Difference between revisions of "Team:Queens Canada/Interviews"
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<h3>Dr. Kate Harkness <br>Department of Psychology, Queen’s University</h3> | <h3>Dr. Kate Harkness <br>Department of Psychology, Queen’s University</h3> | ||
| − | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/4/4a/T--Queens_Canada--Dr_Harkness.jpeg" style="width: | + | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/4/4a/T--Queens_Canada--Dr_Harkness.jpeg" style="width:50%;height:50%;"/> |
<p>Dr. Kate Harkness is Professor in the Department of Psychology and runs the Mood Research Lab at Queen’s University. She conducts research that primarily focuses on the correlation between stress and depression in adults and adolescents. Her studies focus on the effects of early childhood trauma on sensitizing the biological and psychological stress response in a manner that makes people more susceptible to psychopathology. She examines the changes in cortisol levels in response to stressors, and she pointed out several major factors that would contribute to the varying levels of cortisol in individuals raised in diverse settings. She suggested that our application should include a function to determine one’s personal cortisol baseline throughout different times of the day in order to give more meaning to the collected data. She believes our biosensor would be applicable to her line of research as it is a more time-efficient and non-disruptive method of monitoring cortisol levels in psychological studies.</p><br> | <p>Dr. Kate Harkness is Professor in the Department of Psychology and runs the Mood Research Lab at Queen’s University. She conducts research that primarily focuses on the correlation between stress and depression in adults and adolescents. Her studies focus on the effects of early childhood trauma on sensitizing the biological and psychological stress response in a manner that makes people more susceptible to psychopathology. She examines the changes in cortisol levels in response to stressors, and she pointed out several major factors that would contribute to the varying levels of cortisol in individuals raised in diverse settings. She suggested that our application should include a function to determine one’s personal cortisol baseline throughout different times of the day in order to give more meaning to the collected data. She believes our biosensor would be applicable to her line of research as it is a more time-efficient and non-disruptive method of monitoring cortisol levels in psychological studies.</p><br> | ||
<h3>Dr. Janet Menard <br>Department of Psychology, Queen’s University</h3> | <h3>Dr. Janet Menard <br>Department of Psychology, Queen’s University</h3> | ||
| − | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/9/91/T--Queens_Canada--Dr_Menard.jpeg" style="width: | + | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/9/91/T--Queens_Canada--Dr_Menard.jpeg" style="width:50%;height:50%;/> |
<p>Dr. Janet Menard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and runs the Neurobiology of Anxiety Lab at Queen’s University. Dr. Menard provided our team with lots of feedback on our project design and raised potential concerns that we must be aware of when designing our biosensor technology and the associated smartphone technology. She discussed the hyporesponsive stress period that occurs during the first year of one’s life, which provided an emphasis on the need to be able to effectively measure and determine a cortisol baseline for the app to work accurately for each user. She also discussed some of the concerns she had with the use of a genetically engineered protein being incorporated into the device. The appropriate safety testing and educational information must be readily accessible to all potential consumers to avoid any health and safety concerns. Our interview with Dr. Menard was very insightful and highlighted areas that our technology may be most useful for, with an emphasis on research and clinical settings. She believes the scientific community could benefit greatly from a cortisol-reading device that is fast, affordable and exceeds the accuracy of current devices on the market.</p><br> | <p>Dr. Janet Menard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and runs the Neurobiology of Anxiety Lab at Queen’s University. Dr. Menard provided our team with lots of feedback on our project design and raised potential concerns that we must be aware of when designing our biosensor technology and the associated smartphone technology. She discussed the hyporesponsive stress period that occurs during the first year of one’s life, which provided an emphasis on the need to be able to effectively measure and determine a cortisol baseline for the app to work accurately for each user. She also discussed some of the concerns she had with the use of a genetically engineered protein being incorporated into the device. The appropriate safety testing and educational information must be readily accessible to all potential consumers to avoid any health and safety concerns. Our interview with Dr. Menard was very insightful and highlighted areas that our technology may be most useful for, with an emphasis on research and clinical settings. She believes the scientific community could benefit greatly from a cortisol-reading device that is fast, affordable and exceeds the accuracy of current devices on the market.</p><br> | ||
Revision as of 19:26, 28 July 2018
Expert Interviews
Dr. Andrea Guerin
Department of Pediatrics, Queen’s University School of Medicine
Dr. Andrea Guerin is a full time Assistant Professor in Pediatrics and Medical Geneticist. She is the Year 2 Director at Queen’s University Medical School. Her work in Medical Genetics includes a consultation practice consisting of general genetics, prenatal genetics, cancer genetics and the care of patients with inborn errors of metabolism. Interviewing Dr. Guerin was a great opportunity to hear her thoughts on the pros, cons, and potential applications of using cortisol as a useful biomarker, including revelations on hypoglycemia, insulinemia, and early diagnosis of developmental disabilities. In terms of the pacifier model, she suggested potential use of a saliva collection device, which would work well as a non-invasive method of collecting DNA from infants to do genetic testing. As well, Dr. Guerin found value in the modular design of our ligand detection system and offered the potential of looking at glucose and bilirubin as other relevant metabolites in the pediatric field.
Dr. Kate Harkness
Department of Psychology, Queen’s University
Dr. Kate Harkness is Professor in the Department of Psychology and runs the Mood Research Lab at Queen’s University. She conducts research that primarily focuses on the correlation between stress and depression in adults and adolescents. Her studies focus on the effects of early childhood trauma on sensitizing the biological and psychological stress response in a manner that makes people more susceptible to psychopathology. She examines the changes in cortisol levels in response to stressors, and she pointed out several major factors that would contribute to the varying levels of cortisol in individuals raised in diverse settings. She suggested that our application should include a function to determine one’s personal cortisol baseline throughout different times of the day in order to give more meaning to the collected data. She believes our biosensor would be applicable to her line of research as it is a more time-efficient and non-disruptive method of monitoring cortisol levels in psychological studies.
Dr. Janet Menard
Department of Psychology, Queen’s University
