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CRINA Research Day was held in person at Lister Centre on November 13, 2024.

Poster Award Winners

Congratulations to this year's Poster Award Winners:

• Angie Chen
• Asna Latif
• Benjamin Schultz
• Jenilee Woodfield
• Rony Pain
• Sara Elmahrouk

People's Choice Award Winners

This year, the audience cast their vote on the best 10-minute oral presentations. Congratulations to our winners:

• Mckenna Eklund (Session 1: Understanding Cancer)
• Madhumita Mannivannan (Session 2: Cancer Treatment & Causes)

Darin McDonald Team Award in Basic Oncology Research Award

We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Darin McDonald Team Award in Basic Oncology Research Award in Basic Oncology was presented to the team of Kléouforo-Paul Dembele, Alois Haromy, Jiyuan Piao, Evangelos D. Michelakis, & Gopinath Sutendra for the poster presentation "Nanotubes Mediated Mitochondria Transfer from Normal to Cancer Cells Promotes Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition (MET) Required for Metastasis in Cancer."

Sponsors

We want to sincerely thank this year's sponsors, who help keep CRINA Research Day free for all.

Merck, Miltenyi Biotec, AstraZeneca, ThermoFisher Scientific, Zeiss

CRINA Research Day was held in person at Lister Centre on November 17, 2023.

Poster Presentation Winners

Congratulations to our poster presentations award winners: Mitchell Semeniuk, Dirk Taal, Pooja Paveen Kumar, Asna Latif, Pamela Klassen, Nikhile Mookerji.

Darin McDonald Team Award in Basic Oncology Research Award

The team of Saymon Tejay, Maria Areli Lorenzana Carillo, Joseph Nana, Yongsheng Liu, Yongneng Zhang, Alois Haromy, Yuan Zhao, Edith Pituskin, John Ussher, Evangelos Michelakis, Gopinath Sutendra for the poster presentation "Tumor-Secreted Nucleosides Promote RbFox1 Degradation and Dedifferentiation in Cardiomyocytes; A Two-Hit Hypothesis with Implications for Cardiotoxicity"

CRINA Research Day was held in person at Lister Centre on Tuesday, October 18, 2022.

In the morning, we heard about the Investigator Initiated Trials Program at the Cross Cancer Institute, along with some of the trials run by CRINA members. We then had three concurrent trainee oral presentations sessions.

In the afternoon, we had an incredible line up of principal investigators who presented on topics ranging from AI to drug discovery to personalized medicine. 

To end our jam-packed research day, we had trainee poster presentations! 

Poster Presentation Winners

Congratulations to our poster presentations award winners: Asna Latif, Shayla Mosley, Kasia Dzierlega, Rony Pain, Katherine Ford, Angie Chen and Bryce Nelson, who won, with his team, the Darin McDonald Team Award in Basic Oncology Research.

Darin McDonald Team Award in Basic Oncology Research Award

2022 Recipients
The team of Bryce Nelson, John Wilson, Jan Andersson and Frank Wuest for the poster presentation, "High yield cyclotron production of 203Pb for diagnostic SPECT imaging alongside 212Pb targeted radionuclide therapy." 

Thank you to our sponsors!

Merck, RJH Biosciences, Q Boost Inc., AstraZeneca

CRINA Research Days 2021 were held virtally from May 19 to 21, 2021, with a program that showcased the collaborative and innovative cancer research happening in Northern Alberta.

Along with keynote presentations from four international leaders in cancer research, there were sessions highlighting specific areas: Genomic Stability, Cardio-Oncology, Breast Cancer, and Metabolism.

Keynote Speakers

• Guy Poirier, "The Emergence of PARP as a Major Target in Cancer Treatment"
• Geeta Gulati, "The Novelty of Cardio-Oncology — Where Are We and Future Perspectives"
• Andrew Ewald, "Cellular Strategies and Molecular Mechanisms of Breast Cancer Metastasis"
• Russell Jones, "Metabolic Plasticity of T Cell Responses: Implications for Adaptive Immunity"

The 5th annual CRINA Research Day was held on November 17, 2018 in the Allard Family Lecture Theatre, KATZ building.

Keynote Speaker

, Professor and Research Unit Director, IRCM, Montreal
"Understanding How Immunotherapy Against Cancer Works"

CRINA Research Day Program

Speakers included CRINA faculty and trainees across the CRINA cancer biology, novel therapies and biomarkers, and prevention, lifestyle, and survivorship themes of our institute.

Poster Presentation Competition Winners

Congratulations to our poster presentation winners:

• Anyeld Ubeda
• Marnie Newell
• Clara Fallone
• Courtney Mowat
• Amirali Bukhari
• Ahmed Elmenoufy
• Rabih Abou Farraj

Elevator Pitch Competition

This year we were excited to announce the first elevator pitch competition! Ten of our talented CRINA trainees competed in the finals at Research Day.

• 1st Place: $300 - Marnie Newell
• 2nd Place: $200 - Clara Fallone
• 3rd Place: $100 - Sarah Purcell

Sponsors

AstraZeneca, Merck, RJH Biosciences

The Cancer Research Institute of Northern Alberta's Research Day 2016 was held on Saturday, November 12th on the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ campus in CCIS 1-440. The themes for Research Day 2016 were our three CRINA , as well as the session's featured theme: biobanking and translational medicine.

Our abstract selection committee selected 6 trainee abstracts and 12 PI abstracts to be presented as oral presentations from a list of anonymized abstracts. Abstracts were sorted by and anonymized by Gareth Armanious, who did not participate in the selection process. Sorted abstracts were given to a subcommittee for each for ranking. The selection process was very close as many high-quality abstracts were submitted. Additionally, every effort was made to highlight research from departments which have not presented at past CRINA Research Days, making the selection process even more selective. 

Congratulations to our Research Day 2016 Award Winners!

Award Winners - Best Presentations:

1st place: Ashlee Matkin, Department of Surgery, Lab of Dr. Vincent Biron
"Enhancing the Accuracy of Thyroid Fine Needle Aspirate Biopsies Using Droplet Digital PCR"

2nd Place: Dr. Olena Bilyk, Department of Oncology, Lab of Dr. Lynne-Marie Postovit
"Nodal, an embryonic morphogen, promotes cellular plasticity and resistance to therapy in ovarian cancer cells"

3rd Place: Dr. Priya Sivarajah, Department of Surgery, Lab of Dr. Hadi Seikaly
"Depression as a predictor of postoperative functional performance status (PFPS) and treatment adherence in head and neck cancer patients: a prospective study"

Award Winners - Best Posters (Alphabetical Order):

Danny Aceytuno, Department of Biochemistry, Lab of Dr. Mark Glover
"A severe mutation from the neurological disease MCSZ dysregulates the DNA damage response and repair by the Polynucleotide Kinase/Phosphatase-XRCC4-DNA Ligase IV NHEJ end-processing complex"

Zackariah Breckenridge, Department of Health Policy, Lab of Dr. Tania Bubela
"Cellular immunotherapies: Lessons in clinical translation"

Powel Crosley, Department of Oncology, Lab of Dr. Mary Hitt
"PAC-1 combination with TRAIL enhances apoptosis in cell-line and primary cultured adult granulosa cell tumour cells"

Amr Hamour, Department of Surgery, Lab of Dr. David Côté
"High-Definition Video Modules: A Validated Novel Approach for Teaching Thyroid Cancer Surgery"

Cameron Lindsay, Department of Surgery, Lab of Dr. Vincent Biron "Inhibition of EZH2 in human papillomavirus positive and negative cell lines"

Isaac Menghisteab, Department of Biological Science, Lab of Dr. Sharmin Sumi
"TLR SIGNALING AND EXOSOME BIOGENESIS IN MICROSATELLITE INSTABLE COLORECTAL CANCER"

Marnie Newell, Department of Agricultural, Food, & Nutrition Science, Lab of Dr. Catharine Field
"Reduction of in vitro and in vivo growth of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells is amplified with docosahexaenoic acid in conjunction with doxorubicin through effects on cell cycle gene products"

Faisal Rashed, Department of Oncology, Lab of Dr. Michael Weinfeld
"Development of ACN: An Easier and Faster Alternative to Pimonidazole Immunohistochemistry for Detecting and Mapping Molecular Hypoxia"

Hoda Soleymani Abyaneh, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lab of Dr. Afsaneh Lavasanifar
"The interplay of HIF-1α and Myc under hypoxia promotes the generation of more tumorigenic and resistant phenotype of MDA-MB 231 cells"

Dr. Xiaoyun Tang, Department of Biochemistry, Lab of Dr. David Brindley
"Doxycycline attenuates breast cancer related inflammation by decreasing plasma lysophosphatidate concentration and inhibiting NF-KB activation"

Wan Kong Yip, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, Lab of Dr. Maya Shmulevitz
"Characterization of Reovirus Mutant with Improved Replication and Dissemination in Cancer Cells"

Kirby Ziegler, Department of Oncology, Lab of Dr. Alan Underhill
"An epigenomic roadmap to PAX3 target gene networks in melanoma"

The CRINA team would like to thank everyone for their attendance.

Sponsors

CRINA Research Day 2016 is supported by our following sponsors:

ThermoFisher Scientific, AstraZeneca, OrangeTheory Fitness, Craft Beer Market, Eisai, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry

The Cancer Research Institute of Northern Alberta's Research Day 2015 is titled "CRINA Trainees: The Next Generation of Scientists and the Future of Cancer Research." It was held on Saturday, November 14th on the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ campus in CCIS 1-440.

Award Winners - Best Talk

• Amanda Swan
• Cameron Hough
• Matthew Benesch
• Mustafa Babadagli
• Hilmar Strickfaden & Christian Foerster
• Rachel Fung & Brittany Umer

Award Winners - Best Poster

• Ana Anoveros & Amritpal Bhullar
• Ashok Narasimhan
• Barbora Doslikova
• Erwan Beauchamp
• Ingrit Hamann
• Jiesi Zhou
• Mahsa Alaee
• Michael Jewer
• Ning Yang
• Scott Findlay
• Srijan Raha
• Tasneem Siyam

Theme

The theme of Research Day 2015 was CRINA trainees, with an emphasis on building multidisciplinary research collaborations. The day featured innovative presentations by the Scientists of the Future in both poster and oral format, as well as several invited short talks from PIs on topics relevant to the CRINA Educational mandate. To highlight multidisciplinary research, we offered the opportunity for trainees to team up and orally present collaborative work.

On November 14th we took a look into the future of cancer research in Alberta as seen through the eyes of the next generation of scientists.

"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much" - Helen Keller

Abstract Selection for Oral Presentations

Our review panel this year consisted of 6 PhD students (Alisha Kadam, Amanda Swan, Isabella Carneiro, Jasdeep Mann, Luxin Sun, Peter Ghaly), a Postdoctoral Fellow (Jihane Mriouah), and a PI (David Murray), all of whom volunteered their valuable time to help this educational initiative come together. This group had representation from several departments and faculties, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of CRINA's membership. Igor Pravdivyi (who abstained from the evaluation process) collected the abstracts and stripped the submissions of all identifiers, leaving only the title and abstract itself before forwarding these to the committee for evaluation. In this anonymized fashion, the group reviewed the abstracts and voted for their favorites, abstaining from voting where a conflict of interest could potentially arise.

Our Sponsors

AstraZeneca, Astellas, Lundbeck, ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry

CRINA had its Inaugural Research Day on Saturday, November 15th, 2014. Through this initiative, we hoped to foster new collaborations between cancer biologists, clinicians and other research experts by providing them with an opportunity to network amongst each other. We are pleased to announce that we had 150 poster presentations and over 300 attendees at our event this year.

We also featured oral presentations from 23 principal investigators from various research disciplines to introduce our attendees to the research capacities for cancer studies that are available at the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. Our vision for the future is to facilitate the formation of collaborative teams of researchers that will be successful in attracting external funding. We hope that these teams will produce innovative translational research findings, which will ultimately help to improve healthcare outcomes for cancer patients worldwide.