Strictly for the Birds

Marvin Gameroff

Marvin Gameroff, BA'53, BCL'58, is a good neighbour. He owns a property in Stowe, Vermont, where, over the years, he installed a network of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails and was happy to have them used by visitors to the adjoining recreation preserve owned by the town. What he wasn't so happy about was the fact that visitors sometimes wandered off the groomed trails and roamed rather close to the family home.

In what he calls a Eureka moment, he decided to borrow McGill's mythical bird to keep people on the right path. He posted signs along the property announcing a field study of the rare Martlet, the footless bird featured on McGill's flag. It worked like a charm, he reports. "Since installing the signs, not a single person has ventured into the restricted area."

But Gameroff apparently has another dilemma. He claims the local chapter of the Audubon Society wants him to speak at their annual conference on rare bird sites, his property being the only known Martlet habitat outside downtown Montreal.

I Don't Feel Your Pain

Men might not be from Mars and women might not be from Venus, but psychology professor Jeffrey Mogil's research has been supplying evidence that the two sexes are very different in one key respect -- how they feel and deal with pain.

A recent study by Mogil indicated that redheaded women are more sensitive to the effects of a certain type of painkiller known as kappa-opioids than are blondes and brunettes. Sixty-five percent of redheads derive the scarlet hue of their locks from a variant of the gene melanocortin-1 (Mc1r). Blondes and brunettes have a different variant that produces a protein which usually nullifies the effect of kappa-opioid medications. This protein doesn't function the same way with redheads, which is why the kappa-opioids -- most commonly used to treat labour pains -- are effective for them. "These redheads responded really, really well to the drugs," says Mogil.

So what does all of this have to do with gender?

"In men, the status of the gene was irrelevant," Mogil notes. Redheaded men with the Mc1r weren't all that sensitive to the effects of the kappa-opioids. "If men and women were using the same pain circuitry, the Mc1r gene would matter for men too."

Mogil's interest in gender and pain began when he was still a graduate student, collaborating on a study that examined how mice reacted when their pain-inhibiting systems were tampered with in a certain way. The research used both male and female mice -- an uncommon approach since most studies used only males. One night in the lab, with time to kill before a get-together with friends, Mogil compared the data on the male and female mice and discovered that the results differed dramatically. He went on to identify a chromosomal location, existing only in female mice, that plays an important role in pain inhibition.

"The pathways for pain in men and women aren't the same," suggests Mogil. As he and others uncover more facts about these pathways, Mogil says there may soon be different pain medications for men and women. "We'll probably be seeing blue and pink pills within 10 to 15 years."

Scarlet Fever

Andrew Dobrowolskyj

They're not a secret society, but they're hoping to lift the recognition of the Scarlet Key Honour Society out of relative obscurity to its former high profile on campus. Founded in 1925 by McGill's Director of Athletics, Duncan Stuart Forbes, the society has over 1,500 alumni who were recognized in their salad days as students for their leadership and community commitment. Current society president Andrew Tischler, BA'00, says he'd like Key members to have more involvement in campus events like convocation.

Tischler told the McGill Reporter he wants to "help re-establish the traditions of the Key and try to create strong ties with the society to work towards supporting future leaders from McGill." He'd like society members to "support the University while at the school and beyond."

To help raise the profile of the Keys, Tischler organized a reunion for Key alumni from the Montreal area in March at the society's annual pinning ceremony. Principal Heather Munroe-Blum pinned the new Key members and special guest Dr. Hugh Brodie, BSc'49, MDCM'51 -- pictured here with the principal and a classic Scarlet Key sweater -- addressed the gathered alumni.