Chronic substance abuse and mental illness are of critical concern. It’s not that one causes the other -- although that’s possible in some cases. It’s that, when they occur in tandem, they pose a heightened challenge to caregivers. They must assess both the illness and the level of addiction, and then design treatment specific to the individual. This is Dr. Michael Krausz‘s area of expertise. He’s the recently-appointed Providence Health Care BC Leadership Chair in Addiction Research at The University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychiatry and St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Dr. Krausz received his medical degree at the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1984. During his studies he worked part time as a psychiatric nurse, seeing firsthand the devastation that addiction, often combined with a mental illness, can cause. Later, having obtained a Ph.D. focused on addiction and schizophrenia, he thrust himself into a vigorous program of research and direct patient care. He soon achieved an international reputation for ground-breaking work treating addicts in several German and Swiss cities.

For instance, he worked in Zurich, where the so-called “Four Pillars” strategy originated. “At the beginning of the 1990’s, there was an ‘open drug scene’ in Zurich, much as there is today in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside,” he says. “We broadened the scope of our work to include residential, abstinence-oriented and heroin-assisted treatment. The underlying concept was that different people need different kinds of treatment.” (more…)

It's comparable to the difference between still photography and movies. Traditional imaging techniques such as Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) including functional MRI, take a ?snapshot? or series of snapshots of the structure and function of the brain. The former two are valuable diagnostic tools. But only magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) show dynamic brain functions in action. MEG does this by recording and imaging (in real time) the tiny magnetic fields generated by electrical currents in the brain.

British Columbia has been a world leader in MEG technology and a pioneer in MEG research for nearly three decades. Dr. Urs Ribary’s arrival at Simon Fraser University (SFU) as the BC Leadership Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience in Childhood Health and Development ensures BC will continue to lead and expand the way. Funding for the BC Leadership Chair program is provided by the provincial government through the Leading Edge Endowment Fund.

Dr. Ribary has some fascinating ideas about brain function and development. And not all have come during the peak of his professional career. For example, when he was a young graduate student at the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, he had a profound insight into how the brain might work. It arose out of his early encounter with plant physiology. “If you sprinkle drops of water on the roots of a tree, the tree absorbs and distributes the moisture to the tiny little leaves in an elegant way,” he says. (more…)

What event this summer could have the most far-reaching effect on the future of amateur and professional sports in BC -- and, indeed, Canada? No, it’s not the Beijing Olympics or the Canuck’s new lineup. It’s the opening of the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE) at Camosun College’s Interurban campus north of Victoria. Here’s where BC’s future recreation centre managers, sport coaches and sport educators will be trained, and where new systems, processes and products for sport and other markets will be developed.

This impressive new Institute houses the college’s Sport Innovation Centre (SPIN) and the Canadian Sport Centre Pacific. Its impact on our young people and their physical fitness is sure to be enormous. In fact, it’s bound to result in increased Canadian success in competitions such as the Olympics. Yet, were it not for establishment of Camosun College’s BC Regional Innovation Chair in Sport Technology by the provincially-funded Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF), all this might not have happened.

Now, if you were the Camosun College administration, where would you look for the right person to be the new Regional Chair in Sport Technology? Of course you’d interview people from the world of sport. But when materials engineer Tim Walzak “threw his hat in the ring,” Camosun College President Dr. Liz Ashton and Vice President, Business Development Paul McGeachie knew he was right for the job, even though he didn’t have a sport background. Why? Because, (to borrow a well-known sport phrase) he has “an impressive track record.” Dr. Walzak is one of Canada’s leading experts in transferring technology from academic institutions to industry, and has decades of success in building industry and community partnerships of the kind the new Institute needs. And, of course, he loves sports! (more…)