The following article is written by MacLachlan Head Prefect, Ishan Aditya. He shares his experience at the Canada Wide Science and Engineering Fair held at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta.
I competed at the Canada Wide Science and Engineering Fair from May 11th to May 18th that was held at the University of Lethbridge in Lethbridge, Alberta. There were a total of 482 students all the way from Australia to Nunavut. The title of my project was: “Skeletal Muscle Inflammatory Cytokine Expression Predicts Metabolic Disease Risk”. I chose to investigate the inflammatory chemokine CCL2 located on chromosome 17 in skeletal muscle tissue in lean, overweight and obese patients. The reason was because I wanted to see whether the skeletal muscle tissue experiences inflammation in a state of obesity as virtually nothing is known, and so the gene expression of CCL2 would serve as a novel representation of this. Then I combined a population study looking at South Asian and European male and female patients that were lean, overweight, and obese as I wanted to see what role genetics plays in terms of skeletal muscle inflammation. Since South Asians experienced a higher concentration of this inflammatory cytokine, this means that they are more highly predisposed to inflammatory disorders like insulin resistance which leads to type 2 diabetes mellitus. The findings of my project essentially showed that the BMI scale needs to be re-defined and restructured as skeletal muscle inflammation occurs at different degrees in different ethnic groups of our world. This is a major finding as it’s a scale that’s used by physicians globally. With the findings of my experiment I am also one step closer to helping find a cure or a possible non-invasive treatment at an “in-utero” for type 2 diabetes mellitus and lower the risk of patients for cardiovascular disorders.
I presented my project to judges that were MDs and PhDs and my project was awarded a silver medal in the senior category, $300 in cash, and up to $10,000 in scholarships from the Universities of Dalhousie, Western, UBC, and Ottawa. Overall, it was an amazing experience and I had one of the best weeks of my life. I plan to continue my research at McMaster University in their Health Sciences program.
