Volume 9 • Number 1 • December 2023
View Points
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In an era where modern medicine has increased the duration and quality of life, cancer remains one of the world’s leading causes of death [1]. As cancer is characterized by random and somatic mutations within each tumour’s specific genome, personalized immunotherapies have become increasingly popular as potential courses of treatment [2-6]. Notably, therapeutic neoepitope-based vaccines have been shown to elicit potent, T-cell-mediated antitumour activity in numerous clinical and preclinical models. As an immunotherapy, neoepitope vaccination harnesses the immune system’s specificity to target tumour-specific markers present on cancer cells [2]. Thus, neoepitope vaccines represent a new frontier in personalized cancer treatment [2]. Although challenges remain in the development and administration of neoepitope vaccines, the technology shows incredible promise and merits further research. The following viewpoint will explore the efficacy of this emerging immunotherapy, support the case for its integration into modern healthcare, and identify areas that require further exploration.
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological autoimmune disease that affects nearly 100,000 Canadians between the ages of 20 and 49 [1]. The disease damages myelin, a protective layer surrounding nerves, which causes irreversible damage to the central nervous system (CNS) [1]. Common symptoms for patients with MS include vision impairment, loss of coordination, and cognitive impairment. As of 2015, the life expectancy of MS patients is approximately 7 years shorter than the general population, with a cause of death due to the disease itself or related conditions such as infections [1, 2]. Despite the significant global prevalence of MS and its severity, no cure has been discovered, and instead all approved treatments merely aim to slow down disease progression [1]. As such, timely diagnosis of MS is critical to minimize the more severe symptoms early in life [3].
Original Investigations
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As renewable energy (RE) rapidly integrates into society to meet the growing demand for affordable and clean energy (SDG 7, United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7), it is crucial to analyze the merits and flaws of renewable energy generation by assessing its impact on the global economy and social wellbeing. This paper performs an investigative study on the correlation and causality between renewable energy, economy, and environmental indicators. The data was gathered from diverse sources, including The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS), and Our World in Data, for the temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and gross domestic product (GDP) data. Significant Granger p-values were obtained for RE generation’s ability to forecast CO2 emissions and temperature, while discovering a strong positive correlation between CO2 and RE generation. The findings revealed that RE has limited effects on the global economy but has considerable implications on social and ecological well-being.
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Asthma and allergies are the leading chronic illnesses among children in Canada, causing a significant burden on healthcare systems and negatively impacting the quality of life of children and their families. Currently, the association between asthma, wheeze, and atopy development and early-life exposure to endotoxin is not fully understood. Data from the CHILD Cohort Study were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression modelling to determine whether an association exists between household early-life endotoxin exposure measured in house dust and asthma, wheeze, and allergy development at 3 years of age. The models were adjusted for covariates relating to the child’s home environment, demographics and socioeconomic status. Those with higher household endotoxin concentrations showed lower odds of allergic sensitization at 3 years of age (OR 0.49, p=0.07 and OR 0.54, p=0.11) than those with the lowest household exposure. Sex stratification found that this relationship was specific to boys. No relationship was found between endotoxin exposure and recurrent wheeze at 3 years of age. Girls in homes with the highest exposure had lower odds of developing asthma by age 3 (p=0.10). These findings suggest endotoxin exposure in early life may protect against allergy at age 3 in Canadian children, particularly boys. Endotoxin is a measure of gram-negative bacteria but may be associated with the presence of ‘good’ microbes in the home environment as well. These findings are consistent with the hygiene hypothesis and encourage more research on early-life microbiome abundance and diversity.
Review Articles
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CRISPR/Cas9 is a gene editing tool that is rapidly replacing previous technologies, such as ZFNs and TALENS, to rectify disease-causing mutations. Oftentimes, these diseases have treatment methods that target the symptoms rather than the cause. Recent innovations in bioengineering suggest that novel gene therapies may provide a better alternative than existing treatments, by correcting the cause of the disorder directly: the genomic DNA. The excitement around gene therapy, however, is abated by the challenges in how to deliver the technology. Currently, there are two methods of delivery, viral and non-viral vectors, of which non-viral vectors are considered safer and more practical. Such non-viral carriers include gold nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles, and polymeric carriers, of which will be the focus of this paper. This review examines the efficacy of these existing non-viral carriers through a comprehensive literature analysis. We compare the percentage of cells showing the targeted change in vivo and in vitro across the different vehicles in an attempt to understand how efficacy changes across vectors. Overall, we highlight that the optimal delivery platform is likely dependent on the disease model and target tissue. In the future, researchers can use this analysis to assess currently available designs and develop new carriers for transporting CRISPR/Cas9 to specific targets in vivo and in vitro.
Conference Proceedings
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In the STEM Fellowship High School Big Data Challenge, students have the opportunity to engage in independent research projects and acquire fundamental data science skills – an essential skill set for a young researcher in the digital age. The program is inquiry-driven and experiential. This year, we invited students to explore issues of Fair Housing at the Individual and Community Levels and to suggest their own evidence-based solutions, using Open Data and the principles of Open Science. Students explored many topics, ranging from a New Framework for Public Rental Housing in Toronto to A Statistical Analysis on Thawing Permafrost and Its Effects on Housing. We designed in-depth learning modules for students as a means of bridging the gap between traditional high school courseware and digital reality and computational science. Students learned how to uncover hidden patterns and trends in structured and unstructured data using a range of data analytics tools and programming languages. Python, R, LaTeX, and machine learning were some of the tools the students learned and used. On behalf of the STEM Fellowship, we extend our sincere congratulations to all students who participated in the challenge, and wish them the best for their future endeavours. We want to express our appreciation to all the mentors and volunteers. This program would not be possible without patronage of CC UNESCO and generous support of our sponsors: RBC Future Launch, Let’s Talk Science, Digital Science, Infor, SCWST, CISCO Networking Academy, Canadian Science Publishing, and the University of Calgary Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking. We were privileged to witness first-hand the analytical capabilities of the data-native generation of students, and we are confident they will demonstrate excellence throughout their academic and professional careers.
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STEM Fellowship’s Inter-University Big Data Challenge offers a distinctive opportunity for university students globally to engage in a hands-on learning experience that combines computational thinking and Big Data exploration to seek solutions to health-related challenges at the national, regional, community, and individual levels. It serves as an innovative platform for identifying and nurturing research and development talent through the application of computational science and effective scholarly communication. Within this program, participants gain access to a diverse range of workshops focused on data analytics, programming, and science communication. Through these workshops, students acquire valuable skills in Python, R, machine learning, LaTeX, and Overleaf, enabling them to tackle complex data-driven problems. By providing these tools and fostering experiential learning, the program equips students with the necessary knowledge and expertise to contribute meaningfully to the field of Data Science and its applications in various domains, including healthcare. This year, the program participants explored the theme of “Leveraging Open Data Analytics and Machine Learning to Improve Diagnosis of Diseases, Patients’ Care and Support” and suggested a whole spectrum of original Open Data and Machine Learning based ideas and solutions. The research topics presented encompass a wide range of areas, spanning from repurposing drugs for the treatment of rare diseases and employing machine learning techniques to detect the progression of Parkinson’s disease, to developing an ESG-focused governance framework aimed at enhancing patient care. Overall, we received submissions from student teams from practically all leading Canadian universities, mixed teams of students from Canada and the US, and Asian universities. On behalf of the STEM Fellowship, we extend our sincere congratulations to all students who participated in the program and wish them the best for their future academic and professional endeavors. We want to express our appreciation to all the mentors and volunteers. This program would not be possible without generous support of our sponsors: Canadian Science Publishing, IntechOpen, JMIR Publications and adMare Community.