Ethan Hagen receives Personnel Award for Indigenous Scholars

Photo: Ethan Hagen

Ethan Hagen says he’s always been fascinated by addiction. “My mom probably worried about why I was looking up drugs in Grade 5,” he recalls.

Instead, that little boy with an insatiable curiosity about the way the world works has grown up to become a researcher working to discover how harmful drugs become addictive and affect brain development, with the ultimate goal of testing potential treatments.

As part of a PhD in psychiatry at the University of Alberta, Hagen works with zebrafish that have been exposed to nicotine in the larva, juvenile and adult life stages, as well as into the next generation, observing the impact on their behaviour. 

“I want to better understand how addiction, which destroys lives, really works.”

Hagen is one of 15 students from across Canada to receive the inaugural Personnel Award for Indigenous Scholars from Brain Canada Foundation, the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada. Launched to strengthen the Indigenous health research workforce and build capacity for cardiovascular and brain research in Canada, the award provides up to $90,000 over three years for six master’s students and nine doctoral students. 

Hagen was working towards his master’s degree but will now be able to complete his PhD, thanks to the award.

“Ethan Hagen was selected for this award due to his exceptional dedication, innovative research approach, and the significant impact his work promises to deliver in mental health and addiction,” says one of Hagen’s supervisors, Yanbo Zhang, associate professor of psychiatry. “As a young and passionate Indigenous student, Ethan has devoted his academic and research efforts to addressing one of our time’s most pressing public health challenges.”

Tackling the devastating problem of addiction

Hagen is Gwich’in, born in Inuvik, N.W.T. He lost touch with that part of his family as he grew up in St. Albert, Alta., with his mother and younger brother but is now learning more about his heritage.  

“I see the value of bringing in the Indigenous perspective and a more holistic approach to science,” he says. “I value that, and hope I’m able to bring that approach as I learn and grow into that part of my person.”

“Indigenous populations face significant health disparities compared to non-Indigenous populations, particularly in areas such as cardiovascular disease and mental health,” says Zhang. “Promoting the inclusion of Indigenous scholars in research ensures Indigenous voices and perspectives are represented in scientific discourse and decision-making processes.”

Hagen will carry out his work in the laboratory of co-supervisor Trevor Hamilton, professor of psychology at MacEwan University, where Hagen did his undergraduate studies, publishing papers on the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on the behaviour of the fish. 

Hagen says zebrafish have several advantages as a laboratory animal model, including a central nervous system with similarities to that of humans, and a fast breeding cycle that produces large numbers of fish. New technology in the lab will allow him to study the full lifecycle of the zebrafish.

“There are three different life stage exposures that we’re replicating. The first group basically would be as if your parents smoked cigarettes and then got pregnant and stopped smoking. And then there’s a group that gets dosed when they’re larval fish, which would be like embryonic exposure to nicotine. Then we have a group of juvenile fish that are being dosed as well, and that is similar to teens smoking. We also plan to breed them to see if we can detect any intergenerational effects of the nicotine.”

Hagen notes that nicotine continues to be a worrisome addictive drug, despite the decline of cigarette smoking, because newer products such as nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes are becoming more popular. He hopes to move on to studying other potentially harmful substances such as ethanol, which is found in drinks containing alcohol, and ketamine and psychedelics, which are being used as potential treatments for depression. Hagen is uncertain whether he will continue academic research or work in the pharmaceutical industry after he completes his doctorate.

“Drug addiction is devastating in so many ways, and Ethan’s project is using the zebrafish as an animal model to lay groundwork for studying ethanol and nicotine addiction, specifically drug seeking and anxiety during drug withdrawal,” explains Hamilton. “He is establishing paradigms reliably quantifying the doses that induce addiction so we can then test traditional and novel methods of treatment.”