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Carleton Experts Available – Anniversary of COVID-19 Pandemic

March 11, 2021 marks one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Carleton experts are available to comment on a range of related topics and research. Natasha Artemeva Professor, School of Linguistics and Language Studies Email: NatashaArtemeva@cunet.carleton.ca Artemeva is available to speak to journalists about her current study which focuses on how autistic university students are responding to changes in post secondary education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenta Asakura Professor, School of Social Work Email: kenta.asakura@carleton.ca Asakura is available to speak to journalists about the rising popularity of online therapy/psychotherapy (i.e., telehealth used in mental health), and the education and training for those delivering online therapy. Jacquie Ballantine PhD Candidate, School of Linguistics and Language Studies Email: jacquie.ballantine@carleton.ca …

Carleton University Hosts Science Café – A Gut Feeling About Stress

Carleton University will host Science Café with speaker Prof. Alfonso Abizaid in the Department of Neuroscience discussing stress, and how under some circumstances, it can increase appetite and alter our metabolism to promote weight gain. He will describe how our gastrointestinal system communicates with our brain to produce these changes and meet the challenges posed by stressors. When: Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. Registration: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_i7lBklSqSKahAx67PM0Zog. About the Speaker: Abizaid is interested in the brain processes that integrate information from the environment to regulate feeding and energy balance. His Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) funded research is focused on how metabolic hormones like ghrelin influence reward-seeking behaviours via actions on the brain systems related to rewards…

Carleton Expert Available – International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and this year’s theme is "Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19." A Carleton expert is available to comment on related topics. Kim Hellemans Department Chair, Department of Neuroscience Email: Kim.Hellemans@carleton.ca Hellemans is available to discuss her ongoing work exploring how COVID-19 is impacting student mental health and substance use. Hellemans' research interest lies in the study of vulnerability to mental illness. Her current research examines how prenatal exposure to alcohol influences later life susceptibility to mental illness. In the past, her research explored the role of adverse environmental experiences in susceptibility to drug addiction. Hellmans is also interested in sex differences in mental illnesses; depression…

Striving for Gender Equity: Celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Growing up, Rowan Thomson loved sitting down and solving equations. As an undergraduate biochemistry student at Carleton University, Thomson realized that she enjoyed the math and physics parts of her major more than its core components, so she switched to a double honours degree in math and physics. “These subjects become abstract in a hurry at university,” says Thomson, a Canada Research Chair in Radiotherapy Physics at Carleton. “Physics describes the smallest and biggest things in the universe, from quanta to the cosmos, and math is the language that’s used. It’s a language that I love.” Prof. Rowan Thomson Thomson, whose award-winning research involves developing and applying computational techniques to improve radiotherapy cancer treatments, is an anomaly in her field. She’s…

Carleton Professor Publishes Paper on Ketamine as a Treatment for Major Depression in Nature

Carleton University’s Argel Aguilar-Valles and Nahum Sonenberg from McGill University’s Department of Biochemistry and Goodman Cancer Centre have published new research in Nature. The paper, Antidepressant Ketamine Actions Engage Cell-Specific Translation Via elF4E, discovered a mechanism mediating the neuronal and behavioral responses to ketamine when used as a treatment for major depression disorder (MDD). Effective drug therapy for MDD is a challenge, as more than 30 per cent of patients are resistant to the first line of treatment, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). However, recent research shows that ketamine provides rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant patients. Yet, this treatment also has numerous, potentially dangerous side effect and can lead to addiction. “Our discovery advances the understanding of how…

Meet the 2020 Winners of Carleton’s Graduate Student Three Minute Thesis Contest

Carleton University has announced the winners of its 2020 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. The top three winners of the virtual event are Nada Elnahla, Robbie Venis and Annemarie Dedek. Elnahla,a PhD student in Management at the Sprott School of Business, won first place for her research project Surveillance in Retail. Second place went to Venis, a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, for his project When Local Women Take the Lead: Water Technology Adoption in Rural Tanzania. Dedek, a PhD student in the Department of Neuroscience, was awarded third place for her project Developing Better Strategies for Preclinical Chronic Pain Research. Elnahla’s video is being entered into the provincial competition, and the winner of that…

Special Guests and Dancing GIFs: Fall 2020 Grads Feted in Online Events and Tributes

There have been champagne bottles filled with gummy bears, gowned graduates flanked by family members and chat windows filled with expressions of pride and support. Prof. Kim Hellemans Carleton’s graduation celebrations looked a lot different in fall 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but those who took part found the happiness of the graduates transcended the barriers of technology and isolation. “We felt it was important to celebrate our students individually,” says Kim Hellemans, chair of the Department of Neuroscience, which hosted a virtual ceremony on Nov. 14, 2020 after the university-wide ceremony video was posted online. Faculty members read out the names of all students and their thesis titles. Grad supervisors were also invited to say a…

Carleton Hosts Science Café – Understanding the Workings of Novel Antidepressants

As part of Carleton University’s Science Café series, Argel Aguilar-Valles, professor in the Department of Neuroscience, will present Understanding the Workings of Novel Antidepressants. When: Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 1:30 p.m. Where: Online via Zoom Registration/RSVP Link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KUnEQoDFQuC0C9Ml3y-X0A All are welcome to join this online discussion. Media are invited to attend the event. More than one-third of patients diagnosed with major depression do not respond to traditional antidepressant treatments, such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Recently, ketamine was approved for the treatment of those patients that did not improve after other antidepressant treatments. Despite its clinical promise, we are still trying to understand how ketamine works. We have demonstrated that ketamine activates the protein factory of the brain, especially in neurons.…

Carleton Honours its Fall Graduates at Online Celebration on Saturday, Nov. 14

More than 1,200 Carleton University fall graduates will be celebrated at an online celebration going live at 1 p.m. EDT on Nov. 14 that’s replacing traditional Convocation ceremonies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Many congratulations to all graduates for completing your degrees under challenging circumstances,” President Benoit-Antoine Bacon said in a recent message to the community. “You can be extremely proud and we look forward to celebrating you accomplishment virtually . . . until such time as we can celebrate in person.” Algonquin Elder Barbara Dumont-Hill The university’s Senate officially conferred the degrees of 752 undergraduate students and 484 graduate students at its meeting on Oct. 30. The pre-recorded virtual event will be released on the Carleton Grads 2020 website …

Carleton’s Inclusion Week Attracts Large Audiences and Inspires Challenging Discussions on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

During a time of worldwide calls for greater equity, diversity and inclusion in society—and in the midst of a global pandemic—Carleton’s second annual Inclusion Week played a significant role in hosting urgent conversations about advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in our community. The week of virtual events, including panelists from across the country and around the world, ran from October 19 to 23, and was hosted by the Department of Equity and Inclusive Communities (EIC). It kicked off with an interview with Innovation, Science and Industry Minister, Navdeep Bains, followed by a workshop in Inclusive Leadership, a Neuroscience of Inclusion panel, an Accessibility in Times of Transition event, and an African Diaspora in the Academy panel. Despite the challenges presented…