MD/PhD Program - Seminars
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MD/PhD "Building Bridges" Seminar Series - ALL ARE WELCOME
This well established seminar series is aimed at illustrating the relationship that exists between clinical practice and medical research. The meetings offer a casual and relaxed atmosphere to profile individuals who have successfully combined both clinical and research aspects into their medical careers. In addition to talking about their active research, the invited speakers also talk about their experiences, discuss their training background, share their advice for prospective clinician-scientists, and offer their opinions on career development options for clinician-scientists.
All faculty, clinical investigator trainees and students in the Faculty of Medicine are invited.
Date and Time: Monday, 12 December 2011, 5:30 - 6:30 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Videoconference: Victoria: MSB 131, Prince George: NHSC 9-370, Kelowna: KGH CAC 237.
Invited speaker: Dr. Steven Miller
Canada Research Chair in Neonatal Neuroscience
Scholar, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Senior Clinician Scientist, Child & Family Research Institute
Associate Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, UBC
The focus of the neonatal neurology research group is to better understand brain development and injury in the newborn. Using advanced magnetic resonance (MR) techniques and bedside brain monitoring we study how white matter injury and systemic illness affects brain development in critically ill newborns. A better understanding of the factors that impact brain development and injury will allow us to directly improve the neurodevelopmental outcome of high-risk newborns.
Neurodevelopmental impairments are common in newborns delivered prior to term age and in newborns with heart birth defects, and result in a large burden of long-term disability. White matter injury, abnormal brain development and systemic illness are interrelated abnormalities that commonly follow preterm birth or heart birth defects, with focal non-cystic white matter injury being the characteristic pattern of brain injury. Though focal non-cystic white matter injury is associated with diffuse abnormalities of motor and cognitive function, how this happens is unknown. Systemic illness (e.g. infection) and therapy (e.g. steroids) may also be associated with diffuse abnormalities of motor and cognitive function.
Dr. Miller will make a presentation about his active research and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 24 October 2011, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Stephen Yip
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, UBC
BC Cancer Agency, Centre for Translational and Applied Genomics, Vancouver Cancer Centre, BCCA
Dr. Stephen Yip obtained his combined MD-PhD degree at UBC in 1999. His PhD thesis, under the supervision of Julia Levy, was on the use of a photosensitizer for the purging of contaminating leukemic cells in autologous bone marrow transplantations. He was then accepted into the neurosurgery training program at VGH and completed four years of residency training before switching to the neuropathology program at VGH and obtained his FRCPC certification in 2006. Next, he completed two years of Royal College-funded research fellowship in molecular neuro-oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital under the supervision of David Louis. Dr. Louis, chief of pathology at MGH, through his description and characterization of 1p19q chromosomal loss in oligodendroglioma, propelled the field of molecular diagnostics in neuro-oncology. His research was focused on the molecular characterizations of recurrent glioblastomas specifically somatic mutations in the mismatch repair gene MSH6. He then completed fellowship training in molecular genetics pathology at Harvard Medical School under the supervision of John Lafrate at MGH. This one year clinical training consisted of rotations in different clinical molecular diagnostic laboratories affiliated with Harvard Medical School. He was exposed to different advanced molecular diagnostic techniques and was involved in trouble-shooting clinical molecular diagnostic problems.
Dr. Yip returned to Vancouver in 2009 and is physically located at BCCA Vancouver Cancer Centre. His clinical appointment is to provide clinical molecular diagnostics and neuropathology signouts. He is also affiliated with the Centre for Translational and Applied Genomics (CTAG) and involved in the developments of novel molecular diagnostic assays. His current research interests are in the genomic and epigenomic profiling of cancers especially primary brain tumours, taking advantage of the local expertise at the Genome Sciences Centre, BCCRC, and CTAG. Currently he is using 2nd generation sequencing technology to study oligodendroglioma, ependymoma, chordoma as well as meningioma. Ultimately he wants to take novel genomic/epigenomic discoveries to the clinic – by developing clinical molecular assays and then be used to better stratify cancer patients and to identify those that might respond to novel molecular targeting agents. He is also associated with the development of BrainCare, a local effort to develop multidisciplinary seamless care for brain tumour patients in this province and also in the establishment of a local neuro-oncology research network which includes the development of a brain tumour tissue bank. He is the course director for Oncology 502 (Concepts in Oncology) that is offered under the Interdisciplinary Oncology Program (IOP) and is a member of the IOP executive committee as well as the UBC MD/PhD admission and advisory committee.
Dr. Yip strongly believes in the integration of molecular genetics with clinical pathology and the rapid translation of cancer genomic discoveries in medicine. Title of presentation "Next generation sequencing - principles, practice, and translational applications in medicine".
Date and Time: Monday, 18 April 2011, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Chris Sibley
Chris Sibley completed his Bachelor and Masters degrees at McMaster University in the Department of Biology under the tutelage of Dr. Turlough Finan. His PhD training was carried out at the University of Calgary in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases with the mentorship of Dr. Michael Surette. This work primarily focused on studying the complex airway infections in cystic fibrosis patients, which emphasized the translational benefit of studying human-associated microbial communities with a personalized approach to bench-to-bedside research. He recently received the Cangene Gold Medal Award for the Canadian Graduate Student of the Year for his doctoral work. Throughout his training he has received funding from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the University of Calgary Leaders in Medicine Program. Chris is currently in the second year of his MD degree and the seventh year of the MD/PhD Program at the University of Calgary.
Title of talk: “Culture enriched molecular profiling of the cystic fibrosis airway microbiome”
Objectives/Introduction: The microbiome of the respiratory tract, including the nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal microbiota, is a dynamic community of microorganisms as diverse as the gastrointestinal microbiome. The cystic fibrosis (CF) airway microbiome consists of the polymicrobial communities present in the lower airways of CF patients. It is comprised of chronic opportunistic pathogens (such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and a variety of organisms derived mostly from the normal microbiota of the upper respiratory tract. The complexity of these communities has been inferred primarily from culture-independent molecular profiling. As with most microbial communities, it is generally assumed that most of the organisms present are not readily cultured. Our culture collection, generated using more extensive cultivation approaches, reveals a more complex microbial community than that obtained by conventional CF culture methods.
Methods: To directly evaluate the cultivability of the airway microbiome, we examined CF sputum samples in depth using culture-enriched molecular profiling, which combines culture-based methods with the molecular profiling methods of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms and metagenomic 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
Results: We demonstrate that combining culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches enhances the sensitivity of either approach alone. Our techniques were able to cultivate 43 of the 48 families detected by deep sequencing. The five families recovered solely by culture-independent approaches were at very low abundance (< 0.002% total sequence reads). 46% of the molecular signatures detected by culture from the six patients were only identified in an anaerobic environment, suggesting that a large proportion of the cultured airway community is composed of obligate anaerobes.
Conclusions: We demonstrate that the majority of bacteria in the CF airway microbiome are amenable to culturing, suggesting that culture-enriched molecular profiling is useful for the recovery of rare members of the human microbiome. Understanding the function of the microbiome in health and diseases will be facilitated by the ability to grow these organisms in either pure or mixed culture.
Date and Time: Monday, 17 January 2011, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Room 9229, Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre, 2775 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Jason Barton
Professor, and Canada Research Chair
Department of Medicine (Neurology), UBC
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, UBC
Director, Clinical Neuro-ophthalmology, UBC
Director, Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, UBC
Dr. Jason Barton is a visual cognitive neuroscientist and a clinical neuro-ophthalmologist. He obtained his MD from the University of British Columbia in 1984 and his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1996, for studies of the cerebral processing of motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements. He was assistant and associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School until September 2004 when he returned to the University of British Columbia as Professor and Canada Research Chair. He has received the Francis McNaughton Award from the Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation, the Young Investigator Award from the North American Neuro-ophthalmological Society, and the Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioural Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology. The Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory is focused on understanding high-level visual processing and cognitive control of saccadic responses, using behavioural, functional neuroimaging, and neuropsychological studies in healthy and clinical populations. In object recognition, the lab has contributed significantly to our knowledge of face recognition processes and structure-function correlations in prosopagnosia and described the new condition of developmental topographic disorientation. In eye movements it has defined the modulatory effects of task-switching, described the nature of historical and expectation-based influences on antisaccade programming and their anatomic correlates, and shown how these are altered in schizophrenia and autism.
In addition to talking about his active research, Dr. Barton will also talk about his training background and how he combines teaching, clinical work and research, and share his experiences and opinions on career development options for clinician-scientists.
Date and Time: Monday, 20 December 2010, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Intan Schrader
Alumnus, Clinician Investigator Program, UBC
Dr. Intan Schrader was born in Melbourne, Australia, however grew up here in Vancouver, BC. After a semester at UBC, she returned to Australia to study medicine at the University of Melbourne and commenced a six and a half year commute to Australia. Having completed her medical degree, she returned to Canada in 2004 to begin her residency in Medical Genetics and has thus far completed her third year of clinical training. In 2007 she was accepted into the Clinician Investigator Program where she began graduate studies in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Schrader has been investigating the association of germline mutations in the E-cadherin gene with lobular breast cancers under the mentorship of Dr David Huntsman at the BC Cancer Agency.
Title of presentation, "A family's tie between bones and blindness; insight through next-generation sequencing"
Date and Time: Monday, 18 October 2010, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Don Sin
Professor, Department of Medicine, UBC
Canada Research Chair in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD)
Senior Scholar, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and
Head of Respiratory Medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver
Dr. Don Sin is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), a Canada Research Chair in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and a Senior Scholar with the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). He is also the site head of Respiratory Medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
Dr. Sin is the only sitting Canadian member of the international Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) scientific committee and has authored more than 180 peer-review articles.
His main research focus is to discover novel biomarkers to improve the care and diagnosis of patients with COPD and to better understand how lung inflammation leads to cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer in men and women.
Dr. Sin would be delighted to talk to the students about a future career as an academic internist. His title of talk is "Why you should choose UBC internal medicine program for your residency?"
Date and Time: Monday, 12 April 2010, 5:30 - 6:30 pm (NOTE: Starting at 5:30 pm)
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Poul Sorensen
Johal Chair in Childhood Cancer Research
Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, UBC
Senior Scientist, BC Cancer Research Centre
Dr. Poul Sorensen undertook his undergraduate, medical, and PhD degrees at UBC. After completing postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, he returned to UBC in 1993 to start his own laboratory.
Dr. Poul Sorensen is currently the Johal Chair in Childhood Cancer Research, based at UBC/BC Cancer Agency. His research focuses on the aberrant signaling pathways that are involved in the development of childhood and breast cancers. The pathways responsible for these changes in childhood tumours have not received as much attention as their counterparts in cancers that tend to affect adults. However, Dr. Sorensen’s laboratory has identified numerous proteins that are specifically altered in a range of childhood cancers, and is in the process of determining how these molecules transmit the signals that cause cells to become cancerous. This will allow rapid implementation of strategies to target these proteins therapeutically, which is already underway.
Dr. Sorensen will make a presentation about his active research, discuss his training background and how he combines teaching, clinical work and research, and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 7 December 2009, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Sam Wiseman
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC
Dr. Sam Wiseman graduated from medical school at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and also completed his residency training in General Surgery at the same institution, obtaining his Fellowship in Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2000. He subsequently moved to Buffalo New York where he spent three years in subspecialty fellowship training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI). At RPCI he completed an American Head and Neck Society Advanced Training Council approved Head & Neck Surgery Fellowship, a Society of Surgical Oncology approved Surgical Oncology Fellowship, and an oncology research fellowship that was focused on studying the molecular biology of cancer. After completing his training Dr. Wiseman joined the staff at St. Paul's Hospital in 2003 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Wiseman's surgical practice is concentrated on the treatment of thyroid tumors and parathyroid disease, he still also carries out other cancer surgeries (such as sentinel node biopsy and lymph node dissection), and General Surgery operations (such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy and hernia repair). While his clinical and basic research are especially focused on thyroid and parathyroid disease, Dr. Wiseman has also continued to study other human cancer types in the laboratory including; breast, colon, rectal, and lung cancers. His research has taken a translational approach, or applied new knowledge/discoveries learned in the laboratory to address important clinical diagnostic, prognostic and treatment questions. Dr. Wiseman has many research collaborators (both clinicians and scientists) and is involved in the training and supervision of many undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students.
Dr. Wiseman has published many clinical and scientific research papers and his research has been presented at countless meetings locally, nationally and internationally, and has been recognized with many honours and awards. In 2005 Dr. Wiseman was the first surgeon in the history of British Columbia to receive the prestigious Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award. In 2007 Dr, Wiseman was selected from surgeons world-wide to receive the prestigious American College of Surgeons Travelling Fellowship to Japan. In 2008 Dr. Wiseman was a recipient of a Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award -- a prestigious national award program that annually honours 40 Canadians in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors under the age of 40.
Throughout his career Dr. Wiseman has contributed to his profession and society in many different ways (other than clinical, research, and teaching contributions) including serving as a reviewer and editor for many medical journals, acting as a grant reviewer for several granting agencies, member of the Executive Council of the British Columbia Cancer Agency Surgical Oncology Network, department of surgery representative for the University of British Columbia Clinical Investigator Program, Director of Research for General Surgery at St. Paul's Hospital, and Director of Research for General Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Wiseman will make a presentation about his active research, discuss his training background and how he combines teaching, clinical work and research, and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 5 October 2009, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Jane Buxton
Physician Epidemiologist, BC Centre for Disease Control
Associate Professor, School of Population & Public Health, UBC
Dr. Jane Buxton received her medical degree from the University of London, UK. Dr. Buxton completed an MHSc and FRCPC in Community Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Buxton is a Physician Epidemiologist at the BC Centre for Disease Control. She is also an Assistant Professor and Director of the Community Medicine Residency Program (2001-2008) in the School of Population & Public Health at UBC. Her areas of interest include: communicable disease control, outbreak investigation, breast cancer risk, hepatits A, B and C, transfusion transmissible diseases, illicit drug use epidemiology and harm reduction, and social context of health behaviour.
Dr. Buxton will make a presentation about her active research, discuss her training background and how she combines clinical work and research, and share her advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 6 April 2009, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Ken Bassett
Professor, Family Practice, Anaesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, UBC
Associate member, School of Population & Public Health, Anthropology & Sociology, UBC Chair, Drug Assessment Work Group, Therapeutics Initiative, UBC
Director, BC Centre for Epidemiologic and International Ophthalmology
Dr. Bassett directs the Drug Assessment Working Group of the Therapeutics Initiative, in the Department of Anaesthesiology Pharmacology and Therapeutics at UBC. He serves on the Canadian Expert Drug Advisory Committee, the principal committee of the Common Drug Review program which is designed to centrally review all newly approved prescription drugs in Canada. Supported by the UBC Department of Ophthalmology, Dr. Bassett maintains an international teaching program (health services methods, epidemiology & anthropology) focused the prevention and treatment of blindness in Tibet, Tanzania, Nepal, India and Egypt. As Director of the BC Centre for Epidemiologic and International Opthalmology, UBC, he works closely with eye care program methods, data management, and report production.
Dr. Bassett's research focuses on the systematic review of drug therapy and drug funding policy. He has received recognition for his skill in the critical appraisal of drug therapies, and has considerable background in the practical issues impacting public plan formularies. He is also conducting several pharmaco-epidemiologic studies of serious adverse events associated with prescription drug therapy in British Columbia and Ontario.
Dr. Bassett is a practicing physician with a PhD in medical anthropology from McGill University. He will make a presentation about his active research, discuss his training background and how he combines clinical work and research, and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 1 December 2008, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Dianne Miller
Associate Professor and Division Head, Gynaecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UBC
Dr. Dianne Miller is the Division Head of Gynaecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia. She is also the Provincial Gynaecology Tumour Group Chair for the Province of British Columbia. Dr. Miller obtained her BSc. in Microbiology and Immunology at UBC in 1976, her MD at UBC in 1980. She then interned at the Toronto Western Hospital prior to working as a Family Doctor in Yellowknife NWT. In 1988, Dr. Miller completed her Royal College certification in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UBC. This was followed by completion of a Royal College Fellowship in Gynaecologic Oncology in Toronto in 2000. Dr. Miller has been employed at BCCA/UBC since that time. Dr. Miller is actively involved in both clinical trials and in collaborations with translational and basic scientists. She is particularly interested in looking potential screens for early diagnosis and in targeted therapies.
Dr. Miller will make a presentation about her active research, discuss her training background and how she combines clinical work and research, and share her advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 12 May 2008, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Peter Rieckmann
Professor, UBC Department of Medicine (Neurology)
Director, Multiple Sclerosis Program at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and UBC
Regional Director (Pacific Northwest), endMS National Research and Training Network
Dr. Peter Rieckmann is a renowned clinician scientist and international expert in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and neuroimmunology. Treating and studying multiple sclerosis as a multidimensional disease and bringing more recognition to the impact of MS on patients are cornerstones of his vision.
Dr. Rieckmann’s research is focussed on the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis and related diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). This includes regulation of immune cells, functional aspects of the blood brain barrier and extended phenotype/genotype interaction during the course of disease. Multiple sclerosis is still a leading course for permanent disability in young adults. An imbalance of auto-aggressive immune reactions and impaired endogenous repair mechanisms is one likely explanation, but we still do not completely understand the relevant components and their interactions in this scenario.
Studying disease modifying genes in MS, his research group identified co-stimulatory molecules, like CTLA-4 and PD-1 as potential candidates having an impact on the course of the disease. The neurotrophic factor, CNTF, was demonstrated to be associated with better recovery after attacks and in the EAE model was associated with better outcome and less axonal damage. Currently, Dr. Rieckmann’s research is orchestrated around the blood brain barrier - the important interphase between immune system and CNS. His research group has identified specific genes in cerebro-endothelial cells as mediators of immune cell migration and potential modulator of regenerative processes within the brain.
Dr. Rieckmann will make a presentation about his active research, discuss his training background and how he combines clinical work and research, and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 10 March 2008, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Rusung Tan
Professor, UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Head, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Tan was raised in the Okanagan Valley and finished high school at Vernon Senior Secondary. He completed a B.Sc. (Honours) in Physiology (1982) and an MD (1986) at the University of British Columbia. Following an internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in Montreal, his medical career has been varied. He began by practicing family medicine in Toronto, Northern Ontario and British Columbia before returning for residency training in pathology (Medical Microbiology). He subsequently obtained research training with Professor Hung Sia Teh of the University of B.C. and Professor Andrew McMichael of the University of Oxford, where he completed a Ph.D. Since returning to Vancouver, Dr. Tan has been engaged in academic pathology, teaching and basic research as a medical microbiologist at C&W Hospital.
Dr. Tan’s research interests are in childhood immunity and autoimmunity, particularly the role of T cells, natural killer cells and natural killer T cells in protection from viral infection, and pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. He is the finder of a novel mutation in the protein responsible for X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP). This discovery solved a longstanding mystery of young male deaths in a large first nations family, led to some basic immunological findings, and has been used for prenatal diagnosis in the family. Clinically, this has led to early cord blood transplantation, and better prognosis.
Dr. Tan will make a presentation about his active research, discuss his training background and how he combines clinical work and research, and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 21 January 2008, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Alan So
Assistant Professor, UBC Department of Urologic Sciences
Research Scientist, Prostate Centre, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
A graduate of the University of Alberta, Dr. So came to the Prostate Centre as a Clinical Fellow in 2002, following completion of his residency at Dalhousie University. He worked with Dr. Martin Gleave on the mechanisms of development of hormone resistance, bone metastasis of prostate cancer, and in the development of novel intravesical therapeutics for bladder cancer.
During his post-doctoral fellowship he has published more than 10 peer-reviewed papers. He is a recipient of many awards, including the Vancouver General Hospital Foundation’s “In It For Life” Clinician Scientist Award, an ASCO “Young Scientist Award”, and a prestigious Michael Smith Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award.
Dr. So’s current research focuses on the study of development of novel therapeutics for bladder cancer and determination of the functional role of GLI1/2 in the progression of prostate cancer to its lethal stage of androgen independence. He has characterized the functional role of different survival genes (including clusterin and Hsp27) in different tumor models (prostate, breast, lung, and bladder) in cancer progression. He is active in clinical trials across Canada and is a member of National Cancer Institute of Canada GU Clinical Trials Group and Canadian Uro-Oncology Group.
Dr. So will make a presentation about his active research, discuss his training background and how he combines clinical work and research, and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 19 November 2007, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Youwen Zhou
Associate Professor, UBC Department of Dermatology and Skin Science
Director, Chieng Genomics Centre and Laboratory of Predictive Medicine and Therapeutics, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
After completing his Bachelor of Science at Nankai University, China, and his Masters of Science at Tulane University, New Orleans, Dr. Zhou earned his PhD in Molecular Genetics at the State University of New York, followed by his medical degree at the University of Toronto. He completed his residency in dermatology at the University of British Columbia.
In his clinical practice, Dr. Zhou specializes in medical dermatology, skin oncology and laser skin surgery. He is active in scientific research on melanoma, skin pigmentation, rosacea, hyperhidrosis and psoriasis.
Dr. Zhou will make a presentation about his active research, discuss his training background and how he combines clinical work and research, and share his advice for clinician-scientist trainees.
Date and Time: Monday, 22 October 2007, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Del Dorscheid
Associate Professor, UBC Department of Medicine, The James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research
Dr. Del Dorscheid grew up in Alberta, and was the first graduate from the formal combined MD/PhD program at McGill. He graduated from Medicine in 1993, and completed his PhD thesis in Experimental Medicine. He moved onto the University of Chicago where he completed his Internal Medicine residency and subsequently a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, including post-doctoral research with Dr. Steve White. After one year on the Faculty at the University of Chicago, he relocated with his family to Vancouver in 2000 to take a position in Critical Care Medicine at UBC.
Dr. Dorscheid is a member of the Divisions of Critical Care Medicine and Respirology at St. Paul's Hospital. He attends in the medical intensive care unit at St. Paul's and is a researcher at the iCAPTURE Centre, leading an active research group investigating inflammatory airway diseases including asthma and ARDS. He is also an MSFHR Scholar.
Dr. Dorscheid will make a presentation on his current research, and discuss his training background and advice for prospective clinical scientists.
Date and Time: Monday, 17 September 2007, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Medical Student Alumni Centre, 12th Avenue & Heather Street, Vancouver, BC
Invited speaker: Dr. Andrew Weng
Assistant Professor, UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Senior Scientist, Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer Research Centre
Dr. Weng received his PhD and MD degrees at the University of Chicago and joined the UBC faculty in 2005. His research focuses on signal transduction via the Notch receptor in lymphoid cells. By understanding the role of Notch in cancer development, he hopes to develop methods for manipulating Notch activity to shut down the growth of established cancer cells, and perhaps also to prevent it from occurring in the first place.
Dr. Weng has a background in hematopathology, and in addition to talking about his research, he will also talk about his experiences and opinions on career development options for clinician-scientists.
