Michael Adams, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology
The long term goal of our research is to contribute to a greater understanding of the causes and consequences of cardiovascular, kidney disease, and sexual dysfunction and to apply this knowledge to the development of new therapeutic strategies in prevention and treatment.
The focus of our research is to determine the mechanism(s) involved in the development of, as well as treatment-induced reversal of, pathological vascular structural changes. In particular, our hypothesis is that pharmacotherapy-induced regression of abnormal cardiovascular structure in different circulatory states will impart a more permanent normalization of the circulation (e.g. hypertension, kidney disease and sexual dysfunction). In fact, taken further, the concept we are developing implies that normalization of cardiovascular structure is part of a 'cure'.
Relevant Pillar:
(1) Biomedical - Research involves cellular, body system, and whole body processes, as well as therapies or devices that may be used to improve health.
Michael Beyak, Department of Medicine
My lab is interested in the sensory afferent innervation of the gastrointestinal tract and its role in regulating food intake. Afferent fibres in the vagus nerve play a critical role in transducing meal-related stimuli (both mechanical and chemical) into satiety signals that are then sent to CNS structures important in feeding behaviour. A key question in obesity research is "Despite well developed and complex mechanisms to signal satiety, how is it possible for individuals to eat well in excess of energy demands?" Our research utilizes a variety of techniques to record from these afferent nerves, and focuses on two broad areas 1. How, at the cellular level do satiety signals (e.g. gut derived satiety hormones) activate gastrointestinal vagal afferent nerves? 2. How is meal-related signalling in gastrointestinal vagal afferents altered in models of diet-induced obesity? It is hoped that these studies will offer insight into the pathophysiology of obesity, and open new avenues for drug and dietary treatments.
Relevant Pillar:
(1)Biomedical - Research involves cellular, body system, and whole body processes, as well as therapies or devices that may be used to improve health.
David Gordon, School of Urban and Regional Planning
My team’s research investigates the proportion and extent of Canada’s suburbs, using census data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We are developing new definitions for the inner city based on active transportation and for the suburbs based upon transit and auto use. The coverage of our research is all Canadian Census Metropolitan areas, working at the census tract level. The new definitions will allow obesity researchers to better compare outcomes based upon place of residence. The research is supported by SSHRCC.
Relevant Pillar:
(4) Population - research on the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.
T.C. Nicholas Graham, School of Computing
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, levels of overweight and obesity in Canadian boys have tripled over the last two decades, and levels for Canadian girls have doubled. This increase is largely attributed to changes in lifestyle, including significant reduction in exercise. Sedentary behaviour is blamed on a wide variety of factors, including increased use of automobiles and increased time spent on television and video games. The goal of our research is to investigate the motivational benefits of combining video games, an activity that many children love, with beneficial exercise. We focus particularly on the social aspects of multiplayer video games, where having others to play with can provide motivation for continued play. Our group researches the design, implementation and evaluation of such multiplayer exercise games.
Relevant Pillar:
(4) Population - research on the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.
Brendan Gurd, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies
My primary research aim is to understand the mechanisms by which both different intensities and different types of exercise improve mitochondrial function. In addition, I am interested in the impact that these improvements in mitochondrial function have in both health and disease. My research is currently has 3 main goals: first, to quantify the intensities of various different types of exercise across a range of skill and fitness levels; second, to examine changes in both whole body fitness and mitochondrial function following exercise training of differing types and intensities and how these changes differ between active, sedentary, and overweight/obese young adults; and third, to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying exercise induced mitochondrial biogenesis, specifically, to explore post-translational regulation of PGC-1alpha following exercise. It is hoped that this research will help increase our understanding of the mechanisms by which exercise can improve health and the optimal intensities and types of exercise to activate these mechanisms.
Relevant pillar:
(1) Biomedical - Research involves cellular, body system, and whole body processes, as well as therapies or devices that may be used to improve health.
Ian Janssen, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies
I have a long-standing interest in health-based research, particularly as it pertains to the role of physical inactivity, obesity, and sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss) in contributing to chronic disease.Over the next five years my research program will focus on the following objectives:
- To examine the dose-response relation between physical activity and health in children and youth.
- To develop and test methods and guidelines for assessing physical fitness level, obesity, and sarcopenia using clinical/epidemiological based approaches (e.g., body mass index vs. waist circumference in the classification of obesity).
- To examine the link between total and regional fat depots with the risk for traditional (e.g., diabetes, coronary heart disease) and non-traditional (e.g., injury) outcomes of obesity.
- To examine the influence of dietary and physical activity habits and perturbations on obesity and sarcopenia in population-based surveys.
- To determine the link between sarcopenia and obesity in the elderly, and to examine the effects of sarcopenia-obesity on health outcomes in this population group.
- Continued surveillance of physical inactivity, obesity, and sarcopenia.
Relevant Pillar:
(4) Population - research on the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.
Stephen Lehrer, School of Policy Studies
As an economist, my research tends to focus on developing and implementing empirical strategies that aim to improve our understanding of how either i) obesity affects other socioeconomic outcomes (i.e. education, income, etc.), or ii) understands how different policies affect the incidence of obesity (i.e. changes in tax rates, regulations concerning soft drink machines in schools, etc.). Past work has used data on both environmental and genetic factors. I have also been interested in understanding how co-morbid conditions affect empirical analyses.
Relevant Pillar:
(4) Population - research on the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.
Margaret Little, Department of Political Studies and Department of Gender Studies
Margaret is an anti-poverty activist and academic whose research interests include single mothers, welfare reforms and social policies such as school meal programs. She collaborates with Elaine Power from the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies.
Relevant Pillar:
(4) Population - research on the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.
Dr. Roumen Milev, Department of Psychiatry
I do not do research in obesity per se. My research is mainly in the area of Depression and Bipolar Disorders. However, in these populations obesity is highly prevalent and there may be good opportunities to establish some future collaborative research projects with obesity researchers on campus.
Relevant pillar:
(2) Clinical - Research on humans includes diagnosis and intervention through treatment, prevention and health promotion.
William Pickett, Department of Community Health & Epidemiology
Dr. Pickett is a Professor of Epidemiology, with primary appointments in the Departments of Community Health and Epidemiology and also Emergency Medicine. Dr. Pickett and colleagues have an active program of research surrounding the health of children and young people. Together with colleagues from various departments at Queen’s, he runs a national survey of children in grades 6-10 called the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Survey. This is part of a 45-country effort to understand more about health and its determinants in populations of young people. A central focus of this work is obesity and its behavioural determinants of physical inactivity and diet. In addition, Dr. Pickett and Dr. Ian Janssen (Kinesiology and Health Studies), lead two CIHR projects that use this health survey in combination with geographic data, as a platform for more in-depth research. This includes studies of built and social environments as determinants health (including consideration of obesity, physical activity, and physical activity injury as health outcomes).
Relevant Pillar:
(4) Population - research on the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.
Elaine Power, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies
Elaine Power's research is focused on issues related to poverty, food, and health. Drawing on literature from the sociology of food, the sociology of health, the sociology of consumption, the sociology of childhood, and cultural studies, and using qualitative research methods, she explores social, cultural, political and symbolic aspects of food, eating, the body, and health. Dr. Power am also interested in expanding the repertoire of qualitative research methods in the sociology of food, particularly the use of visual methods, such as photography and video, and in using documentary film as a vehicle for "knowledge translation" to change public policy.
Relevant Pillar:
(4) Population - research on the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.
Damien Redfearn, Department of Medicine
The arrhythmia research centre deals with both biomedical and clinical research. Our interest mainly concerns arrhythmia and this includes sleep apnoea a major cause of cardiac disease and arrhythmia. As sleep apnoea is linked with obesity, our centre may compliment the work of other obesity researchers.
Relevant Pillar:
(2) Clinical - Research on humans includes diagnosis and intervention through treatment, prevention and health promotion.
Robert Ross, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies
My research work focuses on the characterization and management of obesity and related co-morbidities in adults. In recent years my laboratory has conducted a number of randomized controlled trials to determine the efficacy of lifestyle-based interventions designed to reduce abdominal obesity and related health risk.
Our intervention-based research is performed in a state-of-art-laboratory in the new School of Kinesiology and Health Studies building. This space includes the aerobic and resistance training equipment necessary to perform multiple intervention trials, metabolic testing suites and equipment for measurement of indirect calorimetry both during exercise and at rest is in place. In addition, we have a large meeting room, office space for research nurses, dieticians, research staff and graduate students. Also included are 4 MRI- and CT-image analysis workstations. We also have routine access to MRI, CT and DEXA facilities at Kingston General Hospital.
Relevant Pillar:
(2) Clinical - Research on humans includes diagnosis and intervention through treatment, prevention and health promotion.
Joan E. Tranmer, School of Nursing and Community Health and Epidemiology
Joan Tranmer is a Career Investigator supported by the Ontario Women’s Health Council and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen’s University. She is also a senior scientist in the Queen’s Practice and Research in Nursing (PRN) Group, a co-investigator in the Centre for Health Services Policy Research (Queen’s), Centre for Studies in Primary Care Research (Queen’s) and the Nursing Health Services Research Unit (University of Toronto site). Joan has an active research program focused on systematic examination and gender-based analyses of patient and system outcomes of relevance to the care of persons living with chronic cardiovascular and cancer conditions; and on the development and testing of nurse led health care delivery models designed to optimize the care of individuals with these complex conditions. A second research focus is on the understanding of the relationships between work related factors and cardiovascular health in women.
Relevant pillar:
(2) Clinical - Research on humans includes diagnosis and intervention through treatment, prevention and health promotion.
Michael Tschakovsky, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies
Our biomedical research objectives related to obesity are two-fold. The first objective is to confirm and characterize impairment of muscle blood flow during exercise in humans with Type II Diabetes (T2D), an obesity related disease. The second is to identify lifestyle and pharmaceutical interventions that might improve exercising muscle blood flow, and therefore exercise tolerance in T2D. It has been established that exercise is a critical lifestyle intervention for both the prevention and the management of T2D. However, persons with T2D are exercise intolerant. This exercise intolerance may be related to inadequate supply of oxygen to exercising muscle. It is anticipated that pursuit of our biomedical research objectives will result in the identification of the underlying cause(s) of impaired oxygen delivery during exercise in T2D, and interventions that effectively improve this impairment so that persons with T2D will tolerate and adhere to exercise as part of their lifestyle.
Relevant pillars:
(1) Biomedical - Research involves cellular, body system, and whole body processes, as well as therapies or devices that may be used to improve health.
(2) Clinical - Research on humans includes diagnosis and intervention through treatment, prevention and health promotion.
Dean Van Vugt, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
My research focuses on the neuroendocrine regulation of appetite. Specifically, I am working towards identifying how ovarian steroids, leptin, and insulin exert their effects on the brain to affect ingestive behaviour. We are conducting studies in women with normal menstrual cycles and women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome to address these questions using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Relevant pillar:
(1) Biomedical - Research involves cellular, body system, and whole body processes, as well as therapies or devices that may be used to improve health.
