The University of British Columbia (UBC) flexed its research muscle Monday with major breakthroughs in two very different areas – the human body and trees.
First, Vancouver Coastal Health neurologist Neil Cashman, who is also chair in Neurodegeneration and Protein Misfolding Diseases at UBC, was part of a team of Canadian scientists that made a major breakthrough in the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.
Second, UBC researchers and the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre decoded the fungus genome that allows mountain pine beetles to infect and kill lodgepole pines.
On the Alzheimer’s front, Cashman helped invent a new biochemical test that is able to measure clumped protein fragments in cerebral spinal fluid and possibly indicate the presence of the disease.
Alzheimer’s, a degenerative disease that causes memory loss and changes behaviour, affects more than five million people across the continent.
The only existing, accurate diagnosis for the disease is a post-mortem examination of brain tissue.
Cashman’s test was invented for Ontario-based Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd. (TSX:AMF), which he co-founded, and could represent a significant step forward in early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s.
Cashman told Business in Vancouver that he’s been working on the test for seven years, and wants to one day develop a similar blood test to replace the more intrusive cerebral fluid test, which requires a spinal tap.
“The hope is a very audacious one, that there will come a day when people can go to their doctor’s office and get a blood test… for Alzheimer’s disease,” Cashman said.
As for the mountain pine beetle, researchers have discovered how the insect’s fungus bypasses the lodgepole pine’s natural defense system.
The fungus is known as Grosmannia Clavigera, or blue stain fungus for the colour it stains the wood of infected trees.
In a study published this week, co-author and UBC professor Joerg Bohlmann explained that the blue stain fungus not only thrives in pine trees, but also transforms the tree’s natural fungicide into a “nectar” that allows the beetle to thrive.
The study goes part way to explaining how the insect was able to infect 16 million hectares of forest in B.C., delivering a devastating blow to the province’s forest industry.
“This new knowledge could inform strategies to prevent future outbreaks, such as selecting trees with improved resistance to pine beetles and their associated pathogens,” said Bohlmann.