Manitoba Student Health Research Forum

With over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and executive leadership, Dr. Saward has led R&D, clinical, regulatory, and medical affairs teams, advancing multiple biodefense and commercial programs through all stages of development and successful licensure of seven drugs.

She has held various roles in both start-up and large pharma companies including chief scientific officer, business unit head and R&D, and innovation head.

Her passion for science and innovation contributes to industry and academia and she is a professor in medical microbiology and infectious diseases and several pandemic preparedness initiatives. Dr. Saward received her BSc from University of Guelph and PhD from the UM Faculty of Medicine (now known as the Max Rady College of Medicine).

She currently serves on the MMSF board of directors and contributes to other initiatives including Women In Science: Development, Outreach and Mentorship (WISDOM), North Forge Technology Exchange and Next Great Big Ideas. Recently she received a lifetime achievement award from the Pharmaceuticals Science Group to acknowledge her contributions to the industry.

Dr. Fernyhough performed BSc in Biological Science at University of Essex and PhD in Biochemistry in the department of Biochemistry at University of Sheffield. Then carried out postdoctoral research at Colorado State University, Kings College London and as a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at St Bartholomew’s Medical College.

He subsequently worked as a tenured lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. Dr. Fernyhough moved to University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 2004 and helped to set up a neuroscience research group at St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre with links to UM Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Dr. Fernyhough’s research interest is in the cell biology underlying neurodegenerative disorders of the peripheral nervous system with a focus on the impact of diabetes. A biotech start-up, WinSanTor Inc, has been established and phase 2 clinical trials in diabetic neuropathy and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy are being performed.

For his sins he is a life-long supporter of West Ham United football club.

Intrinsic Analytics (IA) was founded in 2012 by three UM graduates, Drs. Hunt, Mitchell, and Santiago.

The company's mission is to provide bioinformation services that improve medical advocacy and the health and safety of individuals, employees, and enterprises.

IA has since grown into a national network of clinics, offering a full suite of occupational health testing programs and services. During the pandemic, IA contributed to Manitoba’s COVID-19 response by implementing a comprehensive workplace testing/screening program to deliver fast and accurate results.

Dr. Surendran holds the position of senior manager at the Mass Spectrometry Core Facility at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Kerala, India.

Recently, he earned his PhD from UM, specializing in Physiology and Pathophysiology, under the guidance of Dr. Amir Ravandi and Dr. Michel Aliani. During his PhD, Dr. Surendran developed and published a comprehensive lipidomics approach that enables profiling a broad range of lipid metabolites in human plasma at high throughput. This innovative platform was subsequently employed to analyse lipid signatures associated with conditions such as myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, human aortic valve stenosis, and stroke.

Currently, Dr. Surendran's research is centred around the application and advancement of mass spectrometry techniques to explore the involvement of lipids in cardiometabolic diseases. His ongoing work involves the continual enhancement and management of the existing omics platform, covering proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics, within the core facility.

Dr. Muller Moran is a cardiac surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, where he is completing an Advanced Adult Cardiac Surgery Fellowship. He completed his medical training in 2016 at UM and received a Master's of Science in Experimental Surgery (surgical education stream) from McGill University in 2021. He completed his residency in cardiac surgery at UM in 2023.

His research interests include surgical education and simulation, curriculum development, surgical outcomes research and intensive care outcomes research.