DEPARTMENT OF OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCES NEWSLETTER
December 2023
Dear Ophthalmology Readers,
Wishing you season's greetings as the year draws to a close. May this cultural season be filled with joy, love, and cherished moments with your loved ones. We hope it brings you happiness and fulfillment.
Happy holidays!
Research Updates
Fighting Blindness Canada Clinician-Scientist Emerging Leader 2023 Award
Congratulations, Ehsan! Ehsan Misaghi is currently enrolled in the joint MD/PhD program.
Fighting Blindness Canada published an article on the awardees. Click below for more.
Coming soon: Fall 2023 edition of Eureka Undergrad Science Journal!
Congratulations, Allison! Allison Tran received 1st place in the Journal Cover Photo contest and will be featured on the front cover. Allison was an undergraduate summer student researcher in Dr. Carr's lab.
Congratulations, Nicol! Nicol San Juan received 2nd place in the Journal Cover Photo contest and will be featured on the back cover. Nicol is an undergraduate student who did summer research and is currently doing her BCHEM 499 project in Dr. Carr's lab.
The Eureka Undergraduate Science Journal is a student run initiative at the U of A that enables undergrads to publish their research projects.
Ian MacDonald and Alina Radziwon presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Washington DC (Nov. 1-5) on "Naturally occurring compounds block an exonic splicing silencer and partially rescue normal gene expression in a genotype of choroideremia".
The Laboratory has applied to the Foundation Fighting Blindness USA for a Translational Research Acceleration Program grant on “Antisense oligonucleotide therapy for Choroideremia”.
Dr. Brittany Carr is looking for residents interested in engaging in discovery science research. Potential projects could be image analysis (immunohistochemistry, OCT, fundus photos), "omics" analysis (proteomics and lipidomics), and researching and writing a small review on important questions in the field. E.g., How does atropine inhibit myopia? Does it work as well as we think it does? or How could metformin act as a therapeutic for AMD? What is the evidence?
Anyone who is interested and/or has a project they want to research but maybe don't quite know how, they can contact Brittany Carr directly.
TRIALS UPDATE
The research space in the Katz office (Dr. MacDonald and Dr. Benson) is busy with testing for Cross Cancer Trials and certifications for a number of upcoming trials; UniRare study with the Fighting Blindness Consortium USA, Alnylam RNAi therapy to treat Stargardt's, and ongoing enrollment in the Fighting Blindness Canada registry.
Drs. Badilla, Chan, Ing, and the staff in the Eye Clinic are working on certifications to run two Industry Sponsored trials to test novel treatments for Thyroid Eye Disease; Roche GP44729 (SatraGo2): TED Study and Immunovant GO-LTE in collaboration with the Diabetes Institute and Dr. Peter Senior.
Medical Education Updates
Resident Journal Club
Monday, Dec. 4 | 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Presenting: Natalia Binczyk, Natalie Arnold, Samir Nazarali
Please contact mededovs@ualberta.ca for details.
Upcoming Events
December Grand Rounds
December 1st, 2023
Grand Rounds presented by Dr. Ezekiel Weis & Guest Speaker, Dr. John Walker
December 8th, 2023
Grand Rounds presented by Dr. Matt Benson
December 15th, 2023
Grand Rounds presented by Dr. Mark Seamone
University Winter Closure December 25th, 2023 - January 1st, 2024
December 13th, 2023
Dr. Ian MacDonald will be presenting at the Medical Genetics Seminar in ECHA 2-121 at 11:45am - 1:15pm (MST): "What bugs me about genetics"
January 2nd, 2024
Promotion timeline for Clinical Faculty - We kindly ask our Clinical Faculty who are eligible for promotion to submit your application materials to Brandy McNish. We will be in touch!
May 24, 2024
SAVE THE DATE: Annual Research Day 2024, Robbins Pavilion
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Edward Holland Director of Cornea Services from the University of Cincinnati.
Check out our department's events calendar by clicking the button below! You can subscribe by adding this to your calendar.
Recent Publications
Balas M, Janic A, Daigle P, Nijhawan N, Hussain A, Gill H, Lahaie GL, Belliveau MJ, Crawford SA, Arjmand P, Ing EB. Evaluating ChatGPT on Orbital and Oculofacial Disorders: Accuracy and Readability Insights. Ophthalmic Plast Reconstr Surg. 2023 Nov 16. doi: 10.1097/IOP.0000000000002552
If you would like to feature a publication or presentation in our next newsletter, kindly click on the buttons below or email ovsadmin@ualberta.ca.
Website Updates: Do you have website suggestions or comments?
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences 2301, 10240 Kingsway Avenue NW Edmonton AB T5H 3V9
