The 17th Annual Krembil Research Day was held on May 10th, 2017 at the Chestnut Residence & Conference Centre. Opening remarks were provided by UHN’s Executive VP of Science and Research, Dr. Bradly Wouters, and Krembil Research Institute Director Dr. Donald Weaver.
Throughout the day, Krembil trainees shared their latest findings through a series of oral and poster presentations. Graduate student and Postdoctoral fellow categories for the top oral and poster presentations were judged and later awarded. The overall category winners are summarized below (full results are available here).
This year marked the inaugural ‘elevator pitch’ session, where trainees had to provide a very brief, three-minute overview of their research findings. The audience voted on their choice for favourite elevator pitch: the people’s choice went to Dr. Shabana Amanda Ali (Dr. M. Kapoor’s lab), who presented on the process of biomarker discovery in osteoarthritis research.
This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Eve Marder, Professor of Biology at Brandeis University and 2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience award recipient. She is a leading expert in how the intrinsic properties of neurons affects circuit function. Her talk was titled “Individual Variability and Resilience in Neurons and Neural Circuits” and described how developing a neural network model is necessary but not sufficient to understand circuit dynamics. She also provided the crowd with insights for how to maintain a long and successful career in science, including the importance of collaboration and learning from your peers.
The event would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the Trainee Affairs Committee led by Dr. Frances Skinner, the Krembil Administration team, morning and afternoon session Chairs Drs. Joan Wither and Mary Pat McAndrews, the presentation judges, and the leadership of Dr. Donald Weaver.
Save the Date
Next year’s Krembil Research Day will be on May 18, 2018 and will feature a keynote address by world-leading vision scientist Dr. Samer Hattar from the National Institutes of Mental Health Laboratories. We hope to see you there!