AWARDS/ACHIEVEMENTS AND HONOURS

ONTARIO GENOMIC INSTITUTE SOCIETAL IMPACT OF GENOMICS PRIZE

Professor Abdallah S. Daar (GS) and Dr. Sarah Ali-Khan of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC), University Health Network and University of Toronto, are the 2011 recipients of the Ontario Genomics Institute Societal Impact of Genomics Prize. This acknowledgement is in recognition of their research in genomics and race.

Since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2000, there has been debate in biomedical literature about the use of race and ethnicity in genetic research potentially resulting in racial/ethnic stereotyping. Drs. Daar and Ali-Khan examined the 2005 Admixture Mapping study, which looked for risk factors for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in African Americans and European Americans, a disease that is extremely rare in Sub-Sahara Africans, common in populations of European descent, and of intermediate frequency in African Americans. Drs. Daar and Ali-Khan examined the ethical and social issues raised by the Admixture Mapping project and used these to draw up a series of recommendations and points for policy makers and researchers to consider when undertaking populationbased genomics studies. The paper, titled Admixture mapping: from paradigms of race and ethnicity to population history, published in August 2010 in the Journal of the Human Genome Organization, examined the social and ethical issues, the benefits and the risks of Admixture Mapping, and more generally, of population-based genomic methods.

CANADIAN ACADEMY OF HEALTH SCIENCES (CAHS) NEW FELLOWS

Seven members of the Faculty of Medicine were inducted as new Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) on September 16, 2011. CAHS recognizes the full breadth of academic health science ranging from fundamental science to social science and population health. Fellows are elected to the Academy in recognition of their contributions to the promotion of health science through leadership, creativity, distinctive competencies and their commitment to the advancement of health science. The new inductees are Vivek Goel (Dalla Lana School of Public Health), Patrick Gullane (Chair, Department of Otolaryngology), Amira Klip (Department of Biochemistry), Anthony Lang (Department of Medicine), Ren-Ke Li (Department of Surgery), James Rutka (Chair, Department of Surgery), and Stanley Zlotkin (Department of Paediatrics).

James Rutka (Chair, Surg) was acknowledged for his work in the molecular biology of human brain tumors by the Royal Society of Canada. He has published over 300 peer reviewed articles, and received over $10 million research funding.

Daniel Lodge (CS) received the Harrison Teaching Award, offered semiannually at the Sunnybrook Faculty of Surgery Annual Dinner. This award is given to the resident who scores best in undergraduate teaching as voted on by medical students.

Paul Karanicolas (GS) has received funding from Colon Cancer Canada ($50,000) for his work entitled “Quality of Life Following Resection of Colorectal Cancer”.

Lakho Sandhu (GS) was awarded the Best Clinical Abstract Award at the 2011 Canadian Association of General Surgeons’ Surgery Forum for her study entitled “Sources of bias in non-randomized comparative studies of surgical procedures.” (Supervisor: David Urbach).

Luke Szobota and Usmaan Hameed (GS) were the recipients of the 2011 Canadian Association of General Surgeons’ Resident Excellence in Teaching Award.

Patrick Gullane (H&NSurg) will be awarded by The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland with an Honorary Fellowship on February 4, 2012. This Fellowship is the highest honour bestowed by the College and is awarded in recognition of an individual’s outstanding contributions to medicine, surgery and humanity. The award will be presented at the College’s annual Charter Day Meeting at which Pat Gullane has been invited to deliver a keynote lecture.

Ryan Alkins (NeurSurg) was awarded the Edward Christie Stevens Fellowship in Medicine and Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund for 2011-12.

Mark Bernstein (NeurSurg) was named as the Inaugural Holder of the Greg Wilkins-Barrick Chair in International Surgery. The $5.5M gift to the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation represents one of the largest gifts ever to the Division.

David Cadotte (NeurSurg) is this year’s recipient of the Starr Medal. He was also awarded the Chisholm Memorial Fellowship, Miriam Neveren Memorial Award, Edward Christie Stevens Fellowship in Medicine and Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund for 2011-12.

Douglas Cook (NeurSurg) won 1st prize in the Basic Neuroscience Research category of the K.G. McKenzie Prize for his manuscript entitled “Extending the therapeutic window for reperfusion after stroke in non-human primates using a PSD-95 inhibitor” at the Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation meeting, Vancouver, BC, 2011.”.

Karen Davis (NeurSurg) was appointed to the CIHR Institute Advisory Board for the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction for a threeyear term (effective Sep. 1, 2011).

Peter Dirks (NeurSurg) won the Alan R. Hudson Neurosurgery Faculty Teaching Award presented at the 36th William S. Keith Professorship, Toronto, June, 2011.

Gregory Hawryluk (NeurSurg) was the recipient of the Warren Ho Memorial Scholarship in Neurosurgery presented at the 36th William S. Keith Professorship, Toronto, 2011.

Gregory was also was awarded 2nd place in the Thomas P. Morley Neurosurgical Resident Prize competition at the 36th William S. Keith Professorship, Toronto, ON, June 9-10, 2011.

Gregory also won the National Neurotrauma Society’s Murray Goldstein Award for his work entitled “Neural Precursor Cells Express Trophins Following Transplantation but Remyelination is the Key Mechanism by which They Augment Functional Recovery Following Rodent Spinal Cord Injury” at the National Neurotrauma Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on July 10-13, 2011.

He won also the Best Science Paper Award in the 2011 Region XII Committee on Trauma resident paper competition of the American College of Surgeons and was the unanimous choice of the Canadian Trauma Association to represent Canada at the 2012 American College of Surgeons Trauma Research competition.

Gregory was selected to represent Canada at the 2012 American College of Surgeons Trauma Research competition.

Gregory Hawryluk and Michael Fehlings (NeurSurg) won 2nd Prize in the Basic Neuroscience Research category of the K.G. McKenzie Prize for his manuscript entitled “Understanding how a cell transplantation paradigm leads to functional recovery from spinal cord injury: the importance of remyelination” at the Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation meeting, Vancouver, BC, June, 2011.

Michael Fehlings (NeurSurg) has accepted an invitation to serve as an Editorial Board Member for the journal Neural Regeneration Research (NRR).

Alexander Velumian, Marina Samoilova and Michael Fehlings (NeurSurg)’ paper entitled “Visualization of cytoplasmic diffusion within living myelin sheaths of CNS white matter axons using microinjection of the fluorescent dye Lucifer Yellow” (Neuroimage 2011, 56:27-34) was selected for inclusion in the Faculty of 1000, placing this article in the top two percent of published articles in biology and medicine.

George Ibrahim (NeurSurg) was awarded the William S. Fenwick Research Fellowship and Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund for 2011-12.

Nir Lipsman (NeurSurg) was awarded a CIHR Fellowship Grant in the amount of $50,000 for the 2011-12 academic year.

Nir Lipsman was also the recipient of the William S. Fenwick Research Fellowship, Chisholm Memorial Fellowship, Miriam Neveren Memorial Award, Edward Christie Stevens Fellowship in Medicine and Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund for 2011-12.

Adrian Laxton (NeurSurg) won 1st Prize in the Clinical Neuroscience Research category of the K.G. McKenzie Prize for his manuscript entitled “A Phase I trial of deep brain stimulation of memory circuits in Alzheimer’s disease” at the Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation meeting, Vancouver, BC, 2011.

Andres M Lozano (NeurSurg) and his team received the 1st Prize, K.G. McKenzie Prize In Clinical Neuroscience Research for “A phase I trial of deep brain stimulation of memory circuits in Alzheimer disease”.

Andres was the lead investigator of a new PET Scan Suite, whose opening at Toronto Western Hospital was celebrated by UHN, the Toronto General & Western Foundation and the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation on Sep. 19, 2011. Financial support for the PET Scan Suite came from a $2.1M Ontario Innovation Trust award to Andres Lozano, a generous donation from the Safra Foundation, and a number of contributions from patients.

Andres Lozano was cross-appointed as a Professor of Neurology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, effective as of June 1, 2011.

Andres was also awarded a renewal of his Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience. The CRC Secretariat awards Tier 1 Chairs for seven-year terms to outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields.

Andres Lozano was the recipient of the 2010 Winn Prize Award from the Society of Neurological Surgeons.

Loch Macdonald and Jinglu Ai (NeurSurg) were awarded a $25,000 grant from the Brain Aneurysm Foundation for their project “Molecular mechanisms of memory loss following subarachnoid hemorrhage”.

Loch also was the recipient of a Reviewer Excellence Award from the journal Neurosurgery.

Tejas Sankar (NeurSurg) was awarded a CIHR Fellowship Grant in the amount of $50,000.00 for the 2011-12 academic year.

Tom Schweizer (NeurSurg) won a New Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada in the amount of $300,000 (2011-2016).

Tom was also the recipient of an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation valued at $140,000 (2011-2016).

Mehdi Shahideh (NeurSurg) was the recipient of the Alan R. Hudson Neurosurgery Resident Teaching Award presented at the 36th William S. Keith Professorship, Toronto, ON, 2011.

Sunjay Sharma (NeurSurg) was awarded the Synthesis Award for Resident Research on Brain and Craniofacial Injury at the Congress for Neurological Surgeons 2011 Annual Meeting.

Scellig Stone (NeurSurg) was awarded the American Academy of Neurosurgery resident award for his PhD-related work on deep brain stimulation inducing neurogenesis. This international award is the most prestigious given to a resident by a neurosurgical body, and we should all be proud that it has been conferred once again to a resident from the University of Toronto.

Charles Tator (NeurSurg) was the recipient of the UHN 2011 Global Impact Award, given to a UHN staff member who has been a leader in medicine and science, and whose past work has led to improvements in health care well beyond our borders. Dr. Tator was selected as this year’s recipient, in recognition of his pioneering research in spinal cord injury in Canada, and as an international leader in prevention of head injury

Charles Tator was also presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto. This award is given in recognition of significant contributions to the society, the professions and the community at large.

Michael Taylor (NeurSurg) ranked #2 on the Toronto Star’s list of the biggest scientific discoveries of 2010.

Travis Tierney (NeurSurg) was awarded a NREF Codman Fellowship Grant in the amount of $53,083 for the 2011-12 academic year.

Michael Tymianski (NeurSurg) is UHN’s sole lead recipient of an Ontario Research Fund Research Excellence (ORF-RE) Round 5 Award from the Ministry of Research and Innovation. The $1.4M award for the project “TRPM7 Inhibitors for the Treatment of Stroke and Myocardial Ischemia” will be used for the development of drugs targeting TRPM7, a protein implicated in cell damage, in treatment of cellular damage arising from stroke, heart attack and retinal disorders. The $65M ORF-RE Round 5 competition awarded 26 projects across the province.

Michael was also awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Translational Stroke Research.

Taufik Valiante (NeurSurg) is Co-Director of the Krembil Neuroscience Center’s Epilepsy Program, which has been designated a Luminary Site by Natus/XLTEK. The partnership with Natus, suppliers of EEG equipment to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, will allow the Epilepsy Program at Toronto Western Hospital to provide state-of-the-art epilepsy care at significantly reduced costs.

Adrienne Weeks (NeurSurg) was awarded 1st place in the Thomas P. Morley Neurosurgical Resident Prize competition at the 36th William S. Keith Professorship, Toronto, ON, June 9-10, 2011.

Jeff Wilson (NeurSurg) was the recipient of the Chisholm Memorial Fellowship, Edward Christie Stevens Fellowship in Medicine and Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund for 2011-2012.

Mark Bernstein (NeurSurg) was honoured at a gala event at the Sony Centre for his pioneering work in surgical neuro-oncology and awake craniotomy. The event included a remarkable performance by the Guangzhou Ballet company of the 1940’s Chinese ballet entitled “Return on a Snowy Night”. Proceeds from the event will support neurosurgical oncology clinical and research efforts at the Toronto Western Hospital.

Andrew Howard (OrthoSurg) received a CIHR Grant for his project entitled “Pedestrian Countdown Timers: Effect on Pedestrian Injury Rates. A controlled cohort study using spatial analysis in the city of Toronto” (coinvestigators – Ronald Norman Buliung, Linda Rothman, Andrew Roger Willan, Colin MacArthur).

Victor Lo (OrthoSurg), a Master’s student working in Dr. Cari Whyne’s laboratory received the 2011 CORS (Canadian Orthopaedic Research Society) Founders’ medal. His work on photodynamic therapy and spinal metastases will be presented in Ottawa June 8-10, 2012 at the Canadian Orthopaedic Association annual meeting.

John Murnaghan (OrthoSurg) has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 RCPSC/AMS Donald Richards Wilson Award, which honours an individual who has demonstrated excellence in integrating the CanMEDS roles into a Royal College or other health related training programs.

Siba Haykal (PlasSurg) received the Postgraduate Research Award for her research entitled, “Determining the Immunogenicity of Decellularized Tracheal Allografts. Siba is in her second year of the Surgeon Scientist Program, pursuing a PhD with Stefan Hofer and Tom Waddell as her supervisors.

Siba also received the William S. Fenwick Research Fellowship, as well as the Edward Christie Stevens Fellowship in Medicine. She also received the Joseph M. West Family Memorial Fund. All were received in August 2011

Jennica Platt (PlasSurg) has received acceptance to the Clinical Investigators Program along with one year of funding from the Ministry of Health.

Kyle Wanzel (PlasSurg) was presented with the St. Joseph’s Department of Surgery Teacher and Mentor of the Year Award for 2011. This is an award given to the surgeon with the highest TES scores as given by residents and medical students who have rotated through the Department of Surgery.

Alison Snyder-Warrick (PlasSurg) was awarded the best paper for her presentation on “Axonal Counts for Free Muscle Transfer for Facial Paralysis” at Chang Gung Mayo Clinic Symposium in Microsurgery in Tapei, Taiwan in October 2011.

Ronald Zuker (PlasSurg) was the recipient of the Fu Chan Wei Award for Reconstructive Surgery presented at Chang Gung Mayo Clinic Symposium in Microsurgery in Tapei, Taiwan in October 2011. This is a prestigious award and recognizes international expertise in the area of reconstructive microsurgery. Although the award is named after Fu Chan Wei, it should be noted that he spent his formative fellowship years at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Drs. Manktelow and Zuker and it is a fitting tribute that his former mentor has been honoured in this way.

Gail Darling (ThorSurg) was selected as the surgical representative for the RTOG Thoracic Subgroup.

Andrew Pierre (ThorSurg) received the Gail Darling Undergraduate Teaching Award 2011, as well as the RJ Ginsberg Postgraduate Teaching Award.

Andrew has also been appointed Thoracic Residency Program Director in July 2011. He was recently promoted to Associate Professor, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto.

Kazuhiro Yasufuku and Thomas Waddell (ThorSurg) performed the first robotic lobectomy for lung cancer in Canada in October 2011. Using a completely portal, 4-arm technique on the Da Vinci platform, the procedure involved extensive training of OR staff and team preparation.

Robert Zeldin (ThorSurg) was Promoted to Associate Professor, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto.

Thomas Lindsay (VascSurg) is the recipient of this year’s Ross Fleming Surgical Educator Award. This award is presented by the Surgeon-in-Chief for Excellence in Surgical Education.

Ranil Sonnadara (Surgical Skills Centre) received the Top 3 paper Award, at the 2011 International Conference on Residency Education (Authors: Ranil Sonnadara, Oleg Safir, Shawn Garbedian, Markku Nousiainen, Peter Ferguson, William Kraemer; Benjamin Alman, & Richard Reznick) for Orthopaedic boot camp II: Examining retention rates for skills taught through an intensive laboratory-based surgical skills course.