Research Related Announcements / Events

2011
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Announcements and Events : 2011

Monday, December 5, 2011
• The 15^th. Annual Transplant Research Day
  


• Please read the   entire schedule of day


Keynote Speakers:


• Dr. Shaf Keshavjee (Director, Toronto Lung Transplant Program; Surgeon-in-Chief, UHN James Wallace McCutcheon Chair in Surgery; Professor, Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Toronto) Can we engineer "super organs" for transplantation?



• Dr. Lainie Ross (Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Ethics; Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine and Surgery; Associate Director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, University of Chicago) Kidney allocation: Equity, efficiency and unintended consequences



• Dr. Timothy Kieffer (UBC Departments of Cellular & Physiological Sciences and Surgery Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Medicine) Cell based therapy for diabetes

Last revised 2011-November-28

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• Divisions: General, Pediatric, Thoracic, Vascular Surgeries
• The 34^th Annual Residents' Research Day & UBC Surgical Alumni Reunion
• 2011-May-12
• View poster for   details & schedule of the Day

posted: 2011-April-1

Announcements and Events : 2010

Kudos and Congratulations 16.

• "Kudos and Congratulations" recognizes achievements by faculty, residents and trainees
  in the Department of Surgery.
  Please send items to be included to alice.mui@ubc.ca Alice Mui, PhD, Co-Director of Centre for Surgical Research, UBC Department of Surgery

Congratulations to:
our 14^th Annual Transplantation Research Day award winners.
We look forward to seeing everyone at next year's Research Day
on December 5. 2011 (mark your calendars)!!



Pictured from the left: Dr. Molly Shoicet (Keynote speaker, U. Toronto),

Maggie Yu Yao (Steiner lab, 3rd prize poster),
Megan Himmel (Megan Levings lab- General Surgery, Tx Trivia contest),
Ryan Hartwell (Aziz Ghahary lab- Plastics, 1^st prize poster),
Ben Paylor (Rossi lab, 2^nd prize poster),
Peggy Assinck (Tetzlaff lab, 2^nd prize oral),
Clara Westwell-Roper (Bruce Verchere lab- General Surgery, 1^st prize oral),

Dr. Stephen Chung (Founding director- General Surgery, Tx Training Program),
Dr. Mark Siegler (Keynote speaker, U. Chicago).

posted : 2010-December-20

Kudos and Congratulations 6.

Congratulations to:

Clara Tan-Tam (General Surgery, PGY5) who gave an oral presentation on her work on the use of mesenchymal stem cells to improve islet transplant survival at last week's XXIII International Congress of the Transplantation Society. This meeting is the largest gathering of clinicians and scientists focused on organ transplantation and occur every two years.

Two of Dr. Bruce Verchere (General Surgery) students, Kate Potter (MD-PhD) and Jacques Cortades (MSc) who worked together to submit an entry to the Canada-wide Transplantation Grand Challenge essay competition. Kate and Jacques shared the $4000 first prize with a General Surgery PGY3 resident, Jon Yeung, from the University of Toronto. Both teams addressed the problem of endogenous retroviruses in porcine tissue/organ grafts. (The third prize of $1000 was also won by a General Surgery resident, Minh-Tri Nguyen, from McGill University. No entries were received from UBC residents. Perhaps next year?)

Drs. Bin Zheng, Adam Meneghetti, Neely Panton and Karim Qayumi (General Surgery and CESEI) for their Royal College Medical Education Research Grant entitled "Eye-tracking as an Educational Tool for Improving Laparoscopic Performance for Surgical Residents". [ Aka....keeping an eye on residents? :-) ]

Kudos and Congratulations 5.

Congratulations to:

Dr. Richard Finley (Thoracic Surgery) and his co-investigators (Dr. John Mayo, Joanne Clifton MSc, Dr. John Yee, Dr. Ken Evans, Dr. John English, Dr. Larry Lynd) for their grant from the VGH/UBC Hospital Foundation to support their longitudinal study of patients who have undergone Thoracoscopic Resection for Subcentimetre lung nodules after localization using percutaneously inserted platinum microcoil under CT guidance.

Dr. Finley and his team developed this innovative method for marking lung nodules and is also conducting a randomized control trial to determine if thoracoscopic resection of subcentimetre lung nodules after localization using percutaneously inserted platinum microcoils under CT guidance reduces rate of conversion to open thoracotomy from 50% to 10%. The RCT is also supported by a grant from the BC Lung Association.

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Kudos and Congratulations 4.

Congratulations to:

Dr. Amjad Alwaal who successfully defended his M.Sc. in Surgery thesis. Dr. Alwaal is currently completing his Urology residency and will be returning to King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia to assume his position as an assistant professor. Saudi Arabia is investing a great deal of resources into research and training and Dr. Alwaal plans on sending us his best trainees for further research and resideny training.

Shevaun Hughes (supervisor Cathie Garnis , Otolaryngology) who received a CIHR Masters studentship. These awards recognize the top Masters students in any discipline in Canada. The Dept of Surgery is proud to note that three of our students received these awards in the 2010 competition.

Kudos and Congratulations 3.

It has been a good month for research in General Surgery. Congratulations to:

• Mani Roshan Moniri (supervisor Dr. Garth Warnock, General Surgery)
  and Nadya Ogloff (supervisor Dr. Chris Ong, General Surgery) who have received CIHR Banting and Best Masters Studentships. These studentships are awarded to the top M.Sc. students in any discipline across Canada.
• Dr. Jan Ehses (General Surgery) who has received a Catalyst Grant from the Canucks for Kids Fund to study the role of the pancreatic α cell gp130 receptor in α cell expansion and the progression of type 1 diabetes(T1D). The insufficient pancreatic β cell derived insulin in T1D patients is exacerbated by overproduction of cell derived glucagon. Dr. Ehses will study the possibility that elevated glucagon levels are due to an increase in pancreatic α cell numbers induced by gp130 receptor stimulation.
• Dr. Brad Hoffman (General Surgery) who also received a Canucks for Kids Fund Catalyst Grant to study the role of Baf45d and nucleosome remodeling in endocrine cell specification.

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Kudos and Congratulations 2.

Congratulations to

• Dr. Sandra Jarvis-Selinger (General Surgery, Associate Director, Education eHealth Strategry Office) and her team who have just received a CIHR grant from the special call operating grant on Aboriginal Health Interventions. This grant entitled "Building pathways to health careers for Aboriginal youth" was one of only 3 awarded across Canada, will support developing an eMentoring program which connects health science students to rural, remote and First Nations youth with the hopes of increasing their numbers acrosee all health science programs.
• Dr. Aziz Ghahary (Plastic Surgery, Director, BC Firefighter's Burn and Wound Healing Lab) who received a CIHR/NSERC Collaborative Health Research Project grant entitled "Development and application of nanofibres releasing anti-fibrogenic factos for treating dermal fibrosis". Dr. Ghahary will be working with Dr. Frank Ko (UBC Microsystems and Nanotechnology Group) to produce sutures, stents and wound dressing which prevent fibrosis from occurring.
• Dr. York Hsiang and Dr. Joel Gagnon (both from Vascular Surgery) who also received a CIHR/NSERC Collaborative Health Research Project grant. They will be working with Dr. Kenichi Takahata (UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering) on "Smart stents for wireless monitoring of vascular disease". These stents will be implanted into patients with coronary heart disease and function as radiofrequency wireless sensors which allow doctors to monitor the patient's heart with a portable reading.

Kudos and Congratulations 1.

Congratulations to

• Dr. Paul Clarkson for successfully defending his M.Sc. in Surgery thesis. Dr. Clarkson is now a faculty member in the Dept of Orthopaedic Surgery and will continue his research interest in surgical oncology.
• Azadeh Hosseini Tabatabaei, a PhD student with Dr. Aziz Gahary (Plastic Surgery, Burn and Wound Healing Lab) who won a CIHR Vanier Scholarship.
  This is one of the top awards for graduate students in Canada.
• Dr. Cathie Garnis (Otolaryngology, BCCRC Lung Cancer Group)
  Dr. Alice Mui (General Surgery, Transplantation Research)
  and Dr. Garth Warnock (General Surgery, Ike Barber Islet Laboratory)
  for their success in the recent CIHR operating grant competition.

Kudos and Congratulations first posted here: 2010-August-27

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First Webcasting of the UBC Surgery Upcoming Grand Round

• We were pleased to webcast UBC Surgery Grand Rounds, starting with Dr. Christopher Schlachta's (Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics, London Health Sciences Centre) presentation on


• "The Age of Intelligent Surgeons"
• 7 am, Wednesday, June 23rd

There are two ways to access the Webcast (see below, detailed instructions enclosed) but both require first installing a WIMBA applet from the UBC e-learning site onto your computer. The applet can be installed at anytime before the webcast.

If you run into difficulties, you can contact Modi Jiao (a summer student in Alice Mui's) lab for help (604-875-4111 x61339, she can also be reached at an email address she created for WIMBA questions - wimba.classroom.help@gmail.com). Please be nice to her.....Modi is tech savvy but she is not a professional IT support person.


• The live webcast can be accessed through either:
• 1. Log onto your CWL account at www.vista.ubc.ca


• Double click on "e-Learning@Surgery - Department Grand Rounds"
• Double click on "Grand Rounds Live Webcast" (more details in enclosed pdf file)
• (Create your CWL account at http://www.it.ubc.ca/cwl/about.shtml and email your CWL username to eva.germann@ubc.ca)
• 2. Go to http://TinyUrl.com/UBCsurgeryGR


• Click the "Participant Login" button
• Type your name into the "name" box and hit enter (more details in enclosed pdf file)


• Details with screen-shots :   Accessing the Grand Rounds Live Webcast [ 3 pages ]
• Please note that in order to obtain credit for the Royal College Maintenance Certification attendance a sign-in at the rounds at the Paetzold Auditorium is still required. Credit through other means such as viewing on the web through access of videotaped files or through Webcasting has to date not been approved as attendance.

posted: 2010-June-17

CALLING ON TRAINEES: PROPOSALS - TRANSPLANTATION

• Organ transplantation is the only cure for end organ failure. However many challenges remain, so BC Transplant (www.transplant.bc.ca) and the CIHR Training Program in Transplantation (www.surgery.ubc.ca/rsrchops.html) are calling on trainees to submit 3 page proposals describing novel approaches for these problems. Entries will be judged based on creativity and feasibility. We are looking for bold new ideas rather than established opinion so all trainees - junior and senior - are equally likely to receive an award and are encouraged to apply. Three prizes of $4000, $2000 and $1000 will be awarded at the XXIII International Congress of The Transplantation Society in Vancouver Aug 15-19 (www.transplantation2010.org) .



• Applications due July 15th, 2010 (email to TxChallenge@gmail.com)
• Instructions and application form enclosed
    Instructions               Application Form



• Grand challenge questions (choose one)


1. Could you design a process for repopulating failing organs with functioning cells to obviate the need for organ transplantation? Keep in mind that there are multiple cell populations within an organ, often requiring interactions with each other for proper function.
2. Describe how you could apply the technology of using a totally synthetic chromosome (as demonstrated by the recently reported creation of a self-replicating mycoplasma) to produce artificial organs for organ transplantation.
3. Could you design a process for repopulating failing organs with functioning cells to obviate the need for organ transplantation? Keep in mind that there are multiple cell populations within an organ, often requiring interactions with each other for proper function.
4. Porcine xenografts could help eliminate the problem of organ shortage. However, a major concern is the potential of pig endogenous retroviruses entering the human population and causing disease. How could these viruses be eliminated or neutralized?
5. Reinfection with hepatitis C is almost universal in hepatitis C positive liver transplant recipients. Blood tests and liver biopsies assessed after routine staining often do not reliably distinguish whether rejection or recurrent hepatitis C is the dominant process. Treatment for these two entities is essentially opposite - increased immunosuppression vs. PEG-interferon and ribavirin. Outline a method that would allow more accurate determination of whether liver dysfunction in an HCV-positive liver recipient is due to HCV or rejection.

posted: 2010-June-10

The 16th Annual-
                       W.B. & M.H. Chung Research Day

• Please save the date for the
               16th Annual W.B. & M.H. Chung Research Day on Friday, October 22, 2010



1. This year's guest is Dr. Yvan Douville from Laval University who will be speaking on the Evolution of Stentgraft for treatment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms.



2. Abstracts are due Sept 7, 2010. Prizes will be given out for the best faculty presentation, as well as for the best resident/trainee presentation in each of the following categories: basic, clinical and education research
   
     Abstract Form



3. Everyone in the department is encouraged to attend. This is the only time every year our entire dept gathers to recognize our research achievements. Dr. Warnock's office is negotiating with other depts to exchange OR days to facilitate attendance. Presentations will be broadcast over the internet for those who are at distributed sites.
4. Details regarding the award dinner to follow.
   please view   the Flyer

posted: 2010-June-7

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Events : 2009

• 2009-November-9 The 15th ANNUAL W.B. & M.H. CHUNG LECTURESHIP
  Schedule of the Day
• 
  View the photos of the Research Day Presentations
  
  and the photos of the Research Day Dinner
  
  Awards won
• Departmental Faculty Prizes
• Richard Finley Senior Research Scholar Award: Dr. Garth Warnock (General Surgery)
  Dr. Warnock is an accomplished surgeon-scientist and mentor. He performed the world's first islet transplantation while he was at Edmonton, and has set up a thriving Islet Transplant Program and Islet Research Laboratory here. In the past year, he has published several high profile papers including one describing the outcome of a clinical trial which showed that type I diabetics who receive an islet transplant suffer far fewer complications due to diabetes than those undergoing intensive medical therapy.
• Hjalmar Johnson New Investigator Award: Dr. Adam Meneghetti
  (General Surgery) Dr. Meneghetti has made great progress in his development and evaluation of surgical performance metrics through collaboration with faculty in the Division of General Surgery and the CESEI. His original research efforts have been recognized with a Department of Surgery Concept award and a research grant from the RCPSC.


• Chung Research Day Presentation Prizes
• Faculty Podium Presentation:
• Dr. Scott Tyldesley (Radiation Oncology)
• Trainee Podium Presentations:
• Prizes are given to trainees in each of basic, clinical and education research. Since there were no trainee podium presentations in education research this year, two awards for clinical research were awarded.
• Clinical: Dr. Erica Stokes (Radiation Oncology)
• Clinical: Dr. Jennifer Goulart (Radiation Oncology)
• Basic: Mr. Andrew Ming-Lum (General Surgery)
• Trainee Poster Presentations:
• Education: Dr Talal Alandejani (Otolaryngology)
• Clinical: Mr Matthew Paquette (Radiation Oncology)
• Basic: Mr. Dan Luciano (General Surgery)

posted: 2009-November-11 updated with awards: November-13, & links to photos: November-24

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Events : 2008

• 2008-November-3 The 14th ANNUAL W.B. & M.H. CHUNG LECTURESHIP
• The Department of Surgery’s premier event of the year.
  We are fortunate this year to have Thomas M. Krummel, MD, FACS,
  Emile Holman Professor and Chair, Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Surgery Susan B. Ford Surgeon in Chief Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford, CA, as the WB & MH Chung Lecturer at the Research Day
• Detailed Schedule of the Day  14TH ANNUAL W.B. & M.H. CHUNG LECTURESHIP 2008

last revised August-18.

Department of Surgery Awards-
                       2008 Chung Research Day Awards

1. Best Faculty Presentation: Dr. Alice Mui (General Surgery)
   title: "Non-invasive monitoring anti-graft immune status in organ transplant recipients."
2. Best Resident Presentation- 1st Prize:Dr. Raymund Yong (Neurosurgery)
   title: "Mesenchymalstem cells as delivery vehicles for delta-24-RGD in the treatment of malignantglioma."
3. Best Resident Presentation- 2nd Prize: Dr. Farshad Forouzandeh (Plastic Surgery)
   title: "Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) expressionimproves the engraftment of engineered skin substitute used as woundcoverage."
4. Best Poster Presentation: Dr. Jennifer Goulart (Radiation Oncology)
   title: "Outcomes of node-negativebreast cancer 5 cm and larger treated with and without post-mastectomyradiotherapy"
5. Best Video Presentation: Dr.Peter Skarsgard (Cardiac Surgery)
   title: "Repair of anterior leaflet mitral valveprolapse."

posted November-7.

Department of Surgery Awards-
                       Centre of Surgical Research 2008 Concept Awards

• This year five concept awards have been awarded
• Application deadline: Friday May 12   View Poster     for Contact & details
• Announcement of winners: Friday May 23



• The recipients of the awards were as follows
1. Cell-based gene therapy for pulmonary hypertension: Application of an established therapy in a neonatal model
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Andrew Campbell
   Division of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery
   
   
2. Optical Methods to Enhance Anatomical Structures During Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Adam Meneghetti
   Division of General Surgery
   
   
3. The microdialysis method in sample collection for extracellular MMP and keratinocyte derived anti-fibrogenic factor concentrations in pressure ulcers
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Anthony Papp
   Division of Plastic Surgery
   
   
4. Tissue Microarray & Exon Expression Profile Analysis For Identification of ThyroidCancer Diagnostic Molecular Markers
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Sam Wiseman
   Division of General Surgery
   
   
5. Measuring patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life following breast reconstruction: A comparison of patient-reported outcomes among saline and silicone implant recipients
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Sheina Macadam
   Division of Plastic Surgery
   
   

posted: 2008-May-30

• The 31th annual Residents' Research Day and UBC Surgical Alumni Reunion
• was held on Thursday, April 24, 2008
• 
  This event was well attended by both faculty and residents.
  
    Schedule of the Day & Archived Presentation Abstracts (18 pages)

Past Events : 2007

• Thursday, December 13
•   11th Annual BCTS/UBC Transplantation Research Day
• Friday, December 14
•   TRANSPLANT ETHICS FORUM 2007

• The 30th annual Residents' Research Day and UBC Surgical Alumni Reunion
• was held on Thursday, April 26, 2007
•   Schedule of the Day & Archived Presentation Abstracts (21 pages)

• Dr. John Yee, Division of Thoracic Surgery- to UBC Public Affairs site
  
  
• "History Making" Research Technology Piloted at Vancouver Coastal Health- First Canadian Site for New Breathing Pacemaker

Centre for Surgical Research: 2007 Concept Awards

• Four concept awards of were granted


• The recipients of the awards were as follows
1. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of the gene coding for matrix metalloproteinase 9 in patients with and without atrial fibrillation undergoing mitral valve surgery
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Jamil Bashir
   
   
2. Proposal for study of inflammatory reaction in minimally-invasive mitral valve surgery
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Richard Cook
   
   
3. Development and implementation of a computer-based progress note in a tertiary-care medical/surgical ICU
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Morad Hameed
   
   
4. Use of chitosan-DNA nanoparticles as non-viral vectors in fetal gene therapy
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Erik Skarsgard
   
   

Archived Departmental Research Events

Centre for Surgical Research: 2006 Concept Awards

• Five concept awards were granted


• The recipients of the awards were as follows
1. Intraoperative Facial Motor Evoked Potential Monitoring with Transcranial Electrical Stimulation during Skull Base Surgery
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Charles Dong
   
2. Protocolized team-based management of the acute general surgical patient: impact on quality and efficiency of care in a tertiary teaching hospital
   Principle Investigator: Dr. David Evans
   
3. Outcomes of Patients who Present to the Emergency Department with a Drug-Related Problem
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Corinne Hohl
   
4. Bone marrow-derived keratinocyte precursors: A new cell source to develop skin substitutes for burn patients
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Aziz Ghahary
   
5. Use of Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Anticipate and Manage Abdominal Compartment Syndrome - Pilot study in an animal model
   Principle Investigator: Dr. Garth Warnock
   

• 5:00pm on Thursday, March 30, 2006
• Masters of Science Program : Thesis defense
• David Lau MD
• MSC Student, DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY- Division of Otolaryngology
• Raman spectroscopy for optical diagnosis in head and neck tissue
• By Video Conference from Singapore in the CESEI Lecture Theatre

• April 27, 2006
• The 29th Annual Resident's Research Day
• an Accredited Group Learning Activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. This program has been reviewed and approved by the UBC Division of Continuing Professional Development and Knowledge Translation was presented by the Divisons of General Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Thoracic Surgery and Pediatric General Surgery
It was a pleasure and honour to have Dr. Jeffrey Barkun as our visiting professor for this event. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Region 1 Advisory Committee has provided a continuing medical education grant in support of
Dr. Barkun, Director of the Division of General Surgery, McGill University.
This event was well attended by both faculty and residents.


•   Detailed Program (266KB; 3 pages)

The 11th Annual [2005] W.B. and M.H. Chung Research Day

was held on Monday, October 24, 2005
in the New Lecture Theatre, Level 1, Providence Wing at St. Paul's Hospital
Schedule   of the day
This year's invited lecturer was Dr. Richard K. Reznick, R.S. McLaughlin Professor and Chair University of Toronto, Department of Surgery.
The winners were:

Best Faculty Presentation: Dr. Chris Honey (Neurosurgery)

Best Resident Presentation- Dr. Erik Vu (Emergency Medicine)

Best Poster Presentation: Dr. Don Anderson (Otolaryngology)

Oral Presentations and their Archived Abstracts