“This year it was bigger and better,” said Dr. Samantha Pauls, assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy and chair of the MSHRF, noting 50 more students participated in 2024 over last year, with most participants Rady Faculty of Health Sciences’ graduate students. Other students came from UM Fort Garry campus grad programs, University of Winnipeg and Brandon University. 

“For the first time we gave undergraduate students the opportunity to be nominated for participation in the poster competition. We are hoping the experience will encourage these undergrads to pursue graduate school.” 

One of those undergraduate students was Camila Oda Jallime, from the UM Faculty of Science.

“I was so excited to present this year and learn as much as I could from the experience. It was incredibly rewarding to hear feedback and ideas from others about my project.” 

Jallime said the MSHRF is where she first discovered her love for immunology and met others in the department and which led to her working as an undergraduate student researcher at associate professor of immunology Dr. Thomas Marooka’s lab. This year, she won the first undergraduate poster award for her research on therapeutics for improving vaginal barrier function to prevent sexually transmitted infections.  

“I was not expecting to win the poster award and it was a very emotional moment when I found out the results. I couldn’t have done this without the endless support of everyone in my lab.” 

Jallime is now entering the fifth-year of the B.Sc. Genetics (honours) program and said she plans to pursue a graduate program in health sciences, but is still deciding which one. 

Saeid Magsoudi, a fourth-year PhD student in the department of physiology and pathophysiology in the Max Rady College of Medicine, was participating for the third time, presenting his research on life-saving drug treatments that can help babies who have difficulty breathing immediately after birth. Magsoudi said he was very grateful to win several awards, especially the major award from the Child Health Research Institute of Manitoba. 

Saeid Magsoudi is presented with an award during the MSHRF from Dr. Jude Uzonna, professor and vice-dean (research), Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

“It means that if you work hard and you dedicate yourself to the research you can get your results – by getting awards or recognitions. All the students here are working for the community, so that was meaningful for me.” 

Magsoudi said he has been to many research conferences across Canada and Europe over the past three years and MSHRF really stands out for the diversity and the high calibre of work being presented. 

“The quality of research is excellent here. It covers a broad spectrum ranging from basic science to clinical studies to population studies and more. Many universities focus on one specific type of research, but in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences it covers all aspects of health sciences. It’s fantastic.”     

The MSHRF also included special lectures, early career researcher presentations and professional development workshops, along with plenty of opportunities to network with colleagues and mentors. 

“MSHRF was an excellent place for networking. I was able to network with many students and principal investigators here. Each day in the afternoon we had a networking session, so we had the chance to collaborate or just communicate with people from the industry of health sciences,” said Magsoudi. 

New this year was the addition of chairs in key roles, including poster competition chair, Dr. Eftekhar Eftekharpour; major awards chair, Dr. Brad Doble; early career researcher symposium chair, Dr. Janilyn Arsenio; and event planning chair, Bianca Felisbino. 

This was the 2nd year of the MSHRF under the current name and format, based on the similar event previously known as “Research Days” or the “Canadian Student Health Research Forum” which ran for 34 years prior. 

Additional funding for MSHRF was provided by many sponsors, including platinum sponsors: The Manitoba Medical Service Foundation Inc., Manitoba Blue Cross, UM Faculty of Graduate Studies and UM Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. 

As part of a national survey called OurCare, the University of Manitoba hosted several marginalized groups for roundtable discussions recently, leading to the proposal of “auntie-style” care.

The idea would include more Indigenous-led spaces, where practices like smudging and drumming are the norm, and more support to help youth access the health system, as many feel intimidated and discriminated against when they need to access health care.

“The national OurCare Standard provides a straightforward and easy to understand guide for what people should be able to expect from the primary care system and what policymakers and decision makers should work towards when making changes to the primary care system,” the U of M’s Dr. Amanda Condon said in a statement Monday.

Read more