The LMP Faculty Development Day

Collaborators: Dr. Adele Changoor (Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System) and Dr. Golnaz Karoubi (Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network)

The aim of this project was to create a forum where to help LMP faculty to translate Wellness, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (WIDE) concepts into actionable ideas that can be implemented in their daily work practice.

Two Wellness Workshops were held at the Faculty Club in 2023 and 2024:

• ‘Energize and Empower’: Drs Heather Yang and Suzanne Wong, both from Unity Health, delivered a dynamic program aimed at promoting the integration of wellness strategies into the daily lives of faculty and their teams. 
• 'Equity in Action: Implementing EDI in Research and Clinical Settings': Dr. Imogen Coe led a session discussing best practices for implementing EDI principles as leaders of research and clinical teams, in a research, clinical, or teaching capacity. 

Collaborators: Dr. Naomi Visanji (Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network) and Dr. Trevor McKee (Princess Margaret Hospital, University Health Network)

To use a novel disruptive technology, Imaging Mass Cytometry (IMC™), to study immune system dysfunction and neuroinflammation in Parkinson’s disease.

Research pathologists are increasingly faced with a challenge in being able to explore the vast numbers of targets emerging from the analysis of bulk tissue samples using ‘omics approaches. Simply put, ‘omics screens frequently generate too many markers and pathways of interest to visualize using classical immunohistochemistry in the finite amounts of precious tissue sections available from human diseases. IMC™ addresses this challenge by providing the opportunity to simultaneously assess 40 -plus markers of interest in a single section. Additionally, IMC™ has advantages over other forms of multiplex immunostaining including the absence of autofluorescence, which can be particularly significant in brain tissue.

We have been working with Standard Biotools to design a custom panel of 40 antibodies to be used in the study. These include cell segmentation markers that will allow the visualisation of different cell types within the brain, markers for neuroinflammation and developing novel conjugates for neurodegenerative disease associated proteins.

Collaborators: Dr. Sasan Zandi (St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto), Dr. Shawn Winer (St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto), Dr. Bo-yee Ngan (Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)), Dr. Daniel Winer (Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network)

The diagnosis of low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma in a small GI biopsy specimen can be very challenging. This project aims to establish single nuclear gene expression and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) signatures of GI MALT lymphoma in stomach and colon with translation into potential new diagnostic markers for GI MALT lymphoma. It also aims to investigate the specificity of VDJ rearrangement in MALT lymphoma of stomach and colon.

Collaborators: Dr. Larissa Liontos (Sunnybrook Health Science Centre), Dr. Carlo Hojilla (Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Health), Dr. Susan Poutanen (University Health Network/Sinai Health Department of Microbiology), Dr. George Yousef (Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network)

The aim was to create a two-day workshop outside of the regular curriculum that would be fun, interactive and allow undergraduate medical students to learn about rewarding career options in Laboratory Medicine. Lab Med specialties are poorly represented in the undergraduate medicine education (UME) curriculum and this lack of exposure limits medical students from determining whether they would be interested in pursuing these career pathways. 

The first LMP Summit was held successfully in June 2024 and the second is now being planned. 

• See the news story: Introducing medical students to the world of Lab Medicine: LMP launches The Summit!
• The LMP Summit web page

Collaborators: Dr. Carmen Avila-Casado (Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network), Dr. Rumina Musani (Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network), Dr. Sara Hafezi-Bakhtiari (Lakeridge Health Network), Dr. Larissa Liontos (Sunnybrook Health Science Centre), Dr. Carlo Hojilla (Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Health), Dr. Anita Nagy (Hospital for Sick Children/SickKids)

To develop a virtual education (e-learning) model in Anatomical Pathology to support a structured and curriculum-based approach training in different anatomical pathology specialties with remote access to innovative educational material, self-learning experts and educators. This is a result of combining two projects which both wanted to pursue digital education in various fields of pathology.

• See a related story: Going global with Hematopathology: how an online teaching platform could revolutionize the field