Page 30 - EUREKA! Summer 2018
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A head                                                                                                     When Martin Holcik joined Carleton in September 2017 as chair of the Health Sciences department,




                                                                                                                                 it felt like a homecoming. Previously director of the molecular biomedicine program at the
                                                                                                                                 Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and a University of Ottawa professor, he
    for holistic                                                                                                                 had done his PhD in biology at Carleton in the 1990s. Which is why, as he walked to meetings on

                                                                                                                                 campus, his muscle memory would kick in, sending him down the hallway that led to his former
                                                                                                                                 lab, for instance, instead of to his intended destination. But much has changed at Carleton over the
                                                                                                                                 past couple decades, including the launch of Health Sciences in 2014 and the construction of a new
                           health                                                                                                building to house the program, one of the fastest growing offerings at the university. Carleton’s

                                                                                                                                 approach to health research and education is poised to have a positive impact in Canada and
                                                                                                                                 beyond, says Holcik, who is determined to lead by example and continue his own research while
                                                                                                                                 helming the department. — as told to Dan Rubinstein





                                                                                                                                        e’ve realized over time that   span everything from understanding   expand and develop them in the lab
                                                                                                                                        we cannot only use traditional   single cells and genetics to cellular   and look at how they interact with
                                                                                                                                 Wresearch methods to deal           behaviour, organism behaviour,       different drugs and try to find the best
                                                                                                                                 with the most pressing health issues.   population health, community health   treatment.
                                                                                                                                 Traditionally, we’ve had silos, such as   and health policy. Some people work   My second area of focus, rare
                                                                                                                                 molecular biology or genetics, and   from the bottom up, starting with   genetic disorders, is very close to my
                                                                                                                                 more and more it’s obvious that you   single cells, while others work top   heart because it gave me a chance
                                                                                                                                 need people with different training   down, starting with community health.   to start interacting with patients and
                                                                                                                                 and different expertise working on   Ultimately, by combining all of these   patients’ families. As a non-physician,
                                                                                                                                 the same team. That’s the philosophy   areas and looking at health from   you don’t have much opportunity to
                                                                                                                                 behind our department, and we’re    different levels, we’re hoping to help   do that, and it completely changed
                                                                                                                                 extremely happy to be in our new    modify societal behaviour, so people   my perception of research. All of a
                                                                                                                                 building because it’s the first time   become healthier.                 sudden, it became a specific disease
                                                                                                                                 we’re all in one place.               I’m trained as a molecular biologist   for a person, as opposed to an abstract
                                                                                                                                   About half of our faculty is wet   and geneticist, and most of the work   disorder we were studying in the lab.
                                                                                                                                 lab based. The other half is dry lab   we do in my labs looks at genetic   In the simplest terms, you can look at
                                                                                                                                 based. It’s easy to imagine these two   alterations within cells and how they   this as a motivator — students in the
                                                                                                                                 groups remaining separate, but we’re   impact disease. One of the challenges   lab were able to connect what they’re
                                                                                                                                 trying to encourage our faculty to find   in pediatric oncology — one of my   doing in a petri dish with the life and
                                                                                                                                                                                                          death of a particular child. It’s much
                                                                                                                                       “You need people with different                                    more motivating than anything else I
                                                                                                                                                                                                          can think of.
                                                                                                                                                                                                           We are very good at putting
                                                                                                                                       training and different expertise                                   bandages on wounds, but as a society,
                                                                                                                                                                                                          we’re not very good at understanding
                                                                                                                                       working on the same team.”                                         the value of preventative medicine —
                                                                                                                                                                                                          and sometimes, I’m surprised by how
                                                                                                                                                                                                          little we pay attention to evidence-
                                                                                                                                                                                                          based approaches, despite the fact
                                                                                                                                 ways to interact, which can take us in   research focuses — is that if you   that we’re in the 21st century. Only
                                                                                                                                 unexpected directions and lead to new   don’t see something very often, it’s   through bringing together people
                                                                                                                                 research opportunities. When dry lab   difficult to find ways to approach   from different backgrounds and
                                                                                                                                 and wet lab people start talking, they   it therapeutically. We’re trying to   different disciplines can we develop
                                                                                                                                 may have different methodologies,   identify ways of connecting genetic   a system for understanding when it’s
                                                                                                                                 but each of those can enrich the    information from tumors to the       more appropriate to intervene in a
                                                                                                                                 other group and lead to the cross-  biochemical and molecular fingerprints   preventative way, and when it’s more
                                                                                                                                 pollination of ideas. To become good at   of cells to help oncologists come up   appropriate to intervene later on. We
                                                                                                                                 something, you have to be a specialist.
                                                                                                                                                                                                          have to be very careful not to put all
                                                                                                                                                                     with the most appropriate treatments
                                                                                                                           Photo: Chris Roussakis  But there’s a danger of becoming too   for specific tumors. It’s basically   of our eggs in one basket, but all of
                                                                                                                                                                                                          the science we’re doing now should
                                                                                                                                 specialized and not being able to see
                                                                                                                                                                     personalized medicine. You can take
                                                                                                                                                                     a tumor, sequence it, get its genetic
                                                                                                                                                                                                          be able to influence public policy in an
                                                                                                                                 outside of those boundaries.
                                                                                                                                                                                                          evidence-based and timely way.
                                                                                                                                                                     fingerprint, then take the tumor cells,
                                                                                                                                   The research interests of our faculty
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