Awardee Testimonials
Deena Gendoo, McGill University
AFMNet Professional Development Winter School
Fabiana Andrade, University of Western Ontario
AFMNET Professional Development Winter School
Rory Shott, University of Alberta
AFMNet Professional Development Winter School
Antanas Staskevicius, University of Sherbrooke
Canada-Europe Reciprocal Exchange Program
Olivier Julien, University of Alberta
Travel to Attend Conferences
Mustafa Al-Zoughool, University of Ottawa
Travel to Attend Conferences
Peter Hedlin, University of Saskatchewan
International Training and Travel Program
William Guest, University of British Columbia
North American Training and Travel Award
Angela Catford, University of Guelph
Science Communications Program
Deena Gendoo, McGill University
AFMNet Professional Development Winter School
AFMNet teaches you how to pitch your ideas in 30 seconds, so here is my pitch: At the AFMNet Professional School, you will learn a lot of “life tools”, interact with a variety of talented and inspired individuals, and have fun in the process. I have learned a lot about grant writing, dealing with intellectual property issues, and interacting with the media to promote my research. I gained insights into the pros and cons of academia, industry, and governmental job positions, and how to maintain a healthy life-balance in each of these areas. Additionally, I put thoughts into practice, busily networking with other AFMNet and PrioNet attendees, exchanging ideas, and exchanging experiences. This workshop was a wonderful step to help balance my communication and networking skills with my academic goals.
~ Deena Gendoo, McGill University (January, 2010)
Fabiana Andrade, University of Western Ontario
AFMNet Professional Development Winter School
The Professional Development School was a really nice event which I had the opportunity to learn more about:
- How to write effective grants;
- Advantages and disadvantages of jobs in academia, public service and industry;
- How to manage stress in work environment;
- Emotional intelligence and leadership;
- Networking;
- How to communicate brief and effectively.
The topics were extremely interesting and particularly the presentations about Career Panel and Effective Grant Writing were really helpful to me. Being aware of how to best manage stress and emotions is an important part of professional development, too. Concluding, all the knowledge acquired and all the networking established in this school will be helpful not just for my professional performance but also personally.
~ Fabiana Andrade, University of Western Ontario (January, 2010)
Rory Shott, University of Alberta
AFMNet Professional Development Winter School
The AFMnet Professional Development School was an incredible success. I was exposed to topics as broad and unique as biomimicry, emotional intelligence, and media communication. It was a pleasure to see the AFMnet administrative staff and HQP governing council, as well as other PrioNet HQP in attendance. I would like to thank PrioNet for funding my involvement in this event.
~ Rory Shott, University of Alberta (January, 2010)
Antanas Staskevicius, University of Sherbrooke
Canada-Europe Reciprocal Exchange Program
My name is Antanas Staskevicius, Master’s student at University of Sherbrooke. This fall, I spent two months in France thanks to PrioNet’s Canada-Europe Reciprocal Exchange Program working with Dr. Hubert Laude at the INRA (National Institute for Agronomic Research) in Jouy-en-Josas, 20km southwest of Paris.
Dr. Laude’s vast knowledge on scrapie deposition in a multitude of prion strains provided me an ideal opportunity to study the localization of ribonucleic macromolecules, namely mRNA, in prion diseases. Given the abundance of scrapie-infected samples in his possession, his laboratory was an ideal location to transfer the in cellulo studies our lab has done to in vivo by studying transgenic mice infected with various scrapie strains. Not only did I refine my skills handling and sectioning tissue samples and labeling them by fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence, I learned many other techniques like histoblotting during my time with his qualified team.
Not only did I enjoy working with Hubert and his staff, my time visiting Paris was truly memorable. I had a chance to visit every famous landmark with new friends from every corner of the globe since the INRA welcomes international Ph.D. students with open arms. This exchange taught me a lot about prion research and opened many doors for me since I made important collaborations with researchers from other parts of the world. I am very grateful to Dr. Laude and his team for their indispensable help during my time with them and to PrioNet for funding these important studies.
Among the innumerable advantages to participating in such a program, the lab experience I gained and the relationships I made were truly incredible. Not only did this exchange provide me the unique opportunity to learn techniques I couldn’t have in Quebec, my time in France helped me realize that collaborations such as this one can be much more informative and productive than one can imagine.
~ Antanas Staskevivius, University of Sherbrooke (September, 2009)
Olivier Julien, University of Alberta
Prion 2009 - Travel to Attend Conferences Award
My name is Olivier Julien and I am a PhD student studying protein structure and dynamics using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in the laboratory of Dr. Brian D. Sykes at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta. I started to work in the prion research field about three years ago. Thanks to the Travel to Attend Conferences Award I received from PrioNet I was able to attend the annual Prion 2009 meeting held at the Porto Carras Grand Resort in Chalkidiki (Greece).
At the pre-conference event, various workshops on different topics were organized. In particular, a Risk Assessment and Management Workshop was coordinated by PrioNet Canada. The welcome ceremony followed in the next morning with great presentation by Charles Weismann titled: “Heterogeneity of prion populations”. I also attended the Protein Misfolding session were I learned about the prion protein stability, the importance of methionine oxidation during the prion conversion and the formation of amyloid fibrils. Interestingly, a large part of the conference focused on other neurodegenerative disease proteinopathies, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
I had the privilege to interact with fellow Canadian researchers and others during the Canada Night organized by PrioNet and the Alberta Prion Research Institute. I particularly enjoyed the Canada Night as it offered the best networking opportunities. Attending this meeting has definitely advanced me towards achieving my research goals and allowed me to extend my network of friends and colleagues.
~ Olivier Julien, University of Alberta (September, 2009)
Mustafa Al Zoughool, University of Ottawa
Advanced Quantitative Risk Analysis in Epidemiology - Travel to Attend Conferences Award
My Name is Mustafa Al-Zoughool I have a PhD in Molecular Toxicology. I had one year of postdoctoral training at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France. Since 2006, I have been working as a postdoctoral fellow, McLaughlin Center for Population Health Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa.
I have recently applied for Travel to Attend Conferences PrioNet award. The event was the Advanced Quantitative Risk Analysis in Epidemiology held in May 25-29, 2009 in Fort Collins, CO, USA. The five days workshop demonstrated many principles of mathematical modeling along with practical training of such knowledge in actual problem solving. I am working on risk modeling of BSE and vCJD and uncertainty is a very common and serious problem in risk modeling especially. We are faced with substantial uncertainty, not only in the number of clinical BSE cases but also in the large number of input variables. The workshop teaches several techniques of uncertainty analysis. Examples are Non-parametric and parametric Bootstrap techniques, use of Jack-knife for gauging robustness.
Participants had to the chance to work on problems in groups and to use the learned softwares to solve them. Most of those problems were on animal disease epidemiology. Solving those problems helped in conceptualizing our current problem of prion diseases. The workshop was conducted in informal and interactive environment. We had the chance to discuss our modeling problems and share them with other participants.
~ Mustafa Al-Zoughool, University of Ottawa (May, 2009)
Peter Hedlin, University of Saskatchewan
PrioNet International Training and Travel Award
My name is Peter Hedline and I have a BSc and MSc in Microbiology & Immunology. Currently I am working on a PhD at the University of Saskatchewan at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization under the supervision of Dr. Scott Napper. We have been trying to identify a unique and immunogenic epitope on the infectious conformation of the prion protein with the hopes of then using this epitope as a target for vaccine development.
PrioNet's International Training and Travel Program has given me the opportunity to study at the Norwegian Veterinary School located in Oslo for three months from September to December 2008.
It was a unique opportunity for me because one of the potential uses for the PrPSc-specific antibodies we were producing is as a molecular diagnostic marker. The group of researchers in Oslo (Drs. Press, Espenes, and Ulvund) have established a comprehensive data bank of sheep tissue from scrapie infected and uninfected animals. This unique collection of tissues, in combination with their molecular diagnostic expertise, provided me with a fantastic platform from which to investigate the specificity of our antibodies using an immunohistochemical approach. In addition to learning about the subtleties of prion molecular diagnostics, we were able to establish a collaboration with the Norwegians with regards to setting up in vivo vaccine challenge studies in sheep.
~ Peter Hedlin, University of Saskatchewan (December, 2008)
William Guest, University of British Columbia
North American Training and Travel Program
My name is Will Guest, and I'm an MD/PhD student at the University of British Columbia. This summer, I was honoured to receive a PrioNet Canada North American Training and Travel award to spend a month in Edmonton, where I worked with Dr. Nils Petersen at the National Institute for Nanotechnology and Dr. Brian Sykes of the University of Alberta.
Dr. Petersen is the inventor of an optical technique that is useful for quantifying the aggregation state of proteins anchored in the membranes of living cells. Being able to monitor the early aggregation of prion protein in a cell culture is of considerable interest, as such studies have previously only been attempted in a cell-free system. It took me a while to learn how to run the confocal microscope used for collecting images of the cell membranes, but after two weeks' work I was able to demonstrate an increase in prion aggregation in response to various misfolding stimuli. I am now continuing these experiments at UBC.
In Dr. Sykes' lab I had a whirlwind introduction to biological NMR and its use in monitoring unfolding of the prion protein by urea denaturation. I have a newfound appreciation for the structures in the Protein Data Bank now that I've seen the enormous effort that it takes to assign peaks in even one NMR spectrum! The results obtained in the Sykes lab showed an encouraging concordance with my simulations of prion protein unfolding I had done previously at UBC, and together they help to produce a picture of the first steps of prion misfolding.
I had a great time in Edmonton - I met many helpful and engaging people with whom I hope to collaborate again in the future, learned several new experimental techniques that broadened the scope of my research experience, and I had the chance to explore a new city. I am tremendously grateful to Dr. Petersen and Dr. Sykes for permitting me to learn so much in their labs and to PrioNet for enabling and funding the travel.
There are a multitude of reasons to apply for a travel award from PrioNet: the opportunity to expand your research interests beyond what is available in your home lab, the chance to meet people working in different parts of the prion field and set up productive collaborations, and the personal growth that comes from coming to know a new part of the continent.
~ William Guest, University of British Columbia (November, 2008)
Angela Catford, University of Guelph
Banff Centre Science Communications Program
My name is Angela Catford and I am an MSc student at the University of Guelph working on a new TSE diagnostic. I also work with the Public Health Agency of Canada in TSE risk assessment. This August, I attended the Science Communications program at the Banff Centre; a program created for people participating at all links in the chain of science communication. Researchers, writers, managers, and thinkers were selected to attend and work with distinguished journalists (like Jay Ingram from TV’s Daily Planet, among others) to improve and foster their professional efficacy and creativity in communicating science.
As I plan on sharing in an article in the next issue of PrioNews coming out this fall; the program was an intellectually supercharged two week adventure. It was exhausting, stimulating and gratifying to be around so many talented, creative and supportive people.
So how do we most effectively communicate science? You could start by digging into 50 years worth of peer reviewed science communication and history literature, but if you don’t have time for a second thesis you could call me up to chat about a some of the basic ideas I had a opportunity to explore at the program.
One idea, which was discussed at the program, was that academics should consider learning from good journalists and popular communicators when it comes to publication. Program attendees reflected on the integration of traditional story telling elements and narrative into science writing. We decided that entertainment value: humour, suspense, and personal style, can find a place in our work not just for written aesthetic but for genuine communication value. To support this conclusion, recent studies are finding more evidence that narratives increase retention and comprehension. So why not take advantage of this fact?
The counter argument can be complex. In fact, I won’t even get into it here, but I will certainly acknowledge it as valid and worth further discussion.
Before I conclude, I want to share with you two reasons why this experience was so valuable. The first is that it got me thinking about how I communicate my hard work and science as a young prion researcher. I was able to analyze where my communication habits were being influenced and I would like to challenge you to do the same. If we can all better communicate our science with peers, the impact and longevity of our research will certainly be increased. There is a selfish motivation here, in the regard that this kind of communication improvement can build a career; but there is also a more altruistic goal which aims to forward the progress of prion science. And I think that’s a win-win.
The second is to encourage you to take advantage of some of the training programs that PrioNet provides. This was a two week ‘science boot-camp’ which I would never have had the opportunity to attend without this Network… a chance to embrace my inner science nerd in writing! PrioNet also has many other programs that support training in other labs or with other organizations, both in North America and abroad. Based on this experience, and sharing stories from friends having participated in other PrioNet training programs, I highly recommend searching out the opportunity that fits you best and apply. It’s worth it!!
~ Angela Catford, University of Guelph (October, 2008)
Last Updated: 3/19/2010 11:47:26 AM
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