Awards & Accolades - February 2021

U of A neuroscientist Maria Ioannou is among the newest recipients of the Sloan Research Fellowship, given annually to exceptional early career researchers in North America with the potential to make significant contributions to their field.

National and international acclaim

Dr. Maria Ioannou, Department of Physiology, Department of Cell Biology and member of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI), the Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI) and the Group on Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids is among 126 North American early career researchers who received the two-year, $75,000 awards from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Read more. 

Dr. Vivian Mushahwar, director of the SMART Network, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Functional Restoration, Department of Medicine and NMHI member, was elected to the American Institute of Biomedical Engineering (AIMBE). Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer, representing the top two per cent of the profession.

Dr. Mais Aljunaidy,’18 PhD, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, was shortlisted to the 2020 Athena 40 list by the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD). Athena40 was officially launched at UNESCO on International Women’s Day March 8, 2018, as a women-led platform promoting the work of innovative women from around the world.

Congratulations to Dr. Katherine Aitchison, Department of Psychiatry, associate director of mental health at NMHI, on being named chair of the research committee and the Practice Research Network for the Canadian Psychiatric Association. 

Dr. Stevi Golden-Plotnik, Department of Pediatrics, received the David Johnson Award for Best Fellows Research Presentation at the Pediatric Emergency Research Canada annual meeting. 

Precision Health Seed Grant Awards

Congratulations to the following recipients of the 2020 Precision Health Seed Grant Awards!

Title: Precision Diagnostics of Depression using UK Biobank and Machine Learning

PI and co-PI: Dr. Bo Cao and Dr. Jie Sui

Co-applicants: Dr. Russell Greiner; Dr. Andrew Greenshaw; Dr. Yanbo Zhang; Dr. Xin-Min Li; Dr. Megnzhe Wang

Affiliation: U of A (Psychiatry, Computing Science); Alberta Health

Title: Design of a Two-parameter Cell-based activin A Signaling Reporter for Drug Screening

PI and co-PI: Dr. Javier Clemente-Casares and Dr. Amit Bhavsar

Affiliation: U of A (Medical Microbiology & Immunology)

Title: Precision Diagnostics in Prostate Cancer: Targeted Biopsy and Germline Sequencing to Predict Tumor Aggressivity in Men on Active Surveillance

PI and co-PI: Dr. Adam Kinnaird and Dr. John Lewis

Co-applicants: Dr. Paul Boutros; Dr. Christopher Fung; Dr. Rizwan Rasheed

Affiliation: U of A (Surgery, Oncology, Radiology, Pathology); UCLA (Human Genetics and Informatics)

Title: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Diabetes Therapy: A Sweet Solution

PI and co-PIs: Dr. James Shapiro; Dr. Gregory Korbutt; Dr. Nilanjan Ray

Affiliation: U of A (Surgery, Computing Science)

Title: Developing RNA based diagnostic techniques to improve the diagnosis of genetic disease in Alberta

PI and co-PI: Dr. Peter Kannu and Dr. Sherry Taylor

Co-applicants: Dr. Oksana Suchowersky; Dr. Oana Caluseriu; Dr. Alison Eaton; Dr. Karen Niederhoffer; Dr. Melissa MacPherson; Dr. Alicia Chan; Dr. Shailly Jain-Ghai; Dr. Saadet Andrews

Affiliation: U of A (Medical Genetics)

Learners as leaders

Simran Pherwani, MSc candidate, Department of Pediatrics (supervisor: Dr. Gary Lopaschuk) received the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.

Top 30 under 30 

Congratulations to the following learners who were named Alberta Council for Global Cooperation’s (ACGC) Top 30 under 30 list: 

• Ibrahim Sadiq, Year 2 MD student, president, Black Medical Students’ Association
• Muhammad Khan, Year 2 MD student, leader of Decolonizing Health student club
• Reshma Sirajee, MSc candidate, Department of Pediatrics (supervisor: Dr. Michael Hawkes)

A historical win for cancer research

Congratulations to the volunteers, players, family and friends who made the World’s Longest Hockey Game from Feb. 4 - 15 a huge success. Enduring some of the coldest days of the year, 40 courageous players completed 252 hours of outdoor hockey and raised $1.84 million in support of a clinical trial for a precision cancer drug discovered at the U of A.