Media releases

• Key roles awarded to Brock researchers in National Gender+ Equity in Sport Research Hub

  Thursday, December 17, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 17 December 2020 – R0188

  The Government of Canada has set a target to achieve gender equity in sport at every level by 2035.

  Working to accomplish this goal are Brock University Sport Management (SPMA) researchers Dawn Trussell and Shannon Kerwin who have each been appointed research co-leads for the scientific committee of the newly launched National Gender+ Equity in Sport Research Hub.

  “This announcement has been years in the making,” says Trussell, Associate Professor of Sport Management. “We are thrilled to be working in partnership with nine other esteemed colleagues across Canada to advance gender+ equity in the Canadian sport system and reimagining a sport landscape where girls, women and genderfluid people can participate and flourish in their practice.”

  The National Gender+ Equity in Sport Research Hub is funded by Sport Canada and was officially launched on Tuesday, Dec. 1. The knowledge sharing hub is led by three co-directors, Gretchen Kerr (University of Toronto), Guylaine Demers (Université Laval) and Ann Pegoraro (University of Guelph) and is guided by a scientific committee of scholars from across the country who are committed to advancing gender+ equity in sport in Canada by using evidence-based solutions to close the gender gap in sport.

  “Gender+ recognizes that gender is not an identity experienced on its own. In order to achieve equity in sport, we must understand individuals as wholes with multiple, simultaneous identities,” says Trussell. “The collaborations taking place among the scientific committee members who represent research expertise on diverse social identities including indigeneity, race, disability, LGBTQ2S+ have been so valuable.”

  Led by Trussell and Kerwin, with Applied Health Sciences master’s students Amanda Lyn (BKin ’19) and Laura Lozinski (BSM ’20), the Brock team recently completed a thematic review of the last 20 years of gender and participation research to identify trends and outline gaps.

  “Through this review, we are helping the Hub build a single database of research associated with understanding the nature of the experiences of women and girls in different sporting roles and forms of sport participation,” says Kerwin, Associate Professor of Sport Management. “The findings we have generated suggest research must adopt transformational interdisciplinary frameworks that connect research to social and political action.”

  The Brock findings and contributions are now one of the building blocks informing a new call to fund research proposals to support gender equity and sport research initiatives expected to be released in early 2021.

  “Our commitment is to a three-year term,” Trussell says. “The next two years will not only be focused on commissioning, delivering and supporting innovative research projects, but it is an incredible opportunity to enhance training for the next generation of scholars and practitioners who are interested in this field of study.”

  Trussell and Kerwin’s appointment continues to build on the momentum and leadership that Brock’s SPMA and Centre for Sport Capacity have been gaining since the 2019 Women in Sport and Leadership Forum, a milestone event that inspired the student-led initiative Sport Helps Everyone Make Allies, which aims to empower women and diverse social groups in the sport industry through fostering an inclusive, accepting and supportive environment for students in the SPMA program.

  “There is a collective group of faculty members and students at Brock interested in enhancing and promoting an understanding of gender equity in sport,” Kerwin says. “This work is enabling us to bring on more members of the Brock community to contribute to addressing the systematic delivery of sport to a more representative groups of girls, women and genderfluid people. Broader macro-level change must occur for equity to be felt at the individual level of our system.”

  Associate Professors of Sport Management Dawn Trussell and Shannon Kerwin are available for media interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

  – 30 –

  Categories: Media releases

• Brock gains Canada Research Chair in Tissue Remodelling and Plasticity

  Wednesday, December 16, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 16 December 2020 – R0187

  Muscles comprise up to half of our body and, in the case of the heart, provide us with the essence of life.

  “Our muscles are truly vital at every timepoint of our lives,” says Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Val Fajardo, who was announced as Brock University’s newest Canada Research Chair in Tissue Remodelling and Plasticity throughout the Lifespan on Wednesday, Dec. 16.

  Fajardo studies how muscles change in form and function over the course of a lifetime.

  “We’re trying to optimize muscle health and physiology to improve whole body health under conditions of aging, spaceflight, obesity, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and heart disease,” he says.

  Tissue plasticity refers to long-term changes to the function and appearance of cells. This process in turn fuels muscle plasticity in which muscles modify their structures and functions in response to environmental demands.

  Muscles are remodelled by favourable physiological changes arising from things like exercise and good nutrition, which enhance muscle function. With aerobic exercise training, for example, muscles will alter their metabolism allowing them to perform better and fatigue less.

  Muscles are also remodelled through pathological or unfavourable changes brought about by disease, aging and physical inactivity, which can impair muscle and whole-body health.

  “Understanding what causes the good changes in muscle is important, because then maybe we can tap into that when things go bad,” says Fajardo.

  “Can we hack into the cellular code so that muscles adapting poorly to changes can now adapt well?” he says.

  Fajardo and his team are particularly interested in a protein called calcineurin, which regulates calcium and largely drives muscle plasticity.

  They are studying various proteins and interventions that can alter calcineurin signalling including other proteins such as calmodulin, the SERCA pump, and an enzyme called glycogen synthase kinase 3 or GSK3 for short.

  GSK3 is particularly important as it is associated with muscle and bone deterioration. Current research in the Fajardo lab is looking at how GSK3 levels differ in muscle specimens on Earth and in outer space as a way of unlocking strategies to slow bone and muscle loss in aging humans.

  “We are studying ways to block GSK3 to improve musculoskeletal health along with cardiovascular health and metabolism,” he says.

  GSK3 has been implicated in several diseases and conditions. In addition to its role in muscle plasticity, Fajardo and a team of experts, including Assistant Professors of Health Sciences Rebecca MacPherson, Adam MacNeil, Terrance Wade and Deborah O’Leary and Professors of Kinesiology Brian Roy, Wendy Ward and Panagiota (Nota) Klentrou are studying the role of GSK3 in cognitive health, obesity and diabetes, immune cell function, and mediating the effects of regular exercise.

  “What if stopping GSK3 can mimic and amplify some of the beneficial effects of exercise not only in muscle but across several other organs in the body?” says Fajardo.

  Exercise is crucial to mitigating diseases and other debilitating medical conditions. Fajardo says studying the cellular mechanisms that occur during exercise can lead to the development of medicines that could perhaps help those unable to exercise.

  Fajardo says he feels “honoured” and “extremely lucky” to be named a Canada Research Chair.

  “I am here in large part because of the training I received from Brock University,” he says.

  Fajardo completed his undergraduate degree in 2009 and master’s degree in 2012 at Brock under the supervision of Professor of Health Sciences, Paul LeBlanc before completing his PhD at the University of Waterloo.

  “This CRC recognizes Dr. Fajardo’s breakthrough work, strong productivity and research output in the field of muscle physiology, particularly in the cellular-level repair and remodelling of skeletal and cardiac muscles,” says Brock Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon. “His work has tremendous implications for the health of all Canadians, particularly those living with diseases, chronic conditions and injuries, and the elderly.”

  The Canada Research Chairs Program invests up to $295 million per year to attract and retain some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds. Chairholders aim to achieve research excellence in engineering and the natural sciences, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

  Including Fajardo, Brock University currently has eight Canada Research Chairs, with more expected to be announced in 2021.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

  – 30 –

  Categories: Media releases