Media releases

• New TikTok research focuses on creativity, connectedness

  Thursday, April 16, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 16 April 2020 – R0068

  Not long before COVID-19 closed down schools and sent families into social isolation, Brock University Associate Professor Shauna Pomerantz set to work on a new project to learn what makes her 11-year-old daughter tick — or, more specifically — what makes her TikTok.

  The social media platform TikTok, with more than a billion users worldwide, encourages users to post short, amusing videos. Pomerantz’s daughter, Miriam Field, is an avid user.

  After observing her daughter’s extensive creativity and perseverance in producing TikTok videos, Pomerantz, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Child and Youth Studies, began to wonder if there might be something worth exploring in the platform other than, as she describes it, the “backdrop of surveillance and fear surrounding kids’ lives online.”

  “Miriam and I began co-researching TikTok to offer a counter-narrative that shows its inventive, generative and formative force,” says Pomerantz. “What we hope to offer is a deep understanding of youth cultures by highlighting what TikTok can do as an artistic and imaginative forum for young people’s expression.”

  Though the project was already underway when the province declared a state of emergency, Pomerantz notes that current concerns over kids, screen time and productive learning during the COVID-19 crisis might also be informed by this research.

  “I think our study will speak to this context by showcasing TikTok as a different kind of learning that has value,” she says. “It’s escapism, yes, but also engagement in the creative process, production, interconnection with friends and an online community, cultural literacy, and the cultivation of one’s own taste and style.”

  Field doesn’t think parents truly understand how important TikTok can be to kids.

  “If they take the time to learn what their kids are doing, they might actually see that TikTok isn’t a bad influence and they might see that it helps them a lot, especially during this isolation period,” Field says.

  If co-researching with a school-age child sounds unusual, that’s because it is. But Pomerantz suspected that it would be best to enlist a young expert if she was going to delve into the vast and growing world of TikTok. She put in extra work to gain clearance from Brock’s Research Ethics Board, believing that the result of pursuing the study with Field as a collaborator could be truly innovative.

  Their research partnership has yielded rich and often unexpected results.

  “Miriam feels comfortable to say ‘no,’ to ignore me, to assert her own voice, to laugh at me, to decentre my adult-researcher power and to shift the direction of the conversation,” Pomerantz says of her working relationship with her daughter. “The amazing moments we’ve had would not have been possible with unknown participants.”

  Once their study is complete, Pomerantz and Field will share their research in a chapter of the upcoming Routledge anthology, Visual and Cultural Identity Constructs of Global Youth: Situated, Embodied and Performed Ways of Being, Engaging and Belonging, edited by Fiona Blaikie, Professor in Brock’s Department of Educational Studies.

  But for now, in the unusual circumstances of the provincial shutdown, it has an added advantage of giving Pomerantz and Field a welcome focus during difficult times.

  “Every time we make a video, we forget about what is going on in the world and just laugh and laugh. I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend time with Miriam in this way, and I think we are both thankful for the distraction,” says Pomerantz.

  Field has enjoyed her role as co-researcher and the opportunity to help parents get a better sense of how young people interact with the platform.

  “If you’re a parent, maybe you should take the time to ask your kid to make a TikTok with them,” she says. “It’s very good content for their TikTok accounts and it’s really fun to see your kid’s world up close.”

   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

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

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  Categories: Media releases

• Could allergic reactions be prevented? Brock team identifies key protein that triggers symptoms

  Wednesday, April 15, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 15 April 2020 – R0067

  Spring is in the air, and that means allergic reaction-causing pollen is, too.

  It’s reported that 20 per cent of the Canadian population lives with hay fever and nearly 10 per cent have food allergies. And the problem is only getting worse.

  “Allergies are absolutely an epidemic,” says Brock University Associate Professor of Health Sciences Adam MacNeil.

  Antihistamines and decongestants can bring some temporary relief to the annoyance, pain and in some cases, danger arising from allergic reactions, but what if a reaction could be stopped before symptoms start to appear?

  A Brock research team has discovered that blocking a particular protein early in the process leading to an allergic reaction could essentially eliminate allergic symptoms.

  “A major novelty of the finding is that this protein, which is pretty well-known and has been looked at in a number of other cells and contexts, happens to affect both the early and late phase of an allergic reaction,” says Colton Watson, a PhD student supervised by MacNeil.

  The protein, called TAK1, is in mast cells, which can be found in tissues such as the skin, respiratory tract, digestive tract and other areas that are in contact with the external environment.

  Like other immune cells, mast cells protect the body from infections caused by pathogens such as parasites, bacteria and viruses, maintaining healthy tissue in the process. But strangely, mast cells can also react to allergens such as pollen, animal dander and certain foods that should pose no real threat.

  This sets off a process in which TAK1 is activated and sends out a signal that splits into two.

  The Brock team found one signal leads to degranulation, where cellular ‘packages’ called granules release molecules that lead to the hives, itchiness, swelling and other immediate ‘early phase’ symptoms of an allergic reaction.

  The other signal sets off pathways that produce proteins called cytokines and chemokines, designed to promote inflammation and recruit additional immune cells to fight off infection.

  But what if there is no infection?

  Because the allergen itself is not a dangerous pathogen, the proteins end up causing further unnecessary inflammation and tissue damage several hours later in the ‘late phase.’

  “Mast cells are not evolutionarily programmed to do this,” says MacNeil, who has received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) and NSERC’s Discovery Grant program to pursue this research.

  “Allergens like peanuts or shellfish pose no real threat and as such, the aggressive immune response is misguided and harmful,” he says. “It’s an inappropriate manifestation of the immune system; an overreaction to something that is innocuous and not dangerous.”

  Watson says that although previous research has focused on TAK1’s role in other immune cells responding to actual infections, it’s never been looked at in the context of allergically-activated mast cells.

  “We wanted to determine if the role of TAK1 in other immune cells is conserved in allergically-activated mast cells, and to see if we could therefore target TAK1 to stabilize these mast cells by preventing its activation,” he says.

  What’s unique about the team’s research compared to earlier studies is that they showed TAK1 plays a profound role in bringing about allergic reactions through processes in mast cells and that inhibiting TAK1 stops the allergic events in their tracks preventing them from proceeding to the early and late stages of allergic reactions.

  The researchers verified that a chemical generated by fungus — 5Z-7-oxozeaenol — widely referred to as “OZ” potently inhibits TAK1.

  “The results generated provide a strong pool of evidence to support additional investigation into the potential of targeting TAK1 in the treatment of allergic inflammation,” says the study, “TAK1 signaling activity links the mast cell cytokine response and degranulation in allergic inflammation,” published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

  Watson and MacNeil stress that it’s too early to determine if drugs modelled from OZ can mitigate allergic reactions, saying that they and other researchers can build upon what they found in this study.

  “The next step is to use the knowledge gained from this study to take rational and targeted strategies for novel therapeutic design,” says MacNeil.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

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

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  Categories: Media releases