JULY 2001

University Webcast event from Beaumont-Hamel

Memorial brought a special ceremony from France to the world when the School of Continuing Education Webcast the opening of the new Beaumont-Hamel Visitors' Centre during a ceremony on July 1. Four members of the Centre for Academic and Media Services (CAMS) travelled to France to film the ceremony and sent a video feed back to Memorial via satellite, which was then Webcast live through a StemNET server. [more]

Two chairs for Memorial

Memorial is home to two new Canada Research Chairs. A chair in viral hepatitis/immunology was awarded to Dr. Thomas Michalak, Faculty of Medicine, and a chair in North Atlantic archaeology was awarded to Dr. Priscilla Renouf, Archaeology Unit, Department of Anthropology. Both positions include $200,000 per year for salary and research support. Memorial is searching for nine more Canada Research Chairs positions. Over the five-year life span of the CRC program, Memorial is expected to be eligible for about 20 positions in the strategic areas of oceans and coastal studies, industrial development and environmental sustainability, health and North Atlantic/Newfoundland and Labrador studies. [more]

Cause of hemophilia A pinpointed

Building on work first initiated by others as early as the 1960s, a team of researchers has identified the genetic change (mutation) causing mild hemophilia A in a specific Newfoundland population. What makes the discovery noteworthy is that one particular region of Newfoundland has the highest population density of the disease reported anywhere in the world. The principal investigator is Dr. Yagang Xie, assistant professor of laboratory medicine and director of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory of the Health Care Corporation of St. John's. He worked in collaboration with Dr. David Lillicrap at Queen's University, Kingston, and Dr. Mary-Frances Scully, director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Hemophilia Program and an assistant professor in the Discipline of Medicine (hematology) at Memorial.

Major funding juvenile diabetes study

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) International awarded $950,871 US about $1.4 million CDN over three years for genetic studies of Type 1 diabetes in Newfoundland and Labrador. The total amount of the grant will be shared between a research team based in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University and the Janeway Child Health Care Centre; and a research team based at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Memorial's share of the budget over three years is $409,448 US, or over $620,000 CDN, with 75 per cent of that funding for skilled personnel.