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News
News and Research Highlights
August 2013 |
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Donna Hewitt (research nurse), Diane McAlpine (research nurse) and Jean Gueverra (Mb Tumour Bank Data Entry Clerk) were special guests at a family reunion / 91st birthday party on August 11. They were invited to the party because the family wanted to participate in Dr Johnston and Dr Banerji's study on the genetics of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Because of Manitoba's high rates of CLL, our dedicated CLL clinic (the only one in Canada), and our reputation for CLL research, Mayo clinic approached us to join the study as the only non-US centre to participate. Family members were approached by another family member and with their consent prior to the event. A pedigree or family tree was created to more clearly demonstrate the intergenerational history of cancer within this family. Donna, Diane and Jean collected DNA saliva samples (spit), blood, and medical histories from willing family members. This will help to discover why some families have higher rates of cancer, especially CLL. Collecting samples from an entire family, all at once, was very efficient and a lot of fun. The family expressed that their williningness to participate was in honour of their father who has passed away from CLL. The birthday "girl" (the 91 year old) also recorded a video to James Johnston on Jean's iPhone thanking him "for giving me 20 more years with my husband". James had treated her husband in 1976 shortly after he had come to CancerCare. |
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Congratulations to Dilshad Khan on her PhD thesis defense "Role of Histone Deacetylases in Gene Expression and RNA Splicing". Dr Khan has accepted a research associate position in the Davie lab.
Congratulations also to Jennifer Schacter on her MSc oral defense "Estrogen Reguluation of Anti-Apoptotic BCL-2 Family Member MCl-1 Expression in Breast Cancer." We wish Jennifer the best of luck as she begins medical school. |
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We are glad to announce our next workshop on "Microscopy, Optics and Imaging". It will take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba from November 25-29, 2013.
TOPICS COVERED:
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July 2013 |
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 Photo provided by Canale Communications |
For her work on 3D Nuclear Telomere Imaging in Alzheimer's Disease, Dr. Sabine Mai was named a finalist of the Cognition Challenge supported by the Consulate General of Canada in partnership with Johnson & Johnson.
The Cognition Challenge invited researchers to submit their solutions to address problems of learning and memory related to Alzheimer's disease and cognitive disorders. Dr. Mai's proposed using 3D imaging to distinguish mild, moderate and severe Alzheimer's patients from age-matched controls. The method involves swabbing cells from a cheek and then examining the telomeres. Telomeres are sections of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes from decay. The method determines telomere cell signatures using 3D imaging and software developed at the Manitoba Institute for Cell Biology.
In addition to a $50,000 prize, Dr. Mai will be given office and lab space for six months at the Canadian Technology Accelerator in San Francisco. |
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Congratulations to Dr Spencer Gibson and Dr Etienne Leygue, who were each awarded over $375,000 in operating grants from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation - Prairie NWT Chapter! |
 
Photo by Adrian Alleyne Click to enlarge |
CIHR and the University of Manitoba officially announced the recipients of the Epigenetics Team grant, with Dr Jim Davie ranked second on the country for his proposal to study the epigenetics of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Dr Davie, along with team members Dr Geoff Hicks, Dr Mojgan Rastegar, Dr Marc Del Bigio, Dr Abraham Fainsod, and Dr Brenda Elias were awarded $1.37m over the next five years to study conserved changes to the methylome in animal and human tissues. Dr Davie was interviewed about the project by CTV News and the Winnipeg Free Press. |
June 2013 |
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 Photo by Jennifer Cabral |
Congratulations to Nikki Ryan, the winner of the inaugural MICB Merit Award. Nikki was nominated by a number of MICB employees for her hard work and dedication to managing grants and providing assistance
with University policies. |
| The winners of the 2013 University of Manitoba Major Awards in Oncology were announced at the 26th Annual Canadian Student Health Research Forum on June 6th. Congratulations to Brent Guppy, winner of the Don Mazankowski award, Ju-Yoon Yoon - the Caroline Cope Award and Alexandra Kuzyk - the Hain Award. These three awards recognize excellence in oncology research by graduate students of the University of Manitoba. Congratulations to all three MICB trainees! | |
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The Manitoba Health Research Council 2013-2014 Awards were announced on June 17th. Dr Kirk McManus and Dr Mark Nachtigal both received operating grants and
Dr Sachin Katyal received an establishment grant.
Congratulations also to Iris Gehrke, Pratima Basak, and Sumanta Chaterjee who are recipients of a co-ordinated Post-Doctoral fellowships from Manitoba Health Research Council and CancerCare Manitoba Foundation. Their fellowships will be supported for up to 2 years. Congratulations also to Rebecca Dielschneider and Amy Nadeau who received co-ordinated studentships. For more information, please click here . |
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Congratulations to Dr Versha Banerji and Dr Kirk McManus,
recipients of CancerCare Manitoba Foundation operating grants for 2013-2015. Dr Banerji's grant is entitled "Targeting nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)" Dr McManus's grant is entitled "Evaluating CCS as a Novel Therapeutic Target in Colorectal Cancer" |
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Congratulations to Dr Christine Bruce who was just awarded a CBCF-Prairies Fellowship! There were only 3 fellowships awarded for the Prairie/NWT region and Christine is the only Manitoban recipient! Christine is working in Dr Murphy's lab investigating recruitment of S6K1 and mTOR to estrogen response elements in ER+ breast cancer cells. |
| Congratulations also to Dr Sabine Mai, who was awarded an operating grant from the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada
to classify the recurrence of ependymomas in children based on the tumour's 3D telomere profile. For more information, please click here |
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May 2013 |
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We'd like to welcome all of our undergraduate and BSc Med students to MICB for the summer! We are always excited to have familiar faces come back and welcome new students.
For a complete list of students and their projects please click here.
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| For more photos, please click on the slideshow. | CancerCare Manitoba's 15th annual Research Days for Trainees was a tremendous success! Congratulations to all of the winners. Rebecca Dielschneider - 1st place Basic Science Oral Sabrine Lafarge - 2nd place Basic Science Oral Sajesh Babu - 3rd place Basic Science Oral Pratima Basak - 1st place Basic Science Poster Laura Thompson - 2nd place Basic Science Poster Amy Cisyk - 3rd place Basic Science Poster |
Congratulations to Michael Xu, a grade 11 student in Dr Sabine Mai's lab, gold medal winner at the 2013 Manitoba Student Science Symposium and best Individual Health Sciences Project at the Senior Level. Michael represented Manitoba at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Lethbridge, Alberta where he won a gold medal and an Excellence Award for top Senior Project! For more information about the Canada-Wide Science Fair, please click here |
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April 2013 |
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 Photograph provided by the Winnipeg Free Press |
Congratulations to Dr Sabine Mai, recipient of the 2013 Manitoba Motorcycle Ride for Dad grant to support her research on characterizing circulating tumour cells in intermediate risk prostate cancer patients. The Manitoba Motorcycle Ride for Dad is a local prostate cancer awareness and fundraising organization that has raised over $370,000 for research and patient services. |
 Photo provided by Sanofi |
Congratulations to Daniel Huang a Grade 11 student from St. John's Ravenscourt School who trained in Dr Gibson's lab and discovered a potential new tactic to induce autophagy in brain cancer. Danny placed 5th at the national
Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada (SBCC) in Ottawa. |
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Congratulations to Dr Spencer Gibson, recipient of a 2013 NSERC grant to support his research in BNIP3 in cell survival! |
March 2013 |
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Photo provided by Robert Brown
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Congratulations to Daniel Huang, a grade 11 student at St Johns-Ravenscourt high school and trainee in the Gibson lab, for placing 2nd in the Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge. Danny will represent Manitoba at the Nationals in Ottawa on April 8-9th. His project looked at inducing apoptosis and autophagy in glioblastomas. Please click here to go to the article. |
Click here to go to the WRHA website. |
Clinician-scientist Dr Ryan Zarchyanski was featured in this month's WRHA Wave magazine for his recent meta-analysis which investigated the safety and efficacy hydroxyethyl starch, a blood volume expander frequently used in the intensive care. Dr Zarychanski's research was published in JAMA and has shown that this blood product actually increases the risk of patient death. Please click here to download a pdf of this WAVE magazine. |
MICB gratefully acknowledges the generous support of
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MICB is a joint institute of CancerCare Manitoba and University of Manitoba | |