Awards and Accolades - November 2019

International Honours

Philip Halloran, Department of Medicine, was awarded the Czech Transplant Foundation Annual Award in Prague on November 7, 2019. Halloran accepted this award in a ceremony in the Karolinum, the seat of the Charles University, one of Europe's oldest universities, founded in 1348 by Emperor Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia. This award is particularly meaningful for Halloran because he collaborated with transplantation genetics researchers in Prague during his PhD studies. Read more.

S. Ann Colbourne, Professor Emerita and former divisional director of General Internal Medicine, was honoured twice by the Mayo clinic with a Mayo Society Lifetime Achievement Lecturer Award and Mayo Clinic Distinguished Alumni Award. Read more.

U of A spin-off company Medo.ai, founded by Jacob Jaremko, Department of Radiology, were named winners of the "Engineering of the Future" award in the Falling Walls Venture 2019 in Berlin, Germany. Read more.

Faculty & Staff Awards

Michael Mengel, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, was awarded the Jacob Churg Award from the Renal Pathology Society.

Congratulations to Jasneet Parmer, Department of Family Medicine, whose research team has been announced as one of the Priority Health Innovation Challenge (PHIC) Mini Challenge Winners. The team's project, Alberta Health Services Edmonton Zone Enhanced Home Living Supports, focuses on giving homecare clients with complex chronic conditions the choice to remain in their homes and communities, and providing their caregivers support to maintain their own health and well-being.

Shelley Ross, Department of Family Medicine, was awarded the 2018-19 Academic Women's Association of the University of Alberta Future Thinker of the Year Award for her work on the book Female Doctors in Canada.

Jesse Jackson, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, is the recipient of a prestigious Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation (BBRF) Young Investigator Grant.

Lily Lin, Department of Pediatrics, received best oral abstract at the Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association (CPCA) Richard Rowe Competition. She is the second pediatric cardiologist to have done so in the history of the competition.

School of Dentistry

The School of Dentistry is pleased to congratulate the following award winners:

• Doris Lunardon was the successful recipient of the University of Alberta Excellence in Leadership Award.

• Sharon Compton received the E. N. Skakun Award for Service to Education.

• Monica Gibson was awarded the W.W. Wood Award Excellence in Dental Education.

• Kari Rarick received the PEAK Performance award - Fostering an Environment and Culture of Innovation category.

• Janice Dominguez, Shelley Bissell, Coby Kwasney, Carol Legassick and Sharon Maier, Comprehensive Care (CC) treatment coordinators were presented with the PEAK Performance award - Team Player category.

Innovation Awards

The TEC Edmonton Innovation Awards were held on October 25, 2019. Congratulations to the following innovators who were recognized. Read more about the winners.

Patent awards - (Research teams that received a U.S. patent and have an industry partner)

• Abdolamir Landi, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - Team: Michael Houghton, Lorne Tyrrell, Tim Lankisch (DE), Tobias Weismueller (DE), Michael Manns (DE) - Methods and compositions for diagnosis of inflammatory liver disease.

• Lorne Tyrrell, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - Team: Hendrikje Geesje Steenbergen, Michael Joyce - Methods for producing cells having a phenotype of a primary human hepatocytes and compositions.

• Michael Weinfeld, Department of Oncology. Team: Todd Mereniuk, Edan Foley, Dennis Hall - Synthetic lethality in cancer.

Spin-off companies

• Antibiddies Technologies Inc. - Frederick West, Chemistry, and David Marchant, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology.

• LivMor Diagnostics - David Olson, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

• PEARKO Therapeutics - Gavin Oudit, Department of Medicine, and John Vederas, Department of Chemistry.

• RETAIN Labs Medical Inc. - Georg Schmölzer, Department of Pediatrics; Matthew Brown, Computing Science, developer; Patrick von Hauff, academic technology specialist, UAlberta designer, RETAIN Labs

• Tricca Technologies - Scott MacKay and David Wishart, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology; Jie Chen, Engineering; John Chiu, Department of Family Medicine

• WWiKY Biosciences - Leonard Wiebe, professor emeritus, Department of Oncology, president and CEO; Piyush Kumar, Department of Oncology; Michael Weinfeld, Department of Oncology.

Top 40 under 40

Congratulations to the following winners of Avenue Magazine's 2019 Top 40 Under 40:

• Matthew Anderson-Baron - '19 PhD, biochemistry

• Rehana Chatur - '04 MD, assistant clinical professor, Department of Pediatrics

• Debraj Das - '13 MD, cardiology resident

• Matthew Douma - Department of Critical Care

• Qaasim Mian - MD/MBA '18, first-year pediatrics resident

• Giang Truong Nguyen - '00 MD

• Richard Oster - '13 PhD

Students, Residents and Trainees

Medical Students David Edgeworth and Deanna Fernandes received the Alberta Medical Association's Dr. Michael Tarrant Scholarship for rural health.

PhD candidates Christen Klinger, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Brad Necyk, Department of Psychiatry, will receive the Governor General's Gold Medal for doctoral graduates who achieve the highest academic standing at convocation this month. Well done!

2019 Summer Students' Research Program - 52nd Annual Summer Students' Research Day

• Abrar Alam (Jason Dyck, supervisor) - Department of Pediatrics - Resveratrol Attenuates Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity and Later Onset Cardiomyopathy through the Inhibition of the NLRP3 Inflammasome

• Isabelle Bernard (Maya Shmulevitz, supervisor) - Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - Cell-Associated Sialic Acid Contributes to Reovirus Attachment to Tumorigenic Cells

• Gurreet Bhandal (Sue-Ann Mok, supervisor) - Department of Biochemistry - Mutant Tau Proteins Aggregate Differently and Display Unique Structural Fingerprints

• Ray Ishida (Tom Hobman, supervisor) - Department of Cell Biology - Circumvention of Interferon Induction by Mayaro virus through TRIM26 Depletion

• Asna Latif (Amit Bhavsar, supervisor) - Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology - Cisplatin-Induced Toxicity in Cancer Patients is Mediated by TLR4 Interactions

• Richard Mah (Stephane Bourque, supervisor) - Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine - Assessment of Apoptosis, Autophagy, and Cellular Senescence in Developing Kidneys Exposed to Perinatal Iron Deficiency

• Abbey Pagee (Sandra T. Davidge, supervisor) - Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology - Role of LOX-1 on Postpartum Vascular Dysfunction in a Mouse Model of Preeclampsia

• Matthew Regehr (Michelle Noga, supervisor) - Department of Radiology & Diagnostic Imaging - Machine Learning and Graph Based Approach to Automatic MR Right Atrial Segmentation

• Jashan Saini (Silvia Pagliardini, supervisor) - Department of Physiology - Modulation of Respiratory Rhythms via Periaqueductal Gray Optostimulation

• Ojas Srivastava (Paige Lacy, supervisor) - Department of Medicine - Cytokine Release in White Blood Cells with RSV Stimulation

• Tania Strilets (Tom Hobman, supervisor) - Department of Cell Biology - Mapping the Mayaro Virus Cellular Interactome Using Turboid

• Simon Wu (Ming Chan, supervisor) - Department of Medicine - A Novel Surgical Treatment for Patients with Severe Ulnar Injury

University of Alberta Alumni Awards

Know an outstanding U of A grad? Nominate them for a 2020 Alumni Award.

University of Alberta alumni around the globe uphold our promise to use their education "for the public good" through their professional achievements, community service and innovation. The Alumni Awards recognize these contributions and tells the stories of our exceptional alumni, inspiring us all to Do Great Things. Help us recognize the FoMD's outstanding alumni with a nomination.

Nomination deadline: December 15, 2019