Innovation Anthology #563:

Dr. David Westaway

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One of the important early discoveries about how prion disease progresses came from Dr. David Westaway.

He’s director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Westaway was trying to figure out what makes a good prion protein in the brain transform into a bad prion – the cause of Mad Cow or Alzheimer’s Disease.

What he discovered was a cousin of the prion protein and he called it “shadoo”.

DR DAVID WESTAWAY: When we looked at animals that had prion infection, we found out something quite unexpected. That this other cousin molecule disappears. and it seemed to be something quite specific to prion disease. And that peaked our curiosity. So we wondered, well maybe something similar is going on with the famous well known,precursor prion protein that we’ve known about for years. We basically thought it wasn’t doing anything, sort of unchanging. Well, that’s not the case. In fact, it changes dynamically as the prion disease progresses.

Since the discovery of shadoo, new research by Dr. Westaway’s lab indicates the body’s immune system works very hard to rid itself of prion disease.


Thanks today to Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER

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Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

Alberta Innovates (formerly Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions)

As the newly formed Alberta Innovates corporation, we still fund top quality, internationally competitive health research and innovation activities to improve the health and wellbeing of Albertans. We provide leadership for Alberta’s health research and innovation enterprise by directing, coordinating, reviewing, funding and supporting research and innovation.

Working with our many partners  in the health system, we ensure that research achieves innovation in care, policy and practice, and that the needs of patients and clinicians influence research.

Our background

Alberta Innovates consolidation was launched November 1, 2016.

Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions

Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions was established as part of the Alberta Innovates system by an Act of Legislation of the Government of Alberta. It is a agency  of the Government of Alberta. We receive a yearly allocation from the Ministry of Health and report through the ministry to the people of Alberta.

Our Mandate and Roles document reflects our role and responsibilities and outlines the government statues and regulations with which we comply.

Alberta’s Health Research and Innovation Strategy (AHRIS) sets out Alberta’s health research agenda for the coming decade to ensure our considerable investments in research align with our priority—to improve the health of Albertans.

 

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Program Date: 2013-06-06