News & Media

June 13, 2008
Director's Corner - Eighty Four Million Years at the Speed of Light, then a Moment of Serendipity

We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon...
Joni Mitchell

Eighty four million years ago Canada was home to dinosaurs such as Cionodon, a vegetarian that looked a bit like a fleshy-tailed, duck-billed horse. In New Jersey, the bipedal carnivore Dryptosaurus thrived, and Tyrannosaurus Rex roamed across North America. In the Southern Hemisphere, a huge subcontinent was beginning to break up into what would become New Zealand, Australia and Antarctica. In tropical forests, orchids were just preparing to evolve.

And within a nearby galaxy we call NGC 2770, one star out of it’s 100 billion went supernova. In a fraction of a second, the star’s core collapsed, generating an immeasurable amount of unsustainable heat and pressure. A massive explosion followed, heralded first by a very short-lived searing X-ray flash (termed the “shock breakout”), before giving way to brilliant light in the visible range that waxed and then waned over the next several days. The shock breakout X-rays and the intense light that followed it thus began the long journey to Earth, a journey that would take 84 million years.

The explosion blew stellar debris outward at tens of thousands of kilometers a second, hurling the contents of the core across NGC 2770, scattering the atoms synthesized inside the star during it’s lifetime, and importantly, the heavy elements that can be created only in the enormous heat and pressure following the shock breakout.

How do we know all this? On January 9th of this year, Dr. Alicia Soderberg, a young astronomer at Princeton, happened to “see” the X-ray shock breakout, which lasted only a very few minutes. A shock breakout had never been seen before, by anyone. "We were in the right place, at the right time, with the right telescope on Jan. 9th and witnessed history," remarked Soderberg. "We were looking at another, older supernova in the galaxy, when the one now known as SN 2008D went off.”

Soderberg immediately alerted astronomers around the world, who were able to make first-of-a-kind observations about how a supernova begins from time zero (see Soderberg et al., [2008] Nature 453:469-474).

Talk about serendipity.

But now, why should we care about the sequence of events accompanying supernovae? How does this relate to dinosaurs, orchids and…us? The answer is simple, incredible, and beautiful. Life on Earth has only been possible because early in the history of our own galaxy an occasional star near to us went supernova, spewing essential elements of life in our general direction, where they were assembled into the forming Earth. So, truly, we are made of billions-of-years-old carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, molybdenum, selenium, nickel, chromium, cobalt, chlorine and copper, all born within stellar crucibles.

And on that note, let me wish you all a great summer. The Neuro News and MNI Bulletin will return in September.

Please send any comments about the Director's Corner to David Colman

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Recent News & Events

Neuro Convocation and Lifetime Achievement Awards
On May 21st, the Neuro celebrated the fourth Convocation to honour the contributions of faculty and staff and the extended Neuro community. Lifetime Achievement awards were presented to neurologist Dr. George Karpati, neuroradiologist Dr. Denis Melançon and Neuro philanthropists and volunteers Cyril & Dorothy Reitman and Joel, Jill, Sam & Richard Reitman. Dr. Lesley Fellows was awarded the inaugural Promising Young Investigator Award and the new Outstanding Team Award was presented to the Neuro-Oncology Team. Thank you to our master of ceremonies, MNI Advisory Board member Heather Hiscox and to Mr. François Marcoux, Executive Director, Quebec Region, Industry Canada, Dr. Arthur Porter, Director General and CEO, McGill University Health Centre, Dr. Richard I. Levin, Vice-Principal (Health Affairs), Dean, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University and Dr. John Robson, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University. A special thank you to Ms. Jean Mary Zarate, Dr. Christophe Grova and Dr. Ernst Meyer for their wonderful musical tributes and to our sponsors Manulife Financial and AstraZeneca. 2008 Convocation celebration.

Best wishes, Marilyn!
Marilyn Kaplow, Administrative Director of the Neuroscience Mission, Montreal Neurological Hospital, and Director of Quality Management, McGill University Health Centre, announced that she will retire on July 1. Marilyn, known as an indefatigable champion of the hospital, has made a career from her commitment to excellence and to compassionate care for patients. Trained at McGill as a physiotherapist, she worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital and at LaSalle General Hospital before assuming responsibility for quality, risk and resource utilization. Building her expertise, Marilyn is now a member of the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation and the Quebec Ministry Expert Advisory Group on Risk and Quality. Marilyn earned a Master in Science degree from McGill University and a Master in Business Administration from Concordia University. There is no doubt that Marilyn will remain active even in retirement and we wish her the very best on her next adventure.

CECR funds at work
Internal grant awards were made for the first year of CECR (Centre for Excellence in Commercialization and Research) funding. MNI researchers received funding for more than 40 projects, which will require additional staff and trainees. These funds make it possible to offer 18 new post-doctoral fellowships and studentships to recruit talented young people who are the engine of research. In addition, experts from industry will be tapped to assist the MNI in moving scientific results to clinical and commercial application.

Thinking Ahead Campaign
Since the October 2007 launch of the “Thinking Ahead” campaign, the MNI has raised almost $8 million, with recent major gifts from The Molson Foundation and CIBC. This brings the total to date to $27.5 million towards this five-year $40 million initiative to invest in people and expand facilities and services at the MNI.

New Brain Imaging Fellowship
On June 12th, CIBC created a new Fellowship in Brain Imaging with a $500,000 donation to the MNI’s Thinking Ahead Campaign. This will allow fellows recruited during the next 5 years to jump start their careers by training with scientists in the MNI’s McConnell Brain Imaging Centre.

Sylvain Vinet (left), CIBC's Senior vice-president, Retail Distribution, Eastern Canada and Victor Dodig (right), CIBC’s Executive Vice-President, Retail Distribution and Wealth Management with Dr. Bruce Pike (centre), Director of the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, MNI.

Neurology Day and Donald Baxter Lecture
Residents made their annual Neurology Day presentations on June 5. The Donald Baxter Lecture, given by Dr. Donald Calne from the University of British Columbia, was entitled "What, exactly, is a Neurodegenerative Disease?".

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Upcoming events

Neurosurgery Day and William Feindel Lecture, June 13
Neurosurgery Day, an all day event, will be in the de Grandpré Communications Centre on June 13. Sessions will feature presentations by the residents followed at 4:30 pm by the William Feindel Lecture, "Depth Electrode Investigations in Patients with the Syndrome of Bitemporal Epilepsy in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Era" by Ricardo S. Centeno, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. All are welcome to attend.

Music on your Mind, June 25-28
Internationally known neuroscientists will present research on music and the brain at the third Neurosciences and Music conference, Disorders and Plasticity, June 25-28 at McGill University. Promoted by the Italian Mariani Foundation, the symposium is organized by the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) under the leadership of MNI’s Robert Zatorre and colleagues Giuliano Avanzini, Virginia Penhune and Isabelle Peretz. For more information, see Fondazione Mariani.

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Congratulations to…..

Dominic D’Alessandro, Co-chair of the MNI’s Thinking Ahead Campaign and President and CEO of Manulife Financial, who will receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management for his exceptional leadership in the financial services industry.

Brenda Milner, Dorothy J. Killam Professor at the MNI, who will receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University’s Faculty of Arts for her pioneering and on-going work in neuropsychology.

Alyson Fournier, who was recently reappointed as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Regenerative Neuroscience.

Kathleen Dickson, laboratory technician working with Phil Barker, who received the McGill Faculty of Medicine 2008 P.B. Mukhopadhyay Award for excellence and dedication.

These committed professionals who were recognized with Awards in Excellence in Neuroscience Nursing:
Patricia O’Connor, Associate Director, Neuroscience Nursing, received the Valerie Shannon MUHC Award for Innovative Leadership;
Josée Beloin, Radiology, received the Nursing Practice Award;
Maria Hamakiotis and Yasmin Khalili, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Brain Tumour Program, received Nursing Leadership Awards;
Lucy Wardell, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Multiple Sclerosis Program, received the Nursing Research Award;
Jonathan Bustamante, Virginia Bustamante, Tanya Laniel, Delia Lopez, Marie-Josée Paquin, Romelyne Pierre and Micheline Yared on the Operating Room Team; and Rachel Boissonneault, Meera Burney, Sylvie Campion and Carol Monette on the Intensive Care Unit Team, received Nursing Education Awards with their teams;
Catia Abreu, Unit Coordinator 3 North East, and Louise Desaulniers, Patient Attendant 3 South, received the Partner in Practice Award.

These talented nurses who were awarded bursaries:
Lisa Goulet, Intensive Care Unit Nancy Ouellet, Operating Room and Kitty Toye, 3 South received bursaries from the Friends of the Neuro.
Josée Lizotte, Acting Nurse Manager, Intensive Care Unit, received the Wanda Montes Bursary.

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Director - David R. Colman, PhD
Senior Management - Mark Angle, MD; Phil Barker, PhD; Rob Dunn, PhD; Tom Gevas; Marilyn Kaplow; Elizabeth Kofron, PhD; Patricia O'Connor; Catherine Rowe
Neuro News: Elizabeth Kofron, PhD & Sandra McPherson, PhD

Please send any items for the Neuro News to Sandra McPherson or Beth Kofron.

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