Celebrating our achievements

Congratulations to Dr. Subrata Chakrabarti, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, for receiving three years of funding from the Canadian Diabetes Association for his project entitled Pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. This grant will be effective July 2016.

Congratulations to Drs. Robert Gratton and Nicholas Power for receiving two of the five Provincial Innovation Awards from the Innovation Fund Provincial Oversight Committee. Dr. Gratton, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, received the award for the category System Coordination, Guidelines and Education for his project entitled, “Optimization of Patient Flow: Implementation of a Fast Track Assessment Pathway in Obstetrical Triage”. Dr. Power, Department of Surgery, received the award for the category Cancer Care and Mental Health for his project entitled, “Predicting drug resistance in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: Individualizing targeted therapy by xenografting patient tumors into chick embryos”. The awards will be presented at the Innovation Fund Showcase 2016 on November 17 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Congratulations to Nicole Barra, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, on being awarded the CIHR Best Oral Presentation Award at the Canadian National Perinatal Research Meeting in Banff.

Congratulations to Hon Leong, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute, on receiving the Prostate Cancer Canada (PCC) and Movember Foundation Fund 2016 Rising Star Award. Read the full article here

Congratulations to Patrick O’Donoghue, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, on receiving a Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) Innovation Grant. Out of a total of 258 grant applications, O’Donoghue’s grant was one of 27 that were approved by the CCS. Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Frank Beier, PhD, professor and assistant chair in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, on receiving $354,742 in funding over three years from The Arthritis Society for his research on osteoarthritis. Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers, Eric Arts, PhD, and Andrew Pruszynski, PhD, on being named Canada Research Chairs (CRC). Arts has been named Tier 1 CRC in HIV Pathogenesis and Viral Control, and Pruszynski has been named Tier 2 CRC in Sensorimotor Neuroscience. Read the full article here.

Congratulations to the Anatomy and Cell Biology students who won a $500 travel award to attend an international conference: Danielle Brewer, PhD Candidate, Wilson/Owen labs; Sarah Chadwick MSc Candidate, Lajoie lab; Jessica Esseltine, Postdoctoral Fellow, Laird lab; Nadia Ivanova, MSc Candidate, Cechetto lab; Vanessa Lee, MSc Candidate, Penuela lab; Andrea Loutitt, MSc Candidate, Schmid lab; and Nina Weishaupt, Postdoctoral Fellow, Whitehead lab.

Congratulations to Lori Lowes, PhD, and Alison Allan, PhD, for having their study entitled, Central, But Not Peripheral, Circulating Tumor Cells are Prognostic in Patients Undergoing Resection of Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases published in Annals of Surgical Oncology.

Congratulations to Natalie Kozyrev, postdoctoral fellow, Anatomy and Cell Biology, for having her study entitled, Chronic Contusion Spinal Cord Injury Impairs Ejaculatory Reflexes in Male Rats: Partial Recovery by Systemic Infusions of Dopamine D3 Receptor Agonist 7OHDPAT published in Journal of Neurotrama.

Congratulations to Sonya Van Nuland, Anatomy and Cell Biology, for being elected as the Student Director on the American Association of Anatomist Board of Directors for 2016-2018.

Congratulations to the following trainees and postdoctoral fellows from the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology for giving recent conference presentations: Jessica Esseltine, Laird lab, presented an oral presentation entitled, Modeling Cx43-linked pathologies in the human context; Julia Abitol, Laird lab, presented a poster entitled, The Roles of Pannexin1 and Pannexin3 in the Auditory System; Katanya Alaga, Laird lab, presented a poster entitled, Examining the role of Connexin43 and Connexin26 in Skin Health and Cancer Onset and Progression; Meghan Jelen, Laird lab, presented a poster entitled, Cardiovascular characterization of Cx40Panx1-/-, Cx40-/-, and Panx1-/- mice; and Eric Press, Laird lab, presented a poster entitled, A Cx26 mutant alters epidermal homeostasis in a novel Cx26CK14-S17F/+ mutant mice.

Congratulations to Matthew Maitland, Karen Dunkerley and Sam Fess, Department of Biochemistry, who successfully defended their MSc degrees.

Congratulations to Charles Ishak, PhD Candidate, was awarded the WORLDiscoveries Scholarship for Commercialization/Entrepreneurship for his project on the development of novel cancer biomarkers. Charles is a fifth-year trainee in the lab of Dr. Fred Dick. Charles’ PhD project centres on the molecular changes associated with loss of the Retinoblastoma (Rb) tumour suppressor.

Congratulations to Mateusz Rytelewski, Koropatnick lab, Microbiology and Immunology, on receiving the 2015 John A. Thomas Award.

Congratulations to Brennan Dirk, Dikeakos lab, Microbiology and Immunology, on receiving a $2,000 Institutional Community Support travel award from CIHR.

Congratulations to Carolina Batista, DeKoter lab, Microbiology and Immunology, and Ryan Shaler, Haeryfar lab, Microbiology and Immunology, for winning first place travel award prizes ($1,000 each) in the graduate student and postdoctoral categories to attend the 2016 Canadian Society for Immunology meeting in Ottawa from April 1-4.