Research Bursary Program
Supervisor Project Proposal for Summer 2015
Supervisor Last Name: Jarzem
Supervisor First Name: Peter
McGill Dept/School: Medicine
Faculty Professor (Full, Associate or Assistant): Assistant
Email: pjarzem@gmail.com
Phone No. (optional): 5148657533
Research Field: Orthopedics, Spine
Proposal No. (1 or 2): 2
Research Location (McGill or affiliated institution): MGH
Ethics approval will be required for proposed project (Yes/No): no
Proposed project will involve chart reviews (Yes/No): no
Project Title (maximum 1 line): Is disc degeneration caused by indolent bacterial infection?: A study in donor
Cadaver Spines
Hypothesis/Question to be Addressed (maximum 4 lines): Recent publications have suggested that intervertebral
disc infections with propionibacteria acnes are the cause of a substantial number of patients with disc hernia and
Low back Pain. Our funded project will look at the presence of bacterial DNA or RNA in sterile harvested Cadaver
specimens taken from patients with low back pain as part of Quebec organ donor spine harvest protocol at McGill
University.
Specific Aims (maximum 10 lines): The lumbar vertebrae of Quebec organ donors have been harvested for the
last 3 years as part of a McGill Scoliosis and Spine initiative. DNA, and RNA probes looking at specific bacterial
markers will be used to investigate the presence of absence of bacteria in disc specimens that we have selected
from this tissue bank. Disc specimens will be selected on the basis of 1) a history of LBP in the donor, and 2) X-Ray
signs of degeneration in the discs. Control specimens will be selected on the basis of the absence of the above
two factors. Both control index specimens will undergo the same PCR probe analysis of disc nucleus specimens.
The goal of the summer student project is to deliberately infect sterile bovine disc specimens with increasingly
small dilutions of propionibacteria, and then test these specimens with our PCR probes. The intention of this part
of the project is to determine the sensitivity of our test methods to the presence of bacteria in a disc space milieu.
This will be the first dry run of our test methods for later Cadaver specimen testing.
Role of Student (maximum 15 lines): Proprionibacteria acnes is a harmless skin flora that is present in all humans.
The student will learn/use molecular genetic techniques during his summer work. The summer student will be
supervised by other research staff including Technicians, PhD, and Medical and Surgical staff level researchers.
The goal of the student is to: 1) carry out serial dilutions of bacterial specimens of proprionibacteria obtained
from a research lab, 2) inoculate discs with known quantities of these serial dilutions. 3) test the inoculated
specimens with our PCR probes to see what the detection limit of our technique is. This work will be carried out
jointly with the department of microbiology and the molecular intervertebral disc laboratory that we have at the
Montreal General Hospital. The final stage of the project will be to create a report that will be used as the basis of
a publication.