Page 8 - Eureka! Fall 2005

Faculty news ALIEN invasion
he aliens have landed, and they’re
highly invasive plants are so chemi-
vine, which came to North America
from Ukraine and Russia, says Cap-
ttaking North America by storm.
cally unique that no herbivores can
Alien plants brought in from other
continents are infiltrating North
hold on many Toronto-area landscapes
attack them. In the case of the dog-
American landscapes at an alarm- puccino. The plant now has a strangle- eat them and no native fungi can
strangling vine, they proved this to be
as well as upstate New York.
ing rate. Once their growth patterns So the Carleton biologist began true. The plant’s chemicals are com-
spiral out of control, these resilient studying this pest of a plant. And the pletely foreign to North America.
invaders threaten the survival of local more she and her colleagues studied The next step of the research is to
species and create a huge expense for it, the more they realized it was toxic grow natural herbivores such as the
wildlife authorities, says Naomi Cap- to everything. At the heart of its toxic- American locust and determine its pref- Ashkan Golshani, Biology professor within the cell,” he says.
puccino, a professor of Biology who is ity is an active compound that actu- erences when faced with plants that are
conducting cutting-edge research on ally deters herbivores from eating the either highly invasive or non-invasive.
ways to identify and eradicate some plant. Biology professor Myron Smith Helping Cappucino with this stage
of the worst culprits. and Thor Arnason, a phytochemist is Tania Jogesh, a fourth-year honours
Often there are no natural patho- from the University of Ottawa, also student and insect enthusiast. The
gens or herbivores to keep the growth discovered the plant has some really insect experiment comprises the bulk
of alien populations in check. Of par- strong anti-fungal properties. of Jogesh’s thesis.
ticular concern in the last few years Along with Arnason, Cappucino has “I love insects,” she says from the
is the swallow-wort or dog-strangling addressed the question of whether Nesbitt greenhouses which contain
fully-grown grasshoppers that were
recently shipped from the U.S.
By determining the plant prefer-
ence of these insects, the study could
offer wildlife authorities new insight
into which foreign plants are menac-
ing enough to warrant a bio-control
program, adds Jogesh. These decisions
are critical since such a tracking and
quarantine program can cost roughly
$300,000 per species, says Cappuccino.
“Hopefully, our research will help
people in their decision-making,” she
says. “If you can somehow predict
which plants are going to cause the
worst problem before they spread all
across North America, then you can
get at these plants while they’re still
manageable. The chemistry and the
herbivore damage might be one clue
as to whether or not the plant will
become a really bad one.”
! Fast fact...
Each year, the U.s. Fish and wildlife
service spends Us$10 million dollars
on controlling exotic plant species. this
doesn’t include the billions in annual
damages to the agriculture and forestry
industries, as well as range lands and
roadways. Meanwhile, 42 percent of
America’s endangered and threatened
species have declined as a result of
encroaching exotic plants and animals.
Biology professor Naomi cappuccino holds one of several American grasshoppers that will be used in her
ongoing research on alien plants Source: National Park Service
8 EUREKA!  FALL 2005
Demystifying alternative Faculty news
medicine: Seeking the truth behind
echinacea and scorpion venom
Centre for Disease Control. “I think there is some truth to about
“Our theory is that if echinacea, 25 percent of the myths (concerning
for example, is truly effective, it homeopathic remedies),” Golshani says.
must have some sort of activity with “But I think the most important thing is
certain gene products and pathways for scientists to keep their mind open.”
Getting to the bottom of those myths,
While echinacea has long been however, can be very time-consuming
or years, the healing powers of favoured by Canadian Aboriginal Peo- if it’s done manually. Recently, some
F homeopathic medicines have been ples for its anti-fungal properties, Gol- scientists have begun using a new robot
steeped in mystery. shani wants to find out how it actually specifically designed to test the various
While there may be an abundance stops the growth of yeast. This means combinations of gene-deletions with the
of anecdotal evidence supporting deleting specific genes in thousands of homeopathic compound in question.
alternative remedies such as echi- yeast strains and applying echanesia “All of a sudden, we have the com-
nacea and scorpion venom, there is in their absence. In doing so, scientists puter automation power to do this
very little empirical evidence to prove could theoretically see if the healing type of work, such as crossing 4,000
these treatments are directly respon- affect of echanesia and function of strains of yeast with one another,”
sible for someone’s recovery. each deleted gene are related. says Golshani. “There are so many
But if biologists are able to exam- The same concept could be applied questions we can now get answers to.”
ine some of these natural compounds to scorpion venom, which is believed Golshani intends to seek new re-
at the molecular level, they may get by some groups to have anti-cancer search funding so he can add this new
the definitive proof they need to turn properties. Especially popular in Cuba, technology to his lab in the Nesbitt
homeopathic remedies into cutting- this natural compound is now the fo- Building. The lab, which is designed
edge designer drugs, explains Ashkan cus of researchers in Alabama who are to create new antibiotics, recently
Golshani, a Biology professor who is trying to determine if it can be used to received $177,840 in funding from the
the director of Carleton’s Genomics treat primary brain tumors. Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Cyber-crime meets its match
n a bid to gain an advantage over cy- for Carleton because the university
I ber-criminals, Carleton has co-found- houses one of the largest digital
ed a unique Internet security forum. security research groups in Canada,
The Forum for Information Secu- explains Paul Van Oorschot, a profes-
rity Innovation in Canada (FISIC) sor in Carleton’s School of Computer
promises to increase public aware- Science and Canada Research Chair
ness about potential gaps in Internet in Network and Software Security.
security and offer new ways to stop Expertise in the School of Computer
cyber-criminals. Science includes intrusion detection,
Teaming up with Carleton to ad- authentication, Internet routing se-
curity, software protection, applica-
dress these pressing issues include tion security, and wireless security. Paul Van Oorschot, canada Research chair in
Bell Security Solutions Inc., Bell Uni-
Network and software security.
Van Oorschot expects banks to join
versity Labs, and the federally-funded
Mathematics of Information Technol- FISIC since they have a common in- the eventual goal is to have intercon-
ogy and Complex Systems based at terest in protecting online customers. nected pockets or clusters of exper-
Simon Fraser University, B.C. He also anticipates more academic tise across the country that can easily
Together, they will work on FISIC’s partners to crop up across the coun- collaborate on digital security issues
debut project: to investigate the tech- try. Thus far, Dalhousie University and work toward common goals.
nologies and processes used to fight and the University of Calgary have Other founding partners of FISIC
expressed interest.
email abuse, such as spamming and include the Canadian Advanced Tech-
spoofing, as well as expensive denial- “Our intention is to get like-minded nology Alliance and Communications
of-service (DoS) attacks that can deny companies, universities, and ap- and Information Technology Ontario,
businesses millions of dollars. propriate government departments an Ontario Centre of Excellence. Visit
FISIC’s debut project is a good fit together,” Van Oorschot says, adding FISIC at fisic.ca.
eur eka.carleton.ca 9