Page 9 - Eureka! Fall 2005

Faculty news ALIEN invasion Demystifying alternative Faculty news

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

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