PATHOLOGY DAY HIGHLIGHTS:

Pathology Day 2019 was another terrific success this year, bringing more than 200 department members together to experience the caliber and diversity of research taking place throughout our department, both at the junior and established research levels. Dr. Don Brooks started the day with opening remarks at the Paetzold Auditorium at Vancouver General Hospital followed by the graduate student and resident presentations that took place concurrently. Over 85 trainees and staff submitted abstracts abstract book 2019, highlighting the broad spectrum of research topics throughout the department. Over the day there were 10 graduate students and more than 19 residents giving oral platforms, in addition to lectures by faculty and a post-doctoral fellow, as well as a lively midday poster session.

THIS YEAR'S JAMES HOGG LECTURER WAS DR. BLAKE GILKS

Dr. Blake Gilks is Professor in the Dept of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver Canada, and does clinical service work in the Division of Anatomic Pathology at Vancouver General Hospital, the site of the largest gynecological oncology program in the province of British Columbia, where he is Regional Medical Director of Laboratories and Head of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He graduated from Dalhousie University medical school in 1982 and completed a residency in anatomical pathology at the University of British Columbia, followed by fellowships in gynecological pathology and molecular pathology at Massachusett's General Hospital and Fox Chase Cancer Center, respectively. Dr. Gilks leads a research program focused on gynecological cancers and is co-founder of the Genetic Pathology Evaluation Centre, a laboratory that uses tissue microarrays of human tumor samples for cancer research, and OvCaRe, a multidisciplinary team studying ovarian cancer. He is also co-founder and co-director of the Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control program, which provides proficiency testing for Canadian diagnostic immunohistochemistry laboratories. Dr. Gilks’ lecture was entitled “Being wrong: lessons learned from research, teaching, clinical service and administration.”

PATHOLOGY DAY 2019 HIGHLIGHTED THE RESEARCH PROGRAMS OF TWO FACULTY:

Dr. Peter Watson shared his work on "Solutions to improve the research biobanking pipeline”

and Dr. Marianne Sadar's topic of discussion was “From the bench to the bedside: the journey to developing a new therapy”.

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW WITH THE TOP RANKED ABSTRACT

This year Dr. Sho Hiroyasu, the Postdoctoral Fellow with the top ranked abstract, discussed his work on "Granzyme B: a Novel Target for Pemphigoid Diseases”.

POSTER SESSION AND LUNCH AT ICORD

The poster session, which coincided with lunch, took place at ICORD, facility at the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre and offered an opportunity for networking, catching up, and showcasing the science of our department. We had 66 poster presentations and this event was very well attended, including the army of 24 volunteer poster judges who determined prize winners for best posters in a variety of categories.

KEYNOTE LECTURE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The keynote’s address “Artificial Intelligence for Pathology: from Discovery to AI-Powered Companion Diagnostics” was given by Dr. Andrew H. Beck. In 2016, Dr Beck co-founded PathAI, a company that develops artificial intelligence technology for pathology, where he serves as President and CEO.

RECEPTION AT ICORD

Pathology Day concluded with a well-attended reception back at ICORD, where faculty, students and staff were recognized with awards for their respective contributions to our department. This year, the BMLSc program joined the Pathogy Day reception for their program awards, adding to the celebrations of the evening.

We look forward to including more department members in the future, as a means to present junior faculty and re-introduce our more established researchers and their achievements.