The 4th Annual CSLSR Meeting will be held at
University of Ottawa
November 13-15, 2009

Abstract Submission, click here

Conference Registration, click here

Preliminary Keynote Speaker List:

Dr. Edward O’Brien, MD, FRCPC, FAHA, FACC:

Interventional Cardiologist;
Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), University of Ottawa
Research Chair (Canadian Institutes of Health Research / Medtronic) and Director of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Vascular Biology Laboratory

Dr. O’Brien’s research examines the biology of arteriosclerosis and vessel response to interventional procedures. His talk will focus on the effects of estrogen levels on arterial vessels as well as heat shock proteins.

Talk Title: Estrogens and Vascular Disease: The Role of Heat Shock Protein 27

Dr. David Kaplan, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist, Cell Biology Program, and Head, James Fund Laboratories for Neuroblastoma Research
Co-Head, Sickkids Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Hospital for Sick Children
Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto
The Hospital for Sick Children MaRs Centre

David Kaplan received his BA from Clark University in Worcester, MA, in 1978, and his PhD from Harvard University in Cambridge, MA in 1987. His PhD thesis work with Dr. Thomas Roberts at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute identified and characterized the regulatory subunit of the signal transducing protein PI-3 kinase. Dr. Kaplan performed his post-doctoral studies from 1988-1990 at the University of California, San Francisco with Dr. Harold Varmus, identifying novel substrates that interact with growth factor receptors.

In 1990, Dr. Kaplan established a laboratory at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD where, in collaboration with Luis Parada's laboratory, he identified Trk as the receptor for nerve growth factor. In 1996, Dr. Kaplan relocated his laboratory to the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill where he was a professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, research head of the Brain Tumour Research Centre, and William Feindel Chair in Neuro-oncology.

In 2002, he became a senior scientist and head of Cancer Research at The Hospital for Sick Children and professor, Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Cancer and Neuroscience. His laboratory focuses upon examining signal transduction processes in neurons and neural tumour cells.

Talk: Drug and signaling protein discovery using children's cancer stem cells

Dr. Frédérique Tesson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences University of Ottawa

Dr. Tesson is a human molecular geneticist interested in genome contribution to cardiac diseases as well as in the importance of gene-environment interaction for the development of pathophysiological related states, such as obesity and hypertension. Her research is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Her talk will focus on the discovery of a genetic variant involved in weight loss regulation.

Talk Title: On the path of genotype-specific intervention for obesity: the role of ACSL5

Dr. Andras Nagy, Ph.D.

Senior Investigator, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute

Dr. Nagy is currently a Senior Scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, and Investigator at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine. He also holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Stem Cells and Regeneration. His research focuses on several areas of interest, which include 1) Functional studies of genes belonging to families with known roles in vessel formation; 2) Development of sophisticated genetic manipulation tools in the mouse model; 3) Applying genetics to cancer research; 4) Derivation, differentiation and genetic modification of both mouse and human Embryonic Stem cells; 5) Reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells.

In 2005, Dr. Nagy’s lab created the first two Canadian hES cell lines which have opened a new area of research leading toward ES cell based therapies for incurable diseases. Using a novel method, they generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from both mouse and human somatic cells using the piggyBac transposon system. The transposon system also allows for the removal of the reprogramming factors from the iPS cell in a seamless manner, which is a leap forward for the safe use of these stem cells in future stem cell-based therapies. These are the first non-viral transduction iPS cell lines which keeps them at a leadership position in this highly competitive and promising field of research.

Dr. Nagy¹s research is currently funded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada, Genome Canada, Stem Cell Network, NSERC, and the National Institutes of Health USA.

Talk Title: piggyBac transposition reprogrammed induced Pluripotent Stem cells are powerful exploratory tools

Peter A. Brenders, President and CEO, BIOTECanada

Peter Brenders joined BIOTECanada in February 2005. Previously, he was the Health Affairs Executive at Genzyme Canada. Prior to Genzyme, Mr. Brenders was the Vice President of Market Access and Health Economics for Schering Canada Inc. where he was responsible for the company’s external and government relations. Mr. Brenders has also worked in the Ontario Ministry of Health and in the health consulting practice at KPMG.

While at Genzyme, Mr. Brenders served Chair of the BIOTECanada Health Policy Committee and sat as a member of the association’s Government Relations Committee. He is currently a Director of the DeGroote School of Business Alumni, McMaster University and has served as a Board member and Treasurer of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario Foundation, has contributed to the Canadian College of Health Services Executives and served as Chair of the Toronto Chapter Executive.

Mr. Brenders has conducted several lectures and presentations to foreign delegations from Europe and Asia, and to graduate and undergraduate classes at the University of Toronto and McMaster University. He received his MBA, in Health Services Management from McMaster University. Prior to his brief work in basic research at the Robarts Research Institute, he received his Honours BSc in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Western Ontario.

www.biotech.ca/

Dr. Michel G. Bergeron, O.Q., MD, FRCPC, FCAHS

Dr. Michel G. Bergeron is Professor and Chairman of the Centre de recherche en infectiologie of Université Laval in Québec City, one of the largest infectious diseases research centres in North America (250 researchers). Dr. Bergeron and his team were the first in the world to develop innovative DNA-based tests which allow the specific identification, directly from a clinical sample, of pathogens and their antibiotic resistance genes in less than one hour instead of 2 to 3 days. Five FDA approved real-time PCR tests to identify and better control hospital-acquired infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Clostridium difficile, and neonatal infections due to Group B streptococci and MRSA and Methcillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in blood cultures are derived from his research laboratory. These tests are commercialized by Infectio Diagnostic (IDI) Inc. (now BD Diagnostics-GeneOhm) a company he has founded. Dr. Bergeron is now developing, with his transdisciplinary team, a “lab-on-a-chip” on compact discs (CDs) that read DNA in a few minutes and which will allow the detection of microbes in less than 60 minutes, in the doctor’s office. He is also the inventor of the Invisible Condom â , a vaginal microbicidal gel to prevent HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in women. This gel has been found safe and well tolerated in phase I and II trials done in Canada and Africa and they are now preparing the phase III trial.

Dr. Bergeron is the author or co-author of almost 400 scientific publications and has given more than 550 presentations on his work at different universities and international meetings. He has trained more than 80 graduate and postgraduate students and fellows. Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, he has received many honours, including being named Officer of the National Order of Québec in June 2008 and the Henry Friesen Award for the year 2008 of the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. In May 2009, he was awarded the prize “Grands Diplômés” of Université Laval and the Synapse awards from CIHR for CRI’s “Researcher of a day” program to expose High School students to science; in June, he has received the “2008 AMMI Canada Lifetime Achievement Award” selected by the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada, and in August, he was given the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) 2009 Medal of Service for his exceptional contribution to the Canadians as a researcher and infectious diseases specialist.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Infectiopole Sud in France, member of the Working Group on Diagnostics, headed by Peter Singer of Toronto, for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges and member of the Scientific Review for Diagnostic of the Wellcome Trust.

Dr. Bergeron is now developing an international consortium called Diagnostics for Life, which role is to develop point-of-care testing (POCT) devices. This consortium involves 116 researchers from 16 countries divided in three research platforms, Psycho-/Socio-Economics, Technologies & Devices Development and Evaluation.

Talk Title: Revolutionizing Medicine through Rapid Point-of-Care DNA-based diagnostics

Dr. Jeremy M. Grimshaw, MBCHB, PhD, FRCGP

Schedule of Events and mini-symposia coming in July, 2009

University of Ottawa, Tabaret Hall, Rm 112 and Rotonde

Directions