Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia discovered that a peptide toxin found in the venom of the Peruvian green velvet tarantula may have important potential as a painkiller. Venom is a complex mixture of enzymes and proteins – peptide toxins are proteins that have a toxic effect on the animal’s victim. Types of peptide toxins can vary greatly from species to species. The specific peptide these researchers examined is called ProTx-II. Researchers were already aware of the fact that this peptide inhibits the voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.7, an important pain receptor. NaV1.7 sodium channels are located in the cell membrane of nociceptors, a type of nerve cell that transmits pain signals. However, by studying the structure of ProTx-II using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the Queensland researchers made groundbreaking discoveries about the mechanism by which the inhibition occurs. NMR spectroscopy allowed them to create 3D representations of the peptide, and thus closely examine its structure to see how it might interact with the cell membrane of neurons.

Sonia Troeria Henriques, the lead researcher of the team, explains that, “The neuronal cell membranes attract the peptide [toxin] to the neurons, increase its concentration close to the pain receptors, and lock the peptide in the right orientation to maximize its interaction with the target.” The discovery of the cell membranes‘ role in blocking pain receptors has important implications for the future development of painkilling drugs.

This is far from being the first time venom has been researched as a potential painkiller. Researchers in France found that the venom of the black mamba, one of the most dangerous snakes in Southern and Eastern Africa, contains proteins called mambalgins, which are as effective as morphine in stopping pain. Another venom that is being studied for its painkilling potential is that of the cone snail. Scientists have found that the extremely powerful venom of the cone snail contains certain proteins that “can be up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine,” as described by the National Geographic. In 2004, the U.S Federal Drug Administration actually approved a drug called Prialt which contains a synthetic form of a peptide found in cone snail venom.

Painkillers derived from venom open up a whole new world of drugs.

How did these animals develop these powerful venoms? According to scientists, venoms started out as genes for other functions. Normal proteins undergo mutations. A common mutation is one that causes DNA to get duplicated; this means that the extra gene can mutate again without affecting the original gene. These mutated genes might help animals capture prey, and if they do, these animals are more likely to survive longer and pass on their DNA, while animals lacking the mutated gene would die off. The new venom gene may further evolve or it may even duplicate. Scientists have actually found that the rate at which cone snails duplicate venom genes is the fastest in the animal kingdom.

Painkillers derived from venom open up a whole new world of drugs. The peptide toxins found in venom work differently from opioids (such as morphine) that are commonly used as painkillers, so they can block pain without causing many of the harmful side effects of opioids, such as addiction. However, these venom-derived painkillers are still under development, as they pose certain challenges. For instance, the pain-blocking peptides in the venom of cone snails and black mambas cannot cross the blood-brain barrier to bind to the pain receptors in the brain, so they need to be administered via spinal injections. This is highly inconvenient, because of complications such as infection, hematoma, and direct nerve trauma, as well as their high cost.

You could look at nature as being like a catalogue of products, and all of those have benefited from a 3.8 billion year search and development period.

Nonetheless, the compounds found in venom provide enormous potential in the development of new painkilling drugs. Using nature as a source of inspiration and innovation has long been an important driver of scientific advancement. For instance, in 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral observed burrs sticking to his dog’s fur, which led him to invent velcro. Another fascinating example is Zimbabwe’s largest office and shopping complex, the Eastgate Centre, which was inspired by the structure of termite dens. Architect Mick Pearce designed the Centre, taking inspiration from the ventilation system of termite dens, to create a building that uses “less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building its size.”

These are all examples of biomimicry, which is defined as “imitation of life or nature.” The term ‘biomimicry’ was popularized by biologist Janine Benyus in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Biomimicry plays a crucial role in the field of medicine – not only in the development of painkillers, but in other areas as well. For example, researchers inspired by the head of Pomphorhynchus laevis, a parasitic intestinal worm, designed surgical microneedles with tips that swell when they come into contact with water. These microneedles provide “three times stronger adhesion than conventional surgical staples.”

The potential of biomimicry is huge. Michael Pawlyn, an architect and strong advocate of biomimicry, explains that, “You could look at nature as being like a catalogue of products, and all of those have benefited from a 3.8 billion year research and development period. And given that level of investment, it makes sense to use it.” According to the Biomimicry Institute, biomimicry may be the key to solving the world’s sustainability issues because it means drawing on nature’s “time-tested patterns and strategies” which have proven to be sustainable. For example, the award-winning Living Filtration System uses an earthworm-inspired technology to create a sustainable alternative to conventional agricultural drainage systems, thereby reducing the need for fertilizer and leading to healthier soil.

Nature is an excellent source of innovation, whether it’s for developing new painkillers, designing energy-efficient buildings, or creating better surgical tools. In an environment currently being devastated by global warming, it’s important to find viable solutions for the issues that we face through more natural means. As technology continues to move forward, we can use biomimicry in more sophisticated ways to solve the problems of the 21st century. The concept of a tarantula venom-inspired painkiller is still under development, but in the meanwhile, you can look around and let nature do what it does best – which is inspire us to create and innovate.

The post Tarantula venom: a painkiller? appeared first on The McGill Daily.

On February 9 students at JNU, a university in New Delhi, held an event to discuss the struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination. Students also questioned the controversial hanging of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist convicted as a terrorist who played a role in an attack on India’s parliament in 2001.

On February 12, Kanhaiya Kumar, president of JNU’s Students’ Union (JNUSU), was arrested after the university administration had let police, who were wearing civilian clothes, into the JNU campus to find students who were involved in the event.

Kumar was charged with sedition after “anti-India” slogans were allegedly shouted at the February 9 event. According to The Indian Express, Kumar and his supporters were allegedly beaten by lawyers on court premises, in police presence. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in a tweet, said that any individual who opposed the sedition charge has been labelled as an anti-national by the Indian government, which is currently led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has close ties to Hindu nationalist ideology.

Kumar has now been released from jail on a bail period of six months, based on a lack of any evidence that Kumar participated in anti-national slogans. However, two other students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, remain in police custody under charges of sedition.

Arrest and controversy

Kumar’s arrest and the subsequent handling of the situation by the government have generated massive protests across India and international criticism.

In an interview with The Daily, Vertika, a first-year McGill PhD candidate and alumnus of JNU, said, “The stance of the JNU community has been that [the arrest] was a pre-planned political move by the right-wing forces […] so as to generate this polarization in [India] about nationalism, and then define who is an anti-national.”

“India is such a diverse country. How can there be only one idea of nationalism?” Vertika continued.

Bayar Goswami, a first-year McGill Law student, and a member of Stand With JNU, told The Daily that the sedition charges themselves are problematic.

“The Supreme Court has a clear ruling that for sedition to exist in any act, incitement of violence has to occur,” said Goswami, yet noted that the students charged with sedition were not violent. Additionally, many separatists have called for the freedom of Kashmir in the past and were not charged with sedition.

Speaking to The Daily about India’s political state, Arunima Sharan, a U1 Economics and International Development Studies student who signed the statement of solidarity and is a member of the Indian Students Association, said, “We call ourselves the biggest democracy in the world but are we getting our rights as a democracy?”

McGill stands in solidarity

Vertika, Goswami, and Sharan, along with Gaurav Singh, a first-year MBA student, and Aishwarya Nair, a first-year PhD candidate, organized a meeting to support JNU’s cause and created a statement of solidarity from concerned individuals of McGill, which has gathered fifty signatures so far.

“As students […] we need to stand up for the rights of other students across other parts of the world for the right of freedom of speech and expression. Why? Because universities are spaces where students should be able to critique even the ideas of the state, critique the policies of the government,” noted Vertika.

Universities across the world have also created their own statements, with some holding public rallies. According to Goswami, “This kind of peer solidarity […] creates pressure on the government to think about its actions.”

The pressure resulting from international statements of solidarity has undeniably had an effect, said Vertika, as media that was aggressively branding students as anti-national have had to back down, and the administration of JNU no longer lets police enter the campus to arrest students.

Vertika suggested that McGill faculty could write public letters to the administration of JNU. Vertika has also submitted a motion for the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) to take a position on the issue in order to raise more awareness in the McGill community.

The post McGill students stand in solidarity with Indian student protests appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Although it may seem odd to name a species after a fictional character, Iandumoema smeagol’s name is actually quite fitting. In the history of Middle Earth, Smeagol, a hobbit, finds the coveted ring of power and becomes corrupted by it, going into hiding in a cave and turning into the pale creature known as Gollum. Similarly – according to an article published in National Geographic – the golden Iandumoema smeagol “lost most of its pigmentation after generations of living in moist, dark caves,” what little pigment it does have seems reminiscent of the one ring in its golden colour.

While Iandumoema smeagol sounds like a name odd enough for Tolkien himself to have come up with, there are other scientific names that are more recognizable, like homo sapiens, canis lupus, and orcinus orca – humans, wolves, and killer whales, respectively. These names get thrown around frequently, but we hardly think about what goes into the creation of an organism’s scientific name.

In biology, scientists use the binomial nomenclature (also known as scientific name) system to identify unique organisms. This assigns a unique two-part name to species. The first part is called the generic epithet, and the second part is called the specific epithet. In other words, the first part refers to the genus of the organism, and the second part refers to its species. This binomial naming system was developed in the mid-18th century by Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist. Linnaeus sought to create a universal system for identifying species, and is often referred to as the “father of taxonomy”. Later in the 19th century, over a long period of time, Georges Cuvier and other scientists advanced the taxonomical classification system by adding the categories of domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, and family, but Linnaeus’s methods remain the naming conventions of taxonomy today.

When scientists discover a new species, they must pick a name that adheres to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. These are very detailed documents that outline the conventions for naming a species, such as latinizing names or what to do in cases of incorrect spelling. Such agreements ensure that the name given to a species is universally recognizable. However, this system is not perfect – because the taxonomic classification system is created by humans – its accuracy depends on what we are able to observe in the organism. For instance, biologists initially placed fungi in the plant kingdom because they didn’t move; however, once scientists learned about photosynthesis and that fungi don’t photosynthesize, they placed fungi in their own category.

So how exactly do scientists pick names? The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature provides rules that scientists must follow once they’ve chosen a name, yet there are no guidelines on how to name a species. As it turns out, scientists are free to choose any name they want for their newly discovered organism. They can choose a name based on the species’ physical characteristics, or its behaviour, or even name it after a person.

For instance, in 2012, Yale scientists discovered a fossil in eastern Montana of an extinct species of lizard. They decided to name it obamadon gracilis because its teeth reminded them of Obama’s toothy grin – obamadon is Latin for “Obama’s teeth.” To avoid sending a negative message about the president, they announced the name of the lizard after Obama was re-elected for his second term. Rostropria garbo, a species of wasp described as a “solitary female,” was named after Greta Garbo, who famously said, “I want to be left alone.”

There are also some cases where species have been named after people not due to resemblance, but due to personal preference. For instance, phialella zappai is a species of jellyfish named after music icon Frank Zappa. Marine biologist Ferdinando Boero, who discovered the jellyfish, named it after the musician hoping to get a chance to meet him by doing so, which worked. Zappa even responded to Boero. Writing a short humorous song he called “Lonesome Cowboy Nando.”

The binomial nomenclature system has been in use for over 250 years and is considered to be an objective and logical way of naming new species, but it is important to remember that constant human element. Not necessarily a bad thing, freedom in choosing a species’ name allows for creativity (and sometimes humour), and it is a way for people to leave their mark on the world. Cases like Iandumoema smeagol show us the profound impact that some parts of popular culture have on us – be it a musician, actor, political leader, or fictional world.

The post Nomenclature normalities appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The Centre is organized into five partly independent research groups: Global Antiquities, Transitions and Global Modernities, Constitutional Studies, Global Justice, and Democracy, Space, and Technology. Each research group is directed by one or two McGill professors who are leading scholars in their fields.

The Daily spoke to Jacob Levy, the founding director of the Centre, coordinator of its Constitutional Studies research group, and Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory.

According to Levy, the Yan P. Lin Centre “aims to bring together studies of society and of social change from across the normative, comparative, and historical disciplines – broadly speaking, encouraging interdisciplinary work from a range of departments, a range of faculties, all focused on that kind of humanistic inquiry to the nature of society and government.”

“A centre like this [… takes] us outside the box of just thinking in terms of our discipline and our department.”

Yan P. Lin, who obtained his PhD from McGill in 1992, told The Daily he was motivated to donate to the university because he wanted to “find a way to do something that is good for McGill, just like McGill did […] for me many years ago.”

According to Anastassios Anastassiadis, a professor in the Department of History and a co-coordinator of the Transitions and Global Modernities research group, “A centre like this [… takes] us outside the box of just thinking in terms of our discipline and our department.”

As noted by Levy, each research pillar will focus on one area of study. For instance, the research group on Constitutional Studies focuses on research “at the overlap of political theory and philosophy, of political science about constitutional-level institutions […] and legal philosophy.” The research group on Global Antiquities seeks to study ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and ancient China from a comparative perspective.

Hans Beck, co-coordinator of the Global Antiquities research group and History professor, stressed the need for a “new approach to world antiquity,” one that cuts across time and cultural barriers, given that McGill has “changed so dramatically” over recent years, from student population to faculty composition and disciplines.

However, Anastassiadis also noted a simultaneous stagnation at McGill, remarking that “contrary to what [universities] say, they are quite traditional in their organization and their structure,” and that he hoped the Centre would help McGill “rethink its own structure.”

Students seemed largely enthusiastic about the Centre and pleased with the use of the money.

“I think it is a very generous gift to McGill and is going to be a great contribution,” said Ashley Wood, a U0 Arts student.

Emma Ebowe, a U1 Economics and Political Science student, said, “This […] is probably exactly what McGill needs – a way of combining seemingly unrelated disciplines to help us really understand the broader themes we’re trying to study.”

Amid cuts to public education spending under the Quebec Liberal government’s austerity measures, concerns have been voiced for years that alumni donations designated for specific projects gave the illusion of financial affluence and directed attention away from the government’s lack of financial support.

“Philanthropy is no substitute for government support.”

In 2013, when Campaign McGill raised a record $1 billion in donations over eight years, former Principal Heather Munroe-Blum told The Daily that “not a dollar of the philanthropy that comes in is used for the operating budget at the university.”

“With the underfunding of universities that we experience, it is absolutely essential that government stay the course in funding universities to the high level. Philanthropy is no substitute for government support,” said Munroe-Blum at the time.

Asked whether the Centre was the most prudent use of the money, given McGill’s well-documented financial troubles, Beck stated that since the money was an endowment, it was earmarked specifically for the creation of the Centre. As a result, McGill had to comply with the donor’s choice as to how to allocate the funds.

“When we hit the point of having roughly a $3 million endowment, then we’re dependent on the McGill payout rates for what happens with an endowment,” explained Levy. “That means the whole Centre, including the five research groups and the overarching Centre, will be running at about 4 per cent per year of the $3 million.”

The post $3.4 million donation establishes interdisciplinary centre appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The panelists included McGill law students Lillian Boctor, Samanthea Samuels, Stéphanie Déborah Jules, and Alyssa Clutterbock, and Université de Montréal law student Médigne Gourdet. The student panelists talked about their personal experiences and critical analyses regarding the intersection of Blackness and gender in the field of law.

Also present was Rachel Zellars, PhD candidate in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, whose research focuses on critical race theory.

Representation versus reality

Samuels and Jules discussed the current media representation of Black women in the field of law, analysing three characters from popular TV shows: Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope in Scandal, Viola Davis as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away With Murder, and Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson in Suits.

“It’s important […] to use that media presence to actually talk about, ‘okay, this is TV. In reality, what’s happening?’”

Samuels and Jules acknowledged that such increased media presence of Black women in law is a positive change. Nevertheless, they said that the characters still enforce stereotypes, pointing to the hypersexualization of Olivia Pope and “angry Black woman” moments of Annalise Keating. While Samuels and Jules praised Jessica Pearson as a strong, self-determined individual they lamented the fact that she remains a supporting character in the show.

This discussion of Black female characters in TV served as a launching pad for the real focus of the evening: the reality of Black women in the field of law. According to Jules, “It’s important […] to use that media presence to actually talk about, ‘okay, this is TV. In reality, what’s happening?’”

“We’re not seeing those roles in real life,” Samuels said.

The panel presented statistics on the underrepresentation of Black people, and specifically Black women, in the legal world. For example, as of March 2013, only 286 of the 24,450 practicing lawyers and 72 of the 1,245 active law students in Quebec were Black.

“For a Black woman, law is far too often a barrier or a bludgeon, rather than any sort of bridge to justice.”

Clutterbuck approached this underrepresentation from a more personal angle, being one of two Black women in her class and the only Black woman in her law firm.

Gendered violence against Black women

Boctor addressed state violence against Black women. “For a Black woman, law is far too often a barrier or a bludgeon, rather than any sort of bridge to justice,” Boctor explained, focusing on a number of injustices faced by Black women, citing examples of sexual assault by police.

Zellars talked about how Black women are characterized in legal circumstances, where they are portrayed as “self-deprecating agents, things to be shamed, exposed, and ultimately disbelieved in their allegations of sexual violence.”

Blackness in law school and professional life

For Clutterbuck, the most difficult part about going through law school was attempting “to reconcile the fact that I have to write an exam […] using concepts that were once used to oppress my ancestors.”
Gourdet described an interview where she was rejected and was told that she did not look like “the image of our cabinet.” She also explained the difficulties that Black women face in having few role models in the legal profession, and in coming to terms with the fact that hard work alone is not enough to succeed.

“It’s really easy for the status quo to keep producing predictable results, which is that every year, the overwhelming majority of future lawyers are white, from upper middle-class backgrounds.”

The panelists emphasized the importance of unapologetically claiming space as Black women pursuing careers in law and moving forward.

“It’s really easy for the status quo to keep producing predictable results, which is that every year, the overwhelming majority of future lawyers are white, from upper middle-class backgrounds. […] In the spirit of wanting a bench across the country that is representative of the population, we need to continue to fight,” Clutterbuck said.

The post At the intersection of gender and Blackness in law appeared first on The McGill Daily.