The LMP Research Conference and Product Show (LMPRC) 2023

The agenda and your personal itinerary will be available in the conference app.

8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast and registration

9:00 – 9:15 Welcome address

9:20 – 10:05 Oral Presentations Session I 

• Ain Kim, Strain-Specific α-Synuclein Seeding and Structural Properties in Lewy Body Disease and Multiple System Atrophy are Preserved in FFPE 
• Anders Erickson, The Lazy Piggy Transposon Identifies Cancer Maintenance Drivers
• Geil Astorga, Human-centred Recruitment: Applying the Toronto Translational Framework to Engage with Participants of an Adaptive Platform Trial of COVID Treatments 

10:10 – 11:10 Poster Presentations Session I

• Brain & Neuroscience + Translational Research Program (TRP) + Cancer, Development and Aging 

11:15 – 12:15 Precision Medicine Presentations (see below 'Precision Medicine Presentations' for details)

• Dr. Ju-Yoon Yoon
• Dr. Purna Joshi

12:20 – 13:20 Lunch and visit the vendors in the Product Show

• Ask a question about the LMP Strategic Plan! Vice Chairs from LMP will be available to answer any questions you have.

13:25 – 14:10 Oral Presentations Session II 

• Atefeh Mohammadi, L-citrulline Mitigates the Pro-inflammatory Response of Neonatal Alveolar Type 1 Cells Exposed to LPS and TNF-α 
• Danielle Karakas, Kupffer cells are central to platelet-mediated hepatocellular thrombopoietin generation
• Ruchika Gupta, Utilizing Blood cultures as a stewardship tool: where's the ship headed? 

14:15 – 15:15 Poster Presentations Session II

• Cardiovascular, Physiology, & Metabolism + Infectious Diseases, Inflammation, & Immunology + MHSc in Laboratory Medicine + Anatomical Pathology + Hematological Pathology + Clinical Chemistry + Clinical Microbiology 

15:20 – 16:05 Career development sessions

• PI prep info session: Securing a PI position; securing funding; and managing a lab
• Entrepreneurship: Finding investors, recruiting an R & D team
• Ask a question about the LMP Strategic Plan! Vice Chairs from LMP will be available to answer any questions you have.

16:10 – 16:55 Networking “Power Hour” Events

• Mentorship Speed Dating (Round Tables)
• Breaking into the workforce for PG trainees

17:00 – 18:00 Awards and social

Dr. Ju-Yoon Yoon

Assistant Professor, LMP, and staff pathologist at St. Michael's Hospital

Talk title: Design and validation of a custom NGS panel assay for cancer genetic testing

Dr. Yoon pursued his MD/PhD training at University of Manitoba, which was followed by Anatomic Pathology residency at the University of Toronto.  He pursued two clinical fellowships; molecular genetic pathology (U. Pennsylvania) and gynecological pathology (Brigham & Women's Hospital).  He is a staff pathologist at St. Michael's Hospital, where he serves as a surgical (GYN, THO) and molecular pathologist.

Dr. Purna A. Joshi

Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, Stem Cell Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Dallas

Talk title: Immature Mesenchymal Cells in Epithelial Tissues: Roles in Tissue Regeneration, Obesity and Cancer 

Purna Joshi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas). Dr. Joshi obtained her BSc, MSc and PhD from the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. She received the Stuart Alan Hoffman Memorial Prize following the completion of her doctoral dissertation. She then pursued postdoctoral studies in Dr. Rama Khokha’s lab at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Joshi’s recruitment to UT Dallas included a Rising STARs Award from the University of Texas System. At UT Dallas, she leads a stem cell research program focused on investigating the contribution of immature cells, also known as stem cells and progenitors, in epithelial organs to tissue homeostasis, regeneration and cancer. Prior to her research, immature cells in the mammary gland implicated in development and breast cancer were solely studied in the parenchymal epithelium of the organ. Dr. Joshi identified mesenchymal fat cell precursors in the mammary gland microenvironment that transition to epithelial lineages during tissue regeneration. Her lab is actively probing the contribution of these adipocyte progenitors to mammary epithelial biology during development, obesity and breast cancer. Her long-term goal is to develop therapeutic strategies targeting immature cells beyond the epithelium to vastly improve cancer prevention and outcome.

10 am - 3 pm, Arcadian Studio

Several vendors will be available to speak to you. Please visit them during the conference. See below for confirmed vendors so far.

You will also have an opportunity to meet the Health Data Nexus team from the Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

Although there are no masking requirements, we strongly recommend you wear a mask at this event where feasible.

If you have any possible COVID-19 symptoms on the day, we ask you to stay home. If you are due to present a poster and can no longer do so due to illness, please let us know by emailing lmp.rc@utoronto.ca.

The COVID-19 situation is constantly evolving so this advice may change.

A professional photographer will be at the event and we will also be doing some video recordings for departmental purposes. 

If you do not wish to be in any of the photos or videos, please make yourself known to the person taking pictures or videos.