In This Issue:

HONOURS AND AWARDS

Michael Belanger (Senior Animal Surgical Technician, Department of Surgery, supervisor - Carin Wittnich) and co-author Jack Wallen (PhD candidate, Department of Physiology, supervisor - Carin Wittnich, Department of Surgery) have won the 2000 Technician Publication Award from the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science for his paper "Special Feeding and Care of Senescent Hypertensive Rats". This unsolicited award, given for the best paper of the year published by an AALAS member, was awarded at the Association's annual scientific meeting in San Diego California.

Neil Cashman (Department of Medicine) is the winner of the 2000 Dr. Jonas Salk Award. This Ontario March of Dimes Award, established in 1992 and sponsored by Aventis Pasteur, recognizes a lifetime of outstanding contributions to basic biomedical research. It is given annually to a Canadian who has made a new or significant contribution to science or medicine in the alleviation or prevention of a disabling condition. Dr. Cashman is considered to be a world expert on degenerative neuromuscular disorders - in particular, the late effects of poliomyelitis, often called Post Polio Syndrome. The Award was presented at the Paul Martin Senior Society Members' Reception at the University Club on December 11, 2000.

David Goldbloom (Department of Psychiatry) and Graham Trope (Department of Ophthalmology) have received two of the four Council Awards of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). The award is presented to honour outstanding Ontario physicians who have demonstrated excellence and come closest to meeting society's vision of an "ideal physician". The Award will be presented in the fall at the CPSO office. All four of this year's Council Award winners are UofT faculty - chosen from a pool of 17,000 physicians. As previously announced, Ronald Laxer (Department of Paediatrics) and Robert Freedom (Department of Paediatrics) are the other two winners of this Award.

APPOINTMENTS

Joseph Chu (Department of Medicine) was elected President of the Association of Ontario Neurologists, effective April 2000 for one year. He is also the Tariff Chair of the Ontario Medical Association section of Neurology.

Michael Ratcliffe has been appointed Chair of the Department of Immunology for a five-year term, effective from March 1, 2001 to June 30, 2006. Dr. Ratcliffe comes to us from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

Ori Rotstein (Department of Surgery) was appointed Acting Director of the Institute of Medical Science, effective January 1, 2001 until June 30, 2001, or until a new director is appointed, whichever occurs first.

Richard Tiberius (Department of Psychiatry) joined the editorial board of the Education for Health: Change in Learning and Practice journal, as of January 2001.

MEDICAL STUDENT RESEARCH DAY

The 15th annual Faculty of Medicine Medical Student Research Day was held on January 9, 2001. In addition to the poster competition, a highlight of the day was the keynote address delivered by Dr. Lorne Tyrrell (Dean of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta and developer of Heptovir) on the topic, "From Farm to Pharma". Winners at the Research Day were:

Basic Sciences
No Previous Graduate Degree Level
- Sharon Cushing (MD Year 2, supervisor - P.K. Rose, Department of Physiology, Queen's University) - for her project, "Mophroelectrotonic Properties of Motoneuron Dendrites are Related to their Trajectory"

Previous Graduate Degree Level
- Matthew Hebb (MD Year 3, supervisor - Andres Lozano, Department of Surgery) - for his project, "Identification of Phenotypic Changes in Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta Neurons During Axogenesis".

MD/PHD Level
Raymond Kim (MD/PhD Year 3, supervisor - Tak Mak, Department of Medical Biophysics) - for his project, "Characterization of DJ-1, a Regulator of the Tumour Suppressor PTEN".

Clinical Research
No Previous Graduate Degree Level
- Steve Singh (MD Year 2, supervisor - Stephen Fremes, Department of Surgery) - for his project, "Late Results of the Warm Heart Trial: The Importance of Myocardial Protection on Late Survival and Cardiac Readmission for Non-Fatal Late Events".

Previous Graduate Degree Level
- Feisal Adatia (MD Year 2, supervisor - Allan Slomovic, Department of Ophthalmology) - for his project, "Examination of the Correlation Between Corneal Sensitivity, Subjective Dry Eye Symptoms, and Corneal Fluorescein Staining in Sjogren's Syndrome"

MD/PHD Level
- Richard Swartz (MD/PhD Year 5, supervisor - Sandra Black, Department of Medicine) - for his project, "Quantification of Brain Hyperintensities and Atrophy on MRI: The Sunnybrook Dementia Study".

Health Care / International Health / Community Health
No Previous Graduate Degree Level
- Neety Panu (MD Year 3, supervisor - David Rowed, Department of Surgery) - for his project, "Predictors of Postoperative Impact from Preoperative Variables".

Previous Graduate Degree Level
- Tanya Zakrison (MD Year 2, supervisor - Catherine Chalin, Department of Public Health Sciences) - for her project, "The Prevalence of General Mental Health Disorders in Palestinian Children of the West Bank".

Top Student Supervised In Department Of Medicine
- Ally-Kahn Somani (MD/PhD Year 7, supervisor - Katherine Siminovitch, Department of Medicine) - for his project, "CD5-Mediated Inhibition of TCR Signaling Proceeds Normally in the Absence of SHP-1".

Top Overall
- Raymond Kim (MD/PhD Year 3, supervisor - Tak Mak, Department of Medical Biophysics)
- Lorraine Hajdur (MD/PhD Year 4, supervisor - Michael Salter, Department of Physiology) - for her project, "Interaction Between SRC Protein Tyrosine Kinase and PSD-95".

Raymond Kim, Lorraine Hajdur, and Ally-Kahn Somani will represent the UofT at this year's National Student Research Forum in Galveston, Texas.

Top of Page