Biochemistry Research Day 2009

Coffee and delicious pastries are just the thing to kick-start the early morning and a great way to socialize before the talks

Acting Chair and ever-entertaining MC, Roy Baker, welcomes everyone to Research Day

Our thanks to David Isenman for his excellent efforts in coordinating Research Day

Next up was Wilson Lau (Rubinstein lab) who talked about his work on a cryo-EM structure of the V-ATPase

An appreciative audience enjoyed the talks in the charming setting of the Old Mill

This year's Hofmann Lecturer was Hans Vogel, University of Calgary, who gave an entertaining anecdote-filled talk entitled "Calcium regulation in the EF-handome: from Theo Hofmann's calbindin D9k to brain caldendrin"

Theo Hofmann lecturer Hans Vogel with long-time friend Theo Hofmann

Living proof that retired biochemists live life to the fullest, Marian Packham, Robert Painter and Theo Hofmann trade stories of their travels over coffee

Postdoc Cosmin Pocanschi shows how the chaperone calreticulin inhibits client protein aggregation

Eric Zholumbetov does a great job entertaining judges Angus McQuibban and Chi-Hung Siu

Those Deber-ites will have a lab meeting just about anywhere!

Jim Rini and Joseph Nachman check out Grace Li's poster

Eden Fussner draws an attentive audience

Marta Wierzbicka updates supervisor Emil Pai with her latest results

Looks like Vikram Mulligan has tough sell with judge Jim Rini

Is that a trick question? - Dave Tulumello seems surprised by judge Régis Pomès while Cliff Lingwood scans the data

Sarah Mansour models the behaviour of elastin peptides to judge Boris Steipe

Dave Davidson stresses a point to judge Trevor Moraes

Harry Schachter shares a light moment with David Isenman

Trevor Moraes gives a terrific talk on solving X-ray structures of bacterial membrane transporters

On to the awards! Always a tough decision judging posters but the winners are....

A host of Ph.D. poster awards this year...going to (from left) Patrick Walsh (Sharpe lab), Stephanie Tammam (Howell lab), Patrick Kim Chiaw (Bear lab), Eden Fussner (Bazzett-Jones lab), Wes Errington (Privé lab), and Sarah Mansour (Pomès lab)

Photos by David Williams


Carol Gordon and Anthoula Vlahakis (left) and Carrie Harber and Brenda Bradshaw (right) look remarkably cheerful despite the early start as they register everyone for Research Day
Vicki Ilgacs does a great job organizing the poster judges		Keeping track of nearly 200 participants is no easy task!

Coffee and delicious pastries are just the thing to kick-start the early morning and a great way to socialize before the talks
Allison Pang (left) Charles Deber and Lilian Wong catch up over breakfast		Jacqueline Segall and David Pulleyblank enjoy the morning
Acting Chair and ever-entertaining MC, Roy Baker, welcomes everyone to Research Day	back to top	Our thanks to David Isenman for his excellent efforts in coordinating Research Day
Student oral presentations selected from submitted abstracts led off the day...
Our lead-off student presentation came from Lori Rutkevich (Williams lab) who spoke on the conundrum of why there are so many different thiol oxidoreductases in the ER		Next up was Wilson Lau (Rubinstein lab) who talked about his work on a cryo-EM structure of the V-ATPase
Matt Estey (Trimble lab) keep everyone riveted with his presentation "Septin 9 mediates abscission in response to mititic regulation by Cdk1 and Pin1"		An appreciative audience enjoyed the talks in the charming setting of the Old Mill
With all this product placement maybe we should ask Apple for support of next year's Research Day!		Kelly Stewart (left) and Kristin Horton (Kelley lab) were this year's recipients of the Beckman-Coulter "Best Student Publication of 2008" and, in a terrific tag-team format, presented their work entitled "Mitochondria-penetrating peptides" Horton KL, Stewart KM, Fonseca SB, Guo Q, Kelley SO. Chem Biol. (2008) 15(4):375-82.
So does the ATPase rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise? Eden Fussner gets some insights from John Rubinstein		Allen Volchuk (left) and Angus McQuibban in deep discussion... perhaps about science but maybe something to do with sunny days and 18 holes
Enjoying a break between talks	back to top	Gil Privé and Alan Davidson catch up during the break
Always a highlight, our Annual Theo Hofmann Lecture rounded out the morning
This year's Hofmann Lecturer was Hans Vogel, University of Calgary, who gave an entertaining anecdote-filled talk entitled "Calcium regulation in the EF-handome: from Theo Hofmann's calbindin D9k to brain caldendrin"		Theo Hofmann lecturer Hans Vogel with long-time friend Theo Hofmann
Sian Patterson takes advantage of some of the delicious snacks available throughout the morning		Living proof that retired biochemists live life to the fullest, Marian Packham, Robert Painter and Theo Hofmann trade stories of their travels over coffee
Decisions, decisions... Bill Trimble and Angus McQuibban ponder the choices at Old Mill's delicious lunch buffet		The wonderful lunch put everyone in the mood for the afternoon poster session
Members of the Williams, Howell and Kelley labs took the opportunity to socialize over lunch...		...while Régis Pomès chose more athletic pursuits - showing off his new fixed-wheel bike to department cycling enthusiasts
Growing year after year presents a major challenge to getting everyone in the shot for our annual Departmental Photo (click here to download print-quality photo - 3.3 Mb file) back to top
Posters...posters.....POSTERS!! A record number of posters were presented by our grad students and postdocs this year!
Neha Kharbanda makes a point to judges Chris Yip and Gil Privé		Postdoc Cosmin Pocanschi shows how the chaperone calreticulin inhibits client protein aggregation
Steve MacKinnon gets some input from Roy Baker		Eric Zholumbetov does a great job entertaining judges Angus McQuibban and Chi-Hung Siu
Those Deber-ites will have a lab meeting just about anywhere!		It's all in the presentation... as Fiona Cunningham demonstrates to judges Stephane Angers and Alan Davidson
Jim Rini and Joseph Nachman check out Grace Li's poster		Eden Fussner draws an attentive audience
Marta Wierzbicka updates supervisor Emil Pai with her latest results	back to top	Looks like Vikram Mulligan has tough sell with judge Jim Rini
Harry Schachter may be retired but Wes Errington finds he doesn't miss a thing!		Is that a trick question? - Dave Tulumello seems surprised by judge Régis Pomès while Cliff Lingwood scans the data
So how many subunits would you believe? Keith Wong takes judges Walter Kahr and Jacqueline Segall through the quaternary structure of *** back to top		Edith Cheng helps Jessica Vaisica take a break from tending her poster
Kashif Ahmed describes his work on chromatin remodeling to judges Andrew Wilde and Khosrow Adeli		Sarah Mansour models the behaviour of elastin peptides to judge Boris Steipe
Dave Davidson stresses a point to judge Trevor Moraes		Wheew - Masha, *** and Ruth Milkreit take a timeout from viewing all those posters!
Harry Schachter shares a light moment with David Isenman	back to top	Where'd we be without the all-day coffee breaks - Lori Rutkevich and Jennifer Webb get re-caffeinated
Wrapping up the afternoon with some terrific faculty presentations....
Shana Kelley shows us why she was voted Top 40 under 40 with her talk on peptidoconjugates as cellular probes and sensors		Trevor Moraes gives a terrific talk on solving X-ray structures of bacterial membrane transporters
On to the awards! Always a tough decision judging posters but the winners are....
Roy Baker and Jim Rini present M.Sc. poster awards to Peter Poliszczuk (Attisano lab) and Eliana Chan (McQuibban lab) - missing is Mustafa Kamani (Lingwood lab)		A host of Ph.D. poster awards this year...going to (from left) Patrick Walsh (Sharpe lab), Stephanie Tammam (Howell lab), Patrick Kim Chiaw (Bear lab), Eden Fussner (Bazzett-Jones lab), Wes Errington (Privé lab), and Sarah Mansour (Pomès lab)
Roy Baker presents the postdoc poster award to Majida El Bakkouri (Houry lab)		*** from Beckman-Coulter dropped by to present the Beckman-Coulter prize for best student paper of 2008 to Kelly Stewart (left) and Kristin Horton (Kelley lab)
Outstanding TA Awards
We really do have outstanding TAs and this year's awards for top TA went to....(from left) Lori Rutkevich (BCH371), Derek Ng (BCH370), Jean-Philippe Julien (BCH471) and Sian Patterson BCH210) Congratulations and many thanks for such exceptional work!!
Best all-round graduate student....the David A. Scott Award
		Our annual David A. Scott award for best all-round graduate student is awarded on the basis of performance at seminars, readiness and willingness to assist fellow graduate students and staff, abilities as teaching assistant, etc. This year, the Scott award goes to Usheer Kanjee (Houry lab) Congratulations Usheer!