Two researchers at the University of Toronto and its hospital partners – one a stem cell biologist, the other a global health researcher – have been honoured with 2022 Canada Gairdner Awards, the country’s most prestigious awards for medical and health science.
John Dick was recognized with a Gairdner International Award for the discovery of leukemic stem cells and later work on the diagnosis and treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. He first received the news from Janet Rossant, president and scientific director of the Gairdner Foundation, earlier this year.
“When Janet called, it was definitely an ‘Oh my gosh’ moment,” said Dick, a professor of molecular genetics at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and a senior scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network.
“I recall being asked to sit on an evaluation panel for the Gairdners in the early 1990s, not long after setting up my lab in Toronto. That seemed like the epitome of achievement and I never imagined in my wildest dreams that one day I’d receive a Gairdner award.”
The John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award went to Zulfiqar Bhutta for his research on community-based and policy interventions in child and maternal health, especially among vulnerable populations.
“I’m very pleased and grateful,” said Bhutta, a professor in the departments of nutritional sciences and pediatrics at Temerty Medicine and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the director of the Centre for Global Child Health and a senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children.
“There are not many awards for research in global or public health, and the Gairdners occupy a special place in Canada and globally,” said Bhutta, who moved to Toronto in 2013 and maintains a research group at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan. “It really is a pinnacle and most humbling.”
John Dick: Growing Toronto’s stem cell legacy
Dick and his lab were the first to discover and describe leukemia stem cells, which can self-renew and drive both cancer growth and relapse after treatment.
Those findings have led to new clinical approaches for acute myeloid leukemia and related blood cancers, and spurred research on the role of stem cells in solid tumours of the colon, breast and brain, among other sites.
Dick said he didn’t set out to discover leukemia stem cells, but instead began by “plugging away” at basic science on the blood system in mice, experimenting with ways to put genes into stem cells.
In a key advance in the late 1980s, Dick’s lab developed a way to transplant human blood stem cells into immune-deficient mice. This “xenograft assay” was a world-first and enabled Dick and other researchers to track and test the human cells’ growth and replication, albeit in the living system of the mouse.
At the same time, Dick’s lab created the first xenograft models of human leukemia and developed a method to purify leukemia stem cells, allowing for detailed comparisons of those cells and leukemia cells without stem-like properties.
“Most people thought those early experiments wouldn’t work,” said Dick. “But lo and behold some of them worked beautifully, and we were able to characterize leukemia stem cells and non-stem cells. Leukemia is a caricature of normal development and we exploited that.”
Dick and his team began counting individual cells – much like James Till and Ernest McCulloch after their discovery of stem cells in Toronto in 1961, Dick noted. They made the startling finding that stem cells are extremely rare in acute myeloid leukemia – roughly one in a million, in a given population of leukemia cells.
They later found that relapse of acute myeloid leukemia is linked to the survival of leukemia stem cells after therapy and, using patient blood samples, they showed that leukemia stem cells that cause relapse are already present in the blood the day the patient first shows up at the clinic and before therapy begins.
Dick’s lab eventually developed a 17-gene “stemness score” that physicians use to predict patient risk and outcomes, which increasingly helps guide therapeutics. “It’s a new kind of approach for effective patient-specific intervention, which is gratifying,” Dick said.
Dick credits many colleagues for his successes, starting with the trainees in his lab. He said their technical skills and passion were critical, and that their ideas were often essential.
“For most of our findings, no one had the right ideas,” Dick said. “We just threw our thoughts in a melting pot – the good and the bad, and the resulting fusion took us in completely unexpected directions. In that intellectual foment, trainees have contributed so much. They’ve been the best post-docs and graduate students you could imagine.”
He also thanked his clinical collaborators at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and other hospitals, as well as his colleagues at U of T.
“Human disease is the best sourcebook for raising and testing research questions, so I needed that constant interchange with clinicians,” Dick said. “But I benefited hugely from the intellectual rigour and collegiality of my colleagues in molecular genetics. I don’t think I could have done this work anywhere but Toronto.”
Zulfiqar Bhutta: Thinking big for the smallest and vulnerable
Bhutta’s career began in neonatology in Pakistan, but he soon expanded his focus beyond infants.
“I realized you can’t work with babies without working with mothers – and the moment you start working with mothers, you get to social determinants of health,” said Bhutta, the first U of T faculty member to win the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award.
For more than three decades, Bhutta’s research has influenced policy and practice in global child and maternal health through implementation science, research synthesis and trials, as well as studies of malnutrition and obesity, among other approaches.
“I’ve learned as I went along, but I’ve been fortunate to work in a variety of areas, often on large-scale projects, with opportunities to make a difference in the short- and long-term,” said Bhutta, who is also affiliated with U of T’s Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition.
Bhutta and his colleagues at Aga Khan University provided some of the first scientific evidence on the impact of “lady health workers” in community-based interventions in Pakistan. The government of Benazir Bhutto began employing the workers in the mid-1990s, with the goal of reducing child and maternal risk factors and deaths.
Bhutta and his team helped evaluate those interventions in a series of cluster randomized trials – a method common in public health that allows researchers to compare program impacts across groups or clusters of people. Among their findings: using chlorhexidine for cord care during home births reduced neonatal infection and death – and public-sector community health workers working in rural populations could indeed help reduce perinatal fatalities.
They also showed that when women began to visit health facilities, facility-based births increased. Moreover, they found that women’s embrace of the community health system did not falter after the formal period of the intervention ended.
“That’s diffusion of innovation, when improvements become ingrained,” said Bhutta. “People said that women would suffer de-development after the initial intervention, but that did not happen. The lesson was that when you increase capacity around women’s health, you can move away and they never look back.”
Bhutta and his team provided evidence for expansion of the community-based worker model in Pakistan and countries in the Global South, but their work also highlighted the limits of what those workers can achieve.
“You can’t do much about a woman who is bleeding to death without access to a facility with a blood bank,” Bhutta said. “I’ve seen many efforts to upgrade community interventions to physician-level care fall flat because community workers are not physicians.”
Many of those failures were closely linked to social determinants of health, Bhutta said. He recalled that in a Pakistani hospital where his wife worked in the 1990s, pregnant women kept arriving dead at the hospital despite living just a few kilometres away. It turned out the delays were often due to an imbalance in decision-making power between males in females, a lack of money for transport or misunderstanding of the severity of the medical crisis.
“These problems don’t have a biomedical solution,” said Bhutta. “They need education, women’s empowerment, and building social and economic resources at the community level.”
Today, Bhutta continues to pursue research on child and maternal health in the Global South and among marginalized populations in high-income countries. But he is broadening his focus further to address another social determinant of health: climate change.
“I would like to work on solutions to climate change for the poorest of poor before countries agree and develop policy,” said Bhutta. “People are dying now from food shortages and heat shocks. I want to help bring communities together on a self-help basis to promote innovations without the need for external supports. Watch that space.”
The Gairdner Foundation was established in 1957 to recognize research that impacts human health and has since given 402 awards to scientists around the world. About a quarter of those researchers later received Nobel Prizes. The foundation gives seven awards annually. Each recipient receives $100,000 and participates in public lectures, research symposia and other outreach events. The foundation is supported by the Government of Canada.
Skinstitut Holiday Gift Kits take the stress out of gifting
Toronto, October 31, 2024 – Beauty gifts are at the top of holiday wish lists this year, and Laser Clinics Canada, a leader in advanced beauty treatments and skincare, is taking the pressure out of seasonal shopping. Today, Laser Clincs Canada announces the arrival of its 2024 Holiday Gift Kits, courtesy of Skinstitut, the exclusive skincare line of Laser Clinics Group.
In time for the busy shopping season, the limited-edition Holiday Gifts Kits are available in Laser Clinics locations in the GTA and Ottawa. Clinics are conveniently located in popular shopping centers, including Hillcrest Mall, Square One, CF Sherway Gardens, Scarborough Town Centre, Rideau Centre, Union Station and CF Markville. These limited-edition Kits are available on a first come, first served basis.
“These kits combine our best-selling products, bundled to address the most relevant skin concerns we’re seeing among our clients,” says Christina Ho, Senior Brand & LAM Manager at Laser Clinics Canada. “With several price points available, the kits offer excellent value and suit a variety of gift-giving needs, from those new to cosmeceuticals to those looking to level up their skincare routine. What’s more, these kits are priced with a savings of up to 33 per cent so gift givers can save during the holiday season.
There are two kits to select from, each designed to address key skin concerns and each with a unique theme — Brightening Basics and Hydration Heroes.
Brightening Basics is a mix of everyday essentials for glowing skin for all skin types. The bundle comes in a sleek pink, reusable case and includes three full-sized products: 200ml gentle cleanser, 50ml Moisture Defence (normal skin) and 30ml1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum. The Brightening Basics kit is available at $129, a saving of 33 per cent.
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In addition to the 2024 Holiday Gifts Kits, gift givers can easily add a Laser Clinic Canada gift card to the mix. Offering flexibility, recipients can choose from a wide range of treatments offered by Laser Clinics Canada, or they can expand their collection of exclusive Skinstitut products.
Brightening Basics 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut, available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
Hydration Heroes 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut – available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
The Canadian Paediatric Society says doctors should regularly screen children for reading difficulties and dyslexia, calling low literacy a “serious public health concern” that can increase the risk of other problems including anxiety, low self-esteem and behavioural issues, with lifelong consequences.
New guidance issued Wednesday says family doctors, nurses, pediatricians and other medical professionals who care for school-aged kids are in a unique position to help struggling readers access educational and specialty supports, noting that identifying problems early couldhelp kids sooner — when it’s more effective — as well as reveal other possible learning or developmental issues.
The 10 recommendations include regular screening for kids aged four to seven, especially if they belong to groups at higher risk of low literacy, including newcomers to Canada, racialized Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. The society says this can be done in a two-to-three-minute office-based assessment.
Other tips encourage doctors to look for conditions often seen among poor readers such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to advocate for early literacy training for pediatric and family medicine residents; to liaise with schools on behalf of families seeking help; and to push provincial and territorial education ministries to integrate evidence-based phonics instruction into curriculums, starting in kindergarten.
Dr. Scott McLeod, one of the authors and chair of the society’s mental health and developmental disabilities committee, said a key goal is to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks and to better connect families to resources, including quicker targeted help from schools.
“Collaboration in this area is so key because we need to move away from the silos of: everything educational must exist within the educational portfolio,” McLeod said in an interview from Calgary, where he is a developmental pediatrician at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
“Reading, yes, it’s education, but it’s also health because we know that literacy impacts health. So I think that a statement like this opens the window to say: Yes, parents can come to their health-care provider to get advice, get recommendations, hopefully start a collaboration with school teachers.”
McLeod noted that pediatricians already look for signs of low literacy in young children by way of a commonly used tool known as the Rourke Baby Record, which offers a checklist of key topics, such as nutrition and developmental benchmarks, to cover in a well-child appointment.
But he said questions about reading could be “a standing item” in checkups and he hoped the society’s statement to medical professionals who care for children “enhances their confidence in being a strong advocate for the child” while spurring partnerships with others involved in a child’s life such as teachers and psychologists.
The guidance said pediatricians also play a key role in detecting and monitoring conditions that often coexist with difficulty reading such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but McLeod noted that getting such specific diagnoses typically involves a referral to a specialist, during which time a child continues to struggle.
He also acknowledged that some schools can be slow to act without a specific diagnosis from a specialist, and even then a child may end up on a wait list for school interventions.
“Evidence-based reading instruction shouldn’t have to wait for some of that access to specialized assessments to occur,” he said.
“My hope is that (by) having an existing statement or document written by the Canadian Paediatric Society … we’re able to skip a few steps or have some of the early interventions present,” he said.
McLeod added that obtaining specific assessments from medical specialists is “definitely beneficial and advantageous” to know where a child is at, “but having that sort of clear, thorough assessment shouldn’t be a barrier to intervention starting.”
McLeod said the society was partly spurred to act by 2022’s “Right to Read Inquiry Report” from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which made 157 recommendations to address inequities related to reading instruction in that province.
He called the new guidelines “a big reminder” to pediatric providers, family doctors, school teachers and psychologists of the importance of literacy.
“Early identification of reading difficulty can truly change the trajectory of a child’s life.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
