Graduates students organize first Cancer Research Symposium
Organizing a symposium featuring prominent cancer researchers is no easy task, especially when it takes place in Newfoundland. But graduate students in the Faculty of Medicine felt that such an event would help their own work and would also offer the public a chance to find out about current cancer research. So with a lot of hard work and support from faculty, they organized the first annual caner research symposium May 30, featuring presentations on topics from molecular biology to ethical issues in genetic testing.
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| These graduate students are pleased with the success of the first Cancer Research Symposium L-R: Artee Luchman, Rebecca Ford, Joy Buckle, Wendy Winsor and (sitting, front) Janine Post. |
Frontiers in Cancer Research: Causes and Mechanisms was organized by six graduate students from the Cancer Research Group: Artee Luchman, Janine Post, Rebecca Ford, Wendy Winsor, Joy Buckle, and Mike Witcher.
Ms. Post said it is the first time an event like this has been held in Atlantic Canada, and the response was very positive. "Next year we would like to add poster presentations from graduate students and invite students from other universities in the Atlantic region."
Ms. Luchman said an important consideration in choosing speakers was to make cancer research more open to the public and show the relevancy of basic research.
Speakers at the research symposium included Dr. John Bell from the Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre who spoke on the control of pre-mRNA splicing by protein kinases, and Dr. John Hassell, McMaster University, who dealt with oncogenes and development.
Dr. Andre Bedard, York University, made a presentation on the critical transcription factors of cell proliferation and transformation by the v-src oncogene. Dr. Jonathan Blay, Dalhousie University, spoke about the tissue microenvironment -- hypoxia and adenosine -- as a cause of immunosuppression in solid cancers. Dr. Andrew Shaw, from the University of Alberta, whose talk was sponsored by the Newfoundland Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation, dealt with the discovery of a novel stromal protein factor.
A discussion on ethical issues around genetic testing, presented by Dr. Rhiannon Hughes-Benzie of the University of Calgary, finished off the day's presentations at the forum. Ms. Luchman noted that this talk was sponsored by the Genetics Group, and she hopes that for next year's symposium other speakers can be sponsored by different interest groups within the faculty.
"The important thing is it was a success, and now we have something to build on," she said.
Dr. Ken Kao, who helped the students organize the event, agreed it was a great success. "We need to champion these events to raise the level of the scholarly environment of this medical school."
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