“This event is all about the grad students. It provides opportunity for them to present their research, refine their communication skills and be recognized for their achievements through the large suite of awards,” said Dr. Samantha Pauls, assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy and co-chair of the MSHRF.

There were 24 poster awards and 22 travel awards tied to the poster competition this year. The top 10 PhD students were given the opportunity to represent the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the national poster competition at next year’s International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM) in Vancouver.

“After participating in many virtual research forums after starting my PhD in 2019, it is nice to be back to in-person events to really interact with others and have those in-depth, one-on-one discussions that were not possible in a virtual format,“ said Emma Martell, a fourth-year graduate student in the department of pathology, Max Rady College of Medicine.

Martell took home a record-breaking six awards, including the top poster award, ICAM travel award, the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba major award and all three available oncology awards. Martell’s poster presented part of her thesis work on the discovery of new strategies for targeting cells related to aggressive childhood cancers.

Emma Martell won six awards at the poster competition during the MSHRF

“It was an incredible feeling, and I am so pleased that the judges and committees enjoyed and appreciated the research work I’ve done. Of course, research is a team effort and I am so grateful to all the students, technicians and collaborators that helped me with this research. I am especially thankful to my supervisor and mentor, Dr. Tanveer Sharif, who fostered a supportive and encouraging lab environment that made all this work possible,” said Martell.

Although the name is different, the MSHRF follows a tradition over 30 years in existence. Starting out as a simple poster competition, what was once called “Awards Day” has evolved and grown over time, with the original founder Dr. Ed Kroeger, professor emeritus, Max Rady College of Medicine, continuing to guide the event.

“Amidst the changes, the four key pillars envisioned by Dr. Kroeger many years ago still guide us today: mentoring, networking, showcasing and recognizing,” said Pauls.

This year the MSHRF also included nine early career researcher presentations from prominent faculty members from all five Rady Faculty of Health Sciences colleges, along with networking events with Manitoba-based alumni, employers and mentors.

There were over 250 registered participants in the MSHRF with graduate students representing 70% of those in attendance. The Health Sciences Graduate Students’ Association (HSGSA) along with additional graduate student volunteers assisted in the planning and execution of MSHRF on multiple levels, including hosting a student networking event in the evening and sponsoring several of the awards. 

“I have participated every year since I started my program and I continuously learn new tips, tricks and techniques to improve my presentation style,” said Martell.

“If it is your first time presenting a research project, then the MSHRF is a great place to practice in a friendly local environment to prepare for larger conferences.”

Koksel is the 2021 recipient of the Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Award in the Applied Sciences category, in recognition of her accomplishments in bringing Canadian crops from the field to our tables, and in transforming these crops into foods with superb palatability and nutritional value. UM Today caught up with her recently to learn more about her and the research she is undertaking.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your research.

I am a food engineer by training. I have a BSc and MSc degrees in Food Engineering and a PhD in Food Science. My research is at the interface between food science and material science. I mainly focus on processing of cereals, pulses and oilseeds, to make foods including but not limited to bakery products, breakfast cereals, expanded snacks and meat alternatives like vegetarian burger patties to reduce the environmental footprint of the foods that we eat.

My research program also focuses on food physics and involves the use of mechanical and electromagnetic waves to assess food quality. For example, I use ultrasound waves, to test the physical quality attributes of meat alternatives. Consider the manufacture of a plant-based burger patty. The use of sound waves as a non-destructive quality control tool allows me to assess textural attributes of the patty (e.g., its hardness, chewiness, tenderness) in real-time during production. The ultrasonic technique is no contact, so it’s sanitary and producers have immediate control to fine-tune the quality without wasting food.

Why is this research important?

This research is a response to the rising world population. We may not feel it everywhere in Canada, but many in our world are struggling with hunger right now. The question I am asking is, how are we going to feed this growing population? And the answer is, we need much greater access to sustainable, good quality proteins worldwide. Getting all our protein from animals is not sustainable, so we need shift towards more plant-based foods.

What does the Rh Award mean to you?

It’s great to be recognized for the time that we put into our research programs. This award is an acknowledgement from the UM and my peers of the quality of the work that I am doing with my team. It is also tremendous to have a bit of an extra funding that comes with this award, to ensure I can keep my research program going. The recognition it brings to my program is vital; both to me, and to raise awareness of the enormous potential impact of our work.

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

In the near future, I plan to expand my research team, continue to learn and teach, and mentor the next generation of food scientists who are interested in sustainably feeding the growing world population.

In the far future, I hope that my research will help to reduce food insecurity and increase access to nutritious, palatable and high-quality foods all around the world, even at unprecedented times like pandemics or wars.

What about you would people find surprising?

Today my parents live in their home country, Turkey, but I was actually born here in Winnipeg when my father was doing grad school at the University of Manitoba. When I was very young, I moved with them back to Turkey, but I made a full circle and came back to Canada to UM to do my PhD and stayed in Canada.

Any advice for early career researchers and students?

Huge effort goes into producing what we eat and solving critical global problems of food sustainability and hunger is not a trivial task. It requires different disciples to work together. For example, I work with people from many different disciplines including human nutritional sciences, physics and astronomy, chemistry, kinesiology, computer science and biosystems engineering. My advice is to stay curious, be open-minded about different perspectives and remember that even for topics that involve global politics and social sciences, food is always at the core of our daily lives.

Leah Pengelly // Photo: Weston Family Foundation

Master’s student Leah Pengelly in the department of biological sciences is studying the underwater soundscape ecology of the Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area and evaluating the seasonal changes in noise levels from marine mammals, ship traffic and activity, and other environmental components.

Pengelly’s project allows her to foster partnerships with Inuit communities and facilitate knowledge exchange, both key in assessing the health of the Tallurutiup Imanga ecosystem and in bridging the gaps between western and traditional science.

“It’s an amazing achievement and I feel honoured to be a Weston Scholar,” says Pengelly. “This project has been a long time coming. I spent years living in the North thinking about this project, and to finally make it a reality and get the recognition feels incredible.”

Tommy Pontbriand // Photo: Weston Family Foundation

Also a student in the department of biological sciences, Tommy Pontbriand is focusing his master’s thesis on the diet and foraging behaviour of bowhead whales in the eastern Canadian Arctic, studying changes in population dynamics in response to changes in prey availability and accessibility over time.

After the species barely survived the population crash from the whaling industry, its slow recovery is now threatened by the effects of climate change.

Bowhead whales also play a key role in Inuit subsistence and cultural preservation. Certain communities that rely on this resource in the region are at risk of losing access to it. “Understanding the bowhead whale’s foraging ecology would allow us to inform these communities and allow them to adapt in anticipation of changes to come,” Pontbriand adds.

Enooyaq Sudlovenick // Photo: Weston Family Foundation

PhD candidate Enooyaq Sudlovenick from UM’s department of environment and geography is not new to being a Weston Scholar. After completing her Master of Science in veterinary medicine focusing on ringed seal health, also supported by the Weston Family Foundation, she is now embarking on her next project studying Arctic marine mammal health, specializing in beluga whales, through the lens of contaminants, pathological studies, and Inuit knowledge.

All three students are representing the University of Manitoba at the forefront of Canadian research, leading us into the next generation of protecting and preserving the North.

“This recognition is a testament to the amazing work these graduate students are doing at the University of Manitoba,” says Kelley Main, acting dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

To be considered as a Weston Scholar in 2022, visit the Weston Family Awards in Northern Research website for more information including eligibility criteria and application deadlines.

Dr. Jillian Stobart, assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, has received a CIHR Early Career Investigator Award in Circulatory and Respiratory Health. The three-year, $345,000 award will assist Stobart in her research into the role of pericyte cells, which are vascular cells that wrap around blood vessels in the brain, and trying to understand the role these cells play in regulating brain blood flow and how this changes with aging.

There is a strong correlation between cognitive decline and a reduction in blood flow, which ultimately contributes to the onset of dementia in some people. Stobart believes this the result of the capillary cells not working as efficiently.

“My hope is that we’ll have some really interesting results to characterize these cells and come up with a new angle to better understand cognitive decline and the reduction of blood flow with aging,” she says.

The award is part of CIHR’s mandate to develop and support researchers that are getting started in their careers, helping them gain independence, grow their research programs and hopefully set them up to be successful in other big funding competitions in the future. Only four awards were given out in Stobart’s pool of applicants for this award and she ranked first.

Stobart says that finding out she received the grant was a surprise considering the competitiveness of the category. She is heartened to know that there is interest in her area of research.

“It was a pleasant surprise, especially with the dark times for research at the moment with all of us working at home and everybody’s labs shut down,” she says.

Over the course of the three-year project, Stobart will look at the progression of these cells in aging and how they change and their basic physiology to better understand how these cells communicate with each other.

“We’ve known for a hundred years that these cells exist in the brain but it’s only been recently that we’ve developed the tools to study them more efficiently,” says Stobart, “My research is taking advantage of some novel and exciting microscope techniques and new animal models that will allow us to really pinpoint these pericyte cells and figure out what their is role in regulating blood flow and how they communicate with other vascular cells.”

The UM recently invested in the microscopic tool that Stobart will be using to do her work. She learned the techniques during her post-doctoral studies in Switzerland and is now helping to set up and establish the technology here in Manitoba. Stobart says this equipment will help her continue to grow her research program as well as open the door to collaborations with other researchers that are starting to branch out now that the technology is here.

“There are many different aspects of neuroscience and brain health we can study with these types of imaging techniques,” she says.

Stobart is predicting that the project will lead her to find that the drugs that might be effective in preventing reductions in blood flow in the brain already exist.

“I expect to find that there are specific pathways and molecules that are changing with age. There are already drugs available that are used for cardiovascular treatments and I’m hopeful that my research will show that those drugs are possibly also beneficial for blood flow in the brain and cognitive decline in the future,” she says.

C4T (Canadian Childhood Cannabinoid Clinical Trials) is an academic-led research team comprising parents, doctors, nurses and scientists. Their goal is to “move cannabinoid use from the era of anecdote to evidence to treat health concerns in children.” (https://www.c4trials.org/)

Dr. Lauren Kelly

The scientific director of C4T, and nominated principal applicant, Dr. Lauren Kelly, is a pharmacologist, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics & child health and community health sciences in the Max Rady College of Medicine, clinical trialist at the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, and research scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

Kelly says that the use of cannabis by pediatric cancer patients to treat symptoms like pain, nausea and anxiety is increasing. She points to a 2017 survey by the Canadian Pediatric Surveillance Program of 1500 pediatricians, which found that 50% of pediatricians manage at least one child using cannabis for medical purposes and 22% manage five or more.

Since there are currently no pharmaceutical grade cannabis products approved for use in children, cannabis is being obtained from various sources including black market websites.

“The need for high-quality evidence is paramount to ensure the safe use of cannabis products by children,” says Kelly. “It is time to focus on obtaining rigorous evidence and develop the clinical trials needed to inform safe selection and dosing of cannabis products in children where the risks and benefits are appropriately balanced.”

The team will gather information through several different means. They will survey physicians, nurses, pharmacists, patients and parents to gather information on which cannabis products are currently being used for symptom management to give them a better idea of which products have the best safety profile.

A parent-led group will conduct qualitative interviews that were designed by the researchers with families of children with cancer to help better understand access to medical cannabis, physician support and reasons for cannabis use.

A registry across five provinces will be established to collect clinical information on use of cannabis from pediatricians who manage children with cancer and other conditions to evaluate the safety, pharmacodynamics (the effect of drugs on the body) and pharmacokinetics (how the body processes the drug) of cannabis use in children.

Additionally, the team will conduct an open-label dose finding study on a cannabis health product for symptom management in children with cancer, collecting samples from patients using cannabis at several hospitals across Canada.

All of this information will be compiled into a resource hub for the public and families, containing up-to-date evidence on cannabis use for medical purposes in children, either for during active cancer treatment or for symptom management post-treatment. The hub will also contain communications tips for parents and health-care professionals on how to approach the subject with each other.

Kelly says that parents are looking for reliable information and she hopes that this study will help fill in some of those gaps.

“It’s a lot about learning from the parents and where they’re getting information. Many patients have had a less than ideal experience trying to use medical cannabis in hospitals. They want to know who they can trust and how we can build this trust,” she says.

The end goal will be to develop an active clinical trial and facilitate drug development for a regulated pharmaceutical grade cannabis product approved for use in children with cancer, for which there are currently none available.

For more information on the project please visit: https://www.c4trials.org/

Attendees of the Arctic Frontiers Conference gather in Tromsø, Norway, honouring the Laureate of the 2020 International Mohn Prize for outstanding Arctic research. The winner of the Mohn Prize is Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Canada Excellence Research Chair at the Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), University of Manitoba, and Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

The Mohn Prize is awarded in recognition of premiere Arctic research. The prize aims to put relevant issues for future Arctic development onto the national and international agenda. Nominations are put forth by members of the Arctic research community and are evaluated by an international scientific committee.

In the words of the selection committee: “Dr. Dahl-Jensen is a leading figure in one of the most important scholarly areas of particular relevance to our understanding of processes driving the ongoing dramatic transformation of the Arctic environment.

By ranking Dr. Dahl-Jensen first, the committee underscores the importance of her decades-long leadership in building, coordinating and maintaining international teams.”

Dr. Husebekk says Dr. Dahl-Jensen is a world leader in the field of cryosphere science.

“She studies the climate of the past through ice cores in order to make predictions about current and future climate change,” Dr. Husebekk succinctly summarizes the core work of Dr. Dahl-Jensen as she awards her the prize.

Dr. Dahl-Jensen thanks the selection and nomination committee before displaying why she is considered a leader in academic research, extolling the virtue of team effort.

“Drilling ice cores and getting climate results out of ice cores is certainly a teamwork, even a very interdisciplinary teamwork where we need to combine scientists with engineers with logistic people, and they have all had their part in the success of our team.

I also want to acknowledge that I’ve been welcomed into a new and fantastic research team at the University of Manitoba”, Dr. Dahl-Jensen adds. “This is a world-leading group in sea ice research which I would like to combine with freshwater and the importance for people. And I would also like to thank the research group at the University of Manitoba for being so welcoming.”

The award ceremony was followed by the 2020 Mohn Prize Seminar: Climate Change in the Arctic. View the full seminar, or by the time stamps below:

0:13-0:23 – Professor Steinar Thorvaldsen, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Henrik Mohn (1835-1916) – The founder of Norwegian research in meteorology and physical oceanography”

0:23-1:05 – Lecture by the laureate Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Canada Excellence Research Chair, CEOS, University of Manitoba; Villum Investigator of Physics of Ice, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, “Can abrupt climate changes happen again?”

1:05-1:30 – Professor Matthias Forwick, Department of Geosciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Long-term environmental changes in the Arctic – insights from geological drill cores”

1:30-2:00 – Professor Inger Greve Alsos, The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Long-term effect of climate change on arctic vegetation: new knowledge based on ancient DNA”

2:35-3:05 – Professor Søren Rysgaard, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change at CEOS, University of Manitoba; Department of Bioscience – Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, “An updated view on water masses on the pan-West Greenland continental shelf and their link to proglacial fjords”

3:05-3:30 – Professor David Barber, Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science, Professor and Associate Dean (research), CEOS, University of Manitoba, “What does Climate change have to do with Sea Ice, Glaciers, Bromine and Freshwater-Marine coupling in the Arctic”

3:30-End – Professor Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Barents Chair in Politics, Department of Social Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Science diplomacy and climate change”

The College is Canada’s first national multidisciplinary recognition system, which honours emerging and productive academics for their contributions to society, with an emphasis on those who take interdisciplinary approaches to their research.

Election to the RSC is considered the highest honour an academic can achieve in the arts, humanities and sciences; and the University of Manitoba is proud to have two professors join this growing cohort of emerging national leaders.

“Drs. Hossain and Woolford are exemplary scholars in their fields, recognized internationally for their research excellence,” said Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba. “We look forward to their continued development as visionary leaders.”

Ekram Hossain

Ekram Hossain

A professor of electrical and computer engineering, Hossain is an internationally recognized authority in the area of wireless communications and networking. His pioneering contributions to modeling, analysis, and design of cellular wireless and cognitive radio networks have significantly impacted the research and development in this area and enabled advancement of broadband wireless technology. Hossain is also a Fellow of the IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

Andrew Woolford

Andrew Woolford

The professor and head of the department of sociology undertakes research that sits at the forefront of genocide studies and has contributed to rethinking how genocide applies to Canadian settler colonialism. He is author or editor of several important books on diverse topics such as treaty negotiations, Residential Schools, restorative justice, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. His current research is a community-led effort to use virtual technology to foster empathy for and knowledge about Canada’s Residential Schools.

This year’s cohort of 80 new members of college will be officially inducted at the RSC Annual General Meeting on Nov. 18 in Kingston, ON. The University of Manitoba now has 5 RSC College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists members.

Ronald Domalaon is a graduate student working with Dr. Frank Schweizer, a leading researcher in the fields of medicinal chemistry and drug development. As part of a team of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows developing new approaches to combat antibiotic resistance, Domalaon understands the gravity of the work.

“It’s scary,” he says There are several bacterial strains that are resistant to almost all antibiotics or antibiotic classes we have in our arsenal. This affects our ability to fight infections; and what if you’re immunocompromised, what else can we do to save you?”

One method they are working on involves the fusion of two antibiotics, via covalent bond, to form a new hybrid antibiotic molecule. Covalent linkage of two matched antibacterial warheads reduces the likelihood for resistance development as it is expected to exhibit multiple modes of action, obtained from each parent drug. The resulting hybrid molecule may display improved antibacterial activity against drug-resistant bacterial strains. Domalaon reports that in vitro results are positive and encouraging. However, it will take several more years before this method can be tested in humans.

“Resistance has increasingly become a problem in recent years because the pace at which we are discovering new antibiotics has slowed drastically, while antibiotic use is rising.” http://amr-review.org/background

Child’s Play

Domalaon’s passion for medicinal chemistry was ignited early on. As a child he was frequently ill and often prescribed medicine. Domalaon wondered if he could also create medicine. Learning from doctors that most drugs came from nature was the catalyst for Domalaon’s interest in medicinal chemistry. Soon, he was grinding up all sorts of organic matter found in his backyard, creating various “medicinal substances” and proudly presenting them to the bemusement of his parents who worked in business not in science.

His desire to pursue chemistry grew as he progressed through school. He immigrated to Canada from the Philippines and attended his final year of high school at Murdoch MacKay Collegiate where his teachers strongly advised him to pursue science at the University of Manitoba.

Will and Determination

Domalaon excelled at university but struggled at first to understand research and wondered if he was cut out to be a scientist.

“Some people find it easy to get an A and don’t need to study as hard. I am not one of them, but I am a hardworking student.”

Determined to succeed, he sought help from his professors, studied diligently, read hundreds of research papers until they made sense, and soon his perseverance paid off.

While in university, he worked as an undergraduate laboratory teaching assistant, helping other students understand the wonders of chemistry in the laboratory. He was nominated by both his students and professors for his enthusiasm and knowledge, eventually receiving both the Department of Chemistry and the Faculty of Science Excellence in Teaching Assistance Awards for three consecutive years.

He also successfully applied for several undergraduate summer research awards through the Faculty of Science. That’s where he began working with Schweizer and found his passion for drug design and development through organic synthesis.

Undergraduate Research Success

After three years of hands-on undergraduate summer research with Schweizer, Domalaon published, as first listed author, his first international peer-reviewed publication: Domalaon R, Yang X, O’Neil J, Zhanel GG, Mookherjee N, Schweizer F .

In the spring of 2014, Domalaon graduated with a bachelor of chemistry, Biopharmaceutical Honours degree with a double minor in biological sciences and human nutrition and metabolism in the University of Manitoba.

“I decided to pursue a double-minor in biological sciences and human nutrition and metabolism because I wanted to better understand how the body reacts to and absorbs drugs, and I realized in my third year that knowing chemistry was not enough.”

That summer, he was invited to speak at the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s 97^th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Vancouver, a rare opportunity for an undergraduate student. He took home first place for his oral presentation in the biological and medicinal chemistry division, competing among graduate students across Canada. Shortly afterwards, he was awarded a graduate studentship by the Manitoba Health Research Council (MHRC) to pursue his specialization in the field of antibacterial drug development here in Manitoba.

After he finishes his master of science, Domalaon aspires to a future career in the pharmaceutical industry where he hopes to make a meaningful contribution to the field of medicinal chemistry.

Advice to Students

Domalaon’s advice to undergraduate students:

“Apply for all available opportunities such as an undergraduate research; and if you’re granted the opportunity, work hard, persevere, own it, because everything you do in your undergraduate years matter.”

Links:

Dr. Frank Schweizer

World Health Organization: WHO

Health Canada

2014 UK Report on Antibiotic Resistance

]]> https://umtoday-wordpress.ad.umanitoba.ca/working-hard-to-fight-antibiotic-resistance/feed/ 0 https://umtoday-wordpress.ad.umanitoba.ca/infant-gut-bacteria-study-among-the-most-highly-cited-articles-in-2014/ https://umtoday-wordpress.ad.umanitoba.ca/infant-gut-bacteria-study-among-the-most-highly-cited-articles-in-2014/#respond Thu, 08 Jan 2015 15:15:54 +0000 http://news.umanitoba.ca/?p=18948 Meghan Azad, assistant professor in the College of Medicine (pediatrics & child health) and coauthors – which include Allan Becker [MD/69], professor in the College of Medicine – are recipients of the Bruce Squires Award for 2014, presented by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).]]> Meghan Azad, assistant professor in the College of Medicine (pediatrics & child health) and coauthors – which include Allan Becker [MD/69], professor in the College of Medicine – are recipients of the Bruce Squires Award for 2014, presented by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).

Azad, first author on the study titled: Gut microbiota of healthy Canadian infants: profiles by mode of delivery and infant diet at 4 months, says she was pleasantly surprised when she received news of the award because the article was originally published almost two years ago; at the time Azad was completing her postdoctoral fellowship in pediatrics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Despite the article’s two-year-old release date, according to the CMAJ website, the award-winning study is one of the most highly-cited (and significantly downloaded) articles in 2014.

Gut microbes clearly play an important role in human health and disease, but microbiome research is a relatively new field and most studies have been conducted in adults, says Azad, a research scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (formerly the Manitoba Institute of Child Health).

“Relatively little is known about how the gut microbiota is established in early life, and we had the unique opportunity to explore this process by partnering with the Canadian Institutes of Child Health (CIHR) Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study and the CIHR Microbiome Initiative,” she explains.

CHILD is a national study designed to help identify the root causes of allergy and asthma (in children) including genetic and environmental triggers and the ways in which they interact. The project has five sites across Canada, including Manitoba – which is led by Dr. Becker, co-principal investigator on the CHILD study.

Acknowledging the complexity of decisions regarding method of birth and infant feeding, Azad explains the importance of her team’s results. “Our research identifies the gut microbiota as a new factor (one of many) to be considered in this process.  Our results also suggest new research priorities: for example, when cesarean delivery or formula feeding cannot be avoided, are there ways to “correct” the resulting gut microbiota changes?”

Their study, funded by CIHR and AllerGen NCE, was conducted by the Synergy in Microbiota (SyMBIOTA) team, led by Drs. Anita Kozyrskyj (University of Alberta) and James Scott (University of Toronto), and includes researchers across five universities in Canada, including pediatricians, microbiologists, molecular biologists, immunologists and epidemiologists.

According to CMAJ, the Bruce Squires award is presented annually to the authors of a research article that promotes high standards of reporting and evidence-based medicine. The award honours the late Dr. Bruce Squires who was CMAJ’s editor-in-chief from 1989–96.

“The Bruce Squires Award is given for research that is likely to have a high impact on patient care, so we like to choose research that is either at the beginning of a research story or at the end of a research story,” said CMAJ Editor-in-chief Dr. John Fletcher. “In previous years we have awarded systematic reviews giving the definitive result at the end of a story of research. This year’s winner is a break with tradition in that it is at the beginning of the story of the microbiome and how our gut flora interacts with our immune system and produces disease.” Fletcher said he has high hopes for this area of research in the future.

*With notes from the CMAJ story published on January 7, 2014.

The annual competition, sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International), took place on October 30^th with over 75 participants displaying their work in five different categories and vying for cash prizes.

Education student and Undergraduate Research Award winner Angela O’Brien-Klewchuk, presented her poster “Globetrotters in Training: Teacher candidates crossing borders” on the effects and benefits of international teaching opportunities on both teachers and communities.

Education student Angela O’Brien-Klewchuk with her poster “Globetrotters in Training: Teacher candidates crossing borders”

“It’s neat to see my research on education, right up against someone’s research on mental health issues,” said O-Brien-Klewchuck. “I think there’s lots of opportunity for cross-discipline interaction and ideas. As a teacher, I’m more of a generalist and I like that inter-disciplinary approach to things, so that’s quite exciting.”

The Poster Competition is also a great way for student researchers to develop practical visual and verbal presentation skills they can take with them to graduate school and into their careers.

Physics & Astronomy student Sandeep Kaur shared her work on “Microwave Based Life Detection System for Post-Disaster Rescue Operations”, which can detect chest displacement under debris or snow.

Physics & Astronomy student Sandeep Kaur with her poster “Microwave Based Life Detection System for Post-Disaster Rescue Operations”

“This is a great way to showcase what I did during the summer,” said Kaur. “And to prepare me for conferences and presenting my research in such a way that general audiences can understand it. Many people don’t know exactly what research has been done. This is a cool way to showcase it and the practical applications in day-to-day life.”

The 2014 Undergraduate Research Poster Competition winners were named in the following categories:

Applied Sciences
1st – Vishal Thakur (Psychology)
2nd – Sandeep Kaur (Physics & Astronomy)
3rd – Katrina Zmavc (Psychology)

Creative Works
1st – Emma Kitson (Arts)
2nd – Steve Csincsa (English, Film & Theatre)

Health Sciences
1st – Michael Xu (Science)
2nd – Ella Thomson (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
3rd – Ryan Wang (Science)

Natural Sciences
1st – Nicole Pogorzelec (Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources)
2nd – Steven Anderson (Biological Sciences)
3rd – SeoHyun Jo (Plant Science)

Social Sciences
1st – Chimwemwe Undi (Linguistics)
2nd – Elena Bilevicius (Psychology)
3rd – Allison Dyck (Psychology)