5 CV: Dr. ArjUN SAHGAL

6 TrAINEES’ POST

7 APPLAUSE

At the Core: We take you inside one of SrI’s cutting-edge facilities4

AUTUMN 2013

Tomorrow’s Innovators Competition highlights top summer research projects

By Eleni Kanavas

On August 22, 2013, Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) hosted its annual Best Summer Research Project competition, concluding this year’s D+H SRI Summer Student Research Program.

At 53 entries, this was the largest competition in recent years. The entries, representing diverse research topics, included 18 from Biological Sciences, 24 from Evaluative Clinical Sciences and 11 from Physical Sciences.

Students presented their work to judges and onlookers, and explained their findings through posters illustrating their methods, observations and results. The gathering also gave students an opportunity to see the work of their peers. The panel of judges was comprised of SRI scientists, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students from each platform.

“It’s wonderful to see what all the students are doing and that they have a great grasp of the science. They seem to know the nuts and bolts of their research, as well as the rationale,” said Dr. Michele Anderson, a senior scientist in Biological Sciences who was one of the judges.

The summer studentship program, made possible by a generous donation from D+H Corporation, aims to provide undergraduates from universities across Canada with an opportunity to conduct intensive research and be mentored by SRI scientists. The place-ments give students hands-on training and a unique hospital-based research experience that promotes the postgraduate field as a prospective career.

Continued on page 2

The winners of the 2013 Best Summer Research Project competi-tion were, from left to right (back row): Ricardo Leon Ketelier, Michael Hynes, Shahmir Sohail and Jeremy Devine; (front row): Kim Blakely, Ashton Trotman-Grant, Perakaa Sethukavalan and Sharon May. Bob Noftall (centre left) and Dr. Michael Julius (centre right) presented the awards. [Photo: Doug Nicholson]

2 • Sunnybrook Research Institute

Continued from page 1

Within the program, SRI also hosts an orientation and a weekly seminar series that showcases the research of scientists from across the platforms and programs.

Judges evaluated students based on the quality of their posters, communication skills and scientific merit of the project. They selected the top student from each platform. There were also second-place and third-place winners owing to the number of participants.

“We’re here today to celebrate each one of you and the fruits of your summer research experience. I hope you had a wonderful time. I see many repeat faces, and I understand that there are more re-peat faces yet to come,” said Dr. Michael Julius, vice-president of research at Sun-nybrook. Julius congratulated the students on their hard work and announced the winners at the end of the event.

Bob Noftall, executive vice-president of human resources at D+H, also attended the competition and presented the awards. “I want to thank you for your candour and your energy,” he told the students. “My job in my company is to spot talent, and I wish

I was in your field because I feel a lot of talent in the room.”

Shahmir Sohail, who was supervised by Dr. Andrew Lim, placed first in Evaluative Clinical Sciences for his research on genes that affect the risk of developing Parkin-son’s disease. He found a common genetic variant that could be biologically plausible for being a Parkinson’s risk gene from the associated biomarker for the disease.

Sohail, a third-year neuroscience student at McGill University, said the project was well suited to him because of his interest in bioinformatics and genetics.

“I like dealing with numbers, and it was a great learning experience. This was also my first time presenting in an academic setting,” said Sohail, who will put the prize money toward his studies.

First-place winners received $500; second-place winners, $300; and third-place winners, $200. All winners received individualized awards; first-place winners will have their names engraved on display plaques at SRI.

A total of 187 summer students were hired this year through research administration.

Other award winners include:

First place:

• Michael Hynes (Physical Sciences, supervised by Dr. Stuart Foster): “Feasibility of mild ultrasound hyper- thermia for the treatment of dry eye.”

• Ricardo Leon Ketelier (Biological Sciences, supervised by Dr. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker): “Function- ality avidity of anti-melanoma T cells.”

Second place: • Jeremy Devine (Physical Sciences, supervised by Dr. Anne Martel): “Automated histological tissue quant- ification: Detection of amyloid plaques in stained brain sections of mice with Alzheimer’s disease.”

• Sharon May (Evaluative Clinical Sciences, supervised by Dr. Don Redelmeier): “Pregnancy and motor vehicle injury.”

• Ashton Trotman-Grant (Bio- logical Sciences, supervised by Dr. Michele Anderson: “Changing partners in the dance towards lineage commitment: HEB proteins in T cell development.”

Third place:

• Kim Blakely (Biological Sciences, supervised by Dr. Urban Emmen- egger): “Biomarker identification to stratify response to temsirolimus maintenance therapy in a Phase 2 trial of castration-resistant prostate cancer.”

• Perakaa Sethukavalan (Evaluative Clinical Sciences, supervised by Dr. Andrew Loblaw): “Matched cohort study of low-risk prostate cancer treated with standard external beam radiotherapy versus stereotactic body radiotherapy.”

For more on the D+H SRI Summer Student Research Program, including profiles of some of this year’s students and stories about past poster competitions, visit the education and training section at sunnybrook.ca/research.

Prostate Cancer Canada Awards a Trio of Scientists

Three Sunnybrook Research Institute scientists were awarded Movember Discovery Grants from Prostate Cancer Canada. The awards are worth $200,000 over two years and support promising new directions in prostate cancer research.

Dr. Charles Cunningham, a senior scientist in Physical Sciences, gained funding for his research on hyperpolarized carbon-13 imaging of advanced metastatic prostate cancer.

Dr. Greg Czarnota, director of the Odette Cancer Research Program, secured funding for his research on the use of microbubbles to enhance radiotherapy for prostate cancer.

Dr. Stanley Liu, a scientist in Biological Sciences and radiation oncologist at the Odette Cancer Centre, scored funding for his research, which looks at how microRNAs (short sequences of ribonucleic acid) help prostate cancer cells evade death from radiation, a main treatment for prostate cancer.

Biologist Recognized for Novel Approach to Recovery From Cancer Treatment

The Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute awarded Dr. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, a senior scientist in Biological Sciences, an innovation grant worth $200,000 over two years. He will use the funds to study T cell immune-regeneration strategies in human stem cells. The study aims to help patients treated with radiation and chemo-therapy to fight infections and enable rapid recovery of their immune system.

News @ SRI

Dr. Stanley Liu

NEXUS AUTUMN 2013 • 3

Researchers Secure Federal Funding

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) awarded seven researchers at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) with operating grants totaling $2.6 million over the next five years. The federal funding agency’s March 2013 competition had a 20% funding rate and yielded a total investment of $238.4 million.

Dr. Richard Aviv, an affiliate scientist in the Brain Sciences Research Program, was awarded a one-year grant worth $77,402. Using a new magnetic resonance imaging technique, Aviv will study the relationship between cortical disease and cognitive impairment among people with multiple sclerosis. The aim of the study is to help doctors monitor disease activity and assess the efficacy of new drugs.

Dr. Brian Cuthbertson, a senior scientist in the Trauma, Emer-gency & Critical Care Research Program, was awarded $84,627 over 18 months. The award will support his work on understand-ing and improving early physical rehabilitation in patients on life support in the intensive care unit.

Dr. Gregory Czarnota, director of the Odette Cancer Research Program, was awarded $706,608 over five years to investigate and optimize the use of microbubbles to enhance the effects of radiation in preclinical tumour models.

Dr. Liisa Jaakkimainen, an associate scientist in Evaluative Clini-cal Sciences, was awarded $448,802 over three years to measure wait times in primary care and community-based services. The study’s aim is to help health planners’ decision-making about providing additional health resources and services to patients in these areas.

Dr. Jeffrey Kwong, an associate scientist in Evaluative Clinical Sciences, was awarded $228,197 over two years. Using data from the laboratories of Public Health Ontario and hospital health records, he aims to determine how well influenza vaccines work to protect people from being hospitalized or dying from flu.

Dr. David Spaner, a senior scientist in Biological Sciences, was awarded $377,124 over three years to determine the most effective ways to improve the results of steroid therapy for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Dr. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, a senior scientist in Biological Sciences, was awarded $769,770 over five years for his research on T cell development in the thymus, an organ where white blood cells from bone marrow-derived stem cells mature, multiply and become T cells. Zúñiga-Pflücker will study the key signalling pathways occurring at a critical checkpoint in T cell development. He will examine the molecular cues that distinguish one type of T cell from another and how they function and are generated.

SRI researchers funded through other CIHR competitions:

Dr. Sophie Grigoriadis, a scientist in the Brain Sciences Research Program, was awarded a Knowledge to Action operating grant worth $170,467 over 20 months. The award will support her work on developing a physician reference guide for the treatment of depression in pregnancy with antidepressant medication.

Dr. Mark Rapoport, an associate scientist in the Brain Sciences Research Program, was also awarded a Knowledge to Action operating grant. He will receive $174,841 over two years to assess a tool to help physicians decide when a patient with mild dementia should be reported to transportation authorities because their dementia has made them unsafe drivers. Rapo-port also received a one-year planning grant worth $24,999 to improve Canadian guidelines for determining medical fitness to operate motor vehicles.

Dr. Jill Tinmouth, a scientist in Evaluative Clinical Sciences, was awarded $558,290 over three years through the Partnerships for Health System Improvement program. She will use the funds to improve cancer screening among First Nations and Métis communities in Canada.

At the Helm

Dr. Michael Schull, a senior scientist in Evaluative Clinical Sciences, was appointed president and CEO of the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences. Schull’s research focuses on health service utilization, quality of care and patient outcomes as they relate to emergency care, and the study of inter-ventions designed to reduce emergency department wait times. He is also a professor in the department of medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Michael Schull

Scientist Targets Breast Cancer

Dr. Jean Gariépy, a senior scientist in the Odette Cancer Research Program, was awarded an operating grant worth $445,364 over three years from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The award will support his research into the use of synthetic molecules developed by his lab that target carcinoem-bryonic antigen and Tn antigen, two biomarkers of breast cancer. The aim of the research is to use these molecules for targeted diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

Health Services Researcher To Study Care Following Emergency Department Visit

The Physicians’ Services Incorporated Foundation awarded Dr. Clare Atzema, a scientist in the Trauma, Emergency & Critical Care Research Program, a one-year grant worth $68,500. The funds will support her research on follow-up care after a visit to the emergency department (ED) by assessing the frequency and timeliness in patients with chronic diseases. The study will examine how many patients saw a doctor after the ED visit and determine whether lack of follow-up was associated with more deaths, return ED visits and taking recommended medications.

News @ SRI

Dr. Jill Tinmouth

4 • Sunnybrook Research Institute

Tool Kit: GE T200 Surface Plasmon Resonance System

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a technique that enables researchers to study biomolecular interactions as they happen, without having to label molecules with fluorescent or radioac-tive tags, which can compromise activity. Sunnybrook Research Institute senior scientist Dr. Jean Gariépy acquired GE’s Biacore T200 SPR system for the development of targeted therapies and imaging tools for cancer and other gene-based disorders.

Part of the lab’s work is the design of ligands (signal-triggering molecules) that bind to therapeutic targets to alter cellular func-tions associated with diseased cells. The system provides the group with quantitative data on ligand binding, specifically, rates of association and dissociation, and the strength of interaction between engineered molecules and target proteins. This informa-tion identifies which ligands show therapeutic potential and should thus be tested further.

“Having this allows us to rapidly test all of our synthetic ligands. You get on- and off-rates in real time,” says Aaron Prodeus, a master’s student in Gariépy’s lab who is developing DNA aptamers to treat cancer. These are short, single-stranded DNA sequences that are manipulated into 3-D structures for interac-tion with a protein target. “If we generate an aptamer or antibody that sticks and doesn’t let go for hours, I can tell you that based on this machine because it’s monitoring that release over time.”

Analytes—including proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and carbo-hydrates—are flowed from the sample compartment, through a fluidic system and across a gold-plated sensor chip, affixed onto which are probe molecules. Light passes through a prism, reflects off the sensor chip and into a detector. Based on the interaction happening on the sensor chip, there is a change in the direction of the reflected light. A computer hooked up to the instrument displays the shift on a reflectivity curve over time.

In addition to measuring the affinity and kinetics of binding events, the system can do high-throughput runs using 96- or 384-well plates—unattended. “We can test libraries of compounds for activity against our target. It’s all automated. You just put your samples into the plate in the right order, hit ‘go’ and come back. It can even do up to 48-hour experiments if you have enough samples,” says Prodeus.

The system is worth $440,000 and was purchased with fund-ing from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. — Alisa Kim

The Gariépy lab uses the GE T200 surface plasmon resonance system to develop targeted therapies and imaging tools for cancer and other gene-linked disorders. [Photo: Alisa Kim]

At the CoreWe take you inside one of SRI’s cutting-edge facilities

Scientists at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) are known for their expertise in medical imaging. The image-processing lab is a core facility within the Centre for Research in Image-Guided Therapeutics. Here, scientists and engineers are developing computer-aided tools to detect, diagnose and monitor the progression of disease and guide the delivery of therapies.

Located on M6, the lab brings together researchers and engineers working on image-processing techniques to perform advanced analysis and visualization of the large amount of data produced for diagnosis and treatment planning.

Within this facility, SRI scientists and their teams are designing software programs to guide interventions, as well as analyzing image-processing methods for cancer, heart disease and neurological conditions such as stroke and dementia. The lab also offers researchers software training to improve understanding and the application of state-of-the-art image-analysis techniques.

The lab is equipped with powerful servers to process vast amounts of data. There is also a viewing room that has a 3-D TV with a high-end graphics computer attached to it.

Research projects in this area include using neuroimaging techniques to understand brain-behaviour relationships in stroke and dementia; developing a computer-aided detection and diagnosis system for breast magnetic resonance imaging, which will allow clinicians to detect cancer earlier and with greater sensitivity; and developing new image segmentation and analysis tools to improve diagnosis and assessment of cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases.

To learn more about the facility, visit sunnybrook.ca/research/cerigt.

NEXUS AUTUMN 2013 • 5

Tool Kit: GE T200 Surface Plasmon Resonance System We Are SRI

Behind the Scenes With Peggy Huang

CV: Dr. Arjun SahgalBio basics: A scientist in Physical Sci-ences and the Odette Cancer Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) and radiation oncologist at Sunnybrook. Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. Married with two daughters, aged three and four years.

Why did you go into radiation oncology?I thought it was the perfect blend of medicine and surgery without having to do surgery. It meant a different way

of thinking—treating cancer locally with energy, without using a scalpel or chemotherapy. Growing up, I always wanted to do oncology as I had several family members with cancer, and I worked toward this goal for as long as I can remember.

What is your research focus?I specialize in focal radiation called radiosurgery to brain, spine and bone tumours. We developed a method called stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for spinal tumours that precisely hits targets in the spine with high doses to ablate the cancer safely. We’ve made major contributions by reporting guidelines for safe spinal cord practice and fracture risk to make SBRT safer. We are now reporting outcomes. Our data will help guide the appropriate use of surgery. We’re also developing strategies with [SRI’s] Dr. Albert Yee to combine new nonradiotherapeutic modalities with SBRT.

I also do radiosurgery to the brain. Here at Sunnybrook, we’re about to start frameless radiosurgery so we don’t have to screw

in the invasive head frame, which is very uncomfortable. We have also adopted an approach to deliver the treatment over several days (hypofractionation) to increase the dose and efficacy of treatment, and still maintain reasonable rates with respect to toxicity. One major aim is to avoid whole brain radiation and offer radiosurgery alone. The toxicities of whole brain radiation are significant; people get neurocognitive damage and a drop in their quality of life. We have data showing a survival advantage for younger patients if we treat with radiosurgery alone.

Do you collaborate with other SRI scientists on your research?Dr. [Kullervo] Hynynen and I have been looking at magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound with Dr. Todd Mainprize for neurosurgery for tumour ablation and opening up the blood-brain barrier. Dr. Greg Stanisz and I started doing specific sequences to measure apoptosis following high-dose radiation in the brain. I’ve worked with Dr. Richard Aviv in medical imaging on perfusion imaging for brain metastases.

I’ve also been working with Dr. Cari Whyne. With her expertise we’ve been able to understand better the relationship between lytic tumours, sclerotic tumours and the risk for vertebral compression fracture. That’s becoming more of a major event in these patients following this high-dose focal treatment. We recently wrote a review in Lancet Oncology where we spelled out how we think it happens.

If you weren’t in medicine, which profession would you try?VP, research [laughs]. I collaborate with medical physics people. Sometimes I wonder if I could have done a medical physics or engineering degree.

Bio basics: Manager, research finance, Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) since April 2011. Worked as a senior auditor at Deloitte LLP prior to joining SRI. Born in Guangzhou, China. Immigrated to Canada in 1996. Married to Ronald since 2010.

What does your job entail?My responsibilities include SRI core finan-cial reporting, core budget and planning, preaward and postaward administration, and financial management of grants. A main part of my job is reporting. I ensure

accurate monthly and year-end close, pre-pare the monthly SRI financial statements, and investigate [cost centre] variances and report back to senior management. Since 2010, when [SRI] became a separate legal entity, we have more financial reporting requirements. We need to have our own set of audited annual financial statements. I ensure SRI’s compliance with accounting policies, and make and help implement recommendations to improve accounting and administration procedures.

Postaward administration is another major part of my job. With increased financial requirements from granting agencies, we spend more time on reports. I ensure that SRI complies with [the agencies’] policies and program guidelines.

Why did you move to SRI?At Deloitte, I was in the public sector group. Most of my clients were govern-ment and hospitals. After I learned about their operations, I decided that I wanted to work in a hospital after I left the firm.

Working at Deloitte was great, as it gave me opportunities to learn the operation of different organizations; however, I got tired of travelling. Also, with client-based work, you don’t know what’s coming. So I felt that it was time for me to move and focus on one organization. This opportunity came up, and I took it.

What do you like to do outside of work?During the week, I just relax after a long day working and commuting. During vacations, I like travelling with family and friends.

How do you like working in research?It’s quite interesting. Most of the time when we talk to the scientists, we talk about the finances or administration of their accounts. Sometimes they tell me about their research, and I find it really interesting. The research they’re doing is helping people. If I had the opportunity, I’d want to know more about their research. There’s so much to learn in research ad-ministration. The policies keep changing.

Peggy Huang on a recent trip to Lucerne, Switzerland.

6 • Sunnybrook Research Institute

Trainees’ Post: for Students and PostdocsMentoring: a Gratifying Experience for All Involved

The focused ultrasound lab is a hub of activity in the summer. What’s the biggest challenge working in this environment?Shonara: Getting oriented with your project and your place in the lab as a whole, is a bit challenging. There are so many people working on so many projects, [and] I wanted to know who was working with whom, on what. As a biology student, trying to understand a fraction of all the physics terminology flying around the lab took some getting used to. Alison did a really good job of covering the basics that were relevant to me.

Alison: Most students have never been part of a research project before, so as a supervisor, I spend a lot of time in the first week try-ing to put their research project in context. As well, I try and book time to train students properly on equipment they are using and give them lots of resources to read and prepare for their summer.

What did you cover during your meetings?Alison: I met with Shonara a lot during her first few weeks as she trained to do staining and use the confocal microscope. I was lucky because Shonara was very motivated and independent. As time went on, we spent the meeting time delving into details: how much progress had she made? Was she experiencing any prob-lems? Did she have any questions? I also asked a few questions to encourage her to think about the context of the project and where the research should go in the future. At one point in the summer when the equipment was not working, Shonara spent some time reading literature to come up with the next steps of the project after she was gone. She did a great job.

What was the trickiest thing to learn?Shonara: The [image] analysis programs we used were com-pletely new to me, so learning how to use Imaris accurately was

the most challenging, especially because the program can be greatly changed by user inputs. A change in threshold values can change your results, and as much as I tried to keep the same standard parameters, at times it was difficult to definitively establish how high or low to set threshold values.

Alison: I think the trickiest thing to learn was how to analyze the data at the end of the summer to determine what the outcomes were. Shonara hasn’t taken statistics yet, so we spent a lot of time together going through the data and determining which statistics test was appropriate.

Were you surprised at how much progress was made?Shonara: Yes. I didn’t realize how much data I had collected until I looked at my spreadsheets.

Alison: Yes! Shonara gathered so much data that I am still finishing the analysis! She worked really hard, and we are hoping to put together a publication soon so she is rewarded for her tremendous effort.

What did you gain from the experience?Shonara: I got to see what it was like to work in a lab. I learned how to plan to work to a deadline and how to improve experimen-tal techniques. I met an incredible bunch of people with different skills, goals, and outlooks, and it broadened my understanding of just how much there is to discover in science.

Alison: Shonara was a great student in the lab. She is bright and independent, so she didn’t require much supervision from me. As a supervisor, I learned to ‘let go’ a little and trust her to work independently.

In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus leaves Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War, entrusting his friend, Mentor, with guiding his young son, Telemachus. We now think of a mentor as one who teaches and helps a less experienced, often younger person. At Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI), scientists teach and advise their staff, students and fellows. Their lab members, in turn, show younger students—most of who have never worked in research—the ins and outs of their particular group.

Mentoring can be rewarding for everyone involved. “Summers in [our] lab are busy, but a ton of fun. There is a lot of excitement, which comes from students who are getting their first real taste of research. The excitement and enthusiasm spreads throughout all the members of the lab,” says Dr. Alison Burgess, a research associate in the lab of Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, director of Physical Sciences at SRI. Burgess helped supervise Shonara Gibson, a third-year student at Dalhousie University, who was one of 35 summer students working in Hynynen’s lab. Burgess oversaw Gibson’s project, which looked at the effects of focused ultrasound on the brain. Here, they give Alisa Kimdifferent perspectives on mentoring in one of SRI’s busiest labs.

Shonara Gibson (top) worked as a summer student in the lab of Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, SRI’s director of Physical Sciences. She was super-vised by Dr. Alison Burgess (bottom), a research associate in Hynynen’s lab. [Photos: Alisa Kim and Doug Nicholson]

NEXUS AUTUMN 2013 • 7

ApplauseRecognizing the scientific and scholarly achievements of Sunnybrook Research Institute faculty and trainees

Dr. Harindra WijeysunderaCanadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award

Dr. Harindra Wijeysundera, a scientist in the Schulich Heart Research Program, received a New Investigator Award from CIHR. He will use the award, worth $300,000 over five years, to study why patients with stable heart disease are sometimes treated with only medications, and in other situations undergo procedures such as angioplasty or open-heart surgery, and the impact of these variations in treatment.

Dr. Clare AtzemaHeart and Stroke Foundation of Canada New Investigator Award

Dr. Clare Atzema, a scientist in the Trauma, Emergency & Critical Care (TECC) Research Program, was awarded a New Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. The funds will support her research on atrial fibrillation in the emergency room.

Cristina Gallego OrtizCanadian Breast Cancer Foundation Fellowship

Cristina Gallego Ortiz, a doctoral student in the lab of senior scientist in Physical Sciences Dr. Anne Martel, was awarded a fellowship worth $112,500 over three years from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. She will use the funds to develop a computer-aided diagnostic tool for magnetic resonance imaging screening of breast cancer in high-risk women.

Dr. Benjamin GoldsteinCanadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award

Dr. Benjamin Goldstein, a scientist in the Brain Sciences Research Program, received a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Goldstein will use the funds, $300,000 over five years, to investigate whether specific markers in the blood can help doctors understand better the course of symptoms and the increased risk of heart disease in adolescents and adults with bipolar disorder.

Dr. Elizabeth PhamCanadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship

Dr. Elizabeth Pham, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of senior scientist in Biological Sciences Dr. Bob Kerbel, was awarded a fellowship from the CIHR. She will receive $135,000 over three years to study whether low-dose metronomic chemotherapy targets ovarian cancer stem cells.

Dr. Anthony Feinstein2012 Peabody Award

Dr. Anthony Feinstein, an associate scientist in the Brain Sciences Research Program, was awarded a 2012 Peabody Award for his documentary Under Fire: Journalists in Combat. The Peabody Awards are the most prestigious and selective prizes in electronic media. He received the award at a ceremony held May 21, 2013 in New York City.

Scientists Aim To Improve Heart Health

The Heart and Stroke Foundation awarded Drs. David Alter, Robert Fowler and Dennis Ko funding in the 2013–2014 Personnel Awards competition.

Alter, an affiliate scientist in the Schulich Heart Research Program, received a Mid-Career Investigator Award worth $80,000 per year for four years to characterize the adherence phenotypes of popu-lations with cardiovascular disease and develop applications for health services research and interventions.

Fowler, a senior scientist in the TECC Research Program, also received a Mid-Career Investigator Award to improve end-of-life care for Canadians with heart disease and stroke.

Ko, a scientist in the Schulich Heart Research Program, received a Phase 2 Clinician-Scientist Award worth $80,000 per year for three years to improve the quality and outcomes of care of patients with cardiovascular disease.

What’s OnOctober 9Schulich Innovation Seminar SeriesCommercialization: Getting to the “What’s in It for Me?”8:00–9:30 a.m.SG 22

October 15Physical Sciences Seminar Anatomical and Functional MRI of the Lung UsingHyperpolarized Xenon12:00–1:00 p.m. Jenkin Auditorium, TB 21

November 13Schulich Innovation Seminar SeriesMedical Device Boot Camp: an Entrepreneur’s Guide to Commercializing Medical Technology 8:00–9:30 a.m.SG 22

November 25Schulich Heart Program Research Day7:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.Harrison Hall, EG 21

December 11Schulich Innovation Seminar Series8:00–9:30 a.m.SG 22

January 3The Sunnybrook Prize8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.McLaughlin Lecture Theatre, EG 61

Editor: Stephanie RobertsWriters: Eleni Kanavas and Alisa Kim Nexus is published by the office of communications, Sunnybrook Research Institute: sunnybrook.ca/research. We welcome your suggestions. Please send them to Eleni Kanavas at eleni.kanavas@sri.utoronto.ca.

Dr. Bradley Strauss, a senior scientist in the Schulich Heart Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute, looks at a blocked blood vessel of the heart in a patient undergoing angioplasty for a chronic total occlusion. Learn more about cardiovascular imaging techniques and new surgical and interventional methods for treating heart disease at the Schulich Heart Program Research Day on Nov. 25, 2013. [Photo: Curtis Lantinga]