How do animals survive the cold, become dormant for extended periods, and yet wake up and are completely fine?
PhD Candidate Ryan Bell is researching that question, while working with Carleton’s Ken Storey, the Canada Research chair in Molecular Physiology.
Bell chose to pursue his doctoral degree in chemistry at Carleton for one main reason: “I wanted to work for Dr. Ken Storey, He has an amazing passion for his research and makes it easy for his students to get excited about their work. He is an excellent teacher of, not only the scientific principles that are necessary for his students to succeed, but also the additional skills that are necessary for them to learn when heading into the real world – definitely a fantastic supervisor.” Storey is also a member of Carleton’s Institute of Biochemistry.
From the time he was 17-years-old, Bell was fascinated with cells and how so many complex processes come together to make a fully functioning person.
His passion led him to pursue an undergraduate degree at Carleton in biochemistry where he received three summer awards from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and eventually a senate medal for outstanding academic achievement.
Enthralled by his undergrad research pursuits, Ryan then completed a master’s program in biology at Carleton where he was awarded the NSERC Canada graduate scholarship for the duration of his studies.
After teaching at Algonquin College, he decided to return to Carleton to pursue a PhD in chemistry and is now in his third year.
Bell is excited about his research as there are many applications to solving problems in the real-world. He explains: “Medical researchers are interested in hibernators because they may provide some insight into the mechanisms necessary to extend the life of donated organs. The life of organs outside the body is very short right now, but these animals survive weeks at these cold temperatures and their organs remain undamaged.”
Researchers in this field are trying to determine how these hibernators prevent blood clots with very low blood flow rates and how do they prevent muscle disuse atrophy while they lie dormant for the majority of 6-8 months.
Bell says one of the more intriguing questions is: “How do these animals maintain the dormant stage of hibernation and depress their metabolic rate as this could help us figure out how to place humans into a dormant state for long term space travel?”
This year, Bell was awarded an NSERC Graduate Scholarship, while having received an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for the first two years of his PhD.
Speaking of biochemistry, Bell notes that the second year of his PhD was highlighted by his marriage “to a wonderful woman that I met at Carleton.”
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 in Grad Student Research, News
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