Media releases

  • Brock University and Town of Lincoln to launch Living Lab partnership

    R00170 MEDIA RELEASE: 7 September 2017

    Brock University will embark on an unprecedented mission with one of its host communities next week, when it partners with the Town of Lincoln on a project that will give the Town important support for planning sustainable growth, and provide valuable experiential learning opportunities for Brock students and researchers.

    Brock’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre and the Town of Lincoln will officially launch their new Living Lab collaborative project on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Vineland Estates Winery. The event will be held in the winery’s Carriage House starting at 5 p.m. with remarks to begin at 5:15 p.m.

    The partnership is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the University and the Town in February aimed at enriching opportunities for students and advancing the town’s economic, social and community development. The Brock-Lincoln Living Lab will focus on addressing specific local needs around sustainable municipal planning. Master of Sustainability students will find hands-on opportunities to contribute to the Living Lab’s work through experiential education placements and research projects.

    On Tuesday, Town of Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton and CAO Michael Kirkopoulos will join Brock President Gervan Fearon and Ryan Plummer, Director of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre in launching the first collaborative project.

    Media are invited to attend the launch of the Brock-Lincoln Living Lab. Interview opportunities will be available.

    Quick Facts

    What: Launch of new partnership between Brock University and Town of Lincoln

    When: Tuesday, Oct. 3, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

    Where: Vineland Estates Winery, Carriage House, 3620 Moyer Rd., Vineland

    Who: Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton; Brock President Gervan Fearon; Lincoln CAO Michael Kirkopoulos; and Brock University ESRC Director Ryan Plummer.

     

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

    Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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    Categories: Media releases

  • Exercise helps fight cancer, says Brock research

    MEDIA RELEASE: 25 September 2017 – R00169

    People who took part in the Terry Fox Run at Brock University recently were fighting cancer in more ways than just raising funds for research.

    Recent Brock University research has suggested exercise may slow down — and even prevent — the growth of certain types of lung cancer cells.

    “This study supports the idea that exercise is good for us and may contribute to the reduction of the risk of cancer,” says Evangelia Litsa Tsiani, Associate Professor of Health Sciences and research team co-ordinator.

    In their study, the researchers used human lung cancer cells that represent a type of cancer called non-small cell lung cancer, an especially harsh and aggressive disease that accounts for up to 85 per cent of all lung cancer cases. These and other cancer cells multiply quickly and are able to survive at much higher rates than normal cells.

    Blood samples were drawn from a group of young men before and after they had exercised vigorously. From these samples, the researchers extracted serum, the clear, yellowish liquid part of blood that contains all blood components except blood cells.

    The team then exposed the cancer cells to pre- and post-exercise serum.

    The researchers found that the lung cancer cells that had been exposed to post-exercise serum not only had reduced growth, but their long-term survival greatly decreased when compared to cells exposed to pre-exercise serum.

    In the exercise study, Tsiani and her team found that the post-exercise serum:

    ·      Stopped the survival and multiplication of cancer cells and enhanced the process of apoptosis, or pre-programmed cell death

    ·      Blocked a signalling pathway called Akt that would have caused the cancer cells to multiply

    ·      Stopped certain proteins in the cancer cells from being activated

    “The importance of this study is that, at the molecular level, the inhibition that we see with this post-exercise serum is very significant, comparable to what chemotherapy drugs are able to accomplish,” says Tsiani.

    The team has not yet identified the specific substance in the post-exercise serum — hormones, proteins, among others — that slowed and stopped the growth of the cancer cells. Tsiani says identifying that substance is the next step of the research.

    The research team’s findings are in their paper, Inhibition of Human Lung Cancer Cell Proliferation and Survival by Post-Exercise Serum Is Associated with the Inhibition of Akt, mTOR, p70 S6K, and Erk1/2,” published in the journal Cancers in June.

    Graduate student Nigel Kurgan is first author on that paper. Other researchers include Professor of Kinesiology Panagiota Klentrou and graduate students Kurgan, Evelyn Tsakiridis, Rozalia Kouvelioti and Jessy Moore.

     

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

    Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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    Categories: Media releases