SHARP MINDS, SKILLED HANDS
GALLIE-BATEMAN & MCMURRICH
RESEARCH DAY 2010
Ben Alman at the podium with William Gallie on the screen
This year's Gallie Day celebrated the 25th anniversary of the formal establishment
of our Surgeon Scientist Program (SSP) which pioneered formal training
for residents to participate in graduate level research training.
The celebratory dinner, entitled "SHARP MINDS, SKILLED HANDS",
was very successful in raising funds for the Program. Talks by SSP alumni,
SSP in the Program now and research graduate students highlighted the day.
The Gordon Murray Lecturer, Joseph P. Vacanti (Harvard Medical School,
Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Boston,
MA) gave a fascinating lecture entitled, "Tissue Engineering and Regenerative
Medicine: From Science to the Surgical Armamentarium".
Joseph V. Vacanti
The theme for the day was decades of surgical research
at the University of Toronto. In addition to the oral
presentations from our trainees, we invited many of our
SSP alumni to speak on how the SSP influenced their
lives and to update us on their research. Peter J. Evans,
Paul Fedak, John Ikonomidis, Douglas Kondziolka, Joan
Lipa, Rajiv Midha, Sheila Singh, Larissa Temple and
Dan Theodorescu all spoke. Steven Strasberg, Charles
Tator and Richard Weisel, faculty directors of our SSP
since its inception, spoke about how the program started,
and how it changed over the years.
Poster Presentations
Barry Rubin
Barry Rubin was awarded the Lister Prize, our highest
research award, given 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. Rebecca Gladdy received the Bernard Langer
Surgeon Scientist Award, presented to an outstanding
graduate of the Surgeon Scientist Program in the
Department, who shows the greatest promise for a career
in academic surgery. Subodh Verma received the 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. Richard Reznick received the
Charles Tator Surgeon Scientist Mentoring Award,
recognizing the individual supervising participants in the
SSP who emulates Professor Tator's excellence in research,
commitment to SSP mentoring and dedication to promotion
of Surgeon-Scientists.
from left to right: Nancy Calabrese-Condo, Val Kim Huynh, Val Cabral,
Sylvia Perry
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The Gallie Bateman Awards (for Surgeon Scientist
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. Thirty of our faculty members
helped in the judging of the research presentations. The
variety of the topics and types of trainees highlighted
the diversity and high quality of the research being conducted
in our department. Attendance was larger than
usual; for much of the day there was a standing room
only crowd.
The Gallie Bateman Award for best work by a trainee in
the Surgeon Scientist Program went to Douglas J. (DJ)
Cook (Michael Tymianski, supervisor): "Neuroprotection
in the gyrencephalic brain: Effectiveness of the PSD-95
inhibitor NA-1 in treating experimental stroke in the
cynomolgus macaque", 2nd place to Mitesh V. Badiwala (Vivek Rao, supervisor): "Egfl7 suppresses ICAM-1
expression in response to I/R injury". There was a two
way tie for 3rd place: Vanessa N. Palter (Teodor P.
Grantcharov, supervisor): "Development of an objective
evaluation tool to assess technical skill in laparoscopic
colorectal surgery: A Delphi methodology", and Ali
Zahrai (Valerie Palda, supervisor): "The development
of a preliminary preoperative education tool for patients
undergoing lumbar microdiscectomy utilizing multiple
stakeholder interviews".
Rebecca Gladdy receives the award from Bernie Langer
Ben Alman and Gallie- Bateman prizewinner D.J. Cook
McMurrich awardees were tied 1st place: Francis Si Wai
Zih, Carla O. Rosario, Yosr Haffani, James W. Dennis
(Carol J. Swallow, supervisor): "A novel role for the cell
cycle regulator polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4) in cell migration
and invasion"; Tatiana K.S. Cypel, Iona Leong,
Cho Pang, Peter Dirks, Christopher R. Forrest: "In vitro
assessment of osteoblast behavior in craniosynostosis";
2nd prize: Krishna K. Singh (Subodh Verma, supervisor):
"BRCA1 improves endothelial function and limits
atherosclerosis"; 3rd prize: Avi D. Vandersluis, Natalie
A. Venier, Neil E. Fleshner, Alexandra J. Colquhoun,
Laurence H. Klotz, Vasundara Venkateswaran: "The
effects of physical activity on prostate cancer in the active
surveillance cohort".
The quality, quantity and scope of the 60 research presentations
from our trainees, and the tremendous accomplishments
of our SSP alumni highlight the significance
of the SSP to our department. It has shaped and facilitated
our prominence in surgical research over the decades,
and increased the size of our "academic footprint" in the
world. The work from our trainees demonstrates our
ability to generate new surgical knowledge at the highest
level - practical knowledge that will ultimately improve
the outcome for the patients we treat.
Ben Alman and Val Cabral
Gallie Slaves
W B Gallie
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Gallie Day celebrates
the memory and
accomplishments
of William Edward
Gallie who developed
our Department of
Surgery into the first
fully-coordinated
training program
for young surgeons
in Canada. Gallie
was born in Barrie,
Ontario in 1882 , the son of a building contractor.
He graduated from the University of Toronto
and trained at Toronto General Hospital and the
Hospital for Sick Children. He pioneered the use
of "living sutures" while serving in World War I
and was recognized for his success treating fractures
of spinal vertebrae. Although he received
many offers to work in the United States, Gallie
remained in Toronto, committed to his goal of
creating a systematic course here so that Canadians
no longer had to travel abroad to complete their
training. His devotion was not lost on his students
who happily called themselves "the Gallie slaves".
In 1937 they formed the Gallie Club, meeting
annually to present major papers. For his birthday
every January, Dr. Gallie and his wife entertained
his students and former students, who would
return from all over the world for a reception in
their home on Teddington Park Blvd, overlooking
the York Mills ravine.
Julie Roorda
Assistant Editor 2004 - 2009
(with notes from Ernest Meyer and Toronto Star
columnist Donald Jones)
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