Each year, Krembil Research Day brings together the Institute’s investigators, trainees and staff to celebrate research achievements across Krembil’s three research pillars: brain and spine, vision, and bone and joints.
This year’s event was hosted on the virtual meeting platform Gather, which offered attendees a new and unique way to connect amid restrictions to in-person meetings. Outside of oral presentations hosted on Zoom, attendees were able to explore the event space, walk the rows of poster boards and engage with colleagues, familiar and new.
The event kicked off with opening remarks from Dr. Bradly Wouters, the Executive Vice President of Science and Research; followed by Dr. Mary Pat McAndrews, Chair of the Krembil Research Institute Trainee Affairs Committee. Trainees were then treated to a video featuring Krembil investigators thanking them for their hard work and perseverance throughout this challenging year (watch the video here).
Commenting on the dedication of Krembil trainees, Dr. McAndrews says, “I remain in awe of the dedication and resilience of all our trainees and research teams, particularly as you have navigated with grace and grit through the acute, post‐acute and long‐haul phases of COVID‐19 disruption to our research enterprise and life in general.”
Throughout the day, attendees enjoyed seven talks and 60 poster presentations.
Following the final poster session, attendees were treated to a second video featuring graduate students and postdoctoral fellows sharing who they are, what they do and why they value events like Research Day (watch the video here).
The event concluded with closing remarks from Dr. Donald Weaver, Director of the Krembil Research Institute.
The Krembil community thanks the many individuals who made this year’s Research Day a resounding success, including Krembil’s Trainee Affairs Committee, Administration Team and Public Affairs team, UHN’s Education Technology & Media Services and all those who volunteered as presentation judges. Krembil also thanks Mr. Jim Leech and Ms. Deborah Barrett for their sponsorship of the event, and the Nadler Family for their generous donation for prizes awarded to presentation winners.
PRESENTATION AWARDS
Awards for best oral and poster presentations have been awarded to the following trainees:
Oral presentation postdoctoral category
●Scott Rich (Valiante Lab)
Oral presentation graduate student category
●First place: Brian Wu (Kapoor Lab)
●Second place: Nadeem Murtaza (Singh Lab)
●Third place: Akshay Gurdita (Wallace Lab)
Poster presentation postdoctoral category
●First place: Maximilian Scherer (Milosevic Lab)
●Second place: Ivan Martinez (Kovacs Lab)
●Third place: Camille Fauchon (Davis Lab)
Poster presentation graduate student category
●First place: Ain Kim (Kovacs Lab)
●Second place: Areeb Jafrani (Kovacs Lab)
●Third place: Savannah Kilpatrick (Singh Lab)
Congratulations to the winners and all those who presented their work!
The web-conferencing platform Gather enabled attendees to navigate the virtual meeting space and interact with their colleagues for a more engaging conference experience.
Krembil trainees Mandana Movahed (top left), Nadeem Murtaza (top right), Wilford Wang (bottom left) and Alexandra Chatzikalymniou (bottom right) shared their research activities and how important it is to connect with colleagues through events like Research Day.