structural, political and social contexts (e.g. race, stigma) shape women’s experiences. Findings from this novel social sciences research will contribute to our limited national and international knowledge of the experiences of women who provide unpaid support for people who use substances in rural communities. This knowledge may be transferable to other stigmatized health and social issues, such as mental illness. Findings may also inform strategies to improve the wellbeing of women providing unpaid support and people who use substances in rural Canada and internationally.
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