Phil is rewarded for his hard work: a QEII Award!

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:24:51 -0600

Congrats to Phil Oel on being awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Award! Phil’s MSc thesis is examining photoreceptor regeneration, and how an interesting gene pathway is push differentiating photoreceptors to be cones instead of rods (allowing daytime, rather than nighttime vision).

Keep up the great work!

Congratulations to Trish Leighton, Doctoral Candidate.

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:27:41 -0600

Heartiest congratulations to Trish on passing her PhD Candidacy exam! Great work!!

AMI, Accessible Media Inc., Interview on Retinal Stem Cells

Wed, 5 Jun 2013 09:33:30 -0600

A short YouTube version of an AMI This Week national broadcast is posted here. Wade Brown of AMI.TV interviews Dr. Allison regarding our zebrafish research towards programming stem cells to regenerate cone photoreceptors and restore daytime vision.

Check out the PLoS ONE article describing our progress, freely available online.
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055410

Manuscript published: An unprecedented view of retinal degeneration & regeneration

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:23:13 -0600

Michèle DuVal’s paper, a collaboration with local Ophthalmologist Dr. Ordan Lehmann, was published today in Molecular Vision. The paper and supplemental movies can be viewed here. Overall, the work engineers an economical new lens into our microscope optics, allowing visualization of retinal cell death and regeneration in live fish, including via repeated measures.

Cover Photo from our Prion Knockout Zebrafish Manuscript

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:35:00 -0600

As described recently, our manuscript of knockout of the zebrafish homolog of the prion protein has appeared this month in Neurobiology of Disease. Link to the paper here.
We’re pleased to learn that our image characterizing the morphology of our mutant fish appears on the cover of Neurobiology of Disease for July 2013. The image is of a section through the mutant’s head, showing grossly normal glial morphology (green) and synaptic layers (actin, in magenta).
The prion mutant zebrafish show increased seizure susceptibility and alterations in synaptic channel kinetics; This suggests an ancient and conserved role for the prion protein in modulating neuron excitability, along a continuum towards neuron excitotoxicity. Combined with our recent observations of prion proteins interacting with APP protein, this broadly supports a potential role for prion protein in Alzheimer Disease.

Michèle Travel Award for ARVO

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:39:05 -0600

Michèle DuVal’s travel to ARVO in Seattle is being supported by the Bertha Tani Scholarship. This generous Endowment is created by Mrs. Freda Berger, Mr. Justice Ronald L. Berger, and Mr. David Berger in memory of Mrs. Bertha Tani.

ARVO (Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology) was a perfect venue for Michèle to receive feedback on her & Phil’s work on understanding cone photoreceptor differentiation, with an ultimate goal of informing vision repair via stem cell therapy. The work was well-received and we came home with new good ideas on how to proceed.

We’ll be looking forward to ARVO 2015 in Denver!

Prion Knockout Zebrafish Paper Published

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:14:51 -0600

Our manuscript of knockout of the zebrafish homolog of the prion protein has appeared this month in Neurobiology of Disease. Link to the paper here. The work is a collaboration amongst colleagues within our Department of Biological Sciences, including the Waskiewicz, Tierney & Ali lab groups. We have used emerging targetted mutagenesis technology to lesion the prp2 gene, and characterized the fish using behaviour and electrophysiology. The fish in the picture express GFP in the brain on a transparent Casper background, allowing an unprecedented view of the living adult brain. No overt morphological differences were noted between prion mutant and wild type fish (bottom & top, respectively).
The prion mutant zebrafish show increased seizure susceptibility and alterations in synaptic channel kinetics; This suggests an ancient and conserved role for the prion protein in modulating neuron excitability, along a continuum towards neuron excitotoxicity. Combined with our recent observations of prion proteins interacting with APP protein, this broadly supports a potential role for prion protein in Alzheimer Disease.

Congratulations to Michèle for her latest Award

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:41:05 -0600

Michèle DuVal has been awarded a MD/PhD Studentship from CIHR. Congratulations Michèle - well deserved! Michèle is engineering zebrafish to understand what genes control photoreceptor identity and rewiring as they regenerate from stem cells. Photo credit: Heather Richards.

Award to develop Zebrafish Models of Alzheimer Disease

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:49:36 -0600

The Allison Lab’s efforts towards understanding Alzheimer Disease, and their overlap with Prion Disease, have just received some much-appreciated support. Dr. Allison has received a Young Investigator Award from the Alberta Prion Research Institute, which is part of Alberta Innovates BioSolutions, and from the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories. This is the inaugural award of the Alberta Alzheimer Research Program.

Media Coverage: Michèle speculates on stem cell challenges

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:09:58 -0700

Michèle DuVal, an MD/PhD student in the Allison Lab, was interviewed this week regarding our recent PLoS ONE paper on stem cells regenerating cone photoreceptors in the zebrafish retina. The interview is in The Gateway. Commentary from UofA experts on the ethics and promise of stem cell therapy support Michèle’s message: We have a long way to go to effective treatment. Our efforts give us hope that the genes we are discovering will influence future clinical trials in repairing cone photoreceptors for daytime vision. Read the Gateway article here. Photo credit: Heather Richards.

Please check out the PLoS ONE article, freely available online.
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055410

CBC Eyes our latest paper

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:30:51 -0700

Click here to listen to an interview with Dr. Allison on the CBC Radio show RadioActive, available as a podcast. We discuss our recent work published in PLoS ONE, as well as our use of zebrafish to investigate Alzheimer Disease.

Please check out the PLoS ONE article, freely available online.
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055410

Media coverage of our work towards repairing vision loss

Sat, 2 Feb 2013 14:39:02 -0700

Saturday’s Edmonton Journal features our publication in PLoS ONE from earlier this week, showcased by a front page picture of our favourite fish. The story is also featured in other papers across Canada. It is great to to see our Team’s hard work being recognized, and to see that it can inspire some hope. Our publication shows that stem cells in the fish retina can be programmed to primarily produce cone photoreceptors, and gives us a great tool to understand the genetics of this process.

We also appreciate the quality of the writing - especially clarifying that we have no intention of transplanting stem cells from a fish into humans (there’s some confused bloggers out there!). Instead our research sets the stage to understand what genetic switches need to be flipped on and off in stem cells so they will make cone photoreceptors. Once we discover these switches in fish eyes, we will approach Ophthalmologist collaborators to try flipping the same gene switches during stem cell therapy in mice and, eventually, patients.

Please check out the PLoS ONE article, freely available online.
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055410