BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
Before neuroscience PhD student Linda St. Pierre was locked out of the Paul A. Field Animal Care facility at Laurentian University just over two weeks ago, she was conducting important research on obesity using rats.
She was injecting different compounds at the onset of obesity to see what chemical changes occur in the animals? brains.
The student wants to find out what causes people to become morbidly obese, and if there?s anything that can be done to help them lose weight.
?It?s about a two-year study. If something happens to my rat before I get to them, I?ve lost essentially two years of my PhD. It?s pretty stressful,? she says.
St. Pierre, along with about 14 other undergraduate and graduate students, is under the academic supervision of Michael Persinger.
LU administrators say they had no choice but to lock Persinger and his students out of the research lab because they had failed to submit acceptable plans for the use of animals in their experiments.
The university?s Animal Care Committee (ACC) must approve the plans for researchers to qualify for federal funding.
The students will be allowed back in the lab once Persinger corrects his research protocols, says Liette Vasseur, associate vice-president of research at Laurentian.
She hopes the professor will make the necessary changes sometime in the near future.
?He has both major and minor things to correct. It?s just a matter of making the corrections. He?s just like everybody else. He has to comply to the regulations,? she says.
The students had been conducting research on rats related to epilepsy, obesity, sudden infant death syndrome and traumatic brain injury.
St. Pierre is worried that she and other neuroscience students will be unable to complete the requirements of their degrees if the dispute goes on
much longer.
The student says she might be able to salvage her work, but other researchers might not be so lucky.
?It all seems personal, and it seems tied to our supervisor. They told us if we switch supervisors, they would work with us so that we could continue our studies,? says St. Pierre.
?Well, then it has nothing to do with animal care. You have a problem with him (Persinger). The students are solid. It?s him or we walk. The students came here to work with him.?
Before Persinger and his students were barred from the animal care facility, the rats were being watched 21 hours a day.
Now they?re being watched eight hours a day by a vet and two animal technicians, says St. Pierre.
?We have aggressive rats...We need a key or somebody needs to monitor them,? she says.
?Nobody monitored them. We had two rats that were damaged and had to be put down, which could have been prevented.?
Persinger could not be reached for comment on the issue at Northern Life?s press time.
Persinger, who has an international reputation for his research, has taught at Laurentian since 1971.
