Category Archives: Uncategorised

Hang named the 2024 recipient of the Cameron Award from the Canadian Society of Zoologists!

A major congratulations to Dr. Hang Cheng, who has been named as the 2024 recipient of the Cameron Award from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, which is awarded for the best doctoral thesis in Zoology in Canada. Dr. Cheng will present his doctoral work in a plenary lecture at the upcoming annual CSZ meeting in Moncton. Congratulations Hang, you earned it!

Karen Kadamani wins the 2024 Antoine Morin Memorial Scholarship

Congratulations to Karen, who has been awarded the 2024 Antoine Morin Memorial Scholarship. This award recognizes outstanding graduate students in the Department of Biology for academic excellence and contributions to knowledge sharing. Karen was a shoe-in for this award thanks to her tireless efforts as Editor-in-Chief (among many other roles) with BioMatters. A well-deserved prize!

Maiah’s tenrec collaboration featured in Inside JEB

Maiah’s most recent publication, a collaboration exploring the physiological responses of Malagasy Tenrecs to hypoxia with the van Breukelen lab at UNLV, has been featured in Inside JEB: https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/226/6/jeb245758/301042/Tenrecs-deal-with-poor-air-quality-like-reptiles

This publication was also selected as the “Editor’s Choice” paper for April 2023. https://journals.biologists.com/jeb

Congratulations Maiah and to our fantastic collaborators Frank and Claudia!

New paper in Nature Communications elucidates how naked mole-rats turn off thermoregulation to save energy in hypoxia

I’m excited to announce our latest publication, which details how naked mole-rats turn off non-shivering thermogenesis in intrascapular brown adipose tissue to save energy in hypoxia. Our study demonstrates that not only are naked mole-rats heterothermic, but that they can rapidly modulate heat production in hypoxia via a novel mechanism that decreases expression of the key thermogenic protein UCP1. Furthermore, similar changes were observed in other social mole-rat species but not a solitary species, suggesting this adaptation may have evolved preferentially in social rodents.

This work was funded by a National Geographic Explorers Grant and was the result of an exciting collaboration with Dr. Nigel Bennett of the University of Pretoria, Glenn Tattersall of Brock University, and Mary-Ellen Harper and Baptiste Lacoste of uOttawa.

 

Read the full study here: https://rdcu.be/cBR7d

 

Read a commentary here:

https://tattersalllab.com/2021/11/24/naked-mole-rats-rapidly-decrease-ucp1-in-hypoxia/ 

 

Read some press coverage here:

https://thefulcrum.ca/sciencetech/u-of-o-professor-studies-hypoxia-tolerance-in-naked-mole-rats/

https://todayuknews.com/health/hypoxia-tolerance-naked-mole-rats-may-provide-secret-to-low-oxygen-survival/

https://floridanewstimes.com/the-naked-mole-rat-may-provide-the-secret-of-hypoxic-survival/382511/

https://medicalxpress.com/visualstories/2021-11-hypoxia-tolerance-naked-mole-rats-secret.amp