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Event program
London Health Research Day (LHRD) is the city’s premier showcase of discovery and innovation, bringing together trainees and researchers from across London’s hospitals and academic institutes to share groundbreaking ideas, cutting-edge science, and emerging research shaping the future of medicine.
Taking place on Wednesday, April 29, this full-day event will feature hundreds of poster and oral presentations by trainees, a thought-provoking keynote lecture and workshops designed to foster professional development.
2026 keynote presentation
From Code to Care: What Gene and Cell Therapies Can, Can’t, and Shouldn’t Do
Don’t miss the chance to hear a keynote lecture from Paula Cannon, PhD, a global leader in gene and cell therapy research, who will share groundbreaking insights into a rapidly advancing field that is unlocking personalized treatments for a wide range of genetic and acquired illnesses.
This keynote is presented as part of The Lucille & Norton Wolf Health Research Lecture Series, which was established thanks to the generosity of The Bernard & Norton Wolf Family Foundation.
Time: 12:15 to 1:15 p.m.Location: McKellar Room – University Community Centre (UCC) 2nd Floor
Paula Cannon, PhD
Paula Cannon, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor in the Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. She is also the immediate past president of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy – the largest professional organization for scientists, clinicians and trainees interested in developing these new therapies. In her own research, Dr. Cannon uses gene editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 to engineer immune cells with the goal of developing treatments for HIV, cancer and other chronic diseases.
Professional workshops
Spark ideas, develop skills and make connections at our afternoon workshops, running concurrently at the Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on campus from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Advance registration is encouraged.
Community-based research is expanding to explore new intersections between art, science and care.
This workshop introduces arts-based research approaches and examines how community arts organizations—such as choirs, orchestras and art galleries—can be integrated into health and community-based research collaborations to foster empathy, creativity and cultural transformation within institutions.
Speakers:
Kateryna Metersky, RN, PhD
Ivan Lemus, RN, MN
Mohammad Abdalreza Zadeh, PhD
Julianne Burgess, PhD
Location:
Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Room 4110
Pitch Lab is an integrated, two-part workshop that connects innovation and commercialization principles with live pitching, bringing health research ideas to life in real time.
Speakers:
Deniz Edwards, Director, Internal, Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship powered by Ivey (MIFE)
Facilitator:
Jack Webb, PhD Candidate and Chair, Schulich Graduate Student’s Council
Part 1: Innovation and Commercialization
1:30 – 1:55 p.m.
Part 2: Pitch Lab – Showcase (4 presentations)
1:55 – 2:30 p.m.
Live pitches by the following groups:
- Precision Neck Lab
- Iron Diagnostics
- Oncolert
- NeuroXpert
Location:
Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Room 4106
This workshop will explore how medical professionals can integrate research into their clinical practice to enhance patient care and drive innovation. Open to both medical professionals and trainees/students aspiring to enter the field, it will provide insights on securing funding, developing research collaborations and leveraging evidence-based findings to improve treatment outcomes and advance careers.
There will be a 20-minute Q&A session at the end of the presentations for attendees to engage directly with the speakers to gain practical advice.
Location:
Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Room 4109
Empowerment plays a key role in helping under-represented and equity-deserving communities break down and overcome systemic, social, and economic barriers. Unfortunately, these barriers persist in academia, disproportionately impeding equity-deserving and under-represented community members’ engagement in this space.
Therefore, this year’s CR(EDI)T workshop aims to empower the London Health Research community through collaborative conversation between workshop attendees and thought leaders in the EDI space. During this conversation we will explore diverse lived experiences and barriers present in academic life. In addition, this workshop will offer a safe space to practice self-advocacy and allyship through active participation in case studies.
We hope that through this workshop, we can help shift power dynamics, enhance agency, and foster collective action by building community and solidarity between members of under-represented communities, equity-deserving groups, and allies in the London Health Research space.
Location:
Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Room 3120
Symposia - Oral Presentations
Are you providing an oral presentation during London Health Research Day and are unsure where to go? See below for further details on room locations and specific start times.
| Start Time | Room | Abstract Title |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 | 4109 | Association of circulating tumor cells with body mass index, body composition and blood biomarkers in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic breast cancer. |
| 10:40 | 4109 | Metabolic regulation of Pannexin-1 as a therapeutic vulnerability in melanoma. |
| 10:50 | 4109 | Interpretable variational autoencoder for integrating epigenetic and transcriptomic profiles in Pancreatic Cancer. |
| 11:00 | 4109 | FMT Remodels Plasma Metabolome and Microbiome to Distinguish Immunotherapy Responders in Melanoma and Kidney Cancer. |
| 11:10 | 4109 | STAT3 Orchestrates a Metabolic-Redox Program Essential for Cancer Cell Migration. |
| 11:20 | 4109 | Systemic B-cell Immune States Associate with Response to Trastuzumab-Based Neoadjuvant Therapy in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer. |
| Start Time | Room | Abstract Title |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 | 3120 | Modulation of the human multipotent stromal cell secretome to attenuate hyperglycemia and insulitis in autoimmune diabetes. |
| 10:40 | 3120 | Loss Of Osteopontin Improves Uterine Vascular Function In Hypertensive Pregnancy. |
| 10:50 | 3120 | Targeting GATA2 and Associated Transcription Factors to Restore Macrophage Function and Combat Atherosclerosis. |
| 11:00 | 3120 | Targeting Cardiac Necroptotic Cell Death in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy with Murine Cytomegalovirus M45. |
| 11:10 | 3120 | Pancreatic Beta-cell Plasticity: Trans-differentiation of Delta- to Beta-cells during Pregnancy. |
| 11:20 | 3120 | Eukaryotic elongation factor 1A1 (EEF1A1) regulates glycolytic enzyme expression and glycolytic flux. |
| Start Time | Room | Abstract Title |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 | 4110 | 1H NMR metabolic profiling of synovial fluid and serum from Osteoarthritis patients. |
| 10:40 | 4110 | Anti-myelin autoreactive B cells are selectively constrained by impaired BCR-driven activation, survival, and germinal center competitiveness. |
| 10:50 | 4110 | Characterization of mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in early PD-1 mediated T-cell suppression through phosphoproteomics. |
| 11:00 | 4110 | Conjugation-mediated DNA delivery to the filamentous fungus Ustilago maydis. |
| 11:10 | 4110 | Identifying the Trafficking Pathway Mediating Newly Synthesized MHC II to the MHC II Loading Compartment in Professional Antigen-Presenting Cells. |
| 11:20 | 4110 | Effectiveness of Amaranth Grain Flat-bread Compared to Maize Bread for Iron Deficiency Anemia among Pregnant Women: Findings from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Southern Ethiopia. |
| Start Time | Room | Abstract Title |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 | 4106 | Bayesian Neural Network for Diagnosing Parkinson’s Disease: Evidence of Sex-Dependent Separability in Neuroimaging Features. |
| 10:40 | 4106 | SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to alterations in neuronal transcriptomic signatures within the hippocampi of adult mice. |
| 10:50 | 4106 | Exploring the relationship between pre-existing anxiety levels and adolescent nicotine vapor-induced changes in brain and behaviour. |
| 11:00 | 4106 | Auditory Paradigm for Detection of Covert Consciousness in Children Unresponsive after Acquired Brain Injury. |
| 11:10 | 4106 | Depressive-like Behaviour In A Humanized Knock-in Mouse Model Of APOE, Amyloid, And Tau Is Sex- & APOE Allele-specific. |
| 11:20 | 4106 | Longitudinal trajectories of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative outcomes in genetic frontotemporal degeneration. |
Trainee presentations
Support hundreds of our students and trainees presenting their innovative research during morning and afternoon poster and oral symposia at the Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
| Session | Time & location |
|---|---|
|
Morning poster session |
8:30 to 10 a.m. Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation |
|
Symposia - Oral presentations |
10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation |
|
Afternoon poster session |
2:45 to 4:15 p.m. Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation |
London Health Research Day is presented in partnership with Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Faculty of Health Sciences , Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's Health Care London and London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute.