Symposium for Dr. David Westaway
We invite you to attend a symposium to celebrate the research career of Dr. David Westaway. This full day event will highlight current research in the ever-expanding field of protein folding diseases as presented by Dr. Westaway’s University of Alberta colleagues and visiting speakers and recognizes the foundational discoveries by Dr. Westaway that helped to shape the field now and into the future.
Visiting Speakers:
Sabine Gilch – University of Calgary
Amanda Woerman – University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Allison Kraus – Case Western Reserve University
Joel Watts – University of Toronto
Date: Monday May 8, 2023
Time: 8:30 am -5:30 pm
Location: The Telus International Centre, Room 150
If you would like to attend, please register your name and email in the following form to receive a detailed program schedule and updates regarding the event.
Link: https://forms.gle/
Dr. David Westaway was a faculty member of the Center for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Toronto from 1994-2006. In 2006, he was recruited to the University of Alberta as faculty member (Department of Medicine, FoMD, NMHI) and Director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases. For the next 16 years, Dr. Westaway led the Prion Centre to international recognition as a hub for prion research. He has held multiple awards and honours throughout his career, including a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Prion Disease (2007-2021) and appointment as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Link: https://forms.gle/
About Dr. David Westaway
It is with great pleasure that we honour the research accomplishments of Dr. David Westaway in the area of protein folding diseases. To highlight just a few of his contributions, Dr. Westaway was one of the original discoverers of the gene encoding the prion protein (PrPC) and he also characterized the proteins encoded by its paralogous genes, Doppel and Shadoo. He has gone on to define key biochemistry for PrPC such as protease cleavage sites and metal binding that modulate the protein's pathogenic properties. His team created a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (TgCRND8) that is used by researchers around the world. He also co-created one of the first spontaneous mouse models of tauopathy and has used this model to reveal key insight regarding the conformational diversity of tau aggregates and their influence on pathobiology.Dr. David Westaway was a faculty member of the Center for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Toronto from 1994-2006. In 2006, he was recruited to the University of Alberta as faculty member (Department of Medicine, FoMD, NMHI) and Director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases. For the next 16 years, Dr. Westaway led the Prion Centre to international recognition as a hub for prion research. He has held multiple awards and honours throughout his career, including a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Prion Disease (2007-2021) and appointment as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
We look forward to your participation in this event.
