The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s 21st annual Research Day was a great success!
Designed to highlight and celebrate the outstanding work of trainees and promote scientific interaction, the event featured 131 posters, 20 oral presentations, and six finalists in the Elevator Pitch Competition.
The event also included special presentations from Dr. Sonia Anand, Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch, Dr. Meshach Asare-Werehene (Worton Researcher-in-Training Award), Bryde Fresque (patient speaker) and the Co-Chairs of OHRI’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council.
Attendees also had a chance to network and visit booths for core resources and sponsors using an innovative virtual platform.
Prizes were awarded to the following students and postdoctoral fellows:
Oral Presentation Competition
Clinical: Chau Huynh (Shawn Aaron group) Development and Validation of a Case-finding Questionnaire to Identify Undiagnosed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Asthma
Co-authors: George Alex Whitmore, Katherine Vandemheen, Shawn Aaron
1st: Uxia Gurriaran-Rodriguez (Michael Rudnicki group) Identification of the Wnt Signal Peptide that directs secretion in Extracellular Vesicles
Co-authors: David Datzkiw , Leandro G. Radusky, Solomon Fisher, Fan Xiao, Hong Ming, Yves De Repentigny, Rashmi Kothary, Luis Serrano, Michael A. Rudnicki
2nd: Alvin Tieu (Duncan Stewart and Manoj Lalu groups) Arming Vesiculovirus with SARS-CoV2 Spike Protein Creates a Murine Model of Severe COVID-19 ARDS
Co-authors: Alvin Tieu, Damian Chwastek, Casey Lansdell, Taylor Jamieson, Carolina Ilkow, Duncan Stewart, Manoj Lalu
3rd: Zaid Taha (Jean-Simon Diallo group) Nanoluciferase complementation-based bioreporter drug screen identifies SARS-CoV-2 blocking agent
Co-authors: Rozanne Arulanandam, Glib Maznyi, Elena Godbout, Madalina Carter-Timofte, Line S. Reinert, Andrew Chen, Mathieu Crupi, Stephen Boulton, Alexandra Acal, Geneviève Laroche, Nouf Alluqmani, Alexandra Phan, Julia Petryk, Ragunath Singaravelu, Emily E.F. Brown, Carolina S. Ilkow, Tommy Alain, Marceline Côté, Soren R. Paludan, David P. C. Olagnier, John C. Bell, Taha Azad, Jean-Simon Diallo.
Postdoctoral and Clinical Fellow Poster Competition
Clinical: Sara Moore (supervised by Paul Wheatley-Price) Treatment of relapsed small cell lung cancer in the real-world: a comparison of platinum-etoposide rechallenge and cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin-vincristine (CAV) chemotherapy
Co-authors: Deepro Chowdhury, Mathieu Mckinnon, Paul Wheatley-Price
1st: Mayra Trentin-Sonoda (Kevin Burns group) Effect of novel soluble ACE2-Fc variants on blood pressure and albuminuria in mice with angiotensin II-induced hypertension
Co-authors: Joseph Zimpelmann, John W. Gillard, Traian Sulea, and Kevin D. Burns
2nd: Niko Hensel (Rashmi Kothary group) Impairment of the neurotrophic signaling hub B-Raf contributes to motoneuron degeneration in spinal muscular atrophy
Co-authors: Federica Cieri, Pamela Santonicola, Ines Tapken, Tobias Schüning, Michela Taiana, Elisa Pagliari, Antonia Joseph, Silke Fischer, Natascha Heidrich, Hella Brinkmann, Sabrina Kubinski, Anke K. Bergmann, Manuela F. Richter, Klaus Jung, Stefania Corti, Elia Di Schiavi, and Peter Claus
3rd: Mathieu Crupi (John Bell group) Enhancing oncolytic vesicular stomatitis virus immunotherapy and viral replication with novel microRNA technology
Co-authors: Mathieu Crupi, Zaid Taha, Giuseppe Pugliese, Emily Brown, Joanna Poutou, Julia Petryk, Christiano Souza, Jean-Simon Diallo, John Bell, Carolina Ilkow
PhD Student Poster Competition
Clinical: Robert Myette (supervised by Dylan Burger) Podocyte extracellular vesicles are increased in pediatric nephrotic syndrome during nephrotic range proteinuria
Co-authors: Fengxia Xiao MD, PhD, Janusz Feber MD, FRCPC, Pavel Geier MD, PhD, Dylan Burger PhD
1st: Jaahnavi Dave (John Bell group) Arming oncolytic viruses with virus like particles for improved cancer therapy
Co-authors: Ragunath Singaravelu, Carolina Ilkow, John Bell
2nd: Nicholas Cober (Duncan Stewart group) Characterizing transcriptomic changes during the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension using single cell RNA sequencing
Co-authors: Emma McCourt, Rafael Soares Godoy, Yupu Deng, Ken Schlosser, David P Cook, Liyuan Wang, and Duncan J Stewart
3rd: Ghada Aldosary (Eric Vandevoort group) Can oncoplastic breast surgery impact radiotherapy treatment planning?
Co-authors: Jean-Michel Caudrelier Tabitha Tse, Angel Arnaout, Claire Foottit, Jason Belec and Eric Vandervoort
4th: Lucia Chehade (Rashmi Kothary group) Suppression of necroptotic cell death ameliorates the SMA phenotype in Smn2B/- mice
Co-authors: Marc-Olivier Deguise, Yves De Repentigny, Rebecca Yaworski, Ariane Beauvais, and Rashmi Kothary
Master’s Student and Poster Competition
Clinical: Ana Beltran-Bless (Supervised by Mark Clemons) Does the Time of Day at Which Endocrine Therapy Is Taken Affect Breast Cancer Patient Outcomes?
Co-authors: Lisa Vandermeer, Mohammed F. K. Ibrahim, Brian Hutton, Risa Shorr, Marie-France Savard and Mark Clemons
1st: Nicole Blakeley (Baptiste Lacoste group) Assessment of vascularization and neurogenesis in an iPSC-derived 16p11.2 deletion organoid model.
Co-authors: Baptiste Lacoste
2nd: Skyra Cheng (Catherine Tsilfidis group) Assessment of Visual Function in a Snf2h Knockout Mouse Model of Retinal Degeneration
Co-authors: Pamela Lagali, Adam Baker, Catherine Tsilfidis
3rd: Pascale Juneau (Edward Lemaire group) Lower limb amputee fall risk classification using automated foot strike detection from smartphone sensor signals during a 6MWT.
Co-authors: Natalie Baddour, Helena Burger, Andrej Bavec, Edward D. Lemaire
4th: Zoe Fisk (Maxime Rousseaux group) Determining the endogenous distribution, topography, and cells-of-origin of a-synuclein in relation to Parkinson’s Disease
Co-authors: Haley Geertsma, Maxime Rousseau
Undergraduate poster competition
Yasmeen Ameeriar (supervised by Jonathan Angel) Evaluating the synergistic effect of MG1 infection and SMAC mimetic treatment on latently HIV-infected cells
Co-authors: Bengisu Molyer Dr. Jonathan Angel
Elevator Pitch Competition
Judges Pick Winners:
1st Place: Mawaia Elkbouli (Supervisor Duncan Stewart) “Smacules” as a promising regenerative therapy
2nd Place: Grace Fox (Supervisor Dean Fergusson and Manoj Lalu) Recognizing patients as partners in research
Audience pick – there was a tie for first place!
Mawaia Elkbouli (Supervisor Duncan Stewart)
Grace Fox (Supervisor Dean Fergusson and Manoj Lalu)
Goodman Cohen Awards
Senior: Kiera Levesque (Supervisor Angela Crawley) Functional CD8+ T lymphocytes undergo increased apoptosis in HCV infection
Junior (there was a tie)
Ashley Hagerman (Supervisor Michele Ardolino) PD-L1 tumor-intrinsic signaling boosts Warburg metabolism
Emma McCourt (Supervisor Duncan Stewart) A Single-Cell Atlas of the Rat Lung During Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Progression
Research Day Committee and Volunteers:
Dr. Paul Albert (Co-chair), Dr. Justin Presseau (Co-chair), Dr. Jay Baltz, Amelia Buchanan, Dr. Angela Crawley, Chanèle Cyr Depauw, Jaahnavi Dave , Jenn Ganton, Milad Hamwi, Leah Labib, Dr. Ian Lorimer, Dr. Tim Ramsay, Dr. Luc Sabourin, Dr. Duncan Stewart, Jennifer Valentino,
Alison Cudmore, Vinay Dandawati, Colleen Ford, Nicol Lum, Chris Page, Sarah Schlievert,
Supporters:
