Notes from the Director’s Chair

Notes from the Director’s Chair
October is one of the most anticipated months of the year due to the annual
Halloween Trick and Treat parade through CancerCare Manitoba of our
pediatric cancer patients and their families. Thanks to everyone who wore a
costume, sorted candy and handed out candy to the children. I would
especially like to thank Eileen McMillan-Ward for her organization of this
event.
One of the odd things that occur during this month is the appearance of Dr.
Bones. He was spotted doing experiments in Dr. Israel’s lab, playing with
the photocopier outside the main office and apparently trying to take over
my job (see picture)! Unfortunately, on Halloween day, he was apparently
murdered in Dr. McManus’s office. If you have any suspects in this murder
please let the main office know so the perpetrator can be brought to justice.
We'd like to thank the following Winnipeggers for their generous donations of candy, gift certificates
and toys to make CancerCare Manitoba's annual pediatric oncology Hallowe'en party so special for the
kids.
Jolie-Anne Horn from McDonalds (community relations rep)
Frosso Cotsianis (district 13 assistant) and co-manager Tracy from Wal-mart
Judith and John Williamson from Tim Horton’s
Craig Poleshuk (managing partner) from Boston Pizza
John di Quinzio, Steve Stanko and Patty Richter from Old Dutch Chips
Ken Leslie at the Royal Bank!
The Periodic Table of MICB (GREAT JOB!)
October 2014
Congratulations to our Ashely Sitarz who welcomed the newest member of MICB family this month,
Michael Eric Sitarz. He made a rather dramatic entrance on October 15th. Mom, Dad and baby are doing
great!
We bid a fond farewell to a valuable and long-time staff member. Mary
Marko was with MICB for over ten years, helping sort out orders and grants.
She begins her well-deserved retirement with a month long vacation in a
tropical island. She will also have time to spend with family especially her
grandchildren.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Due to the departures of Mary and Ashley from the Main Office, Ms. Wendy
Bencharski will be taking over Mary’s duties and Ms. Cecile Verrier will be taking over Ashley’s duties.
Please contact them if you need to have further information.
We also said goodbye to Shihua He from the Davie lab. He has been a long
standing member of Dr. Davie’s lab and contributed to some of his most cited
work. He is moving to the National Microbiology Labs (NML). We wish him
luck on his new career.
Dr. Katyal provided desserts for MICB staff and friends who contributed
to gifts for his new born daughter. Nothing like food to bring people
together at MICB.
The University installed a feature wall of Canada Research Chairs on the 2nd floor of the Brodie building.
Congratulations to Jim Davie (3rd photo on the top row) for being part of this unique display.
On a personnel note, as I walk by this display of prominent scientists at the University of Manitoba, I get
the feeling they are watching me (just a thought for the month).
October 2014
CancerCare Manitoba Foundation has been very active with us, making
commercials and promoting our work to the media. Versha Banerji was
featured in a CTV Modern Medicine series which can be seen here
http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/video?binId=1.1206917 Sabine Mai and the
GCCRD and Stephen Pistorius are next to be featured on CTV Winnipeg in the
coming months. Meanwhile Etienne’s lab was the backdrop to another “Kick
Cancer” commercial featuring Dr Vallerie Gordon from the Department of
Medical Oncology/Hematology, to create awareness of oral cancers from
chewing tobacco use.
Speaking of Sabine Mai, her research on imaging circulating tumour cells from prostate cancer was
featured on CTV’s Community Connection to promote Movember.
http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=477798
The annual CLL Patient information night was held on October 29. 106 patients, many of whom were
newly diagnosed, attended this session with Drs Johnston, Banerji, Gibson, Dhaliwal and Erin Streu.
Patients learned about new clinical trials, research being conducted at MICB, disease management and
met other patients in the same situation. Not to pit one Banerji against another, but the CLL night is the
best attended patient information night, beating lung cancer’s by a 3:1 margin!
The Foundation also wants to thank Sajesh Babu, Liz Henson, Molly Pind and Eilean
McKenzie-Matwiy for volunteering to be in an upcoming commercial! For every test
drive or car rental in the month of November, Murray Chevrolet and Enterprise will
donate $10 to CCMF. Not only that, if get your photo taken like this , they will also
donate $10 per photo! So everyone, come get your photo taken at the Foundation’s
office (CCMF office on the main floor) or contact Michelle Blais (204) 787-1334 |
[email protected] ) who will come up to take your photo!
The University of Manitoba’s Undergraduate Student Research Poster
Competition was held earlier this month. Congratulations to Michael Xu from
Sabine Mai’s lab, who won first place in the Health Sciences category for his
work on circulating tumour cells in prostate cancer. Rajas Tipnis from Sachin
Katyal’s lab also presented his work on brain tumours.
October 2014
CancerCare Manitoba Foundation Operating and Infrastructure grants will be due on January 23,
2015. LOIs for the Infrastructure grants only are due November 21st.
Many Upcoming Events
The Office of Research Services is hosting a 2nd session on putting together a strong clinical trial grant
application. This session, which will cover the same content as the Fall 2013 session held at the
Bannatyne campus, will be held on November 6th from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm in room 210 Helen
Glass Centre at the Fort Garry campus. Come and participate in this discussion, with Dr. Ryan
Zarychanski, Department of Internal Medicine, Sections of Hematology/Medical Oncology and Critical
Care; Dr. Carolyn Snider, Department of Emergency Medicine; and Dr. Peter Jones, Director,
Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals. The presentations and discussion will have
a CIHR focus, but the information may be generally useful to such applications for other agencies.
On November 6 from 12:00 – 1:00 in the Frederic Gaspard Theatre, the University of Manitoba will
be hosting a Q&A to discuss the changes with the Faculty of Health Sciences. All faculty, staff, and
students are encouraged to attend.
Also on November 6 from 4:30 – 6:00 in Lecture Theatre A (BMSB) Dr Navaratnam, President and
CEO of CancerCare Manitoba will be hosting a town hall. Dr Navaratnam will use this opportunity talk
about the CancerCare Manitoba Strategic Forum, 2 days of meetings on Nov 7th & 8th where CCMB
staff and partners (UM, WRHA, DSM, provincial government) will develop CancerCare Manitoba’s
strategic plan for the next decade.
And finally, you guessed it, on November 6 at 11:00 – 12:00 in the CancerCare Manitoba Lecture
Theatre, Dr Wayne Xu will be giving a lecture on “Cancer Biomarker Discovery” as part of the search
process for a the hiring of a new MICB Senior Scientist.
The Office of Research Services is hosting a presentation on preparing an application for the CIHR New
Investigators Salary Award program, to be held on Friday, November 7th from 10:00 am to 11:30 am
in Room 540 BMSB (Dept of Medical Microbiology meeting room) at the Bannatyne Campus. This
presentation is designed to provide useful information to researchers who are planning to apply in the
upcoming New Investigators Salary Award competition.
Also on November 7 at 11:00 626 Conference Room BMSB, the Centre for HealthCare Innovation is
hosting a workshop with Dr Richard Simon (Chief, Biometric Research Branch, Division of Cancer
Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute, NIH) on “Development of predictive classifiers
based on high dimensional data validation for an intended use”.
Dr Sachin Katyal will be speaking about developing and tailoring CVs at the next grad students’ and
post-doc career development workshop on November 14th.
October 2014
The Office of Research Services is hosting a presentation by Frank Nolan, Research and Innovation
Development Officer (NSERC Prairies Regional Office), and Iman Yahyaie, Business Development
Specialist (Mitacs) on the NSERC Engage/Engage Plus funding opportunity and Mitacs programs on
November 27, 2014 from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.in S211 Medical Services Bldg. at the Bannatyne Campus.
Publications
DNA modifications: function and applications in normal and disease States.
Liyanage VR, Jarmasz JS, Murugeshan N, Del Bigio MR, Rastegar M, Davie JR.
Biology (Basel). 2014 Oct 22;3(4):670-723. doi: 10.3390/biology3040670. Review.
Gefitinib targets ZAP-70-expressing chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells and inhibits B-cell receptor
signaling. Dielschneider RF, Xiao W, Yoon JY, Noh E, Banerji V, Li H, Marshall AJ, Johnston JB,
Gibson SB Cell Death Dis. 2014 Oct 2;5:e1439. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2014.391.
Differential regulation of estrogen receptors α and β by 4-(E)-{(4-hydroxyphenylimino)methylbenzene,1,2-diol}, a novel resveratrol analog. Ronghe A, Chatterjee A, Singh B, Dandawate P,
Murphy L, Bhat NK, Padhye S, Bhat HK.J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2014 Oct;144 Pt B:500-12. doi:
0.1016/j.jsbmb.2014.09.015.
Cell Biology Club
November 3
- Rebecca Dielschneider - "Targeting susceptible signaling pathways in CLL"
- Chrissie Bruce - "mTOR/ERd interaction in breast cancer cells
November 17
- Vasudeva Bhat
- Laura Thompson “CIN genes in colorectal cancer”
Grants and Awards Deadline
October 31
- World Wide Cancer Research Organization
- UM Travel and Conference Sponsorship
- National Blood Foundation Grant
November 1
- Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program
- MICH Travel grant
- Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation
- Union for International Cancer Control Global Education and Training
- Clinic and Lab Integration Program
- Kidney Foundation of Canada Meeting and planning grant
- CCSRI Quality of Life Research Grant
November 3
- FAAF Canadian Hemophilia Society Care until Cure Research Grant
October 2014
- FAAF CIHR Knowledge Synthesis Grant
- FAAF Harkness Fellowship in health care policy and practice
- FAAF CIHR Post doctoral fellowship
- LOI Leukemia and Lymphoma Society SPOR
- Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety
- EOI Prostate Cancer Canada Movember Team Grant
- NSERC Discovery Grant
November 5 – Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
November 6
- FAAF Susan G Koman Career Catalyst Research Grant
- FAAF Susan G Koman Post doc fellowship
- FAAF Susan G Koman Graduate training in disparities research
November 7 – FAAF Alzheimer’s Society of Canada operating grant, doctoral scholarship, young
investigators award and post doctoral fellowship
November 14
- Canadian Hemophilia Society Dream of a cure Research program
- LOI Canadian Hemophilia Society – Novo Nordisk Psychosocial Research Program
- CIHR Post doctoral Fellowship
November 15 – Registration CIHR Thromboembolic Diseases clinical trial
November 17
- FAAF CIHR New Investigator award
- CBCF Post Doctoral Fellowship
- CIHR Knowledge synthesis grant
- Harkness Fellowship in health care policy and practice
November 20
- Susan G Koman Career Catalyst Research Grant
- Susan G Koman Post doctoral fellowship
- Susan G Koman Graduate training in disparities research
November 21 – LOI for CCMF Infrastructure grants
November 26
- LOI Pathways to health equity for aboriginal people
- LOI & FAAF MITACS elevate post doctoral fellowship
November 28
- FAAF CBCF CIHR Stand up to Cancer
- Alzheimer’s Society of Canada operating grant, doctoral scholarship, young investigators award
and post doctoral fellowship
December 1
- CIHR New Investigator Salary Award
- Manning Innovation Award
- MICH Travel Grant
- CIHR Foundation Scheme Notice of Decision
- IODE War memorial scholarship for 2nd year medical students
- Earlier.org Friends for an earlier breast cancer test
October 2014
Hallowe’en Fun!
Mountains of candy
Volunteers packing almost 1000 goody bags to hand out to the kids.
Dr Bones needed to stop for a drink
October 2014