This is the time of year when family and friends gather in celebration and sharing. It is also the time of year when proper food safety is important because the last thing a host wants is guests becoming sick after eating at their house over the holidays. E.coli and salmonella, two of the biggest sources of food-borne diseases, can easily happen from undercooked food or cross-contamination during preparation and can cause diarrhea, vomiting or stomach cramps.

Three researchers from the Faculty of Medicine received research grants, totaling over $1 million, from The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation-Prairies/NWT Region.

The Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation received a generous gift of $5 million today from Trican Well Service Ltd. in support of childhood cancer care at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, as well as research at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health and the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute - both at the University of Calgary. In honour of Trican’s incredible donation, cancer patients and their families at the Alberta Children’s Hospital will now receive their outpatient care in the newly named: Trican Hematology, Oncology and BMT Clinic.

Dr. Mark Swain has been appointed division head of gastroenterology, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services (AHS) - Calgary Zone effective January 1, 2012. Previous to this he was the Acting Head of Gastroenterology from January 17, 2011 - December 31, 2011.

Swain is a professor of medicine, hepatologist and clinician-scientist at the University of Calgary's Snyder Institute. His clinical research is focused in the areas of viral hepatitis and autoimmune liver disease.

The Institute for Public Health has a new look, and a shorter name. Evolving from the Calgary Institute for Population and Public Health, the Institute for Public Health will build upon its research strengths in health services, population health, and public health.

Costello is an associate professor in the departments of clinical neurosciences and surgery, and a clinician scientist with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary.

The grant will fund a study led by Dr. Peter Stys which would investigate damage that occurs in MS prior to inflammation.

The Rich Man Poor Man dinner is unique dining experience designed to raise awareness about poverty. At each table of eight, one person is served a “Rich Man” meal consisting of meat and several side dishes, the other seven people are served a “Poor Man” meal which consists of rice, beans and vegetable stew.


University of Calgary researcher Paul Kubes, PhD, is the recipient of one of Canada’s top awards for medical research. An internationally-recognized scientist specializing in visualizing the mammalian immune system, Kubes will accept the 2011 Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) at a ceremony in Ottawa on November 16th.

Snyder has established several medical research programs in honour of her parents through the Calvin, Phoebe and Joan Snyder Institute for Infection, Immunity and Inflammation.

Robert Newton, PhD, from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine, coordinated an international group of scientists who co-authored a study that has discovered one reason why two therapies work better in combination then in silo, a question that up until now has gone unanswered. The co-authors are members of the University of Calgary’s Snyder Institute.
osteroids is introduced to form a combined therapeutic approach.

The 10,000 Citation Club award honours faculty members whose entire body of work over their career has accumulated more than 10,000 citations. The recipient list for 2012 is Dr. Greg Cairncross, V. Wee Yong, PhD. and most recently, Samuel Weiss, PhD., director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. Over the course of their careers, less than 0.1% of researchers would accumulate 10,000 citations, making being a recipient of this award an exceptional achievement.

Students from the University of Calgary have genetically modified bacteria and used it to develop a biosensor to monitor toxins in oil sands tailings ponds. They believe their project would make it faster and cheaper to test for contamination than current methods.

A group of undergraduate students has developed a process that uses genetically modified bacteria to help monitor the levels of toxins in oil sands tailings ponds. The project has earned them a spot at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) World Championship Jamboree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nov. 5 – 7

Nearly 100 junior high and high school Aboriginal youth from Siksika, Morley, Canmore, Exshaw, and Kainai, Alberta, participated in health-related activities at the University of Calgary on October 31, 2011, as part of an Operation Minerva event.

The fruit fly can be used to The fruit fly can be used to help us understand what happens to the host during a biofilm infection. Researchers at the University of Calgary have been able to successfully feed the fruit fly bacteria, which grow as a biofilm inside the insect’s digestive system. This infection model allows the researchers to look at how biofilms form and resist and immune system during infection.

Dr. Keith E. Cooper, one of the founding members of the University of Calgary’s medical school and the first head of the Division of Medical Physiology, passed away peacefully on October 19, 2011 in Banbury, England.

Although it has been described as an invisible disease, the impact of arthritis on the Canadian economy can’t be ignored. The Faculty of Medicine’s Dr. Diane Mosher, Chair of the Arthritis Alliance of Canada (AAC) was one of the lead authors on a new report from the AAC, that estimates that osteoarthritis (OA) – the most prevalent form of the disease – and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) costs the Canadian economy $33 billion through (direct) healthcare expenses and (indirect) lost productivity and taxes. The Impact of Arthritis in Canada: Today and Over the Next 30 Years provides a detailed look at the impact of arthritis and offers solutions on how to mitigate and manage the situation.

New research from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine has found that patients who have experienced a heart attack are more likely to participate in, and complete a cardiac rehabilitation program when they have access to it within 14 days of hospital discharge. Cardiac rehabilitation is a series of educational and exercise components aimed at teaching participants how to live a healthier lifestyle, subsequently reducing risk factors for future heart related illness. Components include topics such as nutrition, physical fitness and mental wellness.

After a stroke the brain tries to protect itself by blocking all inflammation. However, this also makes the patient highly susceptible to infection which can lead to death. Researchers have now discovered the mechanism behind this response and how to possibly treat it. The research is published this month in the journal Science.

As part of the 2011 Gairdner National Program, the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine is proud to present three distinguished Canada Gairdner Award winners: Dr. Nicholas White, Dr. Shizou Akira and Dr. Gregg Semenza.

Five Faculty of Medicine researchers were recently named Canada Research Chairs and were awarded a collective $5.2 million for further research initiatives. They are:

Charlene Elliott, PhD: Canadian Research Chair in Food Marketing, Policy and Children’s Health
Dr. Derek Exner: Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Clinical Trials
Mark Giembycz, PhD: Canada Reseach Chair in Pulmonary Pharmacology
Nathalie Jette, PhD: Canada Research Chair in Population Health
Voon Wee Yong, PhD: Canada Research Chair in Neuroimmunology

The Faculty of Medicine has been playing a key role in helping Haiti improve the quality of health care it delivers to its citizens, by working with them as they strive to improve their medical education programs. Dr. Genevieve Poitevien, Dean of the University of Quisqueya’s Faculty of Health Sciences, visited the Faculty on October 5 to discuss such efforts.

Wilfreda Thurston, PhD, a Faculty of Medicine researcher, is involved in a new study taking place on campus to determine if a specially designed workshop is effective in helping women resist sexual assault by male acquaintances.

Studies that examined the possible link between vein blockages and multiple sclerosis are so inconsistent that it's impossible to reach a firm conclusion about the controversial theory, a new review has found. Overall, the studies found the blockages known as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, are found more often in people who have MS than those who do not.

Azin Rouhi may only be 19 but that hasn’t held her back from entering the world of research. The second-year health sciences student is majoring in biomedical sciences, and spent her summer doing research alongside Glen Armstrong thanks to funding from the Markin Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP) in Health & Wellness.

By using a mouse model of inflammation researchers at the University of Calgary have discovered a new class of molecules that can inhibit the recruitment of some white blood cells to sites of inflammation in the body.

UCalgary is seeking applicants for research chairs in Healthy Brain Again and Child and Youth Mental Health.

This summer, thanks to funding through the Markin Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP) in Health and Wellness, Morgunov, a third-year biological sciences student, conducted experimental research under the guidance of her faculty mentor, Ursula Tuor.

University of Calgary researchers got a boost from one of the country's top funding bodies today. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced $1.8 million in funding for nine research projects, including a project in the Faculty of Medicine that studies the genetic basis for disease using fish as experimental models.

Switzerland is a country renowned for its innovation and was recently ranked by the World Economic Forum as the world’s most competitive economy. Dr. John Conly, MD, Co-director of the Snyder Institute, and Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary, personally experienced the Swiss approach to innovation. Conly, who just returned from a year’s sabbatical with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, learned firsthand how the Swiss invest in infrastructure and technology. He was impressed by its process of working with industry and engaging large-scale projects with significant investments both within Switzerland and the European Union (EU) to study various aspects of infectious and immunology diseases. It’s this kind of knowledge-based economy that Conly believes is necessary for the Snyder Institute to compete on a global stage.  

Dr. David Johnson, Dr. Braden Manns and Dr. Tom Stelfox are among the 25 research projects funded across Canada.

Aman is working in the laboratory of Donna Slater, PhD. Slater’s research team studies what is happening in the uterus during labour – the smooth muscle cells, the biological triggers, and the genes – with the ultimate goal of designing drugs to intervene when women go into labour too early.

The Faculty of Medicine is pleased to announce the re-appointment of Dr. Samuel Weiss as director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI). Dr. Weiss has been the director of the institute since its inception in 2004.

The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS), named for the Right Honourable Georges Philias Vanier, who served as governor general of Canada from 1959 to 1967, was created to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and to establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research and higher learning. Requiring a nomination by the university at which they currently study or wish to study three of the eight award recipients in 2011 represent the University of Calgary and are students in the Faculty of Medicine.

Researchers Jaideep Bains, Ph.D. and Quentin Pittman, Ph.D., looked specifically at nerve cells (neurons) in the region of the brain called the hypothalamus. This structure is known to have an important role in the control of appetite and metabolism and has been identified as the primary region responsible for the brain’s response to stress.

Due to tonight’s intense storm, parts of the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) have flooded. Please continue to check the website for updates.

An estimated two billion individuals, or one-third of the global population, has been exposed to one of the five major hepatitis viruses designated as A, B, C, D, and E, and one in 12 people are chronically infected with hepatitis B or C.

A new web-based study that will document and track the experiences of Albertans who suffer from MS, in particular those who have had the Zamboni treatment or other similar procedures, is now up and running. Researchers at the University of Calgary and University of Alberta, along with experts from the Multiple Sclerosis community, have worked since December 2010 to put the study together.

When children suffer seizures – because of epilepsy, high fever, low blood sugar or a head injury – doctors currently treat this life threatening condition with the drugs diazepam or lorazepam, yet it is not certain which drug is more effective.

As if finishing a Master’s degree in the Faculty of Medicine's W21C Research and Innovation Centre while expecting a baby wasn’t enough, also had the added excitement of getting ready to meet royalty during the final weeks of pregnancy. And even though her daughter decided to show up on Convocation day, Percival was still able to pick up her degree and meet the Duke of Duchess of Cambridge exactly one month later with a little help from her friends and family.

Alberta is spearheading an international study to determine if an implantable cardioverter defibrillator can prevent death from serious heart rhythm problems in those patients who’ve survived a heart attack.

New research at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine has made progress in refining the approach to oxygen use when resuscitating preterm infants.

Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today visited the University of Calgary’s Ward of the 21st Century (W21C) Research and Innovation Centre, where they experienced some of the world’s most advanced approaches to health research, education and technology

A unique partnership between the Faculty of Medicine and Capital Medical University in Beijing, China has resulted in the creation of a new joint liver institute that will further research and improve patient care in both countries. The Capital Medical University-University of Calgary Joint Liver Institute officially opened on June 28 in Beijing with a delegation from the Faculty of Medicine on hand, as well as representatives from Capital Medical University.

The McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health would like to announce the appointment of Derrick Rancourt as Deputy Director. Working alongside Dr. Nigel Shrive, Derrick will assume duties to improve the operations of the Institute, coordinate research activities, and facilitate and encourage collaborations between researchers within the Institute.

Southern Albertans too sick or weak to undergo life-saving open-heart surgery now have new hope thanks to a leading-edge cardiac procedure available at Foothills Medical Centre.

It is with a heavy heart that I share with you the passing of prominent Calgarian Harley N. Hotchkiss after a battle with cancer.  Harley was a successful businessman and a kind philanthropist, but most of all he was a friend to the University of Calgary and in particular the Faculty of Medicine. 

Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are touring Canada from June 30 to July 8, 2011, will visit the university on July 7 as the first official stop on their Calgary visit.  We are honoured to be the only Canadian university on Their Royal Highnesses’ first official international tour.  TTheir Royal Highnesses will tour the Ward of the 21st Century (W21C) Research and Innovation Centre

A new study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by University of Calgary, Faculty of Kinesiology researcher, Dr. Carolyn Emery and colleagues has shown that when bodychecking is introduced into Bantam ice hockey there is no difference between overall injury rates or concussion, regardless of whether players have prior bodychecking experience in Pee Wee

New research from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine, shows that adults over the age of 50 with at least one chronic illness (such as migraine) are more likely to experience a major depressive episode than those living without a chronic illness. The discovery brings awareness to prevention efforts targeting older adults exhibiting symptoms of depression or chronic illnesses.

University of Calgary’s Dr. Pere Santamaria has been awarded a Collaborative Health Research Projects) (CHRP) Program grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), to continue his research on imunoregulatory nano-vaccines for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.

The registry will help patients connect with researchers to participate in clinical research that will benefit patients by offering possible new therapies, treatments and understanding of their disease.

It has taken more than five years but on June 1, 2011, the University of Calgary celebrated the book launch of At the Interface of Culture and Medicine.  Co-edited by the University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine’s Dr. Rod Crutcher, the book explores a multiplicity of sensitive issues faced when integrating culture and health care.

While working with KIHEFO I spent a day with a nurse out in rural Uganda seeing patients at their monthly HIV/AIDS outreach clinic. My day began in the pouring rain when I arrived at the clinic in Kabale.  There, a nurse and I gathered some meagre supplies to treat opportunistic infections. We threw them into a box and grabbed a box of anti-retrovirals (ARVs).  We threw all of that into our ambulance and headed out for the day.

With the weather warming and the May long weekend around the corner, a Calgary trauma surgeon who published a study showing how to make all-terrain vehicles safer is urging ATV riders to wear a helmet and make other smart choices.

Dr. Richard Buckley, from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine, regularly deals with the consequences of ATV-related injuries in the operating rooms of Foothills Medical Centre. He co-authored the paper Ten Years of All-Terrain Vehicle Injury, Mortality and Healthcare Costs, which was published in the prestigious international Journal of Trauma last December.

Researchers surveyed 428 Calgarians identified through random sampling, and 115 of these participants indicated owning dogs. Two surveys were completed by all of 428 participants, one in the winter and one in the summer season.  In both seasons, dog-owners reported more walking for recreation in their neighbourhoods than did non-owners. These results appear in the May 4th edition of BMC Public Health.

Prusiner is speaking Wednesday March 16 as part of a three-day ‘Frontiers of Neuroscience’ symposium being hosted by the Gairdner Foundation and the Faculty’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute during Brain Awareness Week.  His talk is titled “From Mad Cow Disease to Alzheimer’s” and is sponsored by the Alberta Prion Research Institute.

Faster development and testing of new medical devices and technologies that improve healthcare services are becoming a reality through a state-of-the-art medical ward at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.

A combined federal-provincial investment of more than $1.9 million under the Canada-Alberta Western Economic Partnership Agreement (WEPA) is supporting the Ward of the 21st Century (W21C) to staff and purchase lab equipment. Ultimately, this project will allow small- and medium-sized firms to cost-effectively demonstrate new healthcare solutions and applications in a real healthcare setting.

Published research led by UCalgary’s Dr. Todd Anderson and his colleagues at four sites across Canada finds that endothelial dysfunction (blood vessel lining) can predict who is at risk for developing coronary heart disease.   By identifying this new marker in patients doctors may be able to intervene early to prevent the progression of heart disease.

The appointments will bolster the committee’s clinical and research expertise and help AHS continue to provide a safe, high quality and accessible health care system.

Dr. Philip Baker, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta and Dr. Tom Feasby, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary, will begin their two-year appointments immediately.