Bringing our vision to life – defining new health policy, educational paradigms and research strengths
James Calvin, MD
Professor, Chair/Chief, Medicine
A resident alumnus, Dr. Calvin returned to his alma mater in November 2013, to become the Chair/Chief of the School’s largest clinical department — Medicine. Since his arrival at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Dr. Calvin has undertaken strategic work for the Department and focused a great deal of attention on the development of a new strategic plan. The plan focuses on the Department’s three pillars (clinical, research and education) and equips the Department with what it needs to excel and succeed in the ever-changing worlds of health care and education.
He is an internationally renowned scholar who spent a num- ber of years in leadership positions at Rush Medical College in Illinois and has career accomplishments encompassing more than 330 publications and book chapters.
Lisa Cameron, PhD
Associate Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Dr. Cameron’s research is focused on understanding the development and trajectory of inflammatory disease. Using cellular and molecular immunology, functional genetics/genomics, as well as donor and patient samples, Dr. Cameron’s lab has characterized factors regulating the expression of a receptor expressed in cells that mediates allergic inflammation. They have found that genetic variation in the receptor increases its function and is associated with a risk of developing allergic conditions, particularly asthma.
Most recently, they found that the cells are associated with asthma severity in women, but not men. And they are now examining the mechanisms underlying this finding. It may be related to the fact women with asthma have relatively worse responses to inhaled glucocorticosteroids (GC), the mainstay of asthma therapy. This work reveals that severe asthma in women and men differs at the cellular and molecular level. They are now testing the hypothesis that this is due to female sex hormones interfering with GC signalling. These discoveries are expected to uncover novel pathways influencing asthma, and lead to further studies to develop sex-specific approaches for treatment. The impact of these findings could extend beyond asthma, as they may provide insight into other chronic inflammatory diseases treated with GC that are more prevalent in women.
Saad Chahine, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine with cross-appointment to Social Science and Education; Scientist, Centre for Education Research & Innovation
Dr. Chahine is blending his passion for mathematics with his analytical skills to study the evaluation and assessment pro-cesses for learners. His research is looking at how educators can make more accurate decisions about the performance of trainees, and their levels of competency. More specifically, he is seeking to answer questions such as: How do clinicians and organizations meet the increasing demands of competency-based assessment in the work place? How do the social consequences of assessment influence the design and implementation of assessment and evaluation programs?
Straddling the theoretical and applied research streams, Dr. Chahine’s work is expected to have immediate implications for how workplace assessment at Schulich Medicine is conducted.
Sayra Cristancho, PhD
Assistant Professor, Surgery, Medical Biophysics; Scientist, Centre for Education Research & Innovation
With an education in biomedical engineering, Dr. Cristancho is working to solve some of our most complex medical education challenges, with a particular focus in the op- erating room. She is seeking to answer questions such as: How can we better train physicians to make sound judgments in the context of non-routine, complex and challenging situations? and What organizational, social and personal factors determine the evolution of a com-plex and challenging clinical situation, and how do they influence an expert’s clinical judgement?
Her research is working toward improving surgical training so that teaching is based not only in knowing what technical skills to perfect, but also understanding what situational factors influence surgical judgment and how surgeons negotiate them in order to work through unexpected events in the complex systems of the operating room.
Fabiana Crowley, PhD
Assistant Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology
Dr. Crowley completed her master’s and doctoral research working with Dr. Marco Prado and focusing on the molecular basis of Prion and Alzheimer’s diseases. She moved from Brazil to Canada when she was mid-way through her PhD, and began working as a researcher, imaging facility manager and teacher. With a long-standing passion for education and a fascination for the workings of the human body, Dr. Crowley continued her work with the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, and this time she was focused on teaching and sharing her passions. Dr. Crowley teaches the disciplines of physiology and pharmacology to undergraduate medical and dental students, while supporting continuous curriculum development of these programs. She continues to enrich the programs with development of online resources to promote, improve and enhance the educational experiences of learners.
Jimmy Dikeakos, PhD
Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Immunology
Dr. Dikeakos believes that one of the greatest challenges facing modern medicine today is the fight against and prevention of the onset, as well as the progression of HIV. The future of HIV research will involve the development of an effective HIV vaccine with the advent of novel HIV inhibitors. Also, the reactivation of latent HIV is a major challenge in this field that will allow for latently infected cells to become targets of drugs. Dr. Dikeakos’ lab studies the interactions between viral proteins and host cellular proteins. These interactions mediate cellular pathways that result in disease. They are currently focused on HIV-1, the devastating virus that has resulted in more than 30-million deaths.
Martin Duennwald, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Dr. Duennwald’s research is focused on how protein quality control and protein folding and misfolding plays into human diseases — specifically neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He and his team are studying the cell and molecular biology of protein misfolding and how a cell reacts to misfolded proteins. Dr. Duennwald explains that all of our cells are equipped with a defense-like system that prevents
the toxic and detrimental effects of protein misfolding, and these protein quality-control systems in our cells somehow fail in neurodegenerative diseases. He wants to understand why this happens, and how we might be able to prevent that as a therapeutic approach.
Lauren Flynn, PhD
Associate Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology with joint appointment to Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Dr. Flynn’s research focuses on adipose-derived stem cells (stem cells found in human fat) and how they can assist with wound healing and musculoskeletal regeneration. Her research is developing new materials for soft tissue reconstruction or actually replacing the lost adipose tissue. An example of an application could be in breast reconstructive surgery. A patient may lose a large volume of fat during a lumpectomy or mastectomy, and the fat won’t regenerate on its own, so that can leave a major deformity. This research could help to develop material to replace that tissue. Other applications could also include patients who have been involved in a traum-atic injury or congenital birth defects.
With a focus on translational research, Dr. Flynn’s team works closely with an interdisciplinary network of collab-orators including scientists, engineers, and clinicians.
