LMP
INVESTIGATING
DISEASE.
IMPACTING
HEALTH.
LMP Annual Banquet
2015
An Evening of Entertainment
and Celebration
www.lmp.utoronto.ca
I
am pleased to extend a warm welcome to the LMP
Departmental Annual Banquet, a special evening when we
have the opportunity to celebrate what has truly been a
remarkable 2014–2015 academic year.
LMP continues to excel in all areas of education,
research and service. We are a tremendous community
of engaged and creative individuals who are dedicated to
creating, conveying and applying knowledge related to the
causes and mechanisms of disease. LMP encompasses the scientific foundation
of medicine and applied diagnostics.
We take pride in our level of individual and collective activity, accomplishment and recognition. Never being satisfied to rest on our laurels, LMP
strives for ever-increasing improvement and greater impact in our work. Not
being discouraged by the difficulties we face in the current climate, we have a
deep-rooted culture of innovation that can build a better future and make a real
difference in improving health.
At LMP, our diversity is our strength. The Annual Banquet allows the
various domains of LMP to convene and share in our successes and celebrate our
unique collegium. I am personally grateful to every one of you for being part of
LMP, and for your dedication to “Investigating Disease. Impacting Health.”
With best wishes for an enjoyable and memorable evening.
Richard G. Hegele, MD, FRCPC, PhD
Professor and Chair
Thursday, June 11, 2015
DoubleTree by Hilton
108 Chestnut Street
5:30 p.m. — Reception, Ottawa Room
6:30 p.m. — Awards Presentation, Toronto Ballroom
STUART ALAN HOFFMAN MEMORIAL PRIZE
Pawel Buczkowicz
Jayesh Salvi
WOLFGANG VOGEL MEMORIAL AWARD
Karen Siu
LINDA AND AVRUM GOTLIEB AWARD
Trillium Chang
ARTS & SCIENCE AWARDS
Allan Gornall Testimonial Prize
Maya Deeb
Third-Year Specialist Pathobiology Award
Charles Kyung Min Lee
FACULTY TEACHING AWARDS
LMP Undergraduate Teaching Award
Professor Douglas Templeton
LMP Graduate Teaching Award
Professor Jeffrey Lee
Professor Karim Mekhail
John B. Walter Prize
Professor Sima Salahshor
ALAN POLLARD POSTDOCTORAL CLINICAL CHEMISTRY
TRAVEL AWARD
Dan Lin
NORMAN BETHUNE AWARD
Aaron Campigotto
Ramzi Fattouh
DANNY GHAZARIAN RESIDENT TEACHING AWARD
Professor Brendan Dickson
STANLEY RAPHAEL AWARD FOR PROFESSIONALISM
Bojana Mitrovic
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Professor Robert Riddell
7:00 p.m. — Salad and Main Course
SENIOR ACADEMIC PROMOTIONS
Professor Danny Ghazarian
Emina Torlakovic
George Yousef
Associate Professor
Eleanor Latta
Yulia Lin
Ozgur Mete
Corwyn Rowsell
RETIREMENTS
Rozlyn Devlin, William Halliday, Frances O’Malley and Kenneth Pritzker
Awards
1
Stuart Alan Hoffman
Memorial Prize
T
Stuart Alan Hoffman Memorial Prize is awarded annually to
the top LMP MSc or PhD graduate who has demonstrated excellence
in research, evidenced by the accepted thesis, published or in-press
papers and contributions to the research field. Consideration is also given to
academic merit, and the character of the student.
This award was first established in 1959 by the Hoffman family after
their son, Stuart, became a patient at the Hospital for Sick Children and was
treated by clinical chemists. The Hoffman family generously donated funds
for an endowment, which is now used to award the annual recipient with an
engraved silver plate and a cash prize.
After its creation from the merger of departments, LMP is honoured
to carry on this tradition. We are grateful to the Hoffman family for this
endowment, and are pleased to have hosted them at past award ceremonies
during the annual LMP banquet. Over the years, many outstanding students
have been recipients of the prize, and have continued on to very successful
careers. This year is no exception.
he
2
Recipients: Pawel Buczkowicz
and Jayesh Salvi
P
Buczkowicz’s PhD research, supervised by
Professor Cynthia Hawkins, focused on the deadly
pediatric brain cancer diffuse intrinsic pontine
glioma (DIPG). His genetic and bioinformatic studies
defined three molecular subgroups of DIPG plus potential
therapeutic targets for this cancer, and are described in
four original papers.
For his 2014 paper in the top-tier journal, Nature
Genetics, Buczkowicz received outstanding recognition — winning the
competitive CIHR-ICR Publication Prize and the CIHR-IG Lap-Chee Tsui
Publication Award in the same year. He is the recipient of a CIHR Banting
and Best Canada Graduate Scholarship, and has presented his work at several
international conferences.
Moreover, his achievements are especially noteworthy because he overcame
a major setback in year one of his program (a severe car accident and rehabilitation period) to complete a first-rate thesis. Buczkowicz continues to perform
important research on pediatric brain cancer at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt
Brain Tumour Research Centre.
awel
Jayesh Salvi’s PhD research on genome stability and the
pathobiology of aging was supervised by Professor Karim
Mekhail, and demonstrated the power of using yeast genetics
to investigate human diseases such as ALS. His thesis, which
shed new light on how evolutionarily conserved protein
complexes maintain genome integrity, is published in four
first-author papers, including two in the highly ranked
journal Developmental Cell. Indeed, Salvi’s first Developmental
Cell paper was published after only one year in the graduate program.
His academic and leadership achievements have been recognized by
national-level awards, including the prestigious CIHR Vanier Canada
Graduate Scholarship, and he has presented his thesis work at several international meetings.
Salvi recently started post-doctoral studies at Stanford University focusing
on the molecular pathogenesis of neuromuscular diseases. Importantly, his PhD
work has led to exciting new collaborations in Toronto on research projects
that range from yeast cell biology to neurosurgery.
3
Wolfgang Vogel Memorial Award
P
(1965–2007), a Tier II
Canada Research Chair, was an innovative scientist
who carried out pioneering work on cell-matrix
interactions. He was an excellent teacher and mentor for his
numerous trainees.
Vogel was appointed to LMP as an Assistant Professor
in 2001 and was awarded tenure effective July 1, 2007
with promotion to Associate Professor. Glowing letters
of enthusiastic support were received from external reviewers who were
leaders in his field. They all described a creative scientist who carried
out transforming work in a complex biologic field, that of cell signaling,
cell-matrix interactions and more recently breast cancer pathobiology and
pulmonary pathobiology. Student letters were also glowing, conveying Vogel’s
commitment to teaching and to instilling the love of science and the need to
approach science in a careful and critical manner.
Vogel was awarded a Premier’s Research Excellence Award (PREA),
given to gifted researchers early in their careers to attract talented trainees. He
was an excellent mentor to these promising trainees, who will continue on
equipped with these important attributes they learned from him at the bench
and in the classroom.
The Wolfgang Vogel Memorial Award assists with covering travel costs of
post-doctoral fellows who are presenting their work at national or international
scientific meetings. It is open to post-doctoral fellows who are or were engaged
in training supervised by a faculty member from LMP at the time of travel.
rofessor Wolfgang Vogel
4
Recipient: Karen Siu
K
Siu completed her graduate studies with
Professor Lynne Howell at U of T’s Department of
Biochemistry and the Hospital for Sick Children,
where she specialized in X-ray crystallography and various
biochemical techniques. These included isothermal titration
calorimetry and deuteron-hydrogen exchange coupled
mass spectrometry.
Since graduation, she has joined Professor Jeffrey
Lee’s lab as a post-doctoral fellow and studies how proteins from the human
immune system interact with viral proteins. Her recent work resulted in a
high-resolution crystal structure of a human restriction factor APOBEC3F.
The results reveal how APOBEC3F mediates retroviral restriction and provide
an accurate template for structure-guided development of HIV inhibitors
targeting the accessory protein Vif.
aren
5
Linda and Avrum Gotlieb Award
P
Avrum Gotlieb is the
founding Chair of Laboratory
Medicine and Pathobiology, and
served from 1997 to 2008. He and his wife,
Linda, endowed this award to support,
through a stipend, summer research by a
highly qualified and motivated student in
the Arts and Science Pathobiology Specialist
Program. Remembering their excitement about participating in science as
undergraduates at McGill University — Linda in medical genetics and Avrum
in physiology and psychology — they encourage students to engage fully in
the research experience during their undergraduate studies.
Linda and Avrum created this award because they recognized that summer
research was an invaluable experience to help students focus on an area of
research and to pursue life sciences graduate programs. This twelve-week
program provides exposure to proper laboratory practice, research presentations
and departmental seminars, and helps students develop collaboration, communication and networking expertise along with experimental and critical
evaluation skills. Ultimately, this award supports early career development of
exceptionally talented individuals.
rofessor
Recipient: Trillium Chang
T
Chang has completed her second year
in the Pathobiology Specialist Program and is also
studying for a major in Global Health and a minor
in Immunology. She is active in U of T’s International
Health Program (UTIHP), helping to coordinate a number
of global health events, as well as in the National Women in
Science and Engineering Conference, the Hart House Social
Justice Committee, and the University of Toronto Model
United Nations. She aspires to a career as a clinician-scientist and will work
this summer with Professor Susan Done.
rillium
6
Arts & Science Awards:
Allan Gornall Testimonial Prize
P
rofessor Allan
Gornall (1914–2006) arrived in
Toronto from Nova Scotia in 1936 to pursue his PhD in
the Department of Pathological Chemistry. After a stint at
the Royal Canadian Naval Hospital in Halifax during the Second
World War, he returned to the Department in 1946, and spent his
career there, acting as Chair from 1966 to 1976.The period of his
Chairmanship saw the renaming of the Department to Clinical
Biochemistry, one of the founding Departments of LMP.
His PhD studies made a key contribution to elucidation of the urea cycle, and
his 1946 paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry was the ninth most highly cited
scientific publication over the next 30 years.
He is regarded as the founder of clinical chemistry in Canada, having initiated the
certification program and personally trained a majority of its graduates throughout
its early years. His textbook Applied Biochemistry of Clinical Disorders was a staple
for many years. At the time of his retirement in 1980, the Department of Clinical
Biochemistry taught a single course to science students at the third-year level, and
Gornall established an endowment fund to honour the student with the top mark in
this course.
With the creation of LMP and a Specialist in Pathobiology, Gornall generously
agreed in 2003 to change the terms of the endowment to award the Gornall Prize to
the top student graduating from the program based on the four-year aggregate GPA.
Recipient: Maya Deeb
I
n the 14-year history of the Pathobiology Specialist
Program, Maya Deeb is only the fourth student to
graduate with a perfect GPA of 4.0 across all four years of
study. In addition to her outstanding scholarship, she has gained
significant undergraduate research experience, and has worked
in basic science labs both on campus and at a hospital research
institute, as well as in clinical research in the Organ Transplant
Unit. As Co-President of our LMP Student Union, Deeb led a
team that staged the successful 2015 Conference on Cardiovascular Regenerative
Medicine. She also caps her graduating year with both the Cressy and Graduate
and Life Sciences Education Awards for Student Leadership.
7
Third-Year Specialist
Pathobiology Award
T
his cash award is given each year to the student in the Pathobiology
Specialist Program who completes the required third-year courses —
LMP300Y (Introduction to Pathobiology) and LMP365H (Neoplasia)
— with the highest combined, weighted score.
Recipient: Charles Kyung Min Lee
Charles Kyung Min Lee completes the third year of our
Pathobiology Specialist Program with an aggregate mark of
93 per cent in our two required courses, and is also pursuing a major in Neuroscience and a minor in Immunology.
He has been involved in research projects in neurobiology
and brain pathology since the beginning of his university
studies, and is concurrently assisting in compiling articles
for an upcoming textbook on sociology. Lee has been
elected Co-President of our LMP Student Union for 2015–2016.
8
Faculty Teaching Awards
T
hese awards are given for sustained excellence in teaching at the
undergraduate or graduate levels. The adjudicating committee takes
into account the strength of nomination letters, student evaluations,
opinions of colleagues and the overall contribution to the Department’s
teaching mission — and interprets “sustained” to mean of at least three to five
years duration.
Eligible teaching activities at the undergraduate level include those in the
MD and Specialist BSc programs, as well as teaching in our cognate health
sciences professional programs. Recent winners of this award reflect a balanced
distribution amongst these different educational pursuits, without the need for
the committee to have considered equity; gratifyingly, we have excellent and
deserving teachers in all our undergraduate pursuits.
LMP Undergraduate Teaching Award
Recipient: Professor Douglas Templeton
P
Douglas Templeton has been a faculty
member since 1985 and does research in the cell
and molecular biology of metals in his lab at the
Medical Sciences Building. He is actively involved in writing
terminology and developing toxicology curricula for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. He is the
founding coordinator of the Pathobiology Specialist Program
for Arts and Science students (for which he received the J.B.
Walter Prize in 2006), and as such he has taught the core LMP300 course to
every Specialist student who has come through the program since its inception
in 2000–2001. He received the Faculty of Medicine Undergraduate Teaching
Award in 2012.
rofessor
9
Undergraduate Conference on Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine
LMPSU Organizers
Conference Presenter Professor Jason Fish
LMPSU Seminar — Professor Avrum Gotlieb
10
LMPSU BBQ
LMP Summer Student Poster Day
LMPSU Seminar — Professor Michael Pollanen
11
LMP Graduate Teaching Award
Recipients: Professors Jeffrey Lee
and Karim Mekhail
P
Jeffrey Lee is a graduate of the
Biochemistry PhD program at U of T and in 2010
returned to the University as an Assistant Professor
in LMP. His lab at the Medical Sciences Building studies
viral entry and the molecular biology of innate immunity,
and he holds a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Structural
Virology.
rofessor
Professor Karim Mekhail conducts research at the
Medical Sciences Building in the molecular biology of
development and aging and is a Tier II Canada Research
Chair in Spatial Genome Organization. He is a past winner
of a Governor General’s Gold Medal for his PhD work in
Ottawa and a CIHR Institute of Genetics Maud Menten
New Principal Investigator Prize.
Lee and Mekhail have both been involved in teaching since beginning their
Faculty positions. Together, they have revitalized the required course for our
graduate students, LMP1404, increasing its content from about 25 hours to 60
hours and actively engaging students in discussion and writing. For this they
have been commended by both students and their supervisors. Both also show
outstanding mentoring qualities with their own research students. Mekhail is
introducing a new undergraduate course in genetic models of disease in the
fall of 2015.
12
John B. Walter Prize
T
B. Walter Prize for course design,
development or coordination was introduced
in the former Department of Pathology when
Professor Malcolm Silver was Chair. It was designed to
recognize innovation in curriculum development with an
endowment in the name of Professor John Brian Walter
(1924–2000). Walter came to Toronto in 1965 from England
after qualifying at the Middlesex Hospital in 1946, studying
dermatology, and spending military service as a pathologist in Malaya. Initially
an Assistant Professor at the Banting Institute, he also held positions as a
staff pathologist at Toronto General Hospital and at the Hospital for Sick
Children. His textbook General Pathology (J. B. Walter and M. Israel, 1963) had
gone through seven editions by 1996. He also wrote texts on pathology and
principles of disease for dental students and nurses.
he John
Recipient: Professor Sima Salahshor
Professor Sima Salahshor studies signalling events in
early cancer initiation and progression. She is a native of
Tehran and holds a PhD in Medical Genetics from the
Karolinska Institutet. She is a scientific business consultant,
communicator, patient advocate and student mentor. In
2011, she introduced a graduate course, Cellular Imaging in
Pathobiology (LMP1006), with an all-star cast of lecturers.
Initially intended as a biannual course, its popularity has
resulted in its being offered for the fourth time in 2015.
13
2015 USCAP Annual Meeting
2015 USCAP
Annual Meeting
LMP Postgraduate Research Day — Organizing Committee
LMP Postgraduate Research Day
14
LMP Postgraduate Research Day
15
Alan Pollard Post-doctoral
Clinical Chemistry Travel Award
T
he Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Mount
Sinai Hospital sponsors the Alan Pollard Award. This award recognizes
excellence in performance by a Post-doctoral Diploma candidate
in Clinical Biochemistry within U of T’s Division of Clinical Biochemistry,
Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. The award was established 10 years
ago to recognize the sustained contribution over 28 years of Professor Alan
Pollard to Clinical Biochemistry at Mount Sinai Hospital and U of T.
Professor Alan Pollard studied medicine at Cambridge
University and at Middlesex Hospital London, graduating in
1954. After two years of internship in medicine, surgery and
clinical pathology he entered a two-year rotating residency
in Clinical Pathology followed by two years of Chemical
Pathology in Sheffield.
In 1964, Pollard was appointed senior lecturer in
Chemical Pathology at St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School
in London. In 1967, Mount Sinai Hospital recruited him to direct their newly
built laboratory and he also joined the U of T staff. Over the next few years
he helped develop the In-Common Laboratory and designed the new lab at
Mount Sinai Hospital and the teaching program at U of T. With Irv Bromberg,
Michael Rosenberg and summer students from U of T, a pioneering computer
system was developed and installed at Mount Sinai.
Before retiring in 1994, Pollard served as acting Chairman of LMP for
two six-month periods. Since retiring from full-time work he has pursued
different aspects of clinical medicine including acne treatment, sleep medicine
and hepatology.
Pollard and Professor Kenneth Pritzker helped established the Alan Pollard
Award more than ten years ago to recognize outstanding performance in the
Post-doctoral Training Program in Clinical Chemistry. It has helped sponsor
several graduates to present their clinical laboratory research work at the
annual meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC)
and other international meetings.
16
Recipient: Dan Lin
D
Lin is currently a senior clinical chemistry
fellow at U of T. He completed his doctoral
studies at the University in the lab of Dr. Tony
Pawson where his research focused on elucidating the
molecular mechanisms underlying cell polarity. Prior to
beginning his fellowship in clinical chemistry, he was
a member of the drug discovery team at the Campbell
Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research, developing
small-molecule therapeutics directed against novel targets in breast, ovarian
and prostate cancers.
an
17
Norman Bethune Award
N
Bethune graduated from U of T’s Faculty of Medicine in
1916. Dr. Bethune travelled to China in 1938 where he spent the
better part of two years operating on war casualties and training
Chinese doctors and paramedics. He subsequently became a well-known
symbol of U of T’s longstanding relationship with China. In 1939, Bethune,
after cutting his finger while operating on a soldier in China, contracted blood
poisoning and eventually died as a result of the infection. Following his death,
Chairman Mao Zedong wrote “In Memory of Norman Bethune,” in which
he praised the doctor for his dedication to the Chinese people.
In 1998, Dr. Bethune was recognized by the Canadian Medical Hall of
Fame as a laureate in the category of education. He wrote extensively on the
development of new surgical instruments, helping to establish an essential
reference for surgeons of his time. He is most remembered as being the first
to introduce a mobile blood bank to the battlefield. Using this technique, he
performed countless blood transfusions in the midst of heavy fighting while
he served the Chinese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He has
since become an example of selfless commitment to the advancement of
humanitarian causes.
In 1987, Frederick H. Kahan, a graduate of U of T and subsequent
Senior Scientist in Exploratory Biological Research at Merck Sharp &
Dohme, was awarded the Merck Sharp & Dohme Directors’ Scientific Award
for his contribution to the development of the antibiotic Primaxim. With the
award came an honorarium to be contributed to the college or university
of his choice. Mr. Kahan asked that it be given to his alma mater, U of T, to
endow a prize in the Faculty of Medicine in the field of infectious diseases,
including bacterial, viral, fungal and protozoal infections. It was his wish that
the prize be named in honour of Dr. Norman Bethune. The aim of the award
is to recognize and encourage young, talented researchers on the threshold of
their careers.
orman
18
Recipients: Aaron Campigotto
and Ramzi Fattouh
A
Campigotto grew up in Windsor, Ontario.
Prior to obtaining his medical degree at U of
T, he completed his BScH followed by an MSc
in Microbiology, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance
mechanisms, at Queen’s University. Currently, he is a
resident in the Medical Microbiology program and is
involved in various research activities and the development
and evaluation of new laboratory techniques.
aron
Ramzi Fattouh received his Bachelor of Science in
Biochemistry from McMaster University in 2002. He
continued doctoral studies at McMaster University where he
pursued research into the immunobiology of allergic airway
disease. He went on to complete three years of additional
training as a post-doctoral fellow at the Hospital for Sick
Children in Toronto where he investigated the pathogenesis
of inflammatory bowel disease and the mechanisms by
which the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is able to spread during infection.
In 2013, Fattouh joined U of T as a post-doctoral fellow in Clinical
Microbiology where he continues to train and engage in more appliedresearch projects. He enjoys learning from and working closely with fellow
trainees and staff alike.
Over the course of his studies he has published numerous peer-reviewed
articles, including six first-author publications and nearly two dozen
co-authored original research papers, reviews and book chapters. He has
presented his findings at several national and international conferences and
has received a number of scholarships from various provincial and federal
funding agencies, including NSERC and CIHR, as well as awards, such as the
McMaster GSA Outstanding Achievement award and the SickKids RTC New
Ideas award.
Ultimately, Fattouh looks forward to applying the skills acquired during
his training as a researcher and clinical microbiologist to the practice of
laboratory medicine and the betterment of patient care.
19
Danny Ghazarian Resident
Teaching Award
I
n 1996, Professor Danny Ghazarian was a trainee
in U of T’s Anatomical Pathology Training Program
and was the representative on the residents training
committee. Struck by the dedicated, enthusiastic teaching
delivered by the staff, and wanting to acknowledge this in
a formal manner, he decided to honour the best teachers
every year with a teaching award. The first recipient of this
award was Professor Dean Chamberlain. The award persisted
as the “Best Teacher” award until 2004, and thereafter was entitled the Danny
Ghazarian Resident Teaching Award.
Recipient: Professor Brendan Dickson
Professor Brendan Dickson is from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He completed his undergraduate training at Dalhousie
University, as well as his MSc in Experimental Pathology
under the supervision of Dr. Jim Wright. Dickson came to
Toronto to pursue his medical degree as well as residency
training in Anatomic Pathology. Afterwards, he completed
a fellowship in Soft Tissue and Bone Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Dr. John
Brooks. Dickson returned to Toronto in 2009, when he was hired as sarcoma
pathologist at Mount Sinai Hospital.
20
Stanley Raphael Award
for Professionalism
T
he Stanley Raphael Award was inaugurated in the 2012–2013
academic year to honour a senior resident whose performance
most embodies the ideals of the Professional as defined by the
CanMEDs roles.
It is named after Dr. Stanley Raphael who practiced pathology in Canada
for 40 years. Dr. Raphael passionately believed and fought for the principle
that lab physicians work for the patient and their allegiance was properly to
the patient alone. His life was defined by professional occupations and duties. His practice was very diverse and included the full range of anatomical,
general and forensic pathology. His son, Dr. Simon Raphael, fondly noted,
“Our family grew up in a way participating in his career, whether it was a trip
to Manitoulin Island to testify in a coroner’s inquest or going in to the hospital
in the early morning to manually change solutions on the tissue processors.
Consultation specimens sometimes resided on the living room mantelpiece en
route to experts in the United Kingdom or the United States, and were part
of the expected decor of our home.”
Dr. Stanley Raphael would be proud to have this award named after him
and also very proud of the generation of young physicians who receive it.
Recipient: Bojana Mitrovic
Bojana Mitrovic completed three years of undergraduate
studies in U of T’s Department of Biochemistry and then
pursued her medical degree at U of T. During her medical
degree, she received the Harry Gotlieb Scholarship in
Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, an award that
recognizes excellence in the field. After medical school she
joined LMP’s residency program in Anatomical Pathology
in 2009. Upon graduation in 2015, she will be joining the
pathology department at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, along with her
husband, Brett Danielson, who is also a pathology resident at U of T.
21
Graduate Research Conference — First Place Poster Competition Winners
Graduate Research Conference — Conference hosts with Professor Kevin Kain
22
CLAMPS Summer Island BBQ
Faculty vs. Students Volleyball Game
CLAMPS
23
Distinguished Service Award
T
he Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology established
an annual Distinguished Service Award in 1987 to honour faculty or
administrative staff who have demonstrated the highest level of sustained
service to the Department in research, teaching, creative professional activity
and administrative service. Recipients demonstrate innovation and excellence in
scholarship and administration, and provide outstanding leadership in advancing
the vision and mission of the Department locally, nationally and internationally.
Over the years, recipients have been recognized for their service to LMP in their
capacity as campus-based university and hospital or research institute-based leaders.
Recipient: Professor Robert Riddell
Professor Robert Riddell graduated from the University
of London and trained in GI Pathology at St. Mark’s and St.
Bartholomew’s Hospitals. He moved to the University of
Chicago for what should have been two years but stayed for
10 before moving to McMaster University. He moved to
Mount Sinai Hospital in 2001.
Riddell has almost 300 publications, which are largely
in the area of gastrointestinal pathology, primarily in
inflammatory diseases, dysplasia and carcinoma. He was lead author on the paper
defining and grading dysplasia in inflammatory bowel disease into low and high
grade, a system that is not only still in use but has been extended to other parts
of the gastrointestinal tract and beyond. He was also a lead author on the Vienna
system, which allows GI pathologists to use a common nomenclature internationally. He has edited or written six books, which include the AFIP third edition
on Tumors of the Intestines, and has a two-volume book entitled GI Pathology and
its Clinical Implications.
Riddell directs an annual week-long gastrointestinal pathology course
for the ASCP, and speaks frequently both nationally and internationally. He
enjoys teaching GI pathology, and has been part of a GI fellowship program
for more than 30 years. He also enjoys music, especially choral and opera,
watching almost all sports, and eating good food, which, regrettably, he is rarely
able to cook. He is married to Professor Hala El-Zimaity, who also enjoys GI
pathology, and has two children and four grandchildren.
24
Senior
Academic
Promotions
25
SENIOR ACADEMIC PROMOTIONS
W
e are pleased to congratulate the nine faculty members in LMP
who received approval from the Provost for promotion effective
July 1, 2015. These highly respected individuals are being
recognized by peers within the University, nationally and internationally for
their accomplishments in scholarship, teaching and service.
Faculty
promoted to the rank of
Professor
Danny Ghazarian, University Health Network
Professor Danny Ghazarian has made major contributions in
the practice of dermatopathology. He has achieved national
and international recognition for promoting excellence in
dermatopathology as a professional subspecialty of anatomical
pathology, and furthering dermatopathology as an academic
discipline. He has improved clinical practice through his seminal
publications and has built a world-class consultation service and
dermatopathology training program in Canada.
Emina Torlakovic, University Health Network
Professor Emina Torlakovic’s major academic interests have
been in quality assurance and quality control in laboratory
medicine. She has been a major player in the field of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and is co-responsible for establishing
authoritative IHC programs nationally and internationally. In
addition, her work on sessile serrated adenomas of the colon
has revolutionized clinical practice in anatomical pathology,
gastroenterology and oncology.
26
George Yousef, St. Michael’s Hospital
Professor George Yousef ’s internationally recognized research
program takes two parallel directions to improve early
diagnosis and treatment of cancer: (1) the identification of
molecular biomarkers for urological malignancies, and (2)
the discovery of new molecular targets for the development
of therapies. His discoveries impact on our new era of
personalized medicine in kidney and prostate cancers through
the discovery of non-invasive urinary biomarkers for the
diagnosis of kidney cancer, and biomarkers that can predict
treatment efficiency. In addition,Yousef ’s contributions to the
advancement of education in LMP, nationally and internationally, have been recognized.
Faculty
promoted to the rank of
Associate Professor
Eleanor Latta, St. Michael’s Hospital
Professor Eleanor Latta has made significant contributions
in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and
curriculum development. Her distinguished record in teaching
has been recognized by the Faculty of Medicine, LMP and St.
Michael’s Hospital. Her numerous accolades include: the W. T.
Aikins Award, John B. Walter Prize for Teaching/ Education,
Residents’ Best Teacher Award, Kalman Kovacs Award for
Excellence in Undergraduate Medical Training, Bernadette
Garvey Award for Excellence in Resident Teaching, and
Outstanding Tutor for Problem-Based Learning given by the
Fitzgerald Academy at St. Michael’s Hospital.
27
Yulia Lin, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Professor Yulia Lin is described as a rising star and national
leader in transfusion medicine and clinical research. She
has made her mark by enriching the transfusion medicine
education programs, introducing new standards and guidelines
in transfusion medicine, and setting best practices in blood
conservation that have changed medical practice and education.
Ozgur Mete, University Health Network
Professor Ozgur Mete is recognized for his contributions
in endocrine pathology. In particular, he has developed
a new synoptic reporting format for patients with
pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas, defined improved
diagnostic criteria for vascular invasion in endocrine
malignancies, extra-thyroidal extension in thyroid tumours,
and identified biomarkers of parathyroid carcinoma. These
advancements have led to changes in clinical practice and
professional guidelines. His contributions to teaching and
mentoring undergraduate, postgraduate and pathology
colleagues have received considerable attention.
Corwyn Rowsell, Markham Stouffville Hospital
Professor Corwyn Rowsell has contributed to the establishment and dissemination of quality standards in the practice
of pathology, and in advancing the practice of gastrointestinal
pathology through his work on neuroendocrine tumours
and invitations to various expert panels. In addition, Rowsell
spearheaded the adoption of a web-based system for
recording Multidisciplinary Case Conferences Discussions
and management decisions for both the gastrointestinal and
hepatobililary Tumour Boards/MCC.
Retirements
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RETIREMENTS
Roslyn Devlin, St. Michael’s Hospital
Professor Emerita: October 31, 2014
Professor Roslyn Devlin earned her MD in 1971, followed by
a fellowship in Medical Microbiology and a MHSc at U of T.
In 1977, she became an Assistant Professor in the Department
of Medical Microbiology, later to become LMP.
Devlin began her career at Toronto General Hospital where she worked as
a microbiologist from 1977 to 1988. For the next ten years, she served as the
Chief of Microbiology and Infection Prevention and Control at the Wellesley
Hospital, which later became the Wellesley Central Hospital. In 1999, she
became the Medical Director of Microbiology at St. Michael’s Hospital and in
2003 the Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control.
As a researcher, she published more than 35 abstracts and had more
than 20 publications. She developed an interest in Clostridium difficile and
used DNA fingerprinting by restriction endonuclease analysis to study its
epidemiology. She also studied the epidemiology of Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus and organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and B.
cepacia in patients with cystic fibrosis.
In addition to her interest in infection prevention and control, Devlin
became interested in emergency preparedness and served as Co-Chair on both
St. Michael’s Hospital Emergency Management Planning Committee and the
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Task Force.
She especially enjoyed teaching microbiology seminars to undergraduate
students and mentoring residents. “The highlight of my career was to see
residents who were smarter than me pass through my lab and secure staff
positions in hospitals around Toronto,” Devlin said. “I also mentored many of
the current generation of ‘infection preventionists,’ and it’s been rewarding to
see them develop careers in this growing area.”
Devlin is currently renewing her interest in Bible studies by attending
classes twice a week. She is still passionate about microbiology and she
continues to attend Medical Grand Rounds at St. Michael’s Hospital. She has
one son, who is the delight of her life.
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William Halliday, The Hospital for Sick Children
Professor Emeritus: July 31, 2015
In 1982, Professor William Halliday joined LMP, previously
known as the Department of Pathology. He moved to the
University of Manitoba in 1985, and 13 years later, returned
to LMP as a neuropathologist at the Toronto Western Hospital. Following Dr.
Laurence Becker’s untimely death, he moved to the Hospital for Sick Children
(SickKids) in 2003.
Of his many professional accomplishments, he was particularly passionate
about education. “I’ve really enjoyed teaching neurology, neurosurgery,
pediatric neurology and neuropathology residents, and I found that part of
my job really rewarding,” Halliday said. Recognized for his contributions to
education, he received the Department of Pediatric Laboratory Medicine
(DPLM) Teaching Award from SickKids in 2007.
Halliday published extensively, and in 2007 he co-authored the book
Pediatric Neuropathology: A Text-Atlas, a tribute to Dr. Laurence Becker, the
Founding Chief of DPLM at SickKids.
From 1991 to 2000, he served as the Chair of the Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Subspecialty Committee in Neuropathology.
He was also a reviewer for several journals, including the Journal of Neuropathology
and Experimental Neurology and the Journal of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics.
Outside of work, he is an avid trout fisherman, birdwatcher and traveller.
When reflecting on his career, Halliday said, “I’ve been lucky to have the
mentorship of Drs. Rewcastle, Bilbao and Becker, some of the best in the field.”
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Frances O’Malley, St. Michael’s Hospital
Professor Emerita: July 1, 2015
A clinician, educator and researcher with a passion for breast
pathology, Professor Frances O’Malley joined LMP in 1998.
O’Malley was a staff pathologist at London Health Sciences
Centre from 1993 to 1998. For the following 12 years, she worked at Mount Sinai
Hospital and then moved to St. Michael’s Hospital in 2010.
Supported by U of T and external grants, she developed a Clinical Breast
Pathology Fellowship Program.Through this program she trained numerous
pathologists. “It has filled me with such pride to see many of the pathologists who
went through the Breast Pathology Fellowship Program become nationally and
internationally recognized breast pathologists,” O’Malley said.
Beyond publishing extensive research, she also co-edited a book called Breast
Pathology. In recognition of her efforts, she received a book award from the Society
of Authors and the Royal Society of Medicine, United Kingdom, in 2007.
Involved in numerous research initiatives, many of which were multinational in scope, she says that her work on familial breast cancer and HER2 were
among her career highlights.
O’Malley currently runs a breast pathology consultation practice and travels to
non-teaching hospitals to review each lab’s complex breast pathology cases. She also
continues her research with an international group of researchers on the accuracy
of digital pathology, and she is involved in research on the effectiveness of organized
breast assessment among women screened in the Ontario Breast Screening Program.
Over the summer, she plans to immerse herself in theatre, music and literature
in Stratford, Ontario. “Between the Theatre Festival, Stratford Summer Music and
the Stratford Forum, which includes hundreds of talks, workshops and readings by
inspiring authors, I will be very busy!”
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Kenneth Pritzker, Mount Sinai Hospital
Professor Emeritus: July 31, 2015
Involved in clinical service, research and education, Professor
Kenneth Pritzker joined LMP in 1972 as part of the
Department of Pathology.
From 1986 to 2008, Pritzker served as Pathologist-in-Chief at Mount
Sinai Hospital and Director of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory
Medicine. He was also the Medical Director, Laboratory Services at Baycrest
Centre for Geriatric Care from 1995 to 2009.
With a keen interest in aging and degeneration of connective tissues,
he studied how crystal deposits form and possibly dissolve in joints. He also
developed a grading system to predict how osteoarthritis advances in cartilage.
Throughout his career, Pritzker supervised and mentored countless
graduate, undergraduate and postgraduate medical, post-doctoral and
continuing education students and trainees.
As an active member of the pathology community, he has also been
involved in a wide range of associations and committees. Since 1973, he has
been an active participant with the Canadian Association of Pathologists
(CAP). In 2001, he was recognized for his accomplishments with the CAP
Distinguished Award.
Currently, he’s involved in several projects, including advanced imaging
for osteoarthritis, technology that measures chemotherapy’s effectiveness
early in treatment, and technology that can assess cancer risk accurately in
patients with oral or pharyngeal, laryngeal dysplasia.
“I’m not really the type of person to look back, but when I do I think
it’s been a great privilege to work with so many dedicated colleagues and
students,” Pritzker said. “I also find it rewarding to see that the work I started
a long time ago is having an impact on health today.”
33
LMP Graduates
35
PATHOBIOLOGY SPECIALIST PROGRAM
GRADUATING CLASS OF 2014
Olena Bolonna
Maya Deeb
Claudia Dziegielewski
Ariel Gershon
Chloe Gui
Robert Jie Guo
Nevraj Singh Kejiou
Samuel Killackey
Yusuk Benjamin Kim
Nancy Xiaonan Liu
Hazal Mustafa
David Hon-Man Ngai
Huong Thao Nguyen
Kristiana Xhima
Alan Xuan Tong Yu
Alena Alexandra Zelinka-Malajczuk
MSc AND PhD GRADUATE STUDENTS
WHO COMPLETED THEIR DEGREES IN
THE LAST YEAR
MSc
Victoria Bevilacqua (Prof. Adeli)
Pediatric population reference value distributions for cancer biomarkers: A
CALIPER study of healthy community children.
Yevgen Chornenkyy (Prof. Hawkins)
Poly-ADP-ribose-polymerase as a therapeutic target in paediatric diffuse
intrinsic pontine glioma and paediatric high grade astrocytoma.
Rachel Exler (Prof. Sivak)
Mechanical insult uncouples the protective function of PEA15 on extracellular
matrix remodeling and apoptosis.
Meghan Feeney (Prof. Rosenblum)
Two distinct populations of urinary pacemaker cells arise from the neural crest.
Shaan Gupta (Prof.Yang)
MicroRNA-17 targets JAK1 and STAT3 to inhibit osteoblast differentiation.
36
Thuy Linh Ho (Prof. Bapat)
Genome-wide distribution and regulation of DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation by TET proteins in prostate cancer.
Shuo (Sally) Hu (Prof. Grynpas) Investigating in vivo efficacy of novel
ALN-EP4a conjugate drugs for the treatment of post-menopausal osteoporosis.
Tarek Ibrahim (Prof. McLaurin)
The effect of scyllo-inositol on the neurodegeneration induced by alphasynuclein fibril transmission in mice.
Qi Jiang (Prof. Sivak)
Signalling through the PGC-1α pathway mediates an inducible stress response
in retinal astrocytes to resist oxidative and metabolic insults.
Mark Chao Jen (Prof. Lazarus)
Anemia mediated by an anti-erythrocyte antibody is not closely linked to the
amelioration of murine ITP.
Kamya Kommaraju (Prof. Ohh)
Investigation of the role of JAK2 in SOCS1-mediated granulocyte-macrophage
colony-stimulating factor receptor turnover.
John Lee (Prof. Marsden)
Functional role for shear responsive cis elements and fluid shear stress in
epigenetic regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase.
Alexander Munteanu (Prof. Andrulis)
Characterizing the role of podocalyxin in breast carcinoma.
Mona Sobhani (Prof. Chang)
PRIMA-1met promotes anti-tumorigenic effects in Waldenstrom cells via a
P73 -dependent mechanism independent of P53.
Byron Song (Prof. Wang)
Application of J-aggregate monolayers in silica encapsulated SERS nanoprobes
for immunophenotyping of B-cell malignancies.
Aaliyah Tamachi (Prof. Hamel)
Patched-1 intracellular domains interact with E3 ubiquitin ligases Smurf2
and Itch.
37
Samuel Zhixing Tang (Prof. Tsao)
Non-genetic resistant mechanism to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitory therapy.
Brian Vadasz (Prof. Ni)
Pathogenesis of anti-integrin αIIb-mediated fetal and neonatal alloimmune
thrombocytopenia: Establishment of novel murine models in αIIb deficient and
human αIIb transgenic mice.
Matthew Vincent (Prof. Hinek)
Ligands of the elastin receptor stimulate elastogenesis through activation of the
IGF-1 pathway.
Samantha Wala (Prof.Yousef)
Investigating the role of microRNAs in the pathogenesis of kidney cancer
subtypes and their clinical utility as cancer biomarkers.
Lily Yip (Prof. Palaniyar)
Airway nucleases and surfactant protein D promote neutrophil extracellular
traps clearance.
PhD
Safina Ali (Prof. Drucker)
Role of the glucagon and glucagon-like peptides in pancreatic beta cell and
cardiovascular function.
Pawel Buzckowicz (Prof. Hawkins)
Integrated genomic and histopathological analysis of pediatric diffuse intrinsic
pontine glioma.
Tiffany Chan (Prof. Huang)
Characterization of the Myc-JPO2 transforming network in medulloblastoma.
Helen Yu-Shan Chiang (Prof. Robertson)
Identification and characterization of a pathological TDP-43 variant in
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration.
Daniela Cretu (Prof. Diamandis)
Identification and validation of candidate soluble biomarkers for psoriatic
arthritis using quantitative proteomics.
Pardeep Heir (Prof. Ohh)
Regulation of cellular oxygen sensing pathways by VHL.
38
Sarah Higgins (Prof. Kain)
Host response to plasmodium infection: Implications for pathogenesis and
management of cerebral malaria.
George Karagiannis (Prof. Diamandis)
Signatures of the colorectal cancer desmoplastic invasion front.
Simon Lam (Prof. Jim Hu)
Development of helper-dependent adenoviral vectors for gene therapy for
inherited retinal diseases.
Haoran Li (Profs.Yang and Jin)
MicroRNA-17 in the regulation of cellular stress responses.
Keran Ma (Prof. McLaurin)
α-Melanocyte stimulating hormone prevents GABAergic neuronal loss and
improves cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease.
Paul Nagy (Prof. Aubert) Investigating the effect of vesicular acetylcholine
transporter overexpression on central and peripheral function.
Adeline Ng (Prof. Grynpas)
A mouse model of adynamic bone disease (ABD) and its consequences on
bone quality with age.
Ekaterina Olkhov-Mitsel (Prof. Bapat)
Epigenetic analysis of the kallikrein gene family and associated pathways as a
novel panel of prostate cancer biomarkers.
Jayesh Salvi (Prof. Mekhail)
Perinuclear chromosome tethers and RNA-DNA hybrid suppressors maintain
genome stability and cellular lifespan.
Punit Saraon (Prof. Diamandis) Identifying mediators of androgen-independent prostate cancer using mass spectrometry-based proteomics.
Fraser Soares (Prof. Girardin)
Characterizing the role of NLRX1 in innate immunity.
Tara Spence (Prof. Huang)
Characterization and modeling of C19MC amplified/LIN28 immunopositive
pediatric CNS primitive neuroectodermal brain tumours.
Yiming Wang (Prof. Ni)
Plasma fibronectin in hemostasis and thrombosis: Evidence for fibrindependent and independent pathways.
39
GRADUATING RESIDENTS, FELLOWS AND
TRAINEES WHO COMPLETED THEIR
PROGRAMS IN THE LAST YEAR
Residents
Anatomical Pathology: Herman Chui, Brett Danielson, Carlo Hojilla
Bojana Mitrovic, Aurfan Nasser and Ingo von Both.
Forensic Pathology: Rebekah Jacques
Hematological Pathology: Hubert Tsui
Neuropathology: Simin Laiq and Maxime Richer
Clinical Fellows
Nayda Al-Faraidy, Zohreh Eslami, Isabelle Lapointe, Joseph Lee, Chantale
Morin, Houman Nafisi, Aude Roussel-Jobin, Zaid Saeed-Kamil, Erica
Schollenberg, Joerg Schwock, Rory Thompson, Tuyet Nhung Ton Nu,
Shawn Winer and Hannah Wu.
Clinical Chemistry Fellows
Mohamed Abou El-Hassan, Daniel Beriault and Dan Lin.
40
Special Thanks
Administrative Staff
Katie Babcock, Patricia Cayetano, Joanne D’Angelo, Louella D’Cunha,
Ravinder Dhillon, Paula Nixon, Rama Ponda, Ferzeen Sammy, Sue Sarju
Balaga, Teresa Trimboli and Robin Wilcoxen.
LMPSU Executive Council 2014-2015
Co-Presidents: Maya Deeb and Alena Zelinka
Vice-President Academic: Jelena Tanic
Vice-President Social: Michael Nguyen
Vice-President Finance: Amber Cintosun
External Affairs Officer: Charles Kyung Min Lee
Internal Affairs Officer: Ashley Zhang
Webmaster: Lisa Qiu
Social Committee: Stephanie Poon
CLAMPS Executive Council 2014-2015
President: Mena Abdel-Nour
Vice-President Academic: Emily Mathieu
Vice-President Social: Jessica Tsalikis
Treasurer: Yevgen Chornenkyy
Senior Academic: Julia Pasquale
Interdepartmental Representative: Kirk Szafranski
Graduate Student Union Representative: Kaleb Shelton
Secretary: Melissa Menard
Senior Sports Representative: Dylan Brethour
Location Director Representative: Neveena Vicic
Chief Residents
Anatomical Pathology: Carlo Hojilla
Hematological Pathology: Hubert Tsui
Medical Microbiology: Yan Chen
Neuropathology: Simin Laiq
Photographs courtesy of Diana Diaconescu, Paul Hamel, Michelle Lee, Lisa Qiu, Alena Zelinka
and Ashley Zhang.
41
www.lmp.utoronto.ca