Annual Update 2016

The Birdsell Family & Friends Brain Cancer Research Fund has a lot to be grateful for in 2016. Past the halfway mark in our five year commitment, we're happy to report the fund is ahead of pace. This comes as a relief to the organizers but also represents an achievement the whole family can all be proud of this Christmas season. In September I held a successful DJ fundraiser in Calgary and my Mom supported the fund throughout the year by parting with many beautiful Chigiri-e pictures in exchange for donations (Chigiri-e is a Japanese art that my Mom does which uses high-quality paper to create images). Aunt Judy and Uncle Terry did yeoman's work raising awareness of the fund within their circle of friends and we wish to extend a warm thanks to all who contributed.

Donations to the BFFBCRF support the Impact Grant Program established by the Canadian Cancer Society which targets brain cancer research in Canada with a high probability of significant progress in the near future. As my knowledge of cancer research grows, it's intimidating how complex the challenge is: Post-graduate students hunch over lab benches investigating the most minute interactions of cancer and the brain; the interconnectedness of the human body is a constant source of mystery as to whether scientists are seeing a cause-and-effect relationship or simply a correlation in their data. But even if such challenges lay ahead it's time such attention was paid: firstly, survivorship rates of brain cancer continue to lag behind that of other types of cancer; and secondly, the late-term effects of brain cancer tend to be more severe and can include psychological or social problems, learning disabilities, growth and developmental issues, and hearing difficulties.

But here is the great thing if readers should wish to honour the BFFBCRF with a donation: Brain Canada, a national non-profit, will match our family's contribution meaning we as a group have the power to affect brain cancer research in Canada to a tune of $50 000! Amazing! We hope family and friends have a great 2017 and begin to fortify themselves against the final push to reach our goal in 2018 – a goal which now appears increasingly doable! 

Play It Loud Fundraiser Wrap Up

On September 24^th 2016 the Birdsell Family & Friends Brain Cancer Research Fund held the first of what is hopefully many fundraisers for brain cancer research in Canada. The initiative is part of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Impact Grant program we will see us as a family try to raise $25000 in 5 years. Though we as a family have been able to make a pretty good dent in the sum ourselves, it would be made just a tiny bit easier if there were also some additional fundraising from events as well; hence the "friends". To that end, I dusted off my DJ headphones and put together a playlist whose beats are so funky they’re actually banned in several counties. The occasion marked the resurrection of an old hobby I haven’t practiced since I lived in Japan and it brought back a lot of great memories to play music loudly again. Thanks again to all those who supported the event! 

Tour of Canadian Cancer Lab

We change topics somewhat this week to learn a little bit more about the author of this blog. Regular readers not interested are invited to return next week for more architectural and structural engineering news and opinion.

                                                              

Readers can catch themselves up on basics of the Birdsell Family and Friends Brain Cancer Research Fund through our team page, included is a YouTube video summarizing the fund’s mission.

                                                            

I had the pleasure November 23^rd of touring the lab of Dr. Mahoney, a immunology microbiologist at the University of Calgary Heritage Medical Research Building, by invitation of the Canadian Cancer Society. Though his research is not directly supported by the BFFBCRF’s initiative, our efforts in turn are supported by the Canadian Cancer Society which endeavors to connect donors with the fruits of their labour. 

Oncologic Immunology uses viruses, both natural and genetically modified, to 1) kill cancer cells and 2) trigger the body’s natural immune response to fight cancer. Much of Dr. Mahoney’s research focuses on how this chain of events occurs and he does it, in part, by leading an absolute all-out assault on the state-of-the-art in medical imaging. The tour unfortunately did not include what was described as the “Cadillac of microscopes”, even though it’s capabilities far exceed what one remembers from high school science class. Kept in the basement in a bio-secure area, along with the intrepid mice of science, it has the ability to stain different tissues in the sample different colours and film the response in real time (or time lapse). The images feel slightly abstract seen against a black background but with practice one can start to understand the behavior of the virus toward cancer in a live mouse model. It seemed with every new video clip presented Dr. Mahoney introduced a new discovery never observed before.

Next, touring the wet lab, outfitted just like a movie set would decorate a science lab, the theme of state-of-the-art technology continued. The automation of experimentation appears to be a boon for Dr. Mahoney’s lab, not only in the breath of testing possible but also in its exactly repeatable nature. So yeah, robots. The non-descript black box seen at the beginning of the clip is actually an automated microscope, something heretowith I’d been ignorant of. It can track, in total, over 20 000 tests. This is important when testing against the human genome. If I’m understanding the presentation correctly, there is a process by which each of the 20 000 genes is suppressed in sequence and then the whole thing run twice more for verification. The influence of big data and analytics was the biggest thing not seen on our tour. 

The BFFBCRF thanks the Canadian Cancer Society for organizing the event and wishes Dr. Mahoney and his lab the best of luck in their research!