Mad Cow Mysteries - Public Lecture Tour
 As an award winning journalist, TV host, producer and author on anything scientific, one thing Jay Ingram is for sure--a masterful communicator. Jay completed a seven city public lecture entitled Mad Cow Mysteries in May 2007 to hundreds of Canadians, from Ottawa to Vancouver. The lecture series, spearheaded by Jay and supported by PrioNet Canada and the Alberta Prion Research Institute, aimed to shed light on these bewildering diseases and provide a forum for discourse with attendees.
As a member of PrioNet’s Board of Directors, Jay has a genuine interest in where prion research is moving in Canada. As a communicator, his role is unique and valuable to PrioNet’s network, especially regarding outreach and effective communications of the science.
It is the science behind prions that Jay finds fascinating, which spurred him to develop the lecture. "In the controversies over mad cow, including British government inaction and borders closed to beef exports, most of us miss the fact that what's happening here is nothing less than a revolution in the understanding of infection,” says Jay, “These diseases work in strange ways that are only now being understood."
The lecture unfolds with a historical, cultural, and scientific look at prion disease complete with a mini-microbiology class to help describe the inner workings of prions in cells. He starts with perhaps the most notable prion disease “mad cow” (also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy), but delves back to the 1950’s on Carleton Gajdusek’s work with the cannibalistic Fore tribe in New Guinea which led to the discovery of Kuru, one of the first described prion diseases. Diseases such as Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob join the list and Jay compares similarities and differences of several of these transmissible and fatal illnesses. Finally, he explores the minutiae of prions, eloquently translating some very complex concepts to understandable verbiage.
By the end of the presentation, it’s apparent that those involved in prion research in Canada and around the world have a ways to go in finding answers to outstanding questions. "In a decade or so we'll know much more about these diseases,” says Jay. “What's more, it now seems likely that research into prion diseases will shed light on much more common, but still imperfectly understood illness like Alzheimer's disease, ALS and Parkinson's disease."
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Jay completed his BSc at the University of Alberta and moved onto the University of Toronto for his MSc in microbiology. After making it clear to everyone – including himself – that his future did not lie in the lab, Jay left academia to pursue his true passion: communicating science to the masses. That is when he started freelance work for CBCeventually moving on as host of the CBC Radio show Quirks & Quarks. Now you can see Jay weeknights on Discovery Channel Canada as co-host and producer of TV’s popular and first daily science show, Daily Planet.
- Story originally published in April-June 2007 - Issue 8 of PrioNews
Last Updated: 4/28/2009 2:34:19 PM
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