PATHOLOGY DAY HIGHLIGHTS:

Pathology Day 2018 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. Mike Allard started the day with opening remarks at 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, 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. .

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.

THIS YEAR'S JAMES HOGG LECTURER WAS DR. MORRIS PUDEK

Dr. Pudek trained in Clinical Chemistry at VGH, following his PhD in Biochemistry from UBC, and obtained his certification from the Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists (CSCC) in 1979. Dr. Morris served on the first board of directors of the Canadian Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (CACB) and was the first recipient of the CACB award for outstanding service to the profession of Clinical Biochemistry. He is currently the Regional Medical Leader for Clinical Chemistry for Vancouver Coastal Health. He is also a Clinical Professor in our department. Dr. Morris is the author or co-author of approximately 100 scientific publications. He has received many teaching awards from residents, science students and medical students over the years. Dr. Morris’ lecture was entitled “The Adventures of a Clinical Biochemist: My Education, Educating and Toxicology Stories” .

PATHOLOGY DAY 2018 HIGHLIGHTED THE RESEARCH PROGRAMS OF TWO FACULTY:

Dr. Suzanne Vercauteren shared her work on “Fueling Research by Saving Body Bits: BC Children’s Hospital Biobank”

and Dr. Andrew Minchinton’s topic of discussion was “Radiation Oncology and Hypoxia – A Never Ending Story!”.

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW DEMONSTRATES UTILITY OF MASS SPECTOMETRY

This year Dr. Serena Singh, the Postdoctoral Fellow with the top ranked abstract, discussed her work on "Developing sample preparation workflows and multiple reaction monitoring parameters in the design of a mass spectrometry method for detection of alpha-synuclein in cerebrospinal fluid”.

POSTER SESSION AND LUNCH AT ICORD

The poster session, which coincided with lunch, took place at ICORD, Blusson Spinal Cord Centre and offered an opportunity for networking, catching up with other, 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 TYPE 1 DIABETES

The Keynote’s address “Lessons from the Human Pancreas – Re-writing the textbooks on how and why Type 1 diabetes develops” was given by Dr. Mark Atkinson, currently the American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar for Diabetes Research and the Jeffrey Keene Family Professor at The University of Florida. He also is the Director of the Diabetes Institute at the University of Florida.

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.