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Outstanding research on display at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s 15th annual Research Day


November 19, 2015

The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s 15th annual Research Day was a great success, with more than 360 attendees packing the St. Elias Centre to capacity.

Designed to highlight and celebrate the outstanding work of trainees, as well as promote scientific interaction, the event featured 126 posters (nearly 100 competing for prizes) and 16 oral presentations.

Drs. Duncan Stewart and Fraser Scott set the stage with introductory remarks, while Drs. Peter Zandstra and Harvey Max Chochinov gave the keynote lectures.

Prizes were awarded to the following trainees:

IMPACT (Identification of Marketable Products, Applications and Commercializable Technologies) Award
  • 1st: Brian Keller, Adrian Pelin, Jiahu Wang, Fabrice LeBoeuf (Bell group) Bio-engineering novel vaccinia virus-based oncolytics for the treatment of cancer
  • 2nd: Leslie Nash (Parks group) Exosomes: the biological swiss army knife for spinal muscular atrophy
  • 3rd: David Lu (Sachs group) Decreasing deep brain stimulation surgery time and improving patient outcomes through automatic target localization with real-time analysis of intraoperative brain signals

Oral Presentation Competition:
  • 1st: Nicolas Dumont (Rudnicki group) Muscle Stem Cell Dysfunction in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
  • 2nd: Sylvain Fraineau (Brand group) Activation of major signaling pathways in human endothelial progenitors through de-repression of bivalent genes
  • 3rd: Lee-Hwa Tai (Auer group) Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition augments postoperative natural killer cell antitumor immunity by reducing myeloid-derived suppressor cell function

Postdoctoral Fellow Poster Competition:
  • 1st: Yong Tao (Liu group) Peri-ovulatory putrescine supplementation reduces embryo resorption in older mice
  • 2nd: Pamela Lagali (Tsilfidis and Picketts groups) Non-cell autonomous Atrx activity promotes retinal neuroprotection
  • 3rd: Natasha Chang (Rudnicki group) Regulation of satellite stem cell self-renewal by p38-gamma MAP kinase

PhD Student Poster Competition:
  • 1st: Anisha Lynch-Godrei (Kothary group) Dystonin loss-of-function in oligodendrocytes does not impair migration, differentiation, or myelination
  • 2nd: Benjamin Pryce (Sabourin group) Deletion of the Ste20-Like Kinase Results in Impaired Muscle Function, but Rescues Terminal Differentiation in Response to TGFb Signaling
  • 3rd: Sean Delaney (Stanford group) Evidence of a neural crest origin for Lymphangioleiomyomatosis: loss of TSC2 function enhances neural crest differentiation

MSc Student and Other Poster Competition:
  • 1st: Peter Feige (Rudnicki group) Molecular regulation of satellite cell fate switching
  • 2nd: Maxwell Sunohara (Brand group) The Role of c-MYC in Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
  • 3rd: Hwan Hee Son (Diallo group) Developing Biomarkers to Select Potential Patients for Clinical Trials of Oncolytic Virotherapy

Dr. Goodman Cohen Summer Student Award:
  • Senior Award: Olivia Cook (Thiruganasambandamoorthy group) Reasons for Referrals and Hospital Admissions among Emergency Department Syncope Patients
  • Junior Award: Lubina Nayak (Breau group) Continence and Complications in Patients with Neobladder Diversions

Research Day Committee:
Dr. Fraser Scott (Chair), Dr. Jay Baltz, Jane Canniff, Dr. Ketul Chaudhary, Dr. Angela Crawley, Dr. Jim Dimitroulakos, Dr. Dean Fergusson, Dr. Anouk Fortin, Jennifer Ganton, Dr. Jelena Ivanovic, Dr. Ian Lorimer, Dr. Tim Ramsay, Dr. Luc Sabourin, Dr. William Stanford, Dr. Duncan Stewart, Dr. Catherine Tsilfidis

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About The Ottawa Hospital


The Ottawa Hospital is one of Canada’s largest learning and research hospitals with over 1,100 beds, approximately 12,000 staff and an annual budget of over $1.2 billion. Our focus on research and learning helps us develop new and innovative ways to treat patients and improve care. As a multi-campus hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, we deliver specialized care to the Eastern Ontario region, but our techniques and research discoveries are adopted around the world. We engage the community at all levels to support our vision for better patient care.

For further information, please contact


Jennifer Ganton
Director, Communications and Public Relations
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Office: 613-798-5555 x 73325
Cell: 613-614-5253
jganton@ohri.ca