PaLM Research Day 2022
For a second time, our annual Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Research Day was held virtually on Thursday, March 31, 2022. Although we all missed the in-person atmosphere, the buzz, and the elegance of the Great Hall, it was extremely important for us to carry on in a virtual setting. The tremendous hard work that our researchers performed over the last year needed to be showcased.
The morning session, held via Zoom Webinar, featured our keynote speaker, Dr. Michael Strong. Dr. Strong is well known to the PALM community. He is a Distinguished University Professor at Western and serves as the President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Strong captivated the audience by sharing his research focused on the pathological cellular inclusions in degenerating neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the role of altered RNA metabolism. Besides the oration, his work showing restoration of mobility in preclinical models of ALS left a lasting impression. Dr. Strong’s address was followed by a wonderful mix of clinical and basic science research by our Residents and graduate students. These platform presentations were carefully selected from over 112 submitted abstracts to highlight some of the research areas of excellence in the department.
In the afternoon, over a hundred abstracts, spanning 12 diverse and interdisciplinary areas of research, were presented as posters. All poster sessions were very well attended.
Although we were not able to celebrate our research successes at the conclusion of the day with the presentation of awards, we hope to see everyone at a later date where we will announce the recipients of the Research Day presentation awards and prizes.
We would like to thank all participants for their tremendous work. Special thanks to the organizers, judges, and session chairs.
Organization: Angela DeCandido, Cheryl Campbell, Kathilyn Allewell, Nan Meng, Susan Underhill, Tracey Koning, and members of the Research Committee (Drs. David Driman, Francisco Olea-Popelka, Lisa Cameron, Mark Darling, Matthew Cecchini, Parisa Shooshtari, and Zia Khan).
Judges and Session Chairs: Drs. Aaron Haig, Cady Zeman-Pocrnich, Ana Cabrera, Anahita Meybodi, Angela Rutledge, Christina Castellani, Christina McCord, David Driman, Fred Dick, Hanxin Lin, Laila Schenkel, Lisa Cameron, Manal Gabril, Mark Darling, Matthew Cecchini, Nancy Chan, Parisa Shooshtari, Patti Kiser, Qi Zhang, Saman Maleki, Savita Dhanvantari, Stephanie Frisbee, Tianqing Peng, Zhuxu Zhang, and Zia Khan.
