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 grandfather—a retired elementary school science teacher—Chen’s fascination with biology first led her to work as a medical laboratory technologist, then to the world of cellular research.

Using both rodent and human models, Chen is studying pancreatic beta cells: the way they process peptide hormones like insulin and how their behaviour and function is affected by an excess of nutrients.

Using high-resolution imaging, she and her team are examining how both humans and mice synthesize, process, and clear peptide hormones.

“There are a lot of things we still don't know about peptide hormones, not just in the pancreas, but in the brain, in the gut,” she said. “Those are fascinating.”

Last year, Chen was the recipient of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Early Career Transition Award. After moving from UBC to Saskatchewan, Dr. Chen said she’s thankful to see so much support already from her established and mid-career prairie colleagues.

“They can mentor us and guide us, and we also have a group of five or six young scientists,” she said. “I can envision myself working on many, many interesting projects with them.”

Her goal today is to identify biomarkers that could predict diabetes far earlier.

She hopes to develop biochemical assays that measure proinsulin levels to serve as an early warning system. This could enable interventions months or even years before a traditional diagnosis based on blood glucose levels.

“We want to be able to predict the development of, for example, type 1 or type 2 diabetes before they are diagnosed,” said Chen.

In the long term, Chen envisions both preventative strategies and regenerative therapies to fight diabetes. Stem cell-derived beta cells may be a future solution, she said.

“We are making really good progress in Canada, actually. We have clinical trials. We’re putting the stem cell–derived beta cells into patients with type 1 diabetes.”

She hopes this will one day reduce the need for constant insulin injections, even helping curb obesity.

“Don’t give up,” Chen said. “We are passionate and we want to work on many, many things.”

“If you like it, keep going.”

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 keep pace with Saskatchewan’s growing population.

“I worked in emergency last night and we were really busy, hours behind. All the ER docs there and nurses were running our tails off,” said Stempien. “We're seeing an increase in acuity.”

Stempien said the patients he sees now come in with serious medical concerns, which cannot be written off as minor ailments.

One in five emergency patients in Saskatoon requires hospitalization. Amid frequent congestion, Stempien says some find themselves on stretchers in the hallway, even in former linen closets, waiting to move upstairs to an acute care bed.

He said while a plan to open 109 more acute care beds at Saskatoon City Hospital ‘will make a big difference’, he and his staff are concerned overcrowding jeopardizes patients in the waiting room, leading to moral injury and burnout.

Stempien is determined to free up space inside his department. He's also led numerous innovations aimed at streamlining emergency medicine, including a recent move to send patients their discharge instructions via text message.

“They can access it as many times as they want. They're not going to lose the piece of paper on the way to the parking lot,” said Stempien.

Stempien, 67, said he still loves the job, in part thanks to the team atmosphere, and also because his patients are still full of surprises.

“Many things I've seen thousands of times, but every now and then you run across something and you think, wow, I've never seen that,” he said.

“That's what makes emergency medicine interesting. And fun."

As the world aims to eradicate hepatitis C (HCV) by 2030, Carrielynn Lund and Dr. Alexandra King’s team created a how-to guide.

Journeys to Wellness: Prairie Hepatitis C Roadmap 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 jails, in remote communities, and in people who lack adequate housing and nutrition.

The virus is not picky, as Carrielynn Lund learned when she was first diagnosed in the 1990s. Her doctor wrongly told her back then the blood-borne illness could be spread only through injection drug use.

Shocked, Lund said “I went out of that room and drove home thinking, oh my God, I'm gonna die.”

A single mother of two, she resumed her professional life and never disclosed that “dark, dirty secret” until nearly 20 years later, as she became friends with Dr. King.

The Waniska team, led by Saydi Harlton, brought together researchers, health professionals, and people who’ve lived with hepatitis C in sharing circles, workshops and interviews.

“The stigma around this needed to be addressed and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Lund. “People often feel really alone in this journey, and it’s so important that we create spaces where they can share their stories and be heard."

Participants identified barriers to care, including confidentiality breaches, misinformation and inadequate access to testing.

“My priority right now may or may not be my hepatitis C. It might be, where am I going to sleep today? Or, what food am I going to be getting?” said Dr. King.

In the Roadmap, King said the disproportionately high number of cases in Indigenous people shows a need for true elimination strategies, rather than pockets of “little pilot projects.”

"There aren't necessarily a lot of resources, so you're dealing with fairly fragile systems," Dr. King noted.

Recent provincial government decisions to axe needle exchanges, and cut public transportation routes to remote and northern communities have taken their toll, she added.

Given the hurdles faced by Indigenous and two-spirit people, both Dr. King and Lund say prairie people need culturally informed care. They point to Indigenous-led hepatitis C elimination strategies with predictable funding and resources.

“It really helps you to understand the importance of really good evidence-based policy that supports people and meet them where they're at,” Dr. King said.

Lund and Dr. King believe making a fiscal case for early detection and treatment may also swing policy-makers back toward patient-centred care.

Peer support also plays a role, Lund said.

“When someone who has been through it helps a newly diagnosed person, it can truly change everything for them," she said.