Scientific Day

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The Annual Scientific Day is the academic highlight of the year.

It is designed to highlight student achievements, teaching excellence and to provide opportunities for students to work on presentation skills and for faculty and students to interact.  All faculty and students are encouraged to attend.

Scientific Day takes place in May each year. Students are invited to compete for a number of Scientific Day Student Awards, including the Laidlaw Manuscript Competition and the Alan Wu Poster Competition. Presentation at Scientific Day is also a mandatory component of degree completion for all research based and doctoral stream MSc and PhD students. IMS faculty members and students will be updated via email of competition deadlines and Scientific Day events.

Bernard Langer Annual Lecture in Health Sciences Keynote Speaker: We were thrilled to have Dr. Jeff Biernaskie from the University of Calgary present the 2021 Scientific Day Keynote Address

Talk title: Deciphering the cellular and transcriptional recipe enabling skin regeneration

Dr. Biernaskie completed his BSc in Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge. He earned a PhD in Neuroscience at Memorial University studying the effects of focused rehabilitative experience on brain plasticity following stroke. He completed postdoctoral training studying skin and neural stem cell biology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In 2009, he joined the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary, where is he currently a Professor in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. He is a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and he holds the Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society Chair in Skin Regeneration and Wound Healing.  In 2019, he was elected as a member of the Royal Society of Canada, College of Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

His research program is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying tissue regeneration and the potential to exploit tissue-resident stem/progenitor cells toward restoration of function following injury or disease. He is specifically interested in how skin and brain stem/progenitors cells are regulated during homeostasis and how factors like injury, advanced aging and the immune system impact their function.