Aug 16, 2022

Summer research program enables excellent undergraduate research

Programs: Undergraduate, Agile education, Impactful research

The Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine held its annual research day for summer students last week.

The LMP Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, commonly known as the SURE Program, attracts life science students from across Canada. They spend 12 weeks working on their own research project in the lab of an LMP expert and present their findings at the end of the summer at the Research Day.

This year, over 50 undergraduates benefitted from the program.

Alyssa Corbett, studying Kinesiology at Dalhousie University, spent the summer conducting ALS research in the lab of Dr. Janice Robertson and won a first prize for her poster. “I got so much out of this summer. I got a lot of research experience which I did not have before, and a lot of connections - I’m still going to keep in touch with my supervisor when I go back to school. I’ve so many opportunities in the future now to continue, whether that’s through masters programs or more research.”

The Research Day was led by program director, Dr. Jeff Lee and Undergraduate Life Sciences Program Administrator Louella D’Cunha, with support from faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in judging, and the administration team. Department Chair Dr. Rita Kandel spent the day talking to students, hearing about their research, and handed out the prizes in the closing award ceremony.

In a series of presentations, SURE participants also received advice from Dr. Lee and Graduate and Life Sciences Education Officer, Brandon Wells, on applying to graduate school. Former LMP Pathobiology students and SURE participants Dr. Sam Killackey, Negin Khosraviani and Richard Huang also gave presentations on their research and answered questions on careers and research from the group during a panel session.

“It never ceases to amaze me the quality of students we attract. Many have never had lab experience before and yet conduct research of such a high quality with a level of understanding that impresses me. It’s a real joy to attend this event and speak to them. We look forward to seeing their future endeavors,” said Dr. Kandel.

“This was the first year we returned to an in-person research day. The quality of the posters and presentations were excellent. All the students put in a tremendous amount of effort into their summer research, and I am proud of them all. I look forward to seeing many of these students in project courses and graduate school in our department.”

See all the poster prize winners below!