Celebrating Clinical and Basic Science at Gallie Day 2017
Each year we strive to establish a welcome agenda for
staff, students, residents and guest speakers, with a
theme that will attract all. We are very happy with the
triumphant success of the 43rd Gallie Day, which complemented
the brilliance in the Department of Surgery
at the University of Toronto.
James Rutka and Michael Fehlings reflected on the
major medical, scientific, social, and political changes
that have occurred over the past 43 years. The theme of
this year’s Gallie Day was “Transplantation / Regenerative
Medicine”.
Transplantation/Regenerative Medicine symposium
“Generative Medicine Solutions for Human Disease: Where
Are We Now: Where Are We Going” was chaired by
Michael G. Fehlings, and featured 4 incomparable
speakers. Cindi M Morshead (PhD; Professor & Chair,
Division of Anatomy, Department of Surgery, University
of Toronto) began the symposium with her thoughtprovoking
talk on “Activating resident stem cells to promote
neural repair: A stroke of genius”.
Marc Jeschke [MD, PhD, FACS, FCCM, FRCSC;
Professor, Divisions of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
and General Surgery, Department of Surgery, University
of Toronto; Director Ross Tilley Burn Centre, Chair in
Burn Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre]
continued with an exciting talk on “The future of burn
and complex wound care: Stem cell and tissue engineering”.
This was followed by Peter Zandstra [BEng (McGill),
PhD (UBC), FAAAS, FAIMBE, FRSC, PEng; Professor
& Canada Research Chair, Stem Cell Bioengineering,
Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research, University
of Toronto] with his amazing talk on “Stem cell bioengineering”.
This couldn’t be wrapped better than to
finish the symposium with Thomas K. Waddell (MD,
MSc, PhD, FRCSC, FACS; Head, Division of Thoracic
Surgery, UHN; Thomson Family Chair in Translational
Research; Professor and Pearson-Ginsberg Chair,
Division of Thoracic Surgery; University of Toronto)
with his astounding talk on “Engineering (mechanical and
genetic) to advance lung regeneration”.
Michael Fehlings and Cindi Morshead
Michael Fehlings with Rosalind Bradford, Allan Kirk and James Rutka
This year’s Gordon Murray Lecturer was Allan D.
Kirk, MD, PhD, FACS (David C. Sabiston, Jr. Professor
and Chairman, Department of Surgery Duke University
School of Medicine; Surgeon-in-Chief, Duke University
Health System, Durham, NC USA). His lecture was
entitled, “Costimulation blockade for organ transplantation”.
One of the articles Dr. Kirk spoke about was “More
surgeons must start doing basic science – They say they don’t
have time or incentive to do research – and that’s dangerous
for translational medicine” https://www.nature.com/news/more-surgeons-must-start-doing-basic-science-1.21874.
We had a record number of abstracts submitted by
trainees working with our faculty. There were 17 platform
presentation groups with a total of 81 e-poster presentations.
The Gallie Bateman Awards (for Surgeon Scientist
Training Program participants) and the McMurrich
Awards (for any trainee working with a member of the
faculty of surgery) were judged for both platform presentations
and poster presentations. The range of assorted
topics and researchers highlighted the wide-ranging
and immensely high quality research being conducted
throughout our Department.
James Byrne, Joseph Catapano, Dale Podolsky and Michael Fehlings
The 10 remarkable oral presentations were scored
so closely that they could have all been awardees. The quality of the research and presentations as a result of
the research were exceptional. Surgeon Scientist Training
Program (SSTP) residents are awarded the Gallie
Bateman prizes for best oral presentation and e-poster
presentation. First prize oral presentation awardee was James P. Byrne [Stephanie Mason (SSTP), (Supervisor:
Avery B. Nathens)] for his outstanding talk on “The
relationship between Emergency Medical Service response
time and prehospital death from motor vehicle crashes:
Rural-urban disparities and implications for trauma system
performance improvement”. Joseph Catapano (SSTP),
Simon Fung, Asim Ali, Cecilia Jobst, Douglas Cheyne,
Ronald Zuker, Gregory Borschel (Supervisor: Gregory
H. Borschel) received second prize for his remarkable
talk on “Corneal neurotization: A novel surgical
procedure to restore sensation and preserve vision in
patients with neurotrophic keratopathy”. Third prize
was received by Dale Podolsky (SSTP), David Fisher,
Karen Wong, Thomas Looi, James Drake, Christopher
Forrest (Supervisors: James Drake, Christopher Forrest)
for his excellent presentation on “Development and evaluation
of a high-fidelity cleft palate simulator for surgical
training and for development of a robotic approach to infant
cleft palate surgery”. It is a true reflection on the great
work our SSTP trainees have done while in the Program,
since they will be going back to clinic in July 2017 and
can boast that they were awarded the Gallie-Bateman
Award in their final month before finishing.
SSTP Resident E-Poster presentation 1st prize for was
awarded to Sean A. Crawford (SSTP) [Ryan M. Sanford,
Matthew G. Doyle, Naomi Eisenberg, Mark Wheatcroft,
Cristina H. Amon, Thomas L. Forbes (Supervisor)], for
his presentation entitled “Iliac artery torsion and calcification
predicts endovascular device rotation and poor patient
outcomes in advanced EVAR”. Christopher J.D. Wallis (SSTP) [David Naimark, Robert K. Nam (Supervisor)]
received second prize for his research entitled, “Adjuvant
versus salvage radiotherapy for patients with adverse pathological
findings radical prostatectomy: A decision analysis”.
3rd prize was bestowed on Mohamad A. Hussain (SSTP) [Muhammad Mamdani, Jack V. Tu, Gustavo
Saposnik, Konrad Salata (SSTP), Deepak L. Bhatt,
Subodh Verma, Mohammed Al-Omran (Supervisor)] for
his presentation entitled, “Effect of operator specialty on
the outcomes of carotid artery revascularization”.
Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto
honoured Bryce Taylor at the 2017 Gallie Day gala by
establishing the Bryce Taylor Mentorship Award. This
award recognizes those faculty members who emulate
the traits that Dr. Taylor exhibited throughout his long
and illustrious career at the University of Toronto. Dr.
Bryce Taylor, former Surgeon in Chief at the University
Health Network and Associate Chair in the Department
of Surgery, has been described as being a naturally gifted
clinical surgeon and educator with a reputation for mentoring
students, residents, fellows and, in particular,
faculty. Dr. Taylor was known for providing sage advice
and counsel to countless medical professionals. He was
considered, by all accounts, to be the quintessential role
model for professionalism in surgery and trained generations
of surgeons. The inaugural recipient of the Bryce R.
Taylor Mentorship Award was Paul Greig.
Ori Rotstein, Paul Greig and Bryce Taylor
Robert Qaqish, Michael Fehlings-, Stephanie W. Tobin, Vivian Y. Szeto, Sergio
Acuna
The McMurrich Awards are presented to research
trainees who are not in the Surgeon Scientist Training
Program. The oral presentations were brilliant. The firstplace
award was won by Sergio Acuna [Rinku Sutradhar,
S. Joseph Kim, (Supervisor: Nancy N. Baxter)] for his
superb talk on “Malignancy and solid organ transplantation:
Outcomes of recipients with pre-transplant malignancies,
uptake of cancer screening, and cancer mortality
after solid organ transplantation”. The oral presentations
were extraordinarily deep-rooted. We had a three-way
tie for 2nd prize.Vivian Y. Szeto [Rui Liu, Haitao
Wang, Baofeng Xu, Tianru Jin, Edoardo Mannucci,
Zhong-Ping Feng (Supervisor: Hong-Shuo Sun)] for
her talk on “Cerebrovascular safety of sulfonylureas: The
role of KATP channels in neuroprotection and stroke risk
in sulfonylurea treatment of Type 2 diabetes”. Stephanie
Wales Tobin [Supervisor: Ren-Ke Li] for her address on
“Loss of ERK1/2 activity in BAV triggers AP-1 degradation
and aortic wall instability”. Robert Qaqish [Yui Watanabe, Marcos Galasso, Cara Summers, Aadil
Ali, Mamoru Takahashi, Anajara Gazzalle, Mingyao
Liu, Shaf Keshavjee, Lorenzo Del Sorbo, (Supervisor:
Marcelo Cypel)] for his exceptional talk on “Lung lavage
and surfactant replacement during ECMO in a severe
ARDS aspiration pneumonia model”.
McMurrich Awards were also bestowed on a group
of individuals who presented remarkable E-posters.
Niloofar Ganji [Yuhki Koike, Agostino Pierro] received
1st prize for her work on “Remote ischemic conditioning
prevents the development of necrotizing enterocolitis”, while
the 2nd prize was received by David P Cyr [Francis SW Zih, Jossie Swett-Cosentino, Shelly Luu (SSTP),
Bryan J Wells, Ronald L Burkes, Bernard Cummings,
Faryal Esmail, Andrew J Smith, Carol J Swallow] for his
piece on “Ten-year survival outcomes following resection of
locally recurrent rectal cancer”. Chihiro Konoeda, Guan
Zehong, Tatsuaki Watanabe, Stephen Juvet, Mingyao
Liu, Tereza Martinu, Shaf Keshavjee for the excellent
presentation on the “Role of club cells in the development
of obliterative bronchiolitis in murine transplanted lungs”.
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Carol Swallow with Fayez Quereshy and Bernard Langer
Victor Yang and Andres Lozano
Each year we honour our faculty with research awards
that demonstrates the great work. Bernard Langer Surgeon Scientist Training Program Award - awarded
to an outstanding graduate of the Surgeon Scientist
Training Program in the Department, who shows the
greatest promise for a career in academic surgery went to Fayez Quereshy (Surgeon Investigator, General Surgery,
Toronto Western Hospital, UHN). Since Fayez’s desire
was to work towards a MBA, he was one of 5 residents
who were enrolled in an offshoot of the SSTP, which was
the Scholarship in Surgery Program (SIS), for residents
whose degree were non-thesis based. Fayez was awarded
his MBA in June 2008. George-Armstrong Peters Prize - awarded to a young investigator who has shown outstanding
productivity during his initial period as an independent
investigator as evidenced by research publications
in peer reviewed journals, grants held, and students
trained was awarded to Victor Yang (Surgeon Scientist,
Neurosurgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre).
Mohammed Al-Omran and Ori Rotstein
Michael Fehlings, Geoffrey Fernie and James Rutka
Mohammed Al-Omran (Surgeon Investigator, Vascular
Surgery, St. Michael’s Hospital) received The Charles
Tator Surgeon Scientist Mentoring Award - recognizing
individuals supervising participants in the SSTP who
emulate Professor Tator’s qualities, namely excellence in
research, commitment to SSTP mentoring and dedication
to promotion of Surgeon-Scientists; Geoffrey Fernie
(Senior Scientist, Orthopaedics, Toronto Rehabilitation
Institute, UHN) received The Lister Prize - awarded to
an investigator who has shown outstanding and continuing
productivity of international stature as evidenced by
research publications, grants held, students trained and
other evidence of stature of the work produced.
The Shafie Fazel Award, established in memory of
Dr. Shafie Fazel is presented to an individual who has
demonstrated outstanding accomplishments during his/
her residency both as a surgeon and as an investigator, was
presented to Alireza Mansouri (PGY VI, Neurosurgery).
James Rutka, Cindy Boulanger-Gobeil and Zane Cohen
The Zane Cohen Clinical Fellowship, presented
to a clinical fellow who has practiced and achieved
at the highest-level while being a clinical fellow in
the Department of Surgery, was awarded to Cindy
Boulanger-Gobeil (PGY VII, Surgical Oncology).
Ron Levine and Robert Stewart
Peter Ferguson with Jeremy Hall
The Tovee Award, presented to an academic staff
member of the Department of Surgery who has made
the greatest contribution to the educational activities of
the Department, as exemplified by Dr. E. Bruce Tovee
during his outstanding career. This year’s recipient of the
Tovee Postgraduate Prize is Robert Stewart (Surgeon
Teacher, Urology, St. Michael’s Hospital). Jeremy Hall
(Surgeon Teacher, Orthopaedics, St. Michael’s Hospital)
received the Tovee Undergraduate Prize.
Oleg Safir and Gideon Cohen
The Surgical Skills Centre Distinguished Educator
Award demonstrates the Centre’s commitment to surgical
skills education. This award recognizes those
individuals who have made exemplary, innovative contributions
to teaching and learning in the Surgical Skills
Centre over the past year. This was presented to Gideon
Cohen (Surgeon Investigator, Cardiovascular Surgery,
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre).
D.R. Wilson Award for teaching is made annually
to the surgical resident who is rated by undergraduate
students as being an outstanding teacher. This year the
recipient of this award, whose teaching has been highly
evaluated by medical students, is Matthew Murphy
(PGY V, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery). Matthew
demonstrated a positive attitude toward teaching and
was considered to be an exemplary surgical role model
for undergraduate medical students.
Val Cabral and Nancy Condo
The 52 judges for the e-poster competition as well
as the 13 timers, who volunteered their time for the
e-poster judging deserve special thanks, as well as the
Research Committee members who reviewed and judged
the oral presentations. As we take pride on how great
the Day and Evening awards ceremony went, we need
to acknowledge the tremendous effort it took from
everyone involved. The Day could not have gone as well
as it did without everyone’s participation and collaborative
efforts. Thanks again this year to Andrea McCart
for assigning the judges to the posters, Elisa Greco and
Carmine Simone for expertly moderating the sessions,
and Sylvia Perry for making sure the day’s and evening
preparations were adhered to flawlessly.
A very special thanks to Val Cabral for her tremendous
dedication and hard work in bringing together different
facets of Gallie Day to perfection.
As we look forward to the next Gallie Day extravaganza,
mark Friday May 11, 2018 in your iPAD, iPOD,
Smartphone.
Val Cabral (with contributions from Michael G. Fehlings)
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