Dr. Scott Widenmaier: Connecting Cholesterol, Obesity and Immunometabolism
Release Date: 12/11/2022
Dr. Stu Skinner & Mobile Medicine: Halting Syphilis & HIV
Researchers Under the Scope
Stuart Skinner (MD) knew something was wrong three years ago, when patients started coming to him with vision loss, fever, rashes, and meningitis. Almost every case could be traced back to untreated syphilis — a sexually transmitted infection with caseloads exploding 1,200 per cent from 2017. Saskatchewan saw this spike just as Covid-19 entered the picture. “With the pandemic, testing dropped dramatically,” Skinner said, noting this , often travelling alongside HIV. Syphilis often spreads through sores, and can remain unnoticed for months or years on end, making early detection...
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Peptide Puzzle: Yi-Chun Chen on Early Markers for Diabetes and Obesity
Researchers Under the Scope
Yi-Chun Chen is taking a close-up look at some of the body’s hardest-working cells — the ones often processing an overabundance of modern-day food and nutrients. “From an evolutionary point of view, our cells are not designed to deal with that,” said Dr. Chen, who joined the department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology at the University of Saskatchewan last year as an assistant professor. She said our bodies are pushed into churning out large amounts of insulin rapidly after snacks and meals, “which makes the beta cells work extra hard.” Raised in Taiwan and inspired by her...
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In the Trenches: Dr. James Stempien on Emergency Medicine
Researchers Under the Scope
James Stempien (MD) has navigated some of the most challenging corners of emergency medicine, from the frigid isolation of Inuvik to the bustling corridors of Saskatoon’s emergency departments. His experience in low-tech outposts has shaped his approach to modern emergency care. “When things aren’t going well you see it in the emergency department first,” Stempien said. “We’re the front door. We’re always open.” As provincial department head of emergency medicine, Stempien sees patients on their worst days in hospitals bursting at the seams, struggling to...
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All’s Not Lost: A Roadmap to Treating Hepatitis C on the Prairies
Researchers Under the Scope
As the world aims to eradicate hepatitis C (HCV) by 2030, Carrielynn Lund and Dr. Alexandra King’s team created a how-to guide. is a step-by-step guide to tackling a spike of new infections across the three Canadian prairie provinces. Hepatitis C (HCV) causes severe liver disease, and was notoriously difficult to treat until the introduction of direct-acting antivirals a decade ago — antivirals which boast a remarkable 95% success rate. Despite this advancement, Lund and Dr. King say Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba need to know why HCV cases keep rising, particularly in...
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Exercise Your Right to Breathe: Dr. Brianne Philipenko & Asthma
Researchers Under the Scope
Brianne Philipenko (MD) was midway through her respirology fellowship in Calgary when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the city. She started interval workouts at home using Nike’s fitness app — when inspiration struck. “Coming up with a creative, innovative way to allow people to access an exercise program outside of the typical organized pulmonary rehabilitation in a gym setting was something that I became really interested in,” said Philipenko.. As a respirologist, Philipenko was already frustrated by the lack of ‘mainstay’ guidelines on incorporating exercise...
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Dr. Sarah Forgie: Why the New Dean of Medicine Taught Herself the Ukelele
Researchers Under the Scope
In this episode, we gain insight into Dr. Sarah Forgie, the new Dean of the College of Medicine. She discusses her innovative teaching methods, her career as a pediatric infectious disease specialist, and her vision for advancing Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine. Dr. Forgie also shares the story behind her decision to learn the ukulele. Born to family physicians, Dr. Forgie grew up in Lynn Lake, Manitoba, a remote fly-in mining community. Her family later relocated to Winnipeg, where Dr. Forgie credits much of her motivation to her mother, who encouraged her to pursue both medicine and...
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Grey Area: Dr. John Howland on Cannabis & Budding Brains
Researchers Under the Scope
A behavioural neuroscientist in Saskatoon is uncovering marijuana’s effects on fetal brain development. After recently winning a five-year CIHR grant of $960,076 in the spring of 2024, Dr. John Howland’s lab at the University of Saskatchewan is expanding its work examining prenatal exposure to cannabis smoke. Howland’s teams will assess the way cannabis exposure alters higher brain functions like memory and learning in both rats and mice. Compared to cannabis injections in the past, the professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology at the College of Medicine said exposing...
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Innovating and Bridging Gaps in IBD Care: Dr. Juan-Nicolás Peňa-Sánchez
Researchers Under the Scope
Growing up in Columbia had a profound impact on Dr. Juan-Nicolas Pẽna-Sànchez. In this episode, hear why the former family physician pivoted, becoming Saskatchewan's lead in finding the best ways to treat Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in rural and Indigenous patients. Even as a teenager, Juan-Nicolás Peña-Sánchez could see stark differences in health for those who had medical coverage — and those without, thanks to his stepfather, an emergency department physician. “I used to go with him sometimes on shifts to learn and shadow him,” said Peña-Sánchez said. “The...
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Cuts Like a NanoKnife: Dr. Mike Moser
Researchers Under the Scope
"When I got into medical school, the last thing in the world I wanted to be was a surgeon because I couldn't stand the sight of blood," said Dr. Mike Moser. Fast-forward to the present day, where Moser is now one of Saskatchewan's top kidney transplant surgeons, winning last year's Golden Scalpel Award for Pre-clerkship Education, the 2022 Logan Boulet Humanitarian of the Year Award, and numerous teaching awards. In this episode, the professor of general surgery at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine takes us back to one pivotal day where everything changed, propelling...
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Walking the Talk: Dr. Daniel Fuller on Urban Health and Mobility
Researchers Under the Scope
As an undergrad, Daniel Fuller didn’t have a car, nor was he keen on taking the bus. “I rode my bike to university every day in the fall and then just kept on going and never stopped,” said Fuller, a former national and international canoe/kayak athlete. As he pedaled, Fuller watched the way people used trails, sidewalks and roads. “I really started to get into active transportation, how people move around cities and how we can get people active -- outside of the sport environment,” said Fuller, now an associate professor in Community Health and...
info_outlineWhen Scott Widenmaier left high school, he wasn't sure what career path he wanted to pursue.
He grew up in Alameda, Saskatchewan, and soon found work on oil rigs. But by the time he was in his early twenties, he knew it was time for a change.
"I realized that winters are just too cold to continue doing that," said Widenmaier. "I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life, but I was interested in biology and human physiology."
In his third year as a science major at the University of Regina, he became fascinated by a lab experiment examining how neurotransmitters control heart rates. He then moved west, to graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, studying endocrinology and its role in diabetes.
"I really like the elegance of the feedback circuits," said Widenmaier, who went on to land a post-doctoral position with Dr. Gökhan Hotamisligil at Harvard University's School of Public Health.
As he discovered the emerging field of immunometabolism, Widenmaier began to see links between the way the gut and the human immune system talk to each other, especially around obesity.
"That communication to the immune systems and the metabolic systems is dysfunctional and contributes to a lot of the diseases that we see linked to obesity," said Widenmaier, who studies the way the body manages cholesterol.
That's the focus of his work at the University of Saskatchewan as an assistant professor in the College of Medicine's department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology.
"There's this transcription factor that sits in a part of the cell and it recognizes when cholesterol's too high," he said. "It changes where it goes in the cell and it regulates a response by the cell to try to prevent the cholesterol from causing damage and stress."
Widenmaier has now landed a number of awards, including the Heart and Stroke Foundation's National New Investigator Award in 2020/21. Widenmaier was also named that year's McDonald Scholar.
"We've made a lot of progress with understanding the role of NRF1 and NRF2 in the liver," he said. "We've identified some molecules that may be important for protecting cells from too much cholesterol."
In this episode, hear how this work has implications for patients with heart and stroke disease, obesity, liver disease, degenerative brain conditions, as well as various forms of cancer.
"The issue with cholesterol is that we absolutely need it, but we also need it to be exactly the right amount," said Widenmaier. "There's lots of times where that that capacity gets stretched, especially under conditions of obesity."
"What are those natural adaptive systems? If we can find out what they are, can we make them work better?"